TPWW's Official Dirty Sheets News Thread

[Ruien]

Oh... ha.

[Mr. Nerfect]

Yeah. Exactly.

[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by Rasslin Nut Punch Appreciation Day:

Originally Posted by Observer There is a funny story about Tuesday's WWE Smackdown tapings in Lexington. It is the first time in six years that WWE has done a television taping from the city. While they did run house shows, they wouldn't do a taping or a PPV because the Kentucky commission had a rule that pro wrestling matches had to be stopped if there was bleeding, and WWE didn't want to run TV with the chance a match could be stopped over their heads. A lobbying effort led to the repeal of that rule and now they are back doing TV in the state. What makes this story funny is it's written that blood is a huge part of WWE, when it hasn't been for years, and that 99.99 percent of the time there is blood, it's theatrics, when actually, unless it's Vince McMahon or Brock Lesnar, and both of them would deny that's the case for them as well, blood is always accidental and theatrical blading has been banned in WWE for years. They acted like this would bring tons of tourism money for hotels, restaurants and shopping into town, which may be the case to a degree for a minor PPV and more for a major one, but hardly for Smackdown tapings that have been struggling to draw for the last several months.

Originally Posted by PWI On this week’s episode of ‘Dinner With The King,’ co-hosts Jerry “The King” Lawler and Glenn Moore talk in-depthy about numerous topics surrounding professional wrestling. Here are some highlights transcribed: Undertaker backstage at Survivor Series, and if he will return to ring: "I think he might have looked too good. I think when you get when you hang around or you show up and you look that good, they in the WWE, they're ready for you to come back. You know, closer to the time after WrestleMania and I think I said that I believe we've seen the last of Undertaker in the ring. Now, I’m going to I'm going to go back on my word. Just looking at him the other night, I think there's some more matches left in the Undertaker. So there's a TV and monitor to watch the show. There were three seats. Three chairs in front of the monitor and I was sitting in the one on the left hand side and in the middle now, to my right, sitting next to me, was Undertaker. And to his right sitting next to him was Kane. We were all just sitting here watching the show talking about old times and stuff, and all of a sudden, the door happened to be open. All of a sudden, we saw John Cena. He went past the door and glanced in, and then he just went past. Suddenly we saw him backing up, he just backed up, and he looked in at the three of us sitting there - and he said, ‘that's pretty cool.’ And he just walked on."

More highlights and link to the episode: https://www.pwinsider.com/article/11...-ring.html?p=1

Originally Posted by PWI Dustin Rhodes tweeted the following indicating he may go old-school for tomorrow night's Starrcade: Packing for #Starrcade ........ , I hope one half of #TheRevival is ready . @Gbocoliseum @WWE #Red . Well they call him........?????? — Dustin Rhodes (@Goldust) November 24, 2017

Originally Posted by PWI The 12/9 WrestlePro event in Rahway, NJ, which features Impact Wrestling content being taped for future inclusion for that series, features the following announced lineup: *Impact Wrestling champion Eli Drake vs. Alberto el Patron. *Colt Cabana vs. CPA. *WrestlePro Silver champion Dan Maff vs. Anthony Bowens. *Maria Bokara vs. Bobby Wayward. *Sienna vs. Kasey Catal. *LAX vs. the Apple Corps. Also scheduled to appear are Sonjay Dutt, Pat Buck, KM, Fallah Bah, CAQ, The Beach Bums and more.

Originally Posted by CNBC CBS and Dish Network resolved a dispute over the fees the satellite TV provider pays to the broadcaster, ending a three-day blackout that affected customers across 26 states. CBS said late Thursday it reached a multi-year agreement with Dish for carrying its local stations as well as three cable channels. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The agreement comes just ahead of the Southeastern Conference football coverage over the weekend. The blackout had prevented nearly 3 million Dish subscribers from watching the NFL's Los Angeles Chargers play the Dallas Cowboys on the Thanksgiving holiday. The CBS channels are being restored, Dish said in a separate statement. CBS content was pulled off Dish networks on Tuesday over a dispute that revolved around how much Dish would pay for 28 local CBS channels as well as three cable channels: Smithsonian Channel, Pop, and CBS Sports Network. Negotiations between content distributors and programmers have become increasingly fraught as more viewers opt to watch their favorite shows online. CBS went dark for about 12 hours during a similar carriage dispute with Dish in 2014.

Originally Posted by PWI This Friday "Flashback Friday" will celebrate the 27th anniversary of the Undertaker. Friday at 2 PM Eastern, it will be the WWE Network Original "Undertaker's Greatest Rivals" part one. At 2:30 PM Eastern it will be part two. Both episodes feature roundtable discussion between JBL with Steve Austin, Shawn Michaels and Triple H. Friday at 3 PM, it will be "Survivor Series" 1990 featuring the debut of The Undertaker. Following that at 5:30 PM Eastern, it will be the "Undertaker: 25 Phenomenal Years" special. Then at 6 PM Eastern, it will be the " The Undertaker: Gravest Matches" special. At 8 PM Eastern, it will be "Wrestlemania 12" featuring The Undertaker versus Diesel.

This is for next week's set of new content for the Network.

Originally Posted by PWI Following Monday following Raw, it will be "Table for 3" with Ric Flair, Ricky Steamboat and Sting. This is the episode postponed due to the Nature Boy's recent health scare.

Originally Posted by Observer Vince McMahon is reportedly against the idea of having Braun Strowman face Brock Lesnar again at the Royal Rumble in January. For one, the match has already happened and Lesnar won clean. Second, Strowman is being readied for a match against Triple H and isn't going to be losing while Lesnar isn't going to have anyone kick out of his F5 until Roman Reigns does it at WrestleMania. No matter what is booked, Brock Lesnar is scheduled to be appearing at the Royal Rumble in some capacity but it's possible he may not be defending his title. With Finn Balor seemingly out and Braun Strowman not a realistic possibility, the only wrestlers left are guys like Bray Wyatt, Elias, Jason Jordan - who are actually in worse position than Balor. Samoa Joe is a possibility and would likely be the best alternative as it could be a singles match for the title.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc NXT Star, Aleister Black, addressed fans who wanted to send him things. He asked that they spend money on those who need it more or a charity of their choice. Last weekend, Black was successful in defeating The Velveteen Dream at NXT TakeOver: WarGames. For those who have been asking me if they can send me stuff for the holidays, please spend that on giving to people less fortunate or a charity of your choice. Thank you — Devil's Blood (@WWEAleister) November 23, 2017

Originally Posted by WrestleInc Speaking of the Young Bucks, Matt Jackson announced that their shirts are now the top selling merchandise in Hot Top, beating out cartoon characters, Rick and Morty, and any other band tees in the store. Young Bucks officially have the top selling shirt in @HotTopic, beating Rick & Morty & every single band tee in the store. Blown away. Thanks everyone! — The Young Bucks (@MattJackson13) November 23, 2017

Originally Posted by 411Mania In the latest edition of The Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer noted that the recent Kevin Owens 365 special, which played on the WWE Network after Survivor Series, did “huge numbers” for the streaming service.

Some other sheet news includes:

• Recent episode of Ring Rust Radio podcast show had Lucha Underground's Brian Cage as the guest talking about his future plans for LU, his gauntlet storyline in Season 3, and his brief time in the WWE. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...s-wwe-release/
• During a recent interview with Sports Illustrated, Miz stated he would love to have a match with Daniel Bryan in the WWE if he gets cleared for an in-ring return. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...-daniel-bryan/
• NJPW recently opened a new English language Youtube channel. https://twitter.com/njpwglobal/statu...09805362675712
• Sports-based website Deadspin recently had an article lambasting WWE's poor camerawork in modern times. https://deadspin.com/wwes-production...t-k-1820652041

Some stuff from TPWW Frontpage:

• Impact Results – Nov. 23, 2017 – Thanksgiving Special

[Mr. Nerfect]

Would actually like to see Dustin Rhodes vs. Dash Wilder, but I've got no clue what Dustin is talking about.

[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by the King of Rasslin Schnozes:

Originally Posted by Observer One of the more interesting planned non-WWE pro wrestling shows of 2018 appears closer to becoming a reality. After Cody Rhodes posted a picture with The Young Bucks and Marty Scurll on a "scouting trip" at a venue earlier this month, Pro Wrestling Sheet reported that Cody and The Young Bucks are in talks with multiple venues to self-finance a 10,000 seat show in 2018. The report noted that the show, which has been talked about for months, is currently planned to be called "All In" and mentioned Chicago, London, San Francisco, and Ontario, California as possibilities for where it could take place. The idea originated from a Twitter exchange between Dave Meltzer and Cody in May, with Cody taking it as a challenge when Meltzer answered "not any time soon" when someone asked if Ring of Honor could sell over 10,000 tickets to an event. Cody and the Bucks would be partnering with ROH on the show if they're able to reach an agreement.

Cody and Bucks still need to get ROH's permission to do the show and no non-WWE promotion since WCW's demise has pulled off a 10k crowd show.

Originally Posted by Observer WWN is bringing in an outside name for a few of their WrestleMania week shows. After Gabe Sapolsky hyped him up as someone he's been trying to book for years, it was announced today that Daisuke Sekimoto will be wrestling at EVOLVE shows on April 5th and 6th and the WWN Supershow on the 6th in Louisiana. Sekimoto will be in action exclusively at those events, which will take place at the Pontchartrain Center. Sekimoto, who received votes for Most Outstanding Wrestler in the 2016 Observer awards and in years past, wrestles for Big Japan Pro Wrestling, as well as AJPW and other promotions. His matches for WWN will be the first time he's appeared stateside in several years. No opponents for him have been announced yet. EVOLVE will be going against a Revolution Pro Wrestling show on April 6th, with Hiroshi Tanahashi previously confirmed for RevPro. Tanahashi (along with Kenny Omega) is also scheduled for ROH's Supercard of Honor XII on April 7th in New Orleans.

Originally Posted by Observer Arolucha, a new promotion run by Aroluxe, the former part-owners of Impact, working with Konnan as booker, announced its debut event at the same arena where TNA ran in its early days. It's been known they were doing a December 10th show in Nashville, but it was announced for the Fairgrounds, the former "Asylum" in the TNA days and weekly stop in the heyday of Jarrett Promotions and even dating back to the Nick Gulas era. The idea is to attempt to do a Lucha Libre television show based around high flyers. The first show will be a pilot to attempt to sell the series and has a lineup of mostly wrestlers that work for The Crash promotion in Mexico. The first show lists: Rey Mysterio & Pentagon (using that name) vs. Rush & John Morrison Jack Evans, Hurricane Helms & Maximo vs. Garza Jr., La Mascara & Daga MVP vs Sammy Guevara Keira & Lacey Lane vs. Vanilla Vargas & Taya Demus 3:16 vs. Mascarita Dorada (who was El Torito in WWE) Mr. 450 vs. Willie Mack

Originally Posted by Observer wXw announced Tenille Dashwood (formerly Emma) for their Superstars of Wrestling show in Oberhausen, Germany on May 5th. Dashwood will also be wrestling for AIW in Cleveland on February 23rd, for Wrestling has a Tomorrow in Providence on February 11th, for Standalone Wrestling against Brittany Blake in Mays Landing on February 24th, for AML Wrestling on February 25th, and for Remix Pro against Britt Baker in Marietta on April 21st. Her match for WrestlePro in Rahway on February 3rd will be against Angelina Love. Cody Rhodes will be defending his ROH World Championship against Jay Lethal for Revolution Pro Wrestling at York Hall on December 8th. ESPN ran a profile on Joey Janela and his career in pro wrestling. In the piece, he says he originally wanted Matt Riddle vs. Ken Shamrock for his Spring Break show over WrestleMania weekend, but Shamrock was asking for $10,000 and they got Dan Severn for 10 percent of that. PWX announced Juice Robinson for January’s X16 tournament. Angelico announced that he’ll no longer be wrestling for AAA or residing in Mexico as of January 1st, 2018. He thanked everyone in AAA and Mexico for his time there and noted that he’ll be taking bookings out of Spain for next year.

wXw link: https://twitter.com/wXwGermany/statu...21864389103616 , RevPro: https://twitter.com/RevProUK/status/935464865342291968 , ESPN: http://www.espn.com/wwe/story/_/id/2...heer-willpower , Angelico: https://twitter.com/AngelicoAAA/stat...06545138679813

Originally Posted by Observer As would be expected, ratings for Impact were down big on Thanksgiving. The show averaged 169,000 viewers after doing 272,000 the week prior.

Originally Posted by Observer The reason Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson weren't at the Starrcade show last night as first advertised is they were pulled to work on the Nashville card, which was the Raw crew show.

Originally Posted by Observer In a post on Facebook, Kurt Angle wrote that he tore a muscle in his leg doing wind sprints two days before Survivor Series. He said he feels good and should be 100 percent in a week.

Link: https://www.facebook.com/realkurtang...%3A%22R9%22%7D

Originally Posted by PWI WWE sent out a survey to fans on their mailing list today, seeking feedback on 205 Live as it approaches its first anniversary. Interestingly, one of the questions posed to fans was whether they would be more likely to watch 205 Live if Raw and Smackdown stars appeared and interacted with Cruiserweight talents. They also asked fans how they watched the series, live or via VOD and sought feedback on different aspects of 205 Live.

Originally Posted by PWI What is the reason why Starrcade was not broadcast live on the WWE network? Are there any plans to release a network special of the show at a later date? It doesn't make sense that all the fans worldwide who weren't in attendance won't be able to see such a special event. As Mike Johnson wrote on the site yesterday, “The show was never slated to be a special and was produced as a house show, but WWE did film it with several cameras (they typically film every live event) so they would have it in their archives to offer via the Network down the line if they choose to do so. The show itself was written by Michael Hayes, who was the person that pitched the revival of the Starrcade name back in June. We are told that Hayes, realizing that WWE was running Greensboro over Thanksgiving weekend, seized on the importance of the timing and the tradition in the market to pitch that the show be branded as a "Starrcade" event. Vince McMahon approved the idea and it was announced several months later. The show was specifically written by Hayes with an eye on paying tribute to names who were important to to the market during the Jim Crockett Promotions era and with throwback graphics for the show.”

Some details regarding WWE's Starrcade event from PWI's weekly Q&A articles.

Originally Posted by PWI Former WWE NXT champion Drew McIntyre commented on the injury he suffered several weeks ago at Takeover: Wargames in Houston during the closing moments of his title loss to Andrade Almas today on Twitter, writing: Unfortunately I did suffer an injury during my title defense at TakeOver. I’ve dealt with setbacks before. The reality is, I always come back better...There's a scary thought for whomever is NXT champion come 2018... #TickTock — Drew McIntyre (@DMcIntyreWWE) November 27, 2017 In asking around, PWInsider.com has been told that McIntyre is already rehabbing his biceps injury. It is hoped he will return sometime in early April. Obviously, returning for Wrestlemania weekend, when the next NXT Takeover is set, is the goal.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc Brie Bella appeared on the latest episode of Lilian Garcia's podcast, Chasing Glory with Lilian Garcia, which features a "throwback" to an exclusive interview with Brie Bella from the vault, as well as an all-new exclusive interview. During the interview, Brie discussed Daniel Bryan returning to the ring. "From like, literally, the day they told him he couldn't do it anymore, he has flown himself all over the United States to all different doctors to figure out what he could do to help turn that 'no' into a 'yes'," Brie said. "There's been like eight doctors who are like, 'You can wrestle'. A lot of doctors can't see why he can't get in that ring again." Bryan has been out of action since 2015 after retiring due to his history with concussions. Bryan has since been visiting doctors who have apparently cleared him to wrestle, however WWE has been apprehensive about clearing him. "I think [the WWE is] looking at it," Brie said. "He is on such a mission to get back into that WWE ring, it's crazy, which caused a lot of arguments in our marriage in the beginning, especially when I was pregnant."

Originally Posted by WrestleInc There had been some speculation on WrestleMania 34 plans possibly changing for Roman Reigns after he won the WWE Intercontinental Title from The Miz last week but Dave Meltzer noted on Wrestling Observer Radio that plans have not changed. As of a week ago, the plan for the WrestleMania 34 main event is for Reigns to challenge WWE Universal Champion Brock Lesnar. No word yet on if Reigns will be going into WrestleMania with the Intercontinental Title but it's believed that he will drop it before then.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc Nothing has changed between these three friends! #TableFor3 @RicFlairNatrBoy @Sting @REALSteamboat pic.twitter.com/Q2vGSMZvLJ — WWE (@WWE) November 28, 2017 Above is a clip from last night's "Table For 3" on the WWE Network with WWE Hall of Famers Ric Flair, Sting and Ricky Steamboat, which was filmed back during WrestleMania 33 week. Flair says everyone has grown up & matured except for him. Steamboat recalls a $1,000 bar tab they had back in the 70's and Flair mentions having a $3,000 bar tab just the night before.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc NJPW announced Wrestle Kingdom 12 tickets are selling at 180 percent of the pace Wrestle Kingdom 11 tickets sold at with already over 20,000 sold to fans. Thanks to the influx of overseas fans, NJPW is saying the Tokyo Dome could potentially sell out for the event. Last year's show had 26,192 fans in attendance.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc Ring of Honor announced their weekly TV show will now air on Watch Stadium at 12am ET. Watch Stadium is a 24/7 multi-platform sports network that will air ROH via broadcast television and on a number of other devices. Starting this Wednesday Ring of Honor will be available on @WatchStadium https://t.co/dhlGZFmVXX pic.twitter.com/Uzt7rE9f20 — ROH Wrestling (@ringofhonor) November 27, 2017

Some other sheet news includes:

• Nielsen ratings for RAW have been delayed a day due to last week's Thanksgiving holiday.
• Chris Jericho recently launched his official Youtube channel. https://youtu.be/Y7UMzZPhSLw
• WWE announced a new book about The New Day will be getting released March 2018 and is called "The Book of Booty: Shake It. Love It. Never Be It." http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...n-the-new-day/
• Sports Illustrated had a recent interview with Edge talking about Vince McMahon, keeping in touch with Vince since retiring, and his close relationship with Vince leading to his success as a wrestler in the WWE. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...vince-mcmahon/
• Recent episode of the Ross Report podcast show had Batista as the guest talking about his disagreements with Vince while in the WWE, his time in OVW, and being in touch with The Rock. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...vince-mcmahon/

Some stuff from TPWW Frontpage:

• Jennifer Hudson Drops Restraining Order Against David Otunga
• WWE: Kane Rally After Raw, Main Event Results, Most-Liked Instagram Pic
• More “Broken” Matt Hardy Teases Last Night on Raw (Video)
• WWE Raw Results – Nov. 27, 2017 – Jason Jordan vs. Kane

[Mr. Nerfect]

It's going to be really interesting to see how close to 50% The Bullet Club get that 10,000 seat arena.

[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by Wrestling Without Context:

Originally Posted by Observer Raw dropped ten percent from last week, doing its second lowest total of the football season with 2.75 million viewers on Monday. For whatever reason, the key to the low number was both a low start, but also a much larger than usual drop from hour one to hour two ... The October 16th show did 2.69 million viewers, the only Raw episode this football season to do a lower number. There were also four shows this year during the NBA playoffs that did lower numbers than Monday ... The three hours were: 8 p.m. 2.96 million viewers 9 p.m. 2.72 million viewers 10 p.m. 2.60 million viewers

Originally Posted by Observer SmackDown ratings were up for the fourth straight week, with Tuesday night's episode on the USA Network averaging 2.68 million viewers. That's in contrast to Raw's ratings this week, which were down 10 percent from the prior Monday and marked the show's second lowest viewership since the start of the NFL season.

Originally Posted by Observer While WWE's plans for Brock Lesnar at the Royal Rumble have yet to be made apparent, that should be changing over the next few weeks. The Dunkin Donuts Center in Providence, Rhode Island announced on their social media accounts yesterday that Lesnar would be in the building for the December 18th episode of Raw. Lesnar hasn't appeared on television since defeating AJ Styles at Survivor Series and hasn't been advertised for next Monday's Raw in Los Angeles or for the December 11th show in Cleveland. The night before Raw takes place in Providence, WWE will present their final pay-per-view of the year with SmackDown's Clash of Champions event in Boston. The build for the Royal Rumble should pick up around that time, with the following two weeks of Raw being live shows on Christmas and New Year's Day.

Depending on prices and scheduling, might have a chance to go to this show.

Originally Posted by Observer WWE Studios announced that they’re expanding into television and digital content. Vince McMahon said in a statement: “Given the size of our fan base and their appetite for WWE programming well beyond our core in-ring shows, this is the ideal time to further establish the WWE brand with new genres across platforms. WWE Studios is open for business with this new TV and digital initiative.”

Link: http://deadline.com/2017/11/wwe-stud...si-1202216228/

Originally Posted by Observer NXT is taping its next round of television episodes at Full Sail University tonight. With the first three tapings of 2018 set for Center Stage in Atlanta, this will be the last time NXT’s at Full Sail for a few months. Triple H said on his pre-TakeOver conference call that Full Sail is still their home and the tapings in Atlanta were due to logistical/scheduling issues with their regular venue. In a rematch of what might have been WWE’s best match of the year, Pete Dunne will defend his WWE United Kingdom Championship against Tyler Bate at the tapings. Matches taped at NXT house shows prior to TakeOver will air on tonight’s show. Those include Kairi Sane vs. Peyton Royce, Tyler Bate & Trent Seven vs. Pete Dunne & Mark Andrews, and The Street Profits vs. Tino Sabbatelli & Riddick Moss.

Originally Posted by Observer As noted, this week's WWE RAW saw Matt Hardy really crank up the "Broken" gimmick teases as his losing streak continued with a loss to Bray Wyatt. It appears WWE is moving forward with the gimmick change, which may see Hardy become "Awoken" instead of "Broken" like before. Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated reports that WWE will be creating their own new character for Hardy and that it will not be labeled as "Broken", but it will be very similar. Regarding the legal matters between Hardy and Anthem Sports & Entertainment over the ownership of the "Broken" intellectual property, SI reports that there have been no new negotiations between Hardy and Anthem's Ed Nordholm, and there have been no talks of revenue sharing over profits made off merchandise. SI reached out to Anthem for an update and Nordholm issued the following statement:

Link: https://www.si.com/wrestling/2017/11...ardy-Ric-Flair

Originally Posted by Observer The former Ruby Riot’s name is now Ruby Riott on the main roster. Her, Liv Morgan & Sarah Logan are known as The Riott Squad.

Reason appears to be due to WWE's trademark of "Ruby Riot" got opposed. https://twitter.com/TubbyEmu/status/935651690157608960

Originally Posted by Observer Cody Rhodes said his dream main event for the 10,000 seat show he and The Young Bucks are planning is him vs. Daniel Bryan for the ROH World Championship. Rhodes also spoke to David Bixenspan for an article about the show. Jeremy Botter, who was formerly with the company, tweeted that FloSlam was “officially killed off” earlier today. David Bixenspan has the latest on the most recent documents Flo filed in their lawsuit against WWN, including financial details that WWN provided them.

Rhodes link: https://soundcloud.com/siriusxmrush/...the-main-event , Deadspin interview: https://deadspin.com/cody-rhodes-is-...sho-1820809050 , FloSlam tweet: https://twitter.com/jeremybotter/sta...85309422161920 , FloSlam article: https://www.fightful.com/flosports-r...-court-filings

Originally Posted by PWI It's not exactly Christmas yet, but all Impact Wrestling talents will soon be receiving a gift from management - the rights to their characters and all everything that goes with them, lock, stock and barrell. After digging in their heels on the ownership of the Hardys' "Broken Universe" for the last year, Impact Wrestling, under Anthem Media, has made a complete about-face on their position when it comes to ownership of characters. PWInsider.com has been told by several sources that going forward, all contracted Impact Wrestling talents will be given and retain complete ownership of their intellectual property ... We are told this week's decision was one made by Ed Nordholm. There is no word yet what sparked the decision, but it opens the door for the company to try and mend fences with fans angered by the company's former stance against the Hardys ... The move also appears to be made as a way to open things up between the company and its wrestlers in a way that has never been done before by a major, national promotion. It would allow the company to partner with its contracted talents to build characters and intellectual property together, as opposed to Impact claiming ownership of those characters if and when the talents move on at the end of their Impact run.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc WWE UK Superstar Wolfgang has been cleared to return to the ring from the injury he suffered during the WWE European tour earlier this month. He worked tonight's WWE NXT TV tapings from Full Sail University and defeated Kona Reeves in the dark match. Reeves had Chinese recruit Ming with him at ringside and Ming distracted Wolfgang early on to help Reeves get the upperhand. Wolfgang later took control and fought off another distraction from Ming to get the win with a senton.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc WWE officials are already talking about doing another Starrcade live event in 2018, according to PWInsider. Saturday's special live event in Greensboro, NC was a success as there was a huge bump from the previous live event in Greensboro. The show was written by WWE Hall of Famer Michael "PS" Hayes, who was the one that pitched the revival of the name back in June of this year. Vince McMahon ended up approving the event and it was announced a few months later. There are no plans for the event to air on the WWE Network. The event was never meant to be a TV program and was produced as a standard live event. WWE did film Starrcade with several cameras, as they often do at live events, so there is footage if they decide to air it at a later date.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc It looks like former WWE Champion CM Punk may be ready for his second fight in the UFC as UFC President Dana White noted at a media lunch in Las Vegas yesterday that Punk will be heading to Detroit for UFC 218 this weekend and he wants to talk to the boss, presumably about his next fight. White made these comments to journalists: "CM Punk is coming to Detroit and wants to talk to me. I love the guy. We'll see what he's doing." - Dana White — Adam Hill (@AdamHillLVRJ) November 28, 2017

Day 3 on the set of #M6 @ShawnMichaels & I just found out that @beckylynchwwe has been hiding the good coffee ☕️ FOR 3 DAYS!!!! She’s been getting pampered while we’ve been roughing it. And yes, Shawn is getting his beard trimmed while I’m getting my hair done. #ManlyStuff pic.twitter.com/smwzPvhHvO

— The Miz (@mikethemiz) November 29, 2017

Some other sheet news includes:

• According to website WWENetworkNews, the every episode of NXT aired so far (including the seasonal era) is currently available on the WWE Network. The last batch of missing episodes were recently added to the service to make the series complete. http://www.wwenetworknews.com/2017/1...emand-viewing/
• Website Black Sports Online had an article revealing more details regarding the dropped custody order against David Otunga. Basically Jennifer Hudson used it soley as a way to prevent Otunga from being with his kid and to smear his name while she cheated on him with a gospel singer. https://twitter.com/BSO/status/935546398476505088
• AJ Styles recently debunked rumors of next year's Mania being his last in WWE and retiring afterwards. https://twitter.com/AJStylesOrg/stat...rc=twsrc%5Etfw
• During a recent interview with Sports Illustrated, Edge hinted a new season of the Edge & Christian show could arrive next year on the WWE Network. He also debunked rumors of the show being canceled and him being busy with other projects is why no Season 2 has happened yet. https://www.si.com/wrestling/2017/11...ardy-Ric-Flair
• NJPW recently released the official match posters for Wrestle Kingdom 12 featuring Omega-Jericho and Naito-Okada. https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCirc...nt_of_wrestle/ , https://twitter.com/njpwglobal/statu...66782521647104

Some stuff from TPWW Frontpage:

• WWE NXT Results – Nov. 29, 2017 – Bate/Seven vs. Dunne/Andrews
• Various: WWE Says Naomi Is “Injured,” Birthdays, PWG Previews
• Have The Singh Brothers Been Written Off SmackDown? (Speculation)

[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by the Deletion of Today's Sheet News:

Originally Posted by TMZ John Cena is on Ford's $#&% list for allegedly flipping his new $500k '17 Ford GT -- violating a contract with the company -- and they're takin' him to court. According to the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Michigan, Cena was "selected from thousands of applicants for the opportunity to purchase the Ford GT." Ford says Cena signed a deal in which he agreed to hold onto the car for at least 2 years ... prior to unloading it. However, Ford claims, soon after receiving the car, Cena flipped it for a big profit. "Mr. Cena has unfairly made a large profit from the unauthorized resale flip of the vehicle, and Ford has suffered additional damages and losses, including, but not limited to, loss of brand value, ambassador activity, and customer goodwill due to the improper sale."

Link: http://www.tmz.com/2017/11/30/john-c...wsuit-ford-gt/

Originally Posted by Observer The Young Bucks & Hangman Page will be defending their Ring of Honor World Six-Man Tag Team Championship against Flip Gordon, Dragon Lee & Titan at next month's Final Battle pay-per-view. ROH announced the match yesterday after it was the only thing for the card not revealed at their two most recent sets of television tapings. Dave Meltzer previously reported that Gordon would be teaming with two wrestlers from CMLL in the match, though it hadn't yet been confirmed who they would be at that point.

Link: http://www.rohwrestling.com/news/int...s-final-battle

With Impact giving up its IP property claim on the Broken gimmick, Matt Hardy has opened a Vanguard 1 twitter account.

Hardy link: https://twitter.com/Vanguard1AAR/sta...22454653407234

Originally Posted by Observer NJPW's King of Pro Wrestling show from 10/9 at Sumo Hall in Tokyo airs as a three-hour special on AXS TV tomorrow night from 8-11 p.m. The key matches are Kazuchika Okada vs. Evil for the IWGP title, Tetsuya Naito vs. Tomohiro Ishii, Kushida vs Will Ospreay for the IWGP jr title, Kota Ibushi & Juice Robinson vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi & Togi Makabe, Kenny Omega & Cody & Marty Scurll vs. Yoshi-Hashi & Baretta & Jado and more. Bad Luck Fale's pro wrestling school in New Zealand is open with Fale and Dempsey Walker, a boxer and Muay Thai champion, as trainers, teaching both pro wrestling as well as striking and conditioning.

Bad Luke Fale link: http://www.faledojo.com/

Originally Posted by PWI Following tonight's WWE NXT taping at Full Sail University, official for WWE NXT Takeover: Philadelphia is Johnny Gargano challenging NXT champion Andrade "Cien" Almas.

Originally Posted by PWI New Japan Pro Wrestling English Youtube Channel debuts December 1, 2017 As reported earlier this week on PWInsider.com, New Japan Pro Wrestling has launched an English language YouTube channel. NJPW issued the following today: The New Japan Pro Wrestling team is working hard on global branding and this is the next step. The official New Japan Pro Wrestling English language Youtube channel will feature exclusive content, interviews, pre and post match comments from all New Japan Pro Wrestling stars including subtitles.

Originally Posted by PWI The 500th episode of CBS Radio's The Taz Show will stream and broadcast live tomorrow at www.TazShow.com with Chris Jericho, John Hennigan, Jim Ross and Today Show's Katie Lindenoll all appearing as guests. The show will air from 12 PM noon to 3 PM. Congratulations to Taz and his entire team.

Originally Posted by PWI WWE filed a trademark on the term "Kidz4Kidz" on 10/31. The name is going to be used as part of the company's community outreach programs as the description with the following noted, "Community outreach services in the fields of bullying, diversity, inclusion and pediatric cancer; organizing and conducting volunteer programs in the fields of bullying, diversity, inclusion and pediatric cancer; charitable services, namely, organizing and conducting volunteer programs and community service projects aimed at increasing awareness of bullying, diversity, inclusion and pediatric cancer; administration of a program to promote community service; charitable services, namely, organizing and conducting volunteer programs and community service projects; charitable services, namely, organizing and conducting volunteer programs and community service projects for children."

Future Stars Of Wrestling has reached an agreement to join the Global Wrestling Network. FSW will provide GWN with thousands of hours from its extensive library, featuring Impact Champion Eli Drake, Matt Hardy, John Morrison, Kenny King, Reno Scum, Willie Mack, Lance Hoyt, Kevin Kross, Sami Callihan, Brian Cage along with the many superstars FSW has had come thru its doors including Ricochet, Rich Swann, AR Fox, Tony Nese, Chris Sabin, Austin Aries, Keith Lee, Kevin Nash, Chris Masters, Paul London, Brian Kendrick, Davey Boy Smith Jr, Roderick Strong, ACH, Young Bucks, Trevor Lee, Shane Strickland, Jeff Cobb, and more. To see more FSW footage go to www.youtube.com/futurestarswrestling. Defy Wrestling announced that not only will a match between Randy Myers and Sami Callihan from DEFY9 be shown on this week's Impact Wrestling but the Washington state-based promotion will be a part of the Global Wrestling Network.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc After running the last set of Impact Wrestling tapings in Canada, the next set of tapings will take place from Universal Studios in Orlando, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. The tapings are currently scheduled for January 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th and 15th. This will tape Impact Wrestling through March 2018. There are plans for the March tapings to take place somewhere in Canada but not in Ottawa as it was hard to draw a crowd there. The Observer notes that it's believed Impact will hold more tapings in Canada because they are less expensive to hold there and the company is trying to do everything they can right now to trim the budget and not lose money.

Originally Posted by Observer Over Thanksgiving week, The Young Bucks merchandise surpassed Rick & Morty for the first time to become the best sellers at Hot Topic. The two major items, which were instant sellouts, was a new headband with the Bullet Club logo in neon orange and green, which sold completely out on 11/18, the first day it was available, and then more was put in stock on 11/22, and it sold out by the next morning. Hot Topic sold out of three new pro wrestling shirts during its Thanksgiving week sale, the best seller being the “Cease and Desist” T-shirt, the current seller overall at the chain, as well as a Bullet Club USA shirt and the most popular of the Kenny Omega shirts.

Originally Posted by Observer Matt Hardy, and likely Jeff when he returns, will be doing the broken character, although I believe it will be termed Woken instead of Broken. Anthem has changed its policy regarding intellectual property, some of which is surprising as they stated to Sports Illustrated that “Our new talent agreements all incorporate language that allow talent to continue to use their Impact personas after they leave the company. We are working with our legal team to amend our existing agreements to extend this to all of our current and former talent.” That’s almost unheard of in television. In particular, the agreement with the Hardys is that the Hardys will now retain ownership and all rights to the personas they used in TNA. The story behind it is that the Hardys were able to show financial and contractual digressions which left Anthem in a bad way, and this may be a public saving face for the company of just saying that they are being good guys and will be letting talent keep their gimmicks because of the feeling that it would end up that way based on a precedent that would be set in the Hardys case.

Some more details regarding Anthem dropping their fight for the Broken gimmick.

Originally Posted by Observer Even though it went head-to-head with Starrcade, the WrestleCade show in Winston-Slam was said to be the biggest to date and ran as an iPPV. The biggest news was the Cornette retirement speech. The bad news is that the cash box was stolen after the 11/24 show, which drew about 800 fans. Supposedly they had surveillance cameras and there is video.

Originally Posted by Observer Based on the schedule, it looks like the 1,000th episode of Smackdown would be on October 16, 2018. So they are likely to make that one a major show. What’s notable is that’s five days before a Raw PPV and if they are doing a show that’s expected to be big ratings, it would also be smart to promote the Raw feuds on it. So they’ll have both the Raw 25th anniversary and the Smackdown milestone show next year

Originally Posted by Observer Regarding all the women that were called up and given the timing, the natural inclination is to think women’s Royal Rumble. Right now nobody has been talking about a women’s Rumble as if it’s been green-lit, and there are obvious pro and con debates on the issue. My thought is that it should happen, a 20 women Rumble would be about right, but the question is would you be burning out the concept before the men’s match by doing an identical women’s match that would have to last a minimum of 30 plus minutes? Still, with the emphasis on women’s wrestling, my thought is a women’s Royal Rumble, like women’s Money in the Bank, should be an annual event. The reason for all the women call-ups is just that the feeling was with the same seven or eight women on each brand being featured, you’ve pretty much burned through most of the match-ups and there had become a sameness to the women’s divisions, and this would shake things up. Really, on the Raw side, they still hadn’t gotten to the Bliss vs. Jax program that was being built up and has subsided, and you’ve still got Asuka’s run and Paige was coming back either way (although originally earmarked for Smackdown). Smackdown was always building to Charlotte’s title win and there was still the Charlotte vs. Tamina feud they were building toward, but that side did need more new names ... The book on Logan is that she’s a good worker but she hadn’t gotten any push in NXT and really was in developmental for a short period of time. It’s not a negative on her, but it does say that those in charge are looking more heavily at working ability for the women than ever before with that decision, unless there is some gimmick or idea that we don’t know about that is why that decision was made. But she was just brought up as part of a group, and maybe the idea is that she can be the workhorse of a team with Liv Morgan. I guess the next few weeks will give a better idea

Originally Posted by Observer The ten most watched shows on the WWE Network this past week were: 1. Survivor Series; 2. NXT on 11/22; 3. NXT Takeover Houston; 4. Table for 3 for Flair, Sting and Steamboat; 5. WWE 365 Kevin Owens; 6. WWE 24 Bill Goldberg; 7. Table for 3 with The Shield; 8. 205 Live on 11/21; 9. WrestleMania; 10. Table for 3 with Sean Waltman, Scott Hall and DDP

Sources within IMPACT Wrestling have told us that current IMPACT Wrestling Knockout Laurel Van Ness aka Chelsea Green recently asked for her release from the company after the most recent set of tapings. While IMPACT has yet to grant her a release we are told it should be coming shortly ... If her release is granted she will join MJ Jenkins, Madison Rayne, and Taryn Terrell as Knockouts who have left the company recently.

Some other sheet news includes:

• Beyond Wrestling announced they have signed a multi-year streaming deal with Powerbomb.tv to carry Beyond programming. https://www.pwinsider.com/article/11...ombtv.html?p=1
• Uproxx held a recent interview with Carmella talking about fan backlash to her winning the MitB case, being separated from Enzo and Cass, and the mixed gender match between Becky and Ellsworth. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...irst-mitb-win/
• Figure Four Films recently released a trailer for the Jack Gallagher documentary currently available to rent ($5.99) or buy ($10.99) on Vimeo. https://vimeo.com/ondemand/anextraor...eman/244059333
• According to ProWrestlingTees, over 417k Bullet Club shirts have been sold at Hot Topic stores in the past 4 months. https://twitter.com/OneHourTees/stat...76386569957376
• WWE's longtime composer Jim Johnston is currently rumored to have been recently released by the company. WWE's also rumored to be canceling their Uncaged album series on iTunes due to Johnston no longer working for the company.
• According to the Observer, Lucha Underground is currently scouting for new female wrestlers for Season 4.
• Also according to the Observer, Impact Wrestling currently has no plans to hold their annual Genesis PPV live next year. They do have plans to hold a special event during the first week of next year but as a taped event.

Some stuff from TPWW Frontpage:

• WWE: 365 With AJ, Sgt. Slaughter, Singh Bros Update, Stephanie McMahon
• Rumor / Possible Rumor Killer on Lio Rush’s Status With WWE

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Dirtsheets sponsored by Powerbomb Appreciation Day:

Originally Posted by Observer Impact officially closed their Nashville office yesterday so everything is now based out of Toronto.

Originally Posted by PWI During his appearance on Chris Jericho's podcast this week, former WWE Creative Team member Jimmy Jacobs revealed that he put himself in a 30 day rehab for a opiate addiction following Wrestlemania 33 earlier this year. As we noted in our reporting of his departure at the time, Jacobs "had taken some time off to deal with a personal issue before returning to work this past summer, and that may have put a target on his back." Rehab was the reason. Jacobs said that after he went through rehab, he didn't care as much about the job or about working for WWE and when asked if he was trying to get fired by taking a photo with the Young Bucks he commented he wasn't trying to get fired, but wasn't trying to not get fired either.

Originally Posted by Observer John Cena, who was sued by Ford for breach of contract for selling a 2017 Ford GT that he was able to purchase at a low price with the provison he would keep it for two years, then sold it for a large profit, has apologized to Ford and said he's willing to work with Ford to make things right.

Originally Posted by PWI WWE released a new survey today, asking fans for feedback on celebrities fans would want to see in "WWE matches" with the following potential choices: Actor Terry Crews UFC fighter Conor McGregor UFC fighter Ronda Rousey UFC fighter Cris Cyborg UFC fighter Meisha Tate Boxer Vladimir Klitschko Race Car Driver Danica Patrick. Oakland Raider Marshawn Lynch New England Patriot Rob Gronkowski As always with these types of surveys, whether WWE decides to move forward with such ideas remains to be seen, but it is interesting to see they are gauging their audience's interest in such spectacles and storylines.

Originally Posted by Observer Verizon Media's show "The 5th Quarter" has an episode called "Wrestlestock," the idea that in 1968 there was a Woodstock but for wrestling fans, which debuts on Thursday. Among those in the series are John Morrison, Joey Ryan, Damien Sandow, Rocky Romero, Ryan Nemeth and JTG. Evolve announced that Shane Mercer would be debuting with the promotion with the shows next weekend in Queens, NY and Melrose, MA. Baja Stars USA on 2/17 in San Diego at 3020 Coronado Ave has Penta 0M & Rey Fenix vs. Bestia 666 & Garza Jr.

Originally Posted by PWI The USA website is listing that NXT will air on their network on Wednesday 12/13 at 7 p.m. It has been picked up by many cable guides includling Comcast, which owns USA, FIOS and DirecTV. It precedes the movie Thor. It's possible that it's a mistake, but it's also the week that WWE takes over the USA Network so it's also just as possible that they will get a national showing of the great NXT product. The fact that USA is listing it by name is interesting. If this is indeed NXT's show that will air it will be the first time that the current incarnation of the product airs on the USA Network.

Originally Posted by PWI The twitter for Edge and Christian's podcast tweeted that there will be a big announcement coming tomorrow: Big announcement coming tomorrow, Hosers... — Pod of Awesomeness (@EandCPod) December 1, 2017

Originally Posted by PWI On the latest edition of The National Wrestling Alliance's Ten Pounds of Gold, the series documents the NWA title returning to the 2300 (fka ECW) Arena in Philadelphia, where Shane Douglas threw the title down, rejecting it in favor of naming the ECW title a World championship. The story is that Tommy Dreamer invited champion Tim Storm to House of Hardcore in Philly. Interestingly, Douglas, who was on the HOH show, declined the chance to appear on the episode

Link to the episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuoYOeslWGg

Originally Posted by PWI The 11/30 Thanksgiving edition of Impact did 255,000 overnight viewers, well up from the Thanksgiving edition's 169,000 overnight viewers.

Originally Posted by PWI As he has been apt to do over the years, Matt Hardy has taken to social media to stir interest in his personality and character. With his "Broken" persona on the verge of finally appearing in WWE, Hardy posted the following towards Bray Wyatt, who defeated him on Raw: Thank you for reigniting my WHITE MAGIC with your BLACK MAGIC, @WWEBrayWyatt.. https://t.co/6dFET3MTeJ In return, it is now my DUTY to DELETE your DEMON. https://t.co/ZeTvau9kVT — #WOKEN Matt Hardy (@MATTHARDYBRAND) December 1, 2017

Originally Posted by PWI WWE Network sent out an email detailing what is currently "trending" on the WWE Network and what is coming in December. As previously noted Shinsuke Nakamura and Sami Zayn Network Collections are coming to the service. But newly announced is a new show for commentator for Corey Graves called "Straight to the Source" is also on the schedule.

Graves first show debuts after the end of next week's episode of RAW with Roman Reigns as his first guest. WWE also released trailers for the Nakamura and Sami collection sets. Sami - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6W1kCjnttC0 , Nakamura - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxMryfwaarU

Originally Posted by WrestleInc WWE has a new poll asking fans which General Manager has the harder job. As of this writing, 64% went with RAW General Manager Kurt Angle while 36% voted for SmackDown General Manager Daniel Bryan.

Some other sheet news includes:

• ROH recently released the updated card for next month's Final Battle PPV. https://www.pwinsider.com/article/11...ineup.html?p=1
• WWE announced a new collection set for the Network called "WWE Match of the Year 2017" will be arriving on December 7th. https://www.pwinsider.com/article/11...sting.html?p=1
• According to PWI, Impact Wrestling recently signed Matt Sydal to a contract while Eddie Edwards current contract expires in February 2018 and likely will be given a new deal to stay in the company.
• Also according to PWI, rumors of Laurel Van Ness leaving Impact are false since she is still with the company. Her contract doesn't expire till end of Summer 2018.
• Website WWENetworkNews recently leaked the entire content listing for Sami's and Nakamura's collection sets arriving for the WWE Network. https://www.pwinsider.com/article/11...tions.html?p=1
• According to PWI, WWE currently only has one new collection set planend for the month of January 2018. It will be a RAW 25th Anniversary themed set.
• Al Arabiya English held a recent interview with Cesaro talking about teaming up with Sheamus, why he originally objected to the team idea, and his recent mouth injury. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...-with-sheamus/
• ESPN held a recent interview with Edge talking about his life after retiring from wrestling, starting his podcast show with Christian, and Daniel Bryan wanting to resume his wrestling career. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...pro-wrestling/

Some stuff from TPWW Frontpage:

• WWE Announces Three New Title Matches for Clash of Champions
• Long-Time Entrance Theme Creator Jim Johnston Released By WWE
• Vince Russo Criticizes WWE Match, Says Only Marks & Kids Watch Anymore

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Originally Posted by Observer A wrestling-heavy Raw last night was up very slightly from last week's low mark, doing 2.78 million viewers ... There was a major drop in every demo throughout the show. The message was pretty clear that a series of long matches, as opposed to long matches with main event talent, are not good for retaining viewers. The three hours were: 8 p.m. 3.15 million viewers 9 p.m. 2.86 million viewers 10 p.m. 2.43 million viewers

In terms of rankings, RAW took the #3, #5, and #6 spots. In terms of comparisons, this week was only 54k higher compared to last week and around 200k less than last year's show.

Originally Posted by Observer Crash Lucha Libre based in Tijuana announced today that booker Charles "Konnan" Ashenoff is no longer with the promotion. Rumors had started about two weeks ago coming off the conclusion of a tour around Mexico that saw some small crowds and canceled shows. The promotion released a statement saying, "The Crash Lucha Libre brand is known for the way we treat people and value each and every single person that works in this company. Bettering the economical and habitual needs. Showing the support for each element and giving opportunity to new talent. In this way, the value and professionalism shown between each of its partners. Not being able to comply to the Crash Lucha Libre code of ethic is something we do not tolerate in this company. With that being said, we now announce that Carlos Santiago Espada, 'Konnan,' will be longer be working with The Crash."

Some more details: https://www.f4wonline.com/mexico/cra...company-247381

Originally Posted by Observer The 205 Live roster will be hitting the road in January. Just over a year after the series debuted, WWE made the announcement today that the first three 205 Live-exclusive house shows will be taking place across one weekend in January. All three venues that will be hosting the events are smaller buildings where NXT road shows have taken place. Here's the schedule for the events: January 19th -- The Ryan Center in Kingston, Rhode Island January 20th -- The Lowell Memorial Auditorium in Lowell, Massachusetts January 21st -- The Mid-Hudson Civic Center in Poughkeepsie, New York Vince McMahon previously mentioned the idea of cruiserweight-only house shows on a conference call in February, but no timetable for them was given then. PWInsider reported that the 205 Live tours in January and potentially February will be an experiment by WWE to determine if it's a financially viable concept.

Originally Posted by Observer On Sunday, AXS TV will officially announce a three-hour Wrestle Kingdom 12 special to air on Saturday, January 6th, starting at 8 p.m. Eastern time, the main focus of 11 straight hours of New Japan programming starting at noon that day. All of the top main card matches -- IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada vs. Tetsuya Naito, US Champion Kenny Omega vs. Chris Jericho, and IC Champion Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Jay White -- will be on the special.

More details: https://www.f4wonline.com/japan/axs-...nuary-6-247311

Originally Posted by Observer WWE officially confirmed that NXT will be airing on the USA Network on Wednesday, December 13th at 7 p.m. Eastern time as part of “WWE Holiday Week.” It’s listed as a one-hour special from Full Sail with Andrade “Cien” Almas, Ember Moon, SAnitY, Adam Cole, Aleister Black, and more advertised. With that, it would appear that the show will be one of the episodes filmed at the latest television tapings. Our Paul Fontaine notes that last night's first-to-third hour viewership drop was the second largest in history since Raw became a three-hour show. Chris Jericho is a no for WrestleMania, since he is starting a U.S. concert tour with Fozzy on 2/28 and will be in concert on WrestleMania night in Hampton each, NH. Ron "R-Truth" Killings underwent shoulder surgery on Monday. He posted on it a few times on Twitter.

WWE link: http://www.wwe.com/shows/raw/article...e-holiday-week , RAW rating: https://twitter.com/PaulAceFontaine , Jericho link: https://twitter.com/FOZZYROCK/status...rc=twsrc%5Etfw

Originally Posted by Observer Mia Yim is taking time off until March or April due to an injury. In documents filed in his ongoing divorce, Rob Van Dam claimed that a concussion he suffered working on the indies caused visual impairment and disqualified him from wrestling for WWE. PROGRESS Wrestling announced that a “Thunderbastard” match (an elimination match with staggered entry) is scheduled for their WrestleMania week show in New Orleans on April 6th. British Championship Wrestling thanked Impact for helping resolve their issues with Matt Sydal and getting them their deposit back in full after Sydal missed his flight for their show this weekend due to traffic issues.

Yim link: https://twitter.com/MiaYim/status/937799979602792448 , RVD: https://theblast.com/wwe-rob-van-dam...al-impairment/ , PROGRESS: https://twitter.com/ThisIs_Progress/...73750125760512 , BCW: https://twitter.com/bcwofficial/stat...30091987193858

Originally Posted by Observer The basic gist is BCW asked Sydal, because he missed the show, to repay his deposit, which was $1,500. Sydal's agent, Bill Behrens, repaid his $300 portion of the deposit. Sydal has not returned his and said he is entitlted to it because he attempted to work the show. The promotion said they are owed $1,200. Sydal said he felt he didn't have to repay it because he made every effort to make the show, that he missed his flight due to traffic and was able to get a new flight, which would have cost $1,333, and would have made the show with the new flight, but the promoter wouldn't pay for the new flight. Sydal said he'd use the deposit money toward working another date for the promotion but the promotion said they didn't want to book him again. He said that he offered to pay some of the extra money to get the new flight because he felt bad about missing the show and claimed the promoter didn't pay for the new ticket.

Some details regarding the above BCW story.

Originally Posted by Observer The implosion of the Pontiac Silverdome got a lot of coverage in Detroit, all over the local news. Some stories talked WrestleMania III and others didn't. Things like the Lions, The Who, the Rolling Stones and such got more play. They tried to blow up the stadium this morning, but the stadium was still standing after the explosion. The story is the building was built a little too well, but enough damage was done that the building will eventually collapse, they just don't know when.

Ended up needing 2 explosion sets in order to demolish most of the building. First one failed to do any real damage and the other still left parts of it standing.

Originally Posted by Observer The reason Luke Harper didn't work the Smackdown shows the last two nights was that his wife gave birth to a son, Nolan Rhino Huber. His wife had to deliver due to medical reasons a month-and-a-half early and he rushed home from Lima, Peru and the baby was born five minutes after he arrived at the hospital. Congrats to the family. Erick Rowan has been teaming with Mojo Rawley.

Originally Posted by PWI When Raw Women's champion Alexa Bliss faces Sasha Banks on the U.A.E. event on 11/7, it will be the first ever women's match presented by WWE in that country.

Originally Posted by PWI Aleister Black and No Way Jose each suffered injuries over the course of this past weekend's NXT live events, PWInsider.com has confirmed. They are not said to be serious issues, but the company still opted to hold them off the last NXT show of the weekend in Bel Air, Maryland. That is why Adam Cole worked twice at that show. For those who have asked where 205 Live's Gran Metallik and TJP have disappeared to, we are told neither is injured but it's a case of WWE not having anything for them at the moment. Rather then spend money to fly them around the country to hang around backstage, they are being kept at home until creative works them back into the mix. WWE filed a trademark on the Paige crew "Absolution" on 11/27. I would suspect they are in the process of doing the same for "Riott Squad."

Original filing for "Ruby Riot" got contested which is the reason for Ruby Riott's new name.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc Austin Aries appeared as the surprise new signing of Defiant Wrestling General Manager Stu Bennett, f.k.a. Wade Barrett, on Monday. In front of a sold out crowd at the Newcastle O2 Academy, Aries confronted Defiant Wrestling champion Marty Scurll and said that he signed a six-month contract with the promotion. After the main event, Aries joined Mark Haskins and Chris Ridgeway to attack Martin Kirby and Scurll.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc WWE has a new poll asking fans which fate is worse - being "burned" by Bray Wyatt or being "deleted" by Matt Hardy. As of this writing, 85% voted for "Woken" Matt.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc The "WWE NXT: Best of 2017" three-disc DVD has been confirmed for a March 20th, 2018 release in North America, according to WrestlingDVDNetwork.com. Along with matches, word is that the set will include some never-before-seen footage.

Some other sheet news includes:

• 2K Games announced the Switch version of WWE 2k18 releases on December 6th.
• Recent episode of the Steve Austin Show podcast had Sasha Banks as the guest. https://www.podcastone.com/episode/Sasha-Banks
• Recent episode of Edge & Christian podcast show had Dolph Ziggler as the guest. https://art19.com/shows/ecs-pod-of-a...a-4510bf5fa921
• As part of his training for his next UFC fight, CM Punk recently earned a blue belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu.
• For those interested in celebrating Rusev Day, WWE recently released a new shirt for Rusev. https://shop.wwe.com/rusev-happy-rus...01_color=Black
• In some somber news, Former ROH and current NXT star Kyle O'Reilly's mother passed away last week due to losing her battle with cancer.
• PWI had a recent article about new details regarding the FloSlam lawsuit against WWN and EVOLVE. https://www.pwinsider.com/article/11...more-.html?p=1
• Wales Comic Con held a recent Q&A event with Sting as a guest answering a variety of wrestling related questions. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...-like-to-face/

Some stuff from TPWW Frontpage:

• Schedule and Info for USA Network’s “WWE Holiday Week”
• Impact: More Departures Likely, Mantel Gone, More Frequent Tapings, More
• Impact Hires Don Callis and Scott D’Amore as to Help Run the Company
• Kevin Owens Deletes Instagram, Wife Says She Was Hacked

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Originally Posted by Observer After nearly matching Raw's numbers last week, Tuesday's episode of SmackDown was down to 2.493 million viewers. That's seven percent short of last week and the third lowest number since the start of the fall TV season. This marks the first time SmackDown has been down from the previous week since the episode that fell on Halloween night, though this Tuesday's show was up for the third straight week as compared to the previous year. The December 6th, 2016 edition of SmackDown averaged 2.479 million viewers.

Pretty much has been within its usual viewers range for the Live Era since late September.

Originally Posted by Observer Bret Hart has filed a lawsuit over an allegedly botched wrist surgery that he underwent in 2015. The Calgary Sun broke the news of that yesterday, with Hart claiming that the surgery Dr. Justin Yeung performed left him unable to use the index finger and thumb on his right hand. The lawsuit notes that Hart suffered an injury to his wrist all the way back in 1981, with him wrestling most of his career with it. Hart visited plastic surgeon Dr. Yeung in Calgary in 2015 and later had surgery on November 23rd of that year. When he returned several weeks later, Hart said the right index finger and thumb didn't function and complained about the swelling and pain. He was allegedly told to wait and see how it healed, but Hart's condition didn't improve in later visits. It's alleged that doctors left "a tourniquet on Mr. Hart’s right arm on too long, such that the circulation of the nerves and tendons to his right thumb and index finger were damaged by a prolonged insufficient supply of oxygen."

Originally Posted by Observer Paige tweeted that she’s recording an episode of Lilian Garcia’s “Chasing Glory” podcast today. The show will be uploaded on Monday. As would be expected with her having been at at the Performance Center, USA Today noted that Ronda Rousey is finalizing the details of her plans with WWE. Roman Reigns’ match against Triple H at WWE’s house show in Abu Dhabi on Friday will now be an Intercontinental title defense for Reigns, Tickets to NXT’s WrestleMania weekend TakeOver show in New Orleans will go on sale at 12 p.m. local time on December 15th. Kevin Owens, Bret Hart, and Eugene Tremblay have been voted into the Quebec Wrestling Hall of Fame. The voting panel consists of journalists, experts, historians, and former wrestlers.

Paige link: https://twitter.com/RealPaigeWWE/sta...94819176869888 , Ronda: https://www.usatoday.com/story/sport...ent/928384001/ , NXT Mania week: https://twitter.com/SmoothieKingCtr/...73749117571073 , Quebec: http://www.pwinsiderxtra.com/ViewArt...p?id=33999&p=1

Originally Posted by Observer The WWE United Kingdom Championship will be on the line as Pete Dunne defends against Joseph Conners at PROGRESS Wrestling’s show in Sheffield this weekend. Smash Wrestling in Canada announced that they’ve suspended Michael Elgin’s bookings for December 17th and January 19th and Limitless Wrestling in Maine announced that Elgin has been replaced by Jeff Cobb on their January 19th show. The issues stem from how Elgin handled a sexual assault allegation that was made against Sean Orleans, who was a former student of Elgin’s and wrestled for his Glory Pro promotion until being let go after the allegation was made public. Both promotions released statements about their shows being inclusive, welcoming, fun, and safe environments, with Smash Wrestling citing Elgin’s potential knowledge of the incident before it was publicly revealed as the reason for their decision. Cobb being announced as Elgin’s replacement comes after private messages of Elgin criticizing Cobb as a tag team partner in NJPW had been released. Elgin issued a statement about the situation before later deactivating his Twitter account. Jay White will be back in NJPW for the World Tag League finals show as the build to his match against Tanahashi at the Tokyo Dome continues. ROH’s 16th anniversary weekend will take place at Sam’s Town in Las Vegas on March 9th and 10th, with a pay-per-view and television tapings scheduled for those dates. Tickets are on sale now for Ringside members and will go on sale to the general public at 1 p.m. ET on Friday.

WWE UK Title: https://twitter.com/ThisIs_Progress/...92713862946816 , Smash Wrestling: https://twitter.com/smashwrestling/s...47036508020736 , Cobb: https://twitter.com/LWMaine/status/938181544392478722 , White: https://twitter.com/JayWhiteNZ/statu...61853942980610 , ROH: http://www.rohwrestling.com/news/tic...kend-las-vegas

Originally Posted by PWI There will be an online pre-sale tomorrow for the post-Wrestlemania 34 Raw and Smackdown tapings at the Smoothie Center in New Orleans via Ticketmaster.com. The pre-sale code is NOLA34. Fans can purchase tickets for the individual tapings or a combination ticket that would cover both tapings.

Originally Posted by PWI As PWInsider.com previously reported, the WWE Network is working on a WWE 24 documentary on Matt and Jeff Hardy's return to the company. Earlier today, WWE cameras were at the Hardy compound in Cameron, North Carolina, filming footage, including an interview with Rebecca Hardy: "Matt will never get hired because of your mouth." "WWE wouldn't touch you with a 10 foot pole." Ok cool cool. pic.twitter.com/QzPFrdlft1 — Reby Hardy (@RebyHardy) December 6, 2017

Originally Posted by PWI Here is the lineup for the 2017 Tribute to the Troops special that will air next Thursday 12/14 on the USA Network: *The Shield vs. Raw Tag Team champions Cesaro and Sheamus & Samoa Joe. *WWE champion AJ Styles & Shinsuke Nakamura & Randy Orton vs. Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn & Jinder Mahal. *WWE Smackdown Women's champion Charlotte vs. Ruby Riott. *Absolution vs. Bayley & Sasha Banks & Mickie James. *The New Day & WWE Smackdown Tag Team champions The Usos vs. Shelton Benjamin & Chad Gable & Rusev & Aiden English. JBL, Sgt. Slaughter, Mark Henry and Ricky Steamboat were all in attendance at WWE's Tribute to the Troops yesterday.

Originally Posted by PWI For those who are wondering if the Nia Jax-Enzo Amore faceoff on Raw is leading anywhere, well, it's leading to Jax heading to 205 Live. The 205 Live events in January will be headlined by Kalisto challenging Enzo Amore for the WWE Cruiserweight championship with Nia Jax as the guest referee. Hideo Itami, Rich Swann, Cedric Alexander, Tony Nese, Drew Gulak, The Brian Kendrick and Jack Gallagher are also set for the dates. There is an online pre-sale for the 1/20/18 date in Lowell, MA at the Lowell Memorial Auditorium using code 205LIVE via Ticketmaster. The other shows will be having online pre-sales as well shortly.

Originally Posted by PWI Whose cornflakes did Finn Balor pee in to deserve being destroyed by everyone? I would have loved to see him and Joe battle evenly with Joe having to cheat or get disqualified to set up a feud. Instead, Joe dominates him after being destroyed by Kane and Strowman previously. That is the WWE way of booking. If you aren’t at the top of the card they often don’t protect you the way that they should. They aren’t down on him, it’s just how they do things at times. If he can stay healthy I think he will get his chance. If he doesn’t, then that will be the reason he doesn’t get a great push.

From PWI's weekly Q&A articles on the recent handling of Finn Balor on RAW.

Originally Posted by PWI The Chicago Tribune has an interview with former Raw General Manager Mike Adamle about his struggle with the effects of CTE brought on by his career in the NFL. It was noted that the type of epilepsy he deals with it is related to bruising of the brain (likely from his football career) and that while he is independent, he can no longer drive himself and lives his life in routines, because one thing can set him off. On knowing his own mortality, Adamle said, "“You pop up like this. It’s hard not to, it happens to a zillion people every day on the planet Earth. I’ll be gone. I’d like to make that a little longer and I definitely don’t want to spend it in an old folks home; that’s never going to happen. So we just keep on going until.”

Link to the interview: http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports...205-story.html

Originally Posted by WrestleInc Matt Hardy will apparently have creative license with his "Woken" character, according to a new report by Justin Barrasso at Sports Illustrated. It was noted that Vince McMahon "sees opportunity and the opportunity to cash in on a character that is already established."

Sports Illustrated link: https://www.si.com/wrestling/2017/12...dy-earl-hebner

Originally Posted by WrestleInc We've noted how several WWE Blu-ray releases were nixed this year. That trend continues as the Royal Rumble 2018 release will be DVD-only, according to WrestlingDVDNetwork.com. It appears that all future releases, except for WrestleMania 34, will be DVD-only releases, at least in North America. The reason for the Blu-ray cancellations is said to be lack of demand and the added expense of producing them. WDN currently has 7 WWE titles confirmed for 2018, from January 2nd through April 8th, and none of them are Blu-rays.

Some other sheet news includes:

• Recent episode of The Lapsed Fan podcast show had Dave Meltzer as the guest talking about the 20th Anniversary of the Montreal Screwjob. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZjVRMy7QGk
• Sports Illustrated held a recent interview with Earl Hebner talking about leaving Impact after getting his pay cut, Impact using local refs for Bound For Glory, and a potential return to the WWE. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...return-to-wwe/
• The Miami Herald had a recent interview with Alexa Bliss talking about Paige's new stable, intital fan complaints regarding her call up feeling too soon, and working to improve her skills and keep her character fresh. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...ge-her-return/

Some stuff from TPWW Frontpage:

• WWE Tribute to the Troops Results – Taped Dec. 5, 2017 to Air Dec. 14, 2017
• Various: Cody 10K Show Update, Rock Walk of Fame Star, Bret Hart Lawsuit
• WWE: SmackDown Dark Matches, Hawkins’ and Asuka’s Streaks

[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by Wrestling Mustaches Appreciation Day:

Originally Posted by Observer Impact is attempting to work with both ROH and New Japan as far as exchanging talent goes and working together in whatever fashion can be beneficial. As of right now, there are no plans for talent trading with New Japan, but that can always change. One thing for certain is that with Callis in a power position, that Bruce Prichard won’t be back, although that seems to have been already in the cards since Jeff Jarrett left. When they did the angle on television getting rid of Prichard, he was to return as a heel manager, but there have been so many changes since that angle was shot and his name hadn’t been mentioned since, but this would probably lock the door on that one happening because of past heat between the two from WWE. Callis and D’Amore will be part of a three-man creative team, with Sonjay Dutt, who remains head of talent relations and day-to-day creative. Callis and D’Amore will also manage and execute company business. Callis is unlikely to become an on-screen character as when he was studying the company since a deal was expected to go down, he felt that Jim Cornette was a great performer but felt the authority figure regularly appearing on a wrestling show gimmick was played out.

Originally Posted by Observer Anthem has given Nordholm the directive to get the company into a break-even position, and as difficult as that sounds, the belief is with enough cost-cutting, which means getting rid of people with high salaries, and having few if any full-time contracted wrestlers, use guys on daily deals and no longer compete with ROH or WWE money for young talent that everyone wants, perhaps that is possible. But the talent level will decline. The company has its fixed income sources, mostly the Sony Six television deal from India and the other international deals. The company had talked a few months ago about getting back in the house show business, but after booking a group of shows in the New York area that didn’t draw well, they have scheduled nothing since.

Originally Posted by Observer Regarding Jim Ross and AXS TV, both sides have verbally agreed to a contract extension and everyone is proceeding with the idea it is happening. The actual contract has yet to be finalized and signed. Since Ross isn’t appearing on WWE television, and right now isn’t doing anything with WWE (he was hired for the U.K. show, which hasn’t transpired yet, and hasn’t done play-by-play work for WWE since the Mae Young Classic), WWE did not stand in his way of the deal. His WWE deal allowed him to continue doing existing work

Originally Posted by Observer Regarding the big show that the Young Bucks and Cody are working on putting together, the latest word is that the probable location will be either an arena in the Chicago area or an arena in Southern California. There are other places like London, Toronto and San Francisco that have been talked about, but based on recent discussions, they are now less likely. They are working on a few sponsors. On this week’s Being the Elite show, they showed the Young Bucks and Cody in Dallas at TGIF Headquarters being cooked a meal. While nothing was said, the reason they were there was for a meeting regarding sponsorships or being involved in some form with the show.

Originally Posted by Observer Sexy Star was back in the news regarding a match that fell apart on a show in Monterrey back on 11/19 because the video surfaced. The part of the video that I saw showed Diosa Quetzal, her opponent, who is a TV star who does pro wrestling, kicking Sexy Star, going by the name Sexy Dulce, in the face hard and then Dulce started back and it broke down into a sloppy fight. There is a claim that Quetzal stiffed her because Sexy wasn’t cooperating, while Sexy said she was the victim. Quetzal said everything she tried to do, that Sexy was uncooperative and said she was a fan of Sexy Star and was disappointed. She also said Reyna Isis is as unprofessional as Sexy Star. It also could be old-school mentality that a TV star comes into pro wrestling and the wrestlers try to teach her respect by making it difficult for her. I’m not advocating this, as everyone outside the business would say this is silly, and you don’t hear much about it in the U.S. business anymore, but it was part of the business in the U.S., Mexico and Japan until the modern era

Originally Posted by Observer Add Eddie Edwards, whose deal is up in February, to the list with Bobby Lashley and Ethan Carter III, whose contracts are coming due. The word is that Impact will only be offering the new per-day contracts rather than significant money guaranteed deals like all three are signed for, so there’s a good chance all three may leave. It’ll be interesting to see if Lashley, at 41, tries to go back and fight because he pulled out of Bellator to concentrate on pro wrestling because of his contract, and that storyline was kind of a weird way real life mimicking storyline. The belief right now is WWE and ROH have interest in Edwards, with the WWE interest likely for NXT. They passed on him years ago, but that was when they had the negative mentality toward ROH stars that is no longer the case, and it was also as a tag team with Davey Richards, and they are no longer a team The situation with Chelsea Green (Knockouts champion Laurel Van Ness) is that after she won the title, hours later, she asked for a release and it was turned down. The company was really upset because they had already gone through several days of tapings and angles to build for her winning. She admitted she had made a mistake in not asking for the release on the first day of the tapings and then going through all the plans of making her champion without saying anything. Apparently there was an agreement that, since she held the belt, that this wasn’t supposed to be talked about publicly anywhere until she lost the title. Unless they arrange something at an indie show quickly, that wouldn’t be until the January taping and the last word we heard is that it would be at the January taping.

Originally Posted by Observer The ten most-watched shows on the WWE Network ths past week were: 1. NXT on 11/29; 2. 2017 Survivor Series; 3. Table for Three with Ric Flair, Ricky Steamboat and Sting; 4. NXT Takeover Houston; 5. 2015 Night of Champions PPV Rollins vs. Sting; 6. WWE 365 Kevin Owens; 7. 205 Live from 11/28; 8. NXT from 11/22; 9. WWE 24 Bill Goldberg; 10. WrestleMania 33

Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter is reporting that WWE Chairman Vince McMahon has made it clear to SmackDown General Manager Daniel Bryan that Dr. Joseph Maroon will be the person that makes the final decision regarding Bryan possibly being allowed to wrestle in WWE again. Meltzer notes that the angle between Bryan and Shane McMahon is not designed to lead to them having match against each other. Keep in mind that things could change and there is talk about Bryan being allowed to work a limited schedule in WWE if Maroon clears him. If WWE doesn’t clear him, then Bryan has made it clear in interviews that he wants to wrestle again in October once his WWE contract expires. While there has been speculation about Bryan turning heel, a Shane heel turn is also being rumored for the Clash of Champions PPV.

[/QUOTE]
Link with more details from the Observer Newsletter: https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCirc..._ring_for_wwe/

Originally Posted by Observer While they said Sheamus was out of action last week because he was on a trip back to Ireland, he’s actually rehabbing spinal stenosis, which is not a good thing at all. Spinal stenosis ended the careers of Edge and Steve Austin.

Originally Posted by Pro Wrestling Sheet Pro Wrestling Sheet has learned there have been serious internal discussions within WWE regarding a possible Global Warning pay-per-view event that would take place next year in Australia. For those who don’t remember, WWE Global Warning Tour 2002 took place in Melbourne and over 50,000 people attended the live event. We’re told officials want to top that in a big way next year. Sources with direct knowledge say WWE have discussed running Global Warning II in October at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, which holds 100,000 people. This time, however, they want to broadcast the event on PPV and the WWE Network. Nothing official has been set quite yet, but we’re told things are headed in the right direction.

Originally Posted by Observer A video that aired during this week's episode of NXT hyped the arrival of a new addition to the roster. The teaser featured the silhouette of a wrestler and the word "soon," with spades replacing the middle letters of the word. That Shayna Baszler appeared at the most recent set of television tapings and that her nickname is "The Queen of Spades" seemed to hint that she was the person who would be debuting, and Dave Meltzer said that the video was for her on Wrestling Observer Radio last night. Baszler has wrestled at house shows in Florida since losing to Kairi Sane in the finals of the Mae Young Classic, but her appearance last Wednesday was the first time she's been featured on an NXT TV taping. WWE announced in October that Baszler had officially signed with the company.

Link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUingTdSjC4

Originally Posted by Observer WWE has sent out marketing surveys of late for those who have attended recent house shows as well as to those in the U.K. to learn their television viewing patterns.

Originally Posted by PWI The WWE NXT episode that airs next week on the USA Network will be the same as the one that airs on the WWE Network and internationally. The episode will feature Aleister Black vs. Adam Cole and WWE NXT Women's champion Ember Moon vs. Peyton Moon.

Originally Posted by PWI GLOW received four nominations for the 2018 Critics' Choice Awards. The series received a Best Comedy Series nomination, while Alison Brie received a Best Actress in a Comedy Series nomination, Marc Maron received a Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series and Betty Gilpin received a Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series nominations. Winners will be announced 1/11/18 Live on The CW Network.

Originally Posted by Observer According to the Twitter of Hiromu Takahashi, Darryl Takahashi Jr., the son of his stuffed animal pet and his stuffed animal pet’s wife Carol, was born on 12/3

Some other sheet news includes:

• HBO recently announced their upcoming Andre The Giant documentary will premiere Spring 2018.
• In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, today is the 13th anniversary of Lita & Trish becoming the first women to main event an episode of RAW.
• Recent episode of the School of Morton podcast show had Ric Flair as the guest talking about his recent illness, life advice, and a story involving how Morton once saved his life. https://www.pwinsider.com/article/11...orton.html?p=1
• According to a recent episode of PWI's Elite show, WWE is currently considering the idea of holding a 15 women Royal Rumble match at some point next year if its not at the Royal Rumble itself.

Some stuff from TPWW Frontpge:

• Austin Aries Says He Turned Down Impact After His WWE Release
• Five Matches Announced for Raw Including Strowman vs. Kane
• WWE: NXT/USA Info, Cena on Tonight Show, Total Divas Ratings, Birthdays

[Cool King]

Originally Posted by Emperor Smeat Originally Posted by Pro Wrestling Sheet Pro Wrestling Sheet has learned there have been serious internal discussions within WWE regarding a possible Global Warning pay-per-view event that would take place next year in Australia. For those who don’t remember, WWE Global Warning Tour 2002 took place in Melbourne and over 50,000 people attended the live event. We’re told officials want to top that in a big way next year. Sources with direct knowledge say WWE have discussed running Global Warning II in October at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, which holds 100,000 people. This time, however, they want to broadcast the event on PPV and the WWE Network. Nothing official has been set quite yet, but we’re told things are headed in the right direction.

And where the hell is the UK's PPV?

[XL]

Looking forward that Ember Moon vs Peyton Moon match. Full moon.

[Evil Vito]

Up your butt and around the corner.

[Cool King]

[Mr. Nerfect]

WWE doesn't seem "hot" here. I know that we're like their fourth biggest market or something, but I can't see them doing 50,000 again. Unless they have Ronda Rousey and Brock Lesnar for the show.

[Mr. Nerfect]

I actually really hope that Bobby Lashley, James Storm, EC3 and Eddie Edwards all sign with WWE. Lashley, Storm and EC3 would all "fit" the main roster WWE. Lashley has grown enough to be "money." Storm would be a great supporting player aligned with Bobby Roode. EC3 could be a stock WWE "star" (whether or not he ever moves the needle). Edwards is a solid hand and might be the one best off going to ROH/New Japan or whatever.

[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by Classic WCW gif:

Originally Posted by Observer A lawsuit filed by Marcus "Buff" Bagwell and Scott "Raven" Levy against WWE attempting to open the door for wrestlers to get royalties for appearances on the WWE Network was dropped officially yesterday in an agreement between the lawyers for both sides. WWE had filed a lawsuit against Levy claiming he had made false statements about a prior lawsuit, where Levy and several other former wrestlers had sued to attempt to get employee status for wrestlers claiming they were not independent contractors. In that case, it was thrown out due to the statute of limitations from when the deals were in place to when the lawsuit was filed having expired. Levy, on a Chris Jericho podcast, had apparently said that Vince McMahon had paid off a judge. The agreement was made between lawyers that both lawsuits were to be dropped. However, in the settlement agreement, WWE retained the rights to refile the lawsuit against Levy if he were to ever sue WWE again on any contractual matters. After recent depositions by WWE of Bagwell and Levy, their lawyers opened up settlement talks regarding dropping of the case.

Originally Posted by Observer New Japan World will be carrying a press conference on Monday night at 1 a.m. to announce the full card for the Tokyo Dome. It will be free even if you are not a subscriber.

Originally Posted by Observer The Nashville Tennessean has a story on Aro Lucha. The story notes Jason Brown, head of Aroluxe, saying the goal is to do a family friendly product and get it on regular and digital television and do house shows. Konnan is mentioned as booker. As for the obvious comparisons with Lucha Underground, Ron Harris said, "We're trying to do it on a much bigger level and build it into a much bigger company." The show Sunday will be taped for marketing use and also to get new investors into the project. Vince Russo's involvement, which we had written about for months, was released by the company earlier today. He was to be the assistant writer.

Link: http://www.tennessean.com/story/mone...lle/930770001/

Originally Posted by Observer They are advertising Roman Reigns vs. John Cena for the IC title as the new main event for the 12/26 show in Madison Square Garden. The company announced today at its show in Abu Dhabi the signing of Nasser Airywayehi, first person from Kuwait ever signed by WWE. WWE will be doing both Raw and Smackdown on 2/20 and 2/21 in Phoenix. Tickets go on sale a week from today.

Originally Posted by PWI The 12/7 edition of Impact did 226,000 overnight viewers, well down from last week's 255,000 overnight viewers.

Originally Posted by PWI Why haven't we seen Darren Young since his WWE release? I know Young has been asking for, what I believe, to be a pretty hefty appearance fee for someone who wasn't a top name in WWE. I've had a few promoters tell me that Young's reps have sent word he wasn't going to do jobs on the independents either, which isn't a reasonable request either. My guess is that sooner or later, we'll see him pop up wrestling again.

From PWI's weekly Q&A article about the lack of news about Darren Young's post-WWE career.

Originally Posted by PWI Entertainment Weekly has named Netflix's GLOW as the best television series of 2017, describing the series as "The silliest, smartest, greatest TV event of the year. Creators Liz Flahive and Carly Mensche went to TV history for inspiration, returning to the golden age of syndication to conjure up the pop epic for our streaming age." The series, which been renewed for a currently shooting second season, is based on 1980s women's promotion The Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling.

Link: http://ew.com/tv/best-and-worst-show...t-and-worst-tv

Originally Posted by PWI New Japan Pro Wrestling issued the folllowing: Tanahashi suffers injury to right knee; will miss remaining World Tag League tour dates. Due to an injury suffered to his right knee, New Japan Pro Wrestling has come to the decision to remove Hiroshi Tanahashi from December 7’s Yamaguchi card. Further, Tanahashi will be out of action for the remainder of the World Tag League tour, which ends December 11 in Fukuoka ... At the present time, precise details on the condition of Tanahashi’s knee are unknown. Tanahashi is currently undergoing a thorough medical assessment, and when more details become clear, a decision will be made as to his future appearances.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc WWE has a new poll asking fans which match they're most looking forward to at Clash of Champions. As of this writing, 31% voted for Randy Orton & Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Sami Zayn & Kevin Owens with Shane McMahon as special referee while 24% voted for The New Day vs. Shelton Benjamin & Chad Gable vs. Aiden English & Rusev vs. SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Usos, 21% voted for Jinder Mahal vs. WWE Champion AJ styles, 14% voted for Dolph Ziggler vs. Bobby Roode vs. WWE United States Champion Baron Corbin and the rest voted for Natalya vs. SmackDown Women's Champion Charlotte Flair in a Lumberjack Match.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc WWE's DVD set for the RAW 25th Anniversary can now be pre-ordered on sale from Amazon at this link. The three-disc set will feature the entire RAW 25th Anniversary episode that airs on January 22nd plus a compilation of greatest matches & moments from the show. The set will be released on April 3rd, 2018.

Link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...c4dd15cbc9b6a3

Originally Posted by WrestleInc Adam Pearce, who works the weekly WWE 205 Live TV shows, revealed on Twitter that he will be producing the upcoming 205 Live non-televised live events in January. He tweeted: I'm honored to produce these inaugural #205Live events. Join me as another block of the cruiserweight foundation is laid. You won't regret it! https://t.co/GEBzTbNrB3 — Adam Pearce (@ScrapDaddyAP) December 7, 2017

Some other sheet news includes:

• Hulk Hogan recently signed a deal with online retailer ProWrestlingTees to sell Hogan related merch at their online store.
• NWA recently released a new episode of their 10 Pounds of Gold Youtube series focusing on champion Tim Storm's appearance this weekend at CZW. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwNY9oTJAWc
• In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, Micheal Cole celebrated his 49th birthday today.
• WWE recently released a video on their official Youtube channel focusing on 5 wrestlers they would like to see back in 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FdBQB4CzKk
• Rolling Stones had a recent interview with Chris Jericho talking about his upcoming cruise, his non-WWE projects next year, and if he is currently on a part-time deal with the WWE. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...-a-wwe-return/
• ESPN had a recent interview with Tito Santana talking about his favorite match during his WWE career, life after he retired, and transitioning from wrestler to teacher. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...is-wwe-career/

Some stuff from TPWW Frontpage:

• Impact Results – Dec. 7, 2017 – Drake & Adonis vs. Impact & Williams

[Mr. Nerfect]

Watched that YouTube video. Can't the WWE just re-hire all these people? It's an odd piece of business.

[XL]

Not sure if it’s the case now but there used to be a point where wwe.com =/= WWE (as in Vince didn’t have for final say) so it could very well be a top 5 of whoever made the video or signs off on .com content. It could be them “testing the waters” to see who gets the best reaction in the comments.

[Mr. Nerfect]

That seems likely.

[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by the Miztourage embracing their inner Finn:

Originally Posted by Observer Raw dropped four percent from last week, doing 2.68 million viewers, making it the lowest-watched show since the June 12th episode that went against the NBA playoffs which would make it the lowest number since the revitalization of Raw with the strong series of building PPV main events in the late summer and fall ... The bad news is the second hour drop was significant, resulting in the second lowest rated hour number two on Raw in history, only beating the episode that went against the Trump-Clinton debate in 2016. That means it was even below hour two on July 4th in the past ... The three hours were: 8 p.m. 2.88 million viewers 9 p.m. 2.61 million viewers 10 p.m. 2.57 million viewers

Originally Posted by Observer Rich Swann was arrested on domestic battery and false imprisonment charges. Gainesville Police released the arrest report for the incident, which happened in Gainesville, Florida at 10:30 p.m. The victim is listed as Vannarah Riggs (independent wrestler Su Yung), who Swann has been in a relationship with for approximately five years and has been married to for nine months. The arrest report states that Swann and Riggs were involved in an argument after Riggs had wrestled at a show in Gainesville. Swann was critiquing Riggs' performance and began getting angry with her. Riggs got out of the vehicle they were in after getting scared that the argument was going to escalate. He chased her and yelled for her to get back in, then allegedly grabbed her by the arm and around the neck with his arm after Riggs said she didn't want to get back in, putting her in a headlock and dragging her back to the vehicle. A witness to the situation said they saw Swann push Riggs back into the vehicle while she screamed for help. They also said Riggs was beating on the window and screaming for help as they drove away. Another witness said they saw the vehicle driving erratically, with Riggs jumping out of it while it was still moving and Swann getting out of it while it was moving to chase her. The vehicle wasn't put in park and rolled until it hit a telephone pole. Riggs told police that she was afraid because Swann "has a temper sometimes," and that she was trying to get away from him because she was afraid the argument would escalate into physical violence. Riggs said she told him to stop the vehicle so she could get out before having to jump out while it was still slowly moving. She said Swann grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back in despite her not wanting to go with him. Swann denied grabbing Riggs and putting her back in the vehicle, saying she got in on her own and he never physically touched her. He said he was trying to get home and her phone had the GPS on for directions. The domestic battery charge is listed as a misdemeanor and the false imprisonment charge is a felony. Swann was taken into custody around midnight last night and was in custody as of this morning. Under their zero tolerance domestic violence policy, WWE issued a statement saying that Swann has been suspended indefinitely.

Originally Posted by Observer The IWGP Tag Team Championship match for the Tokyo Dome is seemingly set after this morning's World Tag League finals. After both won their respective blocks, SANADA & EVIL defeated Guerrillas of Destiny to win this year's World Tag League tournament ... The team that wins the tournament usually gets a shot at the IWGP Tag Team titles at Wrestle Kingdom, and SANADA & EVIL called out champions Killer Elite Squad and challenged them after their win. Lance Archer got on the microphone to accept the challenge, with Davey Boy Smith Jr. saying the titles will stay with KES forever.

Originally Posted by Observer Ahead of their match at the Tokyo Dome, Chris Jericho made a surprise appearance and got into it with Kenny Omega in an angle at this morning's World Tag League finals. Omega & The Young Bucks defeated Rocky Romero, Sho & Yoh at the show, with Omega pinning Romero with the One Winged Angel after the others had fought to the back. A video of Jericho aired following the match. He congratulated Omega, asked if he's ready for Wrestle Kingdom at the Tokyo Dome and said we'll find out who the best in the world is then, and told Omega he's going to beat the hell out of him. When the video stopped playing, Jericho appeared inside the ring and gave Omega the Codebreaker. Jericho continued to beat Omega down and hit him with the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship. He laid out the referee and one of the young lions before continuing to attack Omega, who had been bloodied by this point. Omega briefly fought back until being hit with another Codebreaker. Don Callis went into the ring to check on Omega as Jericho started to walk away, but Jericho came back and gave Callis a Codebreaker.

Originally Posted by Observer New Japan Pro Wrestling has one more title match scheduled before Wrestle Kingdom 12 at the Tokyo Dome. NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Team Champions SANADA, EVIL & BUSHI will defend their titles against Bad Luck Fale & Guerrillas of Destiny at NJPW's Road to Tokyo Dome show on December 17th. With SANADA & EVIL challenging Killer Elite Squad at Wrestle Kingdom, a title change would clear the way for the NEVER tag belts to be featured on the card.

Originally Posted by PWI The updated lineup for the Wrestle Kingdom event, which will air on 1/6/18 on AXS TV, features: *IWGP champion Kazuchika Okada vs. Tetsuya Naito *IWGP United States champion Kenny Omega vs. Chris Jericho *IWGP Intercontinental champion Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Jay White *IWGP Junior Heavyweight champion Marty Scurll vs. Hiromu Takahashi vs. KUSHIDA vs. Will Ospreay *IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team champions Roppongi 3K (Sho and Yo) vs. The Young Bucks (Nick and Matt Jackson). *ROH champion Cody Rhodes vs. Kota Ibushi *IWGP Tag Team champions The Killer Elite Squad (Davey Boy Smith Jr. & Lance Archer) vs. Los Ingobernables de Japon (EVIL & SANADA) *NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Team champions SANADA & EVIL & BUSHI vs. Bad Luck Fale & The Guerrillas of Destiny.

Originally Posted by Observer After the way Raw ended with Braun Strowman and Kane going to a double countout, Dave Meltzer noted that Brock Lesnar vs. Strowman vs. Kane is the plan for the Royal Rumble on Wrestling Observer Radio last night. Lesnar will officially return to television on Raw next week. He hasn’t appeared on TV since beating AJ Styles at Survivor Series. Ric Flair now has his own YouTube channel. Responding to a question, he said his three favorite matches of his career were against Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania 24, against Ricky Steamboat in Chicago, and against Harley Race at the first Starrcade.

Flair link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-peM015o2w

Chris Jericho and Kenny Omega are on the cover of the latest issue of Weekly Pro Wrestling magazine in Japan. Yoshihiro Takayama will be a DLC character in Fire Pro Wrestling World, with all of the proceeds going towards Takayama’s medical expenses. SANADA & EVIL will face Aussie Open at Revolution Pro Wrestling’s High Stakes show on January 20th at York Hall. Spoofing the list that Cody Rhodes put out after he left WWE, James Ellsworth posted a list of women’s wrestlers he wants to face in intergender matches. Darren Young’s first post-WWE indie appearance will be for WrestlePro in Union, New Jersey on March 9th. He’s scheduled to wrestle and take part in a meet and greet. Impact announced 1/10 to 1/15 dates at Universal in Orlando for TV tapings.

WPW magazine: https://twitter.com/IAmJericho/statu...77141497495553 , Fire Pro: http://www.hardcoregamer.com/2017/12...ty-dlc/283076/ , RevPro: https://twitter.com/RevProUK/status/940612236673941504 , Ellsworth: https://twitter.com/realellsworth/st...93587153555462 , Young: https://twitter.com/WrestlePro/statu...79824567980033

Originally Posted by Observer There were two Golden Globe nominations that have pro wrestling tie-ins. Alison Brie was nominated for Best Actress on a Comedy TV series for her lead work in GLOW. Ferdinand, an animated movie where John Cena plays the voice of the lead character, was nominated for Best Animated Film.

Originally Posted by Observer There was a story going around that Brock Lesnar was in line to play Drago's son in the movie Creed 2. The storyline is that Creed, the son of Apollo Creed, faces the son of the man who killed his father, with Dolph Lundgren back as Ivan Drago. The tease was Brock Lesnar playing Lundgren's son. I was told right now that is more a publicity stunt for the movie and no deal is in play at this point.

Some more details via PWI: https://www.pwinsider.com/article/11...chise.html?p=1

Originally Posted by Observer Nick Aldis beat Tim Storm to win the NWA title at last night's CZW Cage of death show in Sewell, NJ. Austin Idol was brought in (much of the crowd had no idea who he was) before the match and he introduced Brian Hebner as the referee for the match.

Originally Posted by Observer Joining the list of promotions who have addressed Michael Elgin’s status with them due to his handling of a sexual assault allegation against Sean Orleans (a former student of Elgin’s who wrestled for his Glory Pro promotion), AAW issued a statement saying they’re pulling Elgin from their shows until the situation “can be resolved with all parties.” Jeff Cobb, who lost to Elgin in the finals of this year’s Jim Lynam Memorial Tournament, will challenge Rey Fenix for the AAW Heavyweight Championship on December 30th.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc The Charlotte Observer reports that a scarlet & silver robe worn by WWE Hall of Famer Ric Flair during his WWE & WCW days sold for $27,000 at an auction on Saturday. The robe, listed as a "true relic from one of the most beloved entertainment careers in American history," was also autographed by The Nature Boy. Sports memorabilia collectors called the price "incredible," but some estimated it would sell for more.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc WWE has a new poll asking fans if they would like to see another rematch between RAW Tag Team Champion Cesaro and WWE Intercontinental Champion Roman Reigns after their match on last night's RAW, which saw Reigns retain. As of this writing, 57% voted, "Yes. It was an amazing match and Cesaro deserves another opportunity after a close fight." The rest went with, "No. Reigns earned the victory and should move on to other challengers."

Some other sheet news includes:

• In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, today is the 7th anniversary of Ruby Riott's first ever wrestling match. Riott celebrated the occasion on Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/p/Bcm8WJQlx8f/
• For those in the UK, the recent ESPN 30 For 30 Ric Flair documentary will air on channel BT Sport 2 on December 15th at 10 p.m.
• Triple H ended up defeating Jinder Mahal in a match during WWE's recent tour of India. Tour itself was originally planned for two shows but got changed to just a single show due to abysmal ticket sales.
• According to recent medical reports, former Tough Enough winner Matt Cappotelli has roughly 5 years left to live as a best case scenario due to his brain cancer reaching the stage where it was impossible to remove it all without possibly killing or severely damaging him. https://www.pwinsider.com/article/11...ancer.html?p=1
• Irish Mirror had a recent interview with Rosemary talking about Impact's current Knockouts division, teaming with Allie, and going from being a heel to a face star. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...outs-division/

Some stuff from TPWW Frontpage:

• WWE SmackDown Results – Dec. 12, 2017 – Owens vs. Nakamura
• Rockstar Spud Expected to Debut for WWE Soon
• Various: Sheamus Working Through Injury, DJZ Injured, Main Event Results
• Kenny Omega Retaliates, Attacks Jericho at NJPW Press Conference (Video)

[Cool King]

Originally Posted by Emperor Smeat For those in the UK, the recent ESPN 30 For 30 Ric Flair documentary will air on channel BT Sport 2 on December 15th at 10 p.m.

Oh, well that's random.

[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by The Yep Movement:

Originally Posted by Observer SmackDown ratings were down for the second straight week on Tuesday night, though they didn't fall as sharply as Raw did this week. The show averaged 2.481 million viewers, down just 12,000 viewers from the previous Tuesday. This was the first week in a long time that SmackDown finished outside of the top 10 in terms of total viewers on cable, with Tuesday being a particularly strong night for news channels due to coverage of the special election in Alabama. SmackDown was sixth in the 18-49 demo with a 0.71 rating. The show is usually either first or second in that demo on cable. For the fourth straight week, SmackDown was up in the year-over-year ratings as they continue to hold up well since the WWE Championship was switched over to AJ Styles.

Originally Posted by Observer Hideo Itami will be arriving on 205 Live next Tuesday. After a few weeks of hype videos, one final video was shown last night and announced that Itami would be making his debut next week. On commentary, Nigel McGuinness called Itami one of the most intimidating opponents that he's ever faced. Itami has been wrestling on NXT house shows while waiting to debut on 205 Live, but he hasn't appeared on television since losing to Kassius Ohno in a no disqualification match that aired in September.

Originally Posted by Observer Though NXT aired on the USA Network tonight as part of WWE Week, Ember Moon and Peyton Royce’s non-title match is only going to be on the WWE Network version of the episode, which is likely due to time constraints. Former WWECW roster member Colin Delaney made a cameo on SmackDown last night as he and Juan Francisco de Coronado from CHIKARA were squashed by The Bludgeon Brothers. WWE posted video of a brief interview with Delaney after the match. WWE Shop is selling “Yep Movement” T-shirts after Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn wore them on SmackDown last night.

Delaney link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=er6-cnnuH0g, Yep Shirts: http://shop.wwe.com/kevin-owens-and-...rr=USD&start=1

Tokyo Sports announced the winners of their annual awards today. Tetsuya Naito won MVP for the second straight year, Kazuchika Okada vs. Kenny Omega from the January 4th Tokyo Dome show won best match, Io Shirai won the top women’s award, and Katsuyori Shibata was honored with the Fighting Spirit award. Suwama & Shuji Ishikawa won tag team of the year and Yuma Aoyagi from AJPW won rookie of the year. Rolling Stone interviewed Kenny Omega about his match with Chris Jericho at Wrestle Kingdom 12. When asked about using blood in the angle they did at the World Tag League finals, Omega said: “I've been lucky where I've asked for a little bit of trust from the company. When you put yourself in a situation like that, you either hit consecutive home runs or you're dead in the water, because there's a lot of money on the line, there's a reputation on the line. And a lot of times I really forced them to step out of their comfort zone. Between last year's G1 and now with Jericho, I have done a lot of things the company isn't necessarily comfortable with, but they're seeing positive growth from it. Drawing blood is a faux paus. They don't like it at all. Our parent company makes its money through anime and card games.” MLW uploaded their Never Say Never show for free on YouTube. It features Matt Riddle vs. Tom Lawlor and Jimmy Havoc & Darby Allin vs. John Hennigan & Shane Strickland in a no DQ match. ROH is hyping that there will be a major announcement for Women of Honor at Final Battle on Friday. Zack Sabre Jr. will face Amazing Red for the first time at House of Glory’s show in New York City on Saturday.

Tokyo Sports: https://twitter.com/STRIGGA/status/941053208369254400 , Omega: http://www.rollingstone.com/sports/f...ingdom-w514025 , MLW: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHvgV4HhVuU , ROH: https://twitter.com/ringofhonor/stat...67497482092545 , Sabre: https://twitter.com/HOGwrestling/sta...35643775311872

Originally Posted by PWI Variety reported that Facebook is paying WWE for distribution of the new Mixed Match Challenge series. The series will air for 12 weeks and will be added to the WWE Network VOD section after a certain window has passed.

Link: http://variety.com/2017/digital/news...ve-1202638949/

Originally Posted by PWI Dave Sahadi, who had worked for the last decade as a Director and Producer for Impact Wrestling, was let go by the promotion yesterday, PWInsider.com has learned. It was the latest cost-cutting move from the company under Anthem Media's ownership and came a day after Rafael Morfi, who worked as Impact's Live Event Manager, announced he had left the company as well. Sahadi was responsible for crafting a lot of the video features and material that aired before PPVs and was considered an extremely talented Director. Sahadi came to Impact in March 2006. He had previously held the post of Director of On Air Promotion for WWE and when he later joined TNA, it was considered a major hiring for the company.

Originally Posted by PWI The Screen Actors Guild Award nominations were revealed today with Netflix's GLOW receiving four nominations: Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series - Alison Brie as Ruth Wilder. Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series - Marc Maron as Sam Sylvia. Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series. Outstanding Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Comedy or Drama Series Should the cast win Best Ensemble, that may make Kia Stevens aka Awesome Kong the first professional wrestler to ever win a SAG Award. The SAG Awards will take place on 1/21/18, airing on TNT and TBS.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc WWE has a new poll asking fans which brand has the stronger roster of Superstars competing in the new Mixed Match Challenge series that will premiere on Facebook Watch in January. As of this writing, 60% voted for RAW (RAW Women's Champion Alexa Bliss, Alicia Fox, Asuka, Bayley, Braun Strowman, WWE Cruiserweight Champion Enzo Amore, Finn Balor, Goldust, Nia Jax, Sasha Banks, The Miz, Samoa Joe) while the rest voted for SmackDown (Becky Lynch, Bobby Roode, Carmella, SmackDown Women's Champion Charlotte Flair, SmackDown Tag Team Champion Jimmy Uso, Lana, Naomi, Natalya, Rusev, Sami Zayn, Shinsuke Nakamura, and a Final Fan Vote to select a member of The New Day). It's worth noting that the WWE website lists Samoa Joe, and no "Final Fan Vote" option, for the RAW brand but he was not announced earlier. It looks like they may have spoiled the "Final Fan Vote" for RAW, indicating that some of the voting in this competition is rigged.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc Zack Ryder noted on Twitter that he and former tag team partner Curt Hawkins may be starting a podcast on wrestling action figures soon. He tweeted the following: .@TheCurtHawkins & I are starting a wrestling FIGURE podcast......maybe. Any good names for it? ?????? — Zack Ryder (@ZackRyder) December 13, 2017

Some other sheet news includes:

• Website Digital Spy had a recent interview with John Cena talking about teh constant call by fans wanting him to turn heel and wanting people to know more about him beyond his wrestling character. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...e-turned-heel/
• Sports Illustrated had a recent interview with Mark Cuban discussing AXS TV, NJPW, and his opinion on Vince McMahon. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...vince-mcmahon/
• Recent episode of In The Corner podcast show had Triple H as the guest talking about the potential for NXT to become an equal brand to Smackdown and RAW, NXT pushing the main roster to be better, and his thoughts on The Drifter. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...le-h-on-elias/

Some stuff from TPWW Frontpage:

• WWE NXT Results – Dec. 13, 2017 – Aleister Black vs. Adam Cole
• With Mixed Match Challenge on Tues. at 10, What About 205 Live? (Updated)
• Noam Dar Out With a Knee Injury, Will Undergo Surgery
• WWE Announces New In-Ring Series to Air Exclusively on Facebook

[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by Classic WCW Rasslin:

Originally Posted by Observer While airing on the USA Network as part of WWE Week, NXT averaged 841,000 viewers for last night's episode ... Given the value of wrestling programming, that's not a number that would seem to make USA try to add it to the package regularly since Tough Enough did better numbers and wasn't renewed, though the 55-minute episode of NXT did air at 7 p.m. Eastern time instead of what is traditionally considered prime time for television.

Originally Posted by Pro Wrestling Sheet Former WWF manager Yamaguchi-San — who was paired with Kaientai during the Attitude Era — has been hospitalized after suffering a stroke. Shunsuke Yamaguchi, one-half of WWE’s Japanese announce team and the Kaientai manager’s real-life brother, posted an update on Facebook revealing the unfortunate news. He explained, “Some of u might have heard but my brother Yusuke aka Yamaguchi Wally or Yamaguchi San had a stroke. This is a pic from 1 am est. Don’t know how long he has. Some of his friends from school and Gong Magazine have visited him. Love you brother!!!” Funaki tweeted afterward offering his prayers.

For some reference, he was the guy famous for the "choppy off pee pee" line during Kaientai's feud with Val Venis.

Originally Posted by Observer Wally Yamaguchi, a very important figure in the Japanese wrestling business in the 80s and 90s, had a major stroke and as of earlier today was in a coma and his condition is not good. He was a key figure in both the magazine business, as well as the independent wrestling business having helped start FMW which was the first really strong Japanese indie group. He was a major figure helping Giant Baba with All Japan, and a major editor of Gong Magazine in that magazine's heyday. He was also Yamaguchi-san in WWE as the manager of Kaientai, and also worked for WWF for years as its Japanese industry liaison. His brother, Shun Yamaguchi, works for WWE today as a Japanese language television announcer live at the PPV shows.

Originally Posted by Observer ROH will be debuting a new world heavyweight title belt for Cody tomorrow night at the Final Battle PPV. Ric Flair will be appearing for House of Glory Wrestling in Jamaica, NY on Saturday at Club Amazura. The show is headlined by Zack Sabre Jr. vs Amazing Red. Those under contract to Lucha Underground have been forced to cancel indie dates for weekends starting in mid-February. Right now the battle plan is for tapings for the new season to start on 2/16. This could get in the way of some wrestlers working the February New Japan tour. Pro Wrestling Revolution has announced that Rey Fenix and Penta 0M are off the 2/24 show in San Jose due to tapings.

ROH link: https://www.pwinsider.com/article/11...-belt.html?p=1

Originally Posted by PWI Variety has an exclusive interview with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson about his possible candidacy for President of the United States. In the interview, Johnson says that he will not be eligible for the 2020 election due to his busy schedule for the next few years. However, The Rock says it feels realistic to look towards the 2024 election cycle. The Jumanji star says the whole idea came out of the blue and he never expected to catch fire like it did. He said the following: “It was never something that I trumpeted and beat my chest and ever said publicly, ‘This is what I’m going to do,’ but as that story picked up, Americans picked it up and there was this sentiment of, ‘We’re not joking, and we would really love the idea if you would run,'” Johnson recalls. “In that, I knew I had to listen to the people and really, really think about it,” he continues. “That’s where I’m at right now — I’m well aware politics is not the business I’m in, so the best thing I can do is continuing to listen and learn as much as I can. I’m continuing to watch our presidency and watch how every new development is handled. I continue to watch our leaders in government, and like all Americans, I continue to be hopeful that our leaders exhibit poise, perspective and the ability to bring our country together during these tough times — which I don’t feel our presidency is currently doing — so that’s where I’m at.”

More highlights and link to the interview: https://www.pwinsider.com/article/11...ident.html?p=1

Originally Posted by PWI Following the Final Battle PPV tomorrow in New York City, Ring of Honor will return to the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia, PA for a TV taping. Announced thus far for the taping is: *The Young Bucks vs. Trent Beretta & Chuck Taylor vs. Dragon Lee & Titan. *Flip Gordon vs. Marty Scurll. *War Machine vs. Coast 2 Coast - Coast 2 Coast will disband if they lose. ROH will also feature a number of Women of Honor bouts featuring Deonna Purrazzo,Mandy Leon, Sumie Sakai, Jenny Rose, Brandi Rhodes, and Kelly Klein, among others. ROH has been teasing a special announcement about the WOH division, which may the crowning of its first champion, something that has been talked about for some time.

Originally Posted by PWI It's programming for WWE Week on the Network, nothing more, but if it does a great number, the door opens for USA to be more interested in the brand obviously..What would you think if NXT did well next week and then went to USA as replacement for hour 3 of Raw? Do you think the ratings for hour 3 would go up? Would they stay up if Vince allowed HHH to produce the segment exactly as NXT is being produced now? Let's go backwards on this. One, if the series was being produced for the USA Network, it would have Vince McMahon's fingerprints all over it and like ECW on Syfy or the original incarnation of NXT, it would be a brand that was designed for the average fan in mind and would feature all the usual tropes of a WWE broadcast. Even the NXT episode that aired last night wasn't the same one that aired on the WWE Network - there would be massive changes to how much time they had and whether the product could remain what it is on the Network. It wouldn't be the NXT that everyone has come to at this point.

From PWI's weekly Q&A articles on why NXT being a regular tv show would be a big mistake considering past history.

Originally Posted by PWI WWE have applied to trademark "The Most Patriotic Show on Television," obviously referring to their annual Tribute to the Troops show, the latest of which will air tonight on the USA Network. Meanwhile, WWE are opposing Mudder Technology, a company based in Hong Kong, who have applied for a U.S. Trademark for the word "wrestler" for use with cases for smartphones and other smart devices. WWE have requested for an extension to file an opposition.

Originally Posted by PWI Konnan, who is working as the head writer for Aro Lucha, announced the promotion would hold its first live event on 1/20/18 in Lubbock, Texas at the Fair Park Coliseum On The Fairgrounds.

Originally Posted by Observer This Mixed Match Challenge experiment is two-sided. Facebook will get to see what type of response and value WWE programming would have. For WWE, if Facebook sees the value as being worth a ton of money, it can use Facebook to either leverage up the television rights fees for programming for its next contract, or even move Raw, Smackdown or both, to Facebook if they make the best offer and the feeling is they won’t lose audience in such a move. Another key is with Facebook being worldwide and not just U.S., moving the key shows to a streaming service like that in late 2019 or early 2020, which would be the earliest a move could be made, would mean the payment would have to cover not just U.S. rights fees but the combined worldwide rights fees as if that move is made, it would affect every television partner worldwide. Between Facebook being clearly interested in WWE programming, and the positive news about UFC being virtually a lock to get an increase in revenue from its new contract, meaning WWE would be expected to get the same next year, the stock price has increased to $31.88 at press time, giving the company at $2.458 billion market value. There are analysts throwing out $400 million annual numbers, which has also led to the stock increasing and could lead to the similar big fall that took place the last time out when the rights were sold for far less than the stock market was led to believe they would be.

According to the Observer, WWE's stocks are way over-valued right now due to them being around 3x more than the average and only because everyone once again is expecting a massive boost to their next tv contract.

Originally Posted by Observer An interesting note on the situation with Chris Jericho at the Dome. We’re told that New Japan officials, while seeing that ticket sales for the Tokyo Dome show are strong, have found out in recent weeks just how little their audience knows about Jericho’s past in Japan. The fans all know that he’s a major WWE star, but that’s really all they know and it was surprising how few fans knew that he grew up to an extent in the Japanese business in the 90s with WAR. The current New Japan fan base, that came in when the company has gotten hot in the past few years, is similar to the WWF fan base that came in during the Steve Austin era that had no idea of any WWE history prior to that point and Jericho’s career in Japan was mostly the early-and-mid 90s, aside from working WWE shows when they came to the country, and he’s noted he’s had 60 Japanese tours which would be on the high end historically. The response has had of late has been to heavily promote Jericho’s history in Japan

Originally Posted by Observer Joey Ryan & Candice LeRae World’s Cutest Tag Team T-shirts are being test marketed at some Hot Topic locations to see if there is enough interest to distribute them nationally

It also appears that Impact and AAA will be working more closely together going forward and with Callis in a power position and seeing New Japan up close, one has to think he’d be looking at ways to bring in their key foreign stars, although in some cases that would also make it necessary to start a working agreement with ROH Brian Cage has been talked with about coming into Impact. He’s also been talked with about New Japan, after how well he did with NOAH in that incredible match with Katsuhiko Nakajima over the GHC title The expectation is that Bobby Lashley and Ethan Carter III will leave when their contracts are up, and one or both will end up with WWE

Some other sheet news includes:

• WWE is currently reported to have signed German MMA fighter Nicoli Salchow to a developmental deal and will start next month at the Performance Center.
• ROH recently released the updated card for tomorrow's Final Battle PPV event. https://www.pwinsider.com/article/11...ineup.html?p=1
• WWE recently canceled a scheduled show for early next year in Edmonton, Alberta Canada due to a new ban on combat sports in the city. The ban was passed as part of the fallout from the June death of a boxer in the city. https://www.pwinsider.com/article/11...orts-.html?p=1
• Edge revealed Curt Hawkins will be tomorrow's guest for the E&C podcast show as part of a 10th year anniversary reunion of the Edgeheads. https://twitter.com/EdgeRatedR/statu...33789791412224
• In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, today is the 9 year anniversary of Jeff Hardy winning the WWE championship. https://twitter.com/ProWrestlingMag/...871872/video/1
• One of Booker T's former students and wrestler at his Reality of Wrestling promotion was recently charged with the murder of his girlfriend. Only reason he got busted was due to his car getting stuck in a creek where he dumped the body and a friend being called for help but instead called the police when he saw the real reason why he was needed.
• According to the Observer, Elgin might be filing a lawsuit against the woman who released chats between the two implying at the sexual harassment by Elgin and his wrestling school.

Some stuff from TPWW Frontpage:

• Jim Ross Says He’d Be “Shocked” if Hulk Hogan Isn’t Back in WWE in 2018
• The Rock Gets a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (Video)
• Triple H Says We’ll Probably See Main Roster Wrestlers Move “Down” to NXT

[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by Super CenaReigns:

Originally Posted by Observer Roman Reigns is not scheduled for any of the Raw house shows this coming week nor for Raw in Providence. Strangely, the WWE web site also doesn't list Brock Lesnar for Providence even though that has been scheduled for his return and as of this writing Lesnar is "absolutely" scheduled for the show. We'll update on this later today. Randy Orton is also not scheduled for the only Smackdown house show this week which is in Portland, ME.

Originally Posted by Observer WWE Tribute to the Troops last night did 1,401,000 viewers. Last year's show did 1,383,000 viewers but it was way down from all prior years.

Originally Posted by Observer Low Ki vs. MVP was announced for the 1/11 MLW show in Orlando at Gilt Nightclub. Matt Riddle, Jimmy Havoc, MVP, Jeff Cobb, Tom Lawlor and Shane Strickland are also on the show. AAW on 12/30 in Merrionette Park, IL at 115 Bourbon Street has Windy City Classic 13 with Rey Fenix vs. Jeff Cobb for the AAW title, Eddie Kingston vs. David Starr with the loser having to manage the winner for one year in a street fight, Sami Callihan & Dave & Jake Crist vs. Myron Reed & Stephen Wolf & Trey Miguel, Matt Riddle vs. ACH, Sean Waltman & Paco vs. Connor Braxton & Jake Something. There is a show on 12/17 in Kennedale, TX at the Soccer Zone Arena with Penta 0M & Rey Fenix vs. M-ximo & La Mascara, Black Taurus vs. Keith Lee and Sammy Guevara vs. Flip Gordon vs. Ultimo Ninja vs Draztick Boy.

Originally Posted by Observer It appears that Noam Dar will be out of action for the next several months. After WWE announced on 205 Live this week that Dar had a knee injury that would require surgery, an article on WWE.com noted that Dar underwent successful surgery on his left knee in Orlando yesterday. WWE claims that Dar suffered the injury, which was a "bucket handle" tear of his meniscus, in the cruiserweight fatal four-way match on the November 27th episode of Raw. He then got an MRI done this Monday after weeks of lingering issues. While the exact time it will take him to recover from the injury hasn't been confirmed, Dar said in the WWE.com article that he's more than likely going to be out for around five months. Dar also said he hopes training at the Performance Center will reduce the timetable.

Originally Posted by PWI Enzo is mad at the DMV in Delaware because they have an issue with him using a drawing of genitalia as his signature. I am not making this up. I almost wrote "Enzo says he is a dick" as the headline.

TPWW Frontpage has more details and the wiener drawing used as his signature.

Originally Posted by PWI ROH is holding a big Final Battle sale with 25% off apparel and 35% off DVDs and Accessories, which you can shop at by clicking here.

Link: http://www.rohwrestling.com/shop

Originally Posted by PWI Impact Wrestling star Grado announced that his mother passed away today, writing the following tribute on his official Facebook page: "After a long fight, my Mum passed away peacefully this morning. She was my biggest inspiration for everything I’ve ever done. I had to beg her to be in the first Insane Fight Club and I am glad she eventually gave in. I’ll never forget her watching the telly waiting on Eastenders coming on and the trailer for it appeared and they had used a clip of her moaning about seeing me getting skelped with a steel chair during a match and there being blood pouring everywhere. “GRAEME YOU GET DOON THIS STAIRS THE NOO, AM AFFRONTED” Then at The Hydro when Al Snow asked me during the day if she would be up for getting involved in our match. I gave her a phone to get her thoughts. She was in the boozer with all my mates and shouted to everyone “HERE, Av to slap Al Snow the night!”. I had to bite my lip to stop me from peeing myself when it happened, her and My Dad steaming in the front row trying to leather Al Snow. I am absolutely heart broken, she was my biggest fan. I hope I will continue to make you proud. #GradosMaw"

Link: https://www.facebook.com/gradowrestl...type=3&theater

Originally Posted by PWI Becky Lynch is being figured into creative plans on the Smackdown brand for early January, so she is about to finish up filming the latest Marine film.

Originally Posted by PWI World Wrestling Entertainment will present the 2017 Clash of Champions PPV from Boston, MA this Sunday 12/17, featuring the following announced lineup: *WWE champion AJ Styles vs. Jinder Mahal. *WWE Smackdown Tag Team champions The Usos vs. New Day vs. Chad Gable & Shelton Benjamin vs. Aiden English & Rusev. *Lumberjack Match: WWE Smackdown Women's champion Charlotte Flair vs. Natalya. *WWE United States champion Baron Corbin vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. Bobby Roode. *Randy Orton & Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn with Shane McMahon and Daniel Bryan as guest referees. If Zayn and Owens lose, they are fired from WWE. *The Bludgeon Brothers vs. Breezango. *Mojo Rawley vs. Zack Ryder. (Kickoff Show)

Originally Posted by PWI TMZ is reporting that a deal between WWE and Ronda Rousey is nowhere close to being done. They claim in their story that after speaking to multiple sources on each side that a deal between the UFC fighter and WWE hasn't even got off the ground. One source stated that Rousey had not even begun negotiations with WWE yet. This flies in the face of a recent Sports Illustrated report that Rousey's WWE deal was "imminent." As previously reported on PWInsider.com, there has been communication between the two sides and Rousey, sometimes privately, has worked out at the WWE Performance Center. Rousey made an appearance at Wrestlemania several years ago alongside The Rock doing a segment with Triple H and Stephanie McMahon and appeared in the crowd at a number of Mae Young Classic events, teasing the idea of the MMA Four Horsewomen against WWE's own Four Horsewomen in Bayley, Charlotte Flair, Sasha Banks and Becky Lynch. While the idea of that eight woman tag has excited WWE fans, it appears it's not just yet on the horizon.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc A new episode of "Table For Three" will air on the WWE Network after Monday's RAW goes off the air. The episode will feature Finn Balor talking with The Hardys. Below is the synopsis: "Finn Balor and The Hardys discuss the motivations behind their most extreme personas and share personal tales of their paths to WWE."

Originally Posted by WrestleInc As noted, former Impact Wrestling X Division Champion & British Boot Camp winner Rockstar Spud (James Michael Curtin) is scheduled to debut with WWE at next week's RAW in Providence, RI and 205 Live in Newark, NJ. In the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer revealed that officials at Impact weren't happy with Spud's signing. Spud is expected to immediately start in WWE's cruiserweight division. After he signed a contract with the WWE in October, the company was waiting on his working visa to come through so he can get started. Meltzer wrote that some people at Impact were upset because they had spent a significant amount of money to assist Spud with getting his visa taken care of before he quit to accept the WWE offer. Spud had previously worked for Impact since 2012, when he beat Marty Scurll to win the British Boot Camp reality show to earn a contract. Impact spent nearly $20,000 in legal fees straighten out any issues with the immigration offices in the U.K. so Spud can return to the U.S. Two weeks after he returned to the country, he asked for his release from Impact and was granted it in September.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc As noted, former WWE cruiserweight champion Rich Swann has been suspended indefinitely following his arrest on Sunday. In the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer noted how the rest of the WWE locker room reacted to the news. According to Meltzer, many superstars were shocked to hear what happen but the people who knew Swann and his wife Vannarah Riggs, who works the indies as Su Yung, well knew that a situation like this was possible. Many who knew them from their time on the independent circuit would describe both of them as "broken" because of events in their lives before wrestling. They were able to find love in each other, but the relationship was believed to be combustible to begin with. With Swann's future in the WWE currently up in the air, other superstars feel bad for how this might affect him and his wife financially. Meltzer noted that it's possible his WWE career is over for good.

My RottenPancakes Review of @LukeHarperWWE on #DamnationTV:
97%
Harper’s beard hairs command the screen. The gravely tone of his voice doesn’t grate, nay, it titillates. He has a good neck on him and is clearly comfortable on the top rope. Nude scene would push his grade to 100%.

— ShinigamE (@WWEBigE) December 15, 2017

Some other sheet news includes:

• WWE recently signed a new tv deal with IB Sports channel for South Korea. https://www.pwinsider.com/article/11...korea.html?p=1
• Alexa Bliss currently denying she opposes Net Neutrality after people noticed she favored a tweet from Paul Ryan who favored its removal. https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCirc...reading_up_on/
• NFL Network recently hired Summer Rae to be a host for their Fantasy Football show on the network. https://twitter.com/Michael_Fabiano/...50898433724416
• Starsport had a recent interview with Ric Flair talking about Randy Orton not wanting to have a Cena-like role in the WWE, Cena being booed by fans, and who he thinks are currently the best performers in the WWE. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...oles-with-wwe/
• ESPN had a recent interview with Dalton Castle talking about Cody leaving the WWE, Cody being similar to him, and going from a fan to a wrestler in ROH. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...coming-to-roh/
• During a recent interview with NBC Sports, Triple H implied the reason he defeated Jinder in India was due to the WWE feeling he was more popular and deserving of the win for their match. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...live-event-in/

Some stuff from the TPWW Frontpage:

• WWE: Rich Swann Update, Finn Balor “fOreVER” Shirt, More
• Macaulay Culkin Interferes in Wrestling Match Using Home Alone Antics
• Enzo Amore Refuses to Remove “Penis Signature” From Driver’s License

[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by Drifter's Denial of a Hug It Out Moment:

Originally Posted by Observer A weaker NFL game than last week saw Raw increase four percent to 2.78 million viewers last night. Unlike last week where they loaded up the third hour and it was the second hour that had a big decline, this week had two normal hours and a huge third hour decline. The third hour did the second lowest number since June. Raw is often helped coming off a PPV but logically, even with the Shane McMahon/Daniel Bryan intrigue, that should not help the Raw number ... The three hours were: 8 p.m. 3.09 million viewers 9 p.m. 2.80 million viewers 10 p.m. 2.47 million viewers

Originally Posted by Observer With New Japan Pro Wrestling having no more shows between now and the Tokyo Dome, the full card for Wrestle Kingdom 12 has been revealed. There will be 10 matches on the show. Most of those had already been announced going into NJPW's Road to Tokyo Dome events, but two more title matches and the pre-show Rumble have now been confirmed. NEVER Openweight Champion Minoru Suzuki will officially defend his title against Hirooki Goto in a hair vs. hair match, with another stipulation being that no other wrestlers will be at ringside for it. The NEVER Six-Man Tag Team titles will also be on the line in a gauntlet match at the Dome ... The Tokyo Dome will host Wrestle Kingdom 12 on January 4th. It will air live on NJPW World with English commentary available, then a three-hour special with the top matches will be shown on AXS TV on January 6th. Here's the full lineup for the show: IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada defending against Tetsuya Naito IWGP United States Heavyweight Champion Kenny Omega defending against Chris Jericho in a no DQ match IWGP Intercontinental Champion Hiroshi Tanahashi defending against Jay White IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Marty Scurll defending against Will Ospreay, KUSHIDA, and Hiromu Takahashi in a four-way match NEVER Openweight Champion Minoru Suzuki defending against Hirooki Goto in a hair vs. hair match IWGP Tag Team Champions Killer Elite Squad defending against SANADA & EVIL Kota Ibushi vs. Cody (w/ Brandi Rhodes) NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Team Champions Bad Luck Fale & Guerrillas of Destiny defending against Tomohiro Ishii, Toru Yano & Beretta, Togi Makabe, Juice Robinson & Ryusuke Taguchi, Michael Elgin & War Machine, and Zack Sabre Jr., Takashi Iizuka & Taichi in a gauntlet match IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Sho & Yoh defending against The Young Bucks The New Japan Rumble (pre-show)

Originally Posted by Observer New Japan Pro Wrestling has added a stipulation to Kenny Omega and Chris Jericho's IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship match at the Tokyo Dome. At a press conference prior to this morning's Road to Tokyo Dome show, NJPW revealed that Omega vs. Jericho would now be a no disqualification match. The stipulation is the result of two angles that took place last week. Jericho first attacked and bloodied Omega at NJPW's World Tag League finals, then Omega tried to get retribution by attacking Jericho during a press conference the next day.

Originally Posted by Observer A big name is returning to Raw on next week's holiday edition of the show. WWE announced tonight that John Cena would be back on television for next Monday's Christmas Day episode of Raw. It will be the first time Cena has been on WWE TV since he was part of SmackDown's men's division team at Survivor Series. Before returning for that pay-per-view, Cena lost to Roman Reigns in September as their feud ended at No Mercy. Cena is currently still a "free agent" in storyline and can wrestle on both Raw and SmackDown. Next Monday should tell whether he's just being added to give Raw a boost on Christmas or if he'll be on the brand more often as we head into Royal Rumble season. Next week's Raw will take place in Chicago, Illinois and will be the first time the show has ever aired live on Christmas Day. The following Monday, Raw will also air live from Miami, Florida on New Year's Day.

Originally Posted by Observer Dean Ambrose has a legitimate right elbow injury even though on television it appeared to be an angle. We're not sure of the severity of the injury but he came to television hurt and the show was rewritten to cover for it.

Originally Posted by PWI WWE ran an article on their website this afternoon, featuring an update on Dean Ambrose's arm injury. “An MRI has shown suspicion for a high-grade triceps tendon injury, possibly a tear, so he is undergoing surgical exploration and most likely surgical repair of the torn triceps tendon,” WWE's Dr. Chris Amann told the website “That surgery will be happening later this evening, and we should have some further updates either later tonight or tomorrow morning as to what the findings were, what the structures that were damaged were, and also a timeline for recovery.”

Originally Posted by Observer Tom Zenk, a bodybuilder turned wrestler who was one of the most popular guests on Wrestling Observer Live after his career in wrestling ended, passed away on December 9th at the age of 59. Few details are available at this point other than he passed away at North Memorial Medical Center in Robbinsdale, Minnesota.

Originally Posted by Observer A member of the WWE main roster is set to wrestle for PCW (Preston City Wrestling) in February. PCW announced today that Apollo Crews would be taking part in their Road to Glory 2018 tournament on February 10th. PCW noted that Crews is returning for one night only and thanked WWE, Triple H, and William Regal for allowing him to do so. When he was still known as Uhaa Nation before heading to WWE, Crews held the PCW Heavyweight Championship from November 2014 to March 2015. He joins Zack Sabre Jr. as the first two wrestlers who have been confirmed for the tournament.

Link: https://twitter.com/PCW_UK/status/942140006747066370

Originally Posted by Observer With Tribute to the Troops airing on the USA Network as part of WWE Week, WWE and Impact Wrestling went head-to-head in the ratings this past Thursday night. And the results weren't good for Impact. This week's show averaged 161,000 viewers, the lowest number for a new episode of Impact since debuting on Pop TV. It was even lower than the audience for the Thanksgiving edition of Impact this year, which did 169,000 viewers. Earlier this month, Impact did 226,000 viewers for the December 7th episode.

Originally Posted by Observer The first-ever women's Royal Rumble match will be taking place next month. Though few other details were announced, Stephanie McMahon appeared at the end of tonight's episode of Raw to reveal the news. She mentioned the evolution of WWE's women's division and the times they've made history over the last few years. She then said the first all-women's Royal Rumble match will take place at next month's pay-per-view. Both Raw and SmackDown wrestlers will be featured in the women's Royal Rumble

Originally Posted by WrestleInc Becky Lynch posted the poster below on Instagram stories showing a poster for the women's Royal Rumble match featuring RAW and SmackDown stars as well as Billie Kay, Peyton Royce and Ronda Rousey, which has got some fans talking. It should be noted that the poster is fan-art, and WWE obviously wouldn't have Rousey on the poster only to put her way in the back. However, as Marc noted earlier, Dave Meltzer did state on Wrestling Observer Radio that there are women who are scheduled to be in the match that believe that Rousey will be a part of it. We did speculate on last night's episode of the Wrestling Inc. podcast right after RAW that we could see Rousey winning the Rumble and Asuka winning the RAW Women's Championship from Alexa Bliss, which would lead to Asuka defending against Rousey at WrestleMania 34.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc As noted, the women's Royal Rumble match will feature RAW and SmackDown Superstars competing for a women's title shot at WrestleMania 34. There's speculation on WWE NXT Superstars and stars from the past being brought in for the match but that has not been confirmed.

Originally Posted by Observer WWE announced a first-time ever in Mongolia with a two hour edited version of Raw airing on Saturday at 11 a.m. and Smackdown airing Sunday at 11 a.m. on SPS HD, Mongolia's leading sports channel. It will be available in the country in both English and Mongolian. It will also be available for 14 days on video-on-demand. This will be the first time WWE has ever had television in Mongolia. Hideo Itami makes his show debut on 205 Live tonight after appearing on Raw last night. Elias is the first wrestler announced for next month’s men’s Royal Rumble. He was also the guest on today’s episode of the Steve Austin Show. WWE celebrated their YouTube channel reaching 20 million subscribers. The movie "Ferdinand," with John Cena voicing over the lead character is estimated to be doing $13,325,000 in its first weekend out. It was second to Star Wars which is estimated at more than $220 million. Fox 2 in Detroit reviewed it and gave it a thumbs up, saying it was good, but not great as a family film and said they felt sorry for it and every other movie out this weekend.

Elias link: http://www.wwe.com/shows/royalrumble...l-rumble-match , Austin podcast: https://www.podcastone.com/episode/W...alk-With-Elias , WWE: http://www.wwe.com/article/wwe-youtu...?sf176712061=1

Originally Posted by Observer Revolution Pro Wrestling announced Minoru Suzuki & Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Tyler Bate & Trent Seven for their show at York Hall on January 20th. Lucha Forever issued a statement saying that they’ll “no longer be a trading company” as of this month and that any future shows have been canceled unless it’s stated otherwise in the message. Kazuchika Okada vs. Kenny Omega from Dominion won NJPW’s fan-voted Match of the Year award. Omega also won the MVP award. Style Battle in Brooklyn on January 14th will have Matt Riddle, WALTER, Nick Gage, Joey Janela, Shane Mercer, Kyle The Beast, Joey Lynch, and a wrestler from the last WWN tryout. WALTER vs. Gage is the first match announced for the event, which will take place in the afternoon before an EVOLVE show later that night. Emma will face Deonna Purrazzo for Northeast Wrestling in Waterbury, Connecticut on March 2nd.

RevPro: https://twitter.com/RevProUK/status/943218467842461697 , Lucha Forever: https://luchaforever.com/ , NJPW: https://twitter.com/reasonjp/status/943094259879616512 , Okada: https://twitter.com/reasonjp/status/943096196519751681 , Emma: https://twitter.com/DeonnaPurrazzo/s...30929123803138

Originally Posted by Observer Here's an update from Dave Meltzer on Wally Yamaguchi’s health: “He was out of his coma yesterday after suffering a serious stroke. He was breathing on his own. He has no movement on the right side of his body, but the left side of his body is okay. He can't talk but he can listen and does understand what people are saying. He has improved greatly from the past two days. His former reporters from the heyday of GONG Magazine are there every day with him.”

Originally Posted by PWI The word making the rounds at the WWE Performance Center over the last several days is that members of the latest class being signed for WWE NXT, which will be revealed in January are: *Ricochet aka the former Prince Puma in Lucha Underground, who had been expected to sign for some time. Impact Wrestling had made a run at him, but was unsuccessful. *Warbeard Hanson and Ray Rowe aka War Machine in ROH. It is believed the team (who were not under contract) finished up with the promotion at Final Battle and the Philadelphia TV taping the following day. They will finish up with New Japan at Wrestle Kingdom. There are other names circulating as well as potentially being signed, including a very prominent female independent talent.

Originally Posted by PWI While promoting his new animated film Ferdinand, John Cena was asked by The Independent in the UK about the idea that WWE "isn't good anymore" and whether that belief is simply those missing the Attitude Era being nostalgic for that time period. Cena gave a long response, noting that WWE, as a product, is unique is that it appeals to all age ranges and transcends all nationalities and religions. During the interview, Cena pointed out, "What I love the most about it - next time you watch - so they always shoot the ring in a certain way, it's called the hard camera shot. Look beyond everything, look at the audience, that's the perfect picture of what I love, it's everybody. And that's why - I mean you wanna go deep down the rabbit hole - that's why everybody nowadays is polarising, because our audience is too big, so that's one of the problems that we have to fix but at the same time it's a great problem because if your audience is the world how are you going to please everybody?" Cena then pointed out that in the Attitude Era they were playing to a certain male demographic, therefore it was easier to nail what worked and what didn't.

Link to the interview: http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-en...mpression=true


Some other sheet news includes:

• Vince McMahon is currently rumored to be reviving the XFL with speculation of it being targeted towards those boycotting the NFL due to the kneeling issue. Also speculated Vince wants Trump to give his official approval as a way to generate more appeal. https://www.f4wonline.com/wwe-news/r...buzzing-248066
• Recent episode of the Sam Roberts Wrestling Podcast show had Jim Ross as the guest talking about Nakamura on Smackdown, Matt Hardy's "Woken" character, talent working with Vince McMahon, and who he would sign today for the WWE. https://www.pwinsider.com/article/11...-more.html?p=1
• According to reports, former WWE wrestler AJ Lee will be having a tv series made based on her autobiography book called "Crazy Is My Superpower." http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...nto-a-tv-show/
• The list of matches for WWE's upcoming Best of RAW & Smackdown 2017 DVD set was recently revealed by website WrestlingDVDNetwork.com. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...le-news-video/
• Recent episode of The Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling podcast show had "Fake"/nWo Sting as the guest talking about his character's creation, joining the nWo, and more. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...r-his-gimmick/
• In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, "Mean" Gene Okerlund celebrated his 75th birthday day.

Some stuff from TPWW Frontpage:

• Rockstar Spud Backstage at SmackDown
• Randy Orton Possibly Taking a Couple of Months Off
• Various: Becky Lynch vs. Liv Morgan on Twitter, McGregor Says “F*** WWE”
• WWE: Lesnar’s Rumble Opponents, The Revival Returns, Main Event Results

[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by Jolly Rusev Claus:

Originally Posted by PWI The 12/19 edition of Smackdown Live did 2,578,000 overnight viewers, well up from last week's 2,481,000overnight viewers.

Originally Posted by Observer Three months after the end of their partnership with FloSlam, WWN has launched a new on-demand service. The service, named "Club WWN," will cost $9.99 per month (with the first month free for subscriptions that begin by January 31st) and will include on-demand access to shows from EVOLVE, Shine, Style Battle, FIP, Dragon Gate USA, and other WWN promotions. The service doesn't include access to live iPPVs. Shows will be added approximately two weeks after they take place, and subscribers get a 50 percent discount on iPPV purchases. When asked about the two-week delay, Gabe Sapolsky tweeted: "It is the best we can do as a small business at the $9.99 price. If we get a huge response, can consider other options, but right now it's impossible for us to give live iPPVs at that price. We are trying to follow PROGRESS [Wrestling's] model with this."

Link to announcement: http://myemail.constantcontact.com/T...id=gg5V5f5tpDM , tweet: https://twitter.com/BookItGabe/statu...86466306850816

Originally Posted by Observer AXS TV officially announced today that Jim Ross and Josh Barnett have signed new contracts and will continue to host New Japan Pro Wrestling on the station. "I'm excited to be returning to AXS TV, and with my partner, Josh Barnett, we look forward to another exciting year with AXS TV and their NJPW programming," Ross said. "NJPW has some of the finest athletes in the world performing for them and it's an honor to be able to add a narrative to their bouts."

Originally Posted by Observer WWN announced this morning to Sports Illustrated that Will Ospreay will be returning to the promotion and wrestle two dates over WrestleMania weekend. Ospreay will be on the April 5th EVOLVE show and the April 6th WWN Supershow. Gabe Sapolsky told Sports Illustrated that on the latter show, he's 90 percent sure that he's putting Ospreay against Matt Riddle. Ospreay and Riddle had their first singles match against each other for PROGRESS Wrestling last year.

Link: https://www.si.com/wrestling/2017/12...daniel-cormier

Originally Posted by PWI A number of PWInsider.com readers have noticed that Will Ospreay is being announced for independent events outside of Ring of Honor for Wrestlemania week in New Orleans. The word is that when his ROH deal expires, he will begin taking independent dates again, as opposed to being exlcusive to ROH. Whether this means he has officially departed the company, I do not know. There are many cases of talents who continue working for Ring of Honor after their deals expire.

Originally Posted by PWI In regard to the much discussed Cody Rhodes/Young Bucks self-financed event in a 10,000 venue, we are told the current plan is for it will be in the Chicago area.

Originally Posted by PWI WWE sources have told PWInsider.com that after last night's Smackdown Live, United States champion Dolph Ziggler will not be appearing on upcoming Smackdown episodes but as of this afternoon, is still scheduled to be working live events. It appears that he will be off TV to sell last night's angle.

Originally Posted by PWI Former TNA Director Michael Vedder has returned to the company and will be replacing Dave Sahadi, who was recently let go by the company, as the lead Director and Producer of television producer. As noted earlier this week, tomorrow's Impact Wrestling will be a "Best of 2017" episode. Announced for the first Impact of the year, 1/4/18 is Impact Wrestling champ Eli Drake vs. Alberto el Patron, Impact Wrestling X-Division champion Trevor Lee vs.Taiji Ishimori and James Storm vs. Dan Lambert with the idea that Storm would leave Impact if he loses. I think we all know how that one will go. Bill Behrens will be working with Impact going forward on getting contracted talents third party bookings. There has been continued talk within the company that one of the goals for the new year is to try and rebuild their old relationship with New Japan.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc As noted, Dean Ambrose underwent successful surgery to repair a torn triceps on Tuesday but there's still no word yet on when he will be back in action. Ambrose is already being replaced on cards for upcoming WWE live events by Jason Jordan. Jordan is now scheduled to team with Seth Rollins to face RAW Tag Team Champions The Bar at the December 26th WWE live event at Madison Square Garden.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc WrestlingInc.com owner Raj Giri recently interviewed hardcore wrestling legend Tommy Dreamer and they discussed the fall of ECW, his time brief stint with TNA, his upcoming House of Hardcore show and much more. When ECW folded in 2001, Dreamer had hoped the company would survive. He said Paul Heyman's relationship with Vince McMahon is what hindered them from continuing. "I did think it was going to survive, there were opportunities for it to survive," Dreamer said. "The biggest thing is none of us knew that Paul was in Vince's pocket the whole time, so it couldn't have survived because of that."

Link to the interview: http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...ul-heyman-was/

Originally Posted by WrestleInc WWE was doing some Virtual Reality testing at the Clash of Champions pay-per-view this past weekend. Justin LaBar, who hosts Chairshot Reality right here on Wrestling Inc., noted that WWE had some extra cameras on the top two ring posts and two outside of the ring for Virtual Reality testing being done.

Originally Posted by Observer Pro Wrestling Sheet reported that only a few people knew that Stephanie McMahon would be announcing the women’s Royal Rumble on Raw and that the wrestlers in the ring weren’t told about it in advance.

Link: http://www.prowrestlingsheet.com/wom.../#.Wjr4OVQ-cW9


Some other sheet news includes:

• Online retailer ProWrestlingTees is currently selling an Omega-Jericho Wrestle Kingdom 12 themed shirt. https://www.pwinsider.com/article/11...shirt.html?p=1
• Rolling Stone recently named The Miz as the winner of their 2017 Wrestler of the Year award. https://www.rollingstone.com/sports/...he-miz-w514141
• Sports Illustrated had a recent interview with Chris Jericho talking about keeping his character fresh with fans, NJPW stars upset at Wrestle Kingdom 12 having a double main event, and comparing his current feud with Omega to past feuds. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...n-part-timers/
• Rolling Stone had a recent interview with Edge talking about why former WWE wrestlers don't reinvent themselves on the indies, wrestling getting mainstream coverage again, and if social media is a hindrance to a wrestler's persona. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...edia-at-first/

Some stuff from TPWW Frontpage:

• Dean Ambrose Undergoes Surgery on Torn Triceps
• WWE: Kalisto Hit With Water Bottle, SD Dark Matches, “Wrestler of the Year”
• WWE 205 Live Results – Dec. 19, 2017 – Alexander vs. Gulak

[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by Rusev Claus Dislike of Pancakes:

Originally Posted by Observer In a move that could indicate a big step toward getting involved with professional football, WWE chairman Vince McMahon sold 3.34 million Class A common shares of company stock Thursday for what could be in the ballpark of $100+ million dollars ... "The shares sold by Mr. McMahon represent approximately 4.3% of the Company’s total outstanding shares of Class A and Class B common stock. After the sale, Mr. McMahon beneficially owns 32,193,375 shares of the Company’s Class B common stock, which represents approximately 82.8% of the Company’s total voting power and approximately 41.8% of the Company’s total outstanding shares of common stock."

One side effect of the huge sell by Vince to fund his potential XFL revival was it also caused WWE stocks to take a hit for the day by almost a dollar.

Originally Posted by Observer On 12/16, McMahon applied for five new XFL trademarks, for football games, merchandise, downloadable software, and tons of other items. That would indicate that he's looking at using the XFL name for his football league and not the other names in prior trademarks that were filed in September.

Originally Posted by Observer Alberto El Patron spent eight hours earlier this week working to help distribute more than 8,000 toys to needy families in the San Antonio area this Christmas season. Hot Topic for today only in the stores themselves has 35 percent off all Bullet Club merchandise. That includes the new Chris Jericho "Alpha Club" shirts. Bar Wrestling after getting all that pub for the Macauley Culkin appearance returns on 1/18 in Baldwin Park, CA with Billy Gunn, Joey Janela, Scorpio Sky, Dan Barry, Bill Carr, Jeff Cobb, Willie Mack, Taya Valkyrie, Joey Ryan, Candice LeRae, Delilah Doom, Brian Cage and more. (thanks to Jake Koch)

El Patron link: https://www.pwinsider.com/article/11...-news.html?p=1

Originally Posted by PWI With yesterday's announcement that former WWE and ECW star Taz would be co-hosting a new morning drive radio show for CBS Sports Radio with Marc “The Moose” Malusis, the question remained as to what would happen to The Taz Show, the former ECW World champion's current radio show, which has surpassed 500 episodes. During a Taz Show podcast episode that was released this morning, Taz stated that The Taz Show was not going to go away and would resume live episodes sometime in January. With his new morning drive show, the Taz Show would air later in the day, likely two days a week, live from New York City. Taz noted that everything is being worked out, but if that stands, he'll be broadcasting at least 19 hours a week for CBS Sports Radio between the two shows, as opposed to the 10 hours a week he had been doing on The Taz Show.

Link to announcement: http://podcast.radio.com/audio/the-taz-show/

Originally Posted by PWI There is talk of Impact taping more content in February at another WrestlePro event in New Jersey.

Originally Posted by PWI Ethan Carter III applied to trademark 'EC3' on 12/15. Also on 12/15, former WCW and WWE developmental star Daffney Unger applied to trademark her name. On December 19th, the 'Broken Matt Hardy', 'National Wrestling Alliance' and WWE's 'He Hate Me' trademarks officially began their 'opposition to trademark' phases, the last step towards official ownership being assigned to those filing for the trademark.

Originally Posted by Observer Jessamyn Duke and Marina Shafir are no longer training for pro wrestling at this time, and were until not too long ago. That would seem to indicate the Four Horsewoman vs. Four Horsewoman idea for a possible Ronda Rousey debut has been changed. Another indication is that Shayna Baszler is being pushed as a major debut in NXT, for a regular spot, and if they were doing that program, they should debut on television with an association together like originally happened at the Mae Young Classic tapings.

Originally Posted by Observer There had been behind-the-scenes buzz that the remake of the Elite promotion hadn’t been paying talent, but nobody had said anything publicly until 12/19 when Garza Jr. said that he, Fuerza Guerrera, Bandido and Charly Manson hadn’t been paid. Two hours later an Elite official claimed Garza was lying and that he had been paid in advance and threatened legal action. He posted a series of text messages he had sent asking for his money. Then the other guy posted a check with the name and date blacked out for 650 pesos which is $34. I mean, that couldn’t have been more incriminating if they had tried. Garza talked about how ridiculous that was to make anyone think he’d work a show for 650 pesos and told people not to work their Christmas show. Then they threatened to sue Garza and would use their contacts to get him fired from Impact which I can’t even imagine happening

Some details regarding the check incident: https://twitter.com/luchablog/status/943264674988150784

Originally Posted by Observer Dave Bautista, who turns 49 next month, is very serious about going back for a relatively lengthy (six months to a year) final full-time run. He doesn’t need to do it but it appears it’s something he wants to do. He’s doing well in Hollywood but the problem is if you sign with WWE, they own your contract and if something comes along, the company wanting him will have to negotiate with WWE, which makes the deal more difficult. As far as doing a thing like Goldberg or Lesnar where he works a few dates as a big attraction, that makes all the sense in the world, but he’s talking a more regular schedule. The last time he was in WWE, he noted how much more he enjoyed doing house shows than television, so that may play into it, but he didn’t work a full house show schedule. Plus, I’m not sure what you would do if he’s there for a year as a weekly character. Jericho can get away with it, but Jericho is a far more versatile performer and more entertaining, and also Jericho doesn’t care about winning and losing and is fine working midcard away from the title scene as long as he can be creative, since he has the mentality he’ll get anything he’s in over Speaking of Batista, at one point he was talked about for the 2018 WWE Hall of Fame, but the feeling is if he’s coming back, that would be delayed, but he’s not on the list. SPOILER: show Brad Shepard, who broke the XFL story, listed five people as being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame this year as Bill Goldberg, The Dudleys, Bam Bam Bigelow, Kid Rock and Ivory. The XFL story was legit, even if it could be another name used. The list seems believable to me since we’d heard Goldberg as the probable headliner for some time, as well as the Dudleys names being talked about. We had not heard the other names. We’d been told many in the company were wanting Jim Johnston, but they’ve never inducted a guy who wasn’t on-camera talent (even James Dudley, who worked closely with Vince’s father dating back to the 50s, did have a run as a manager and was inducted as a “manager extraordinaire” as Vince put it even though almost nobody even remembered his brief role as a performer). I don’t know that it can’t happen, and obviously it should happen given the importance of entrance music and the iconic nature of many of the tunes he put together, but the political nature of his being gone this year would seem to make that awkward

Originally Posted by Observer Mahal in a video confirmed that he tore his labrum in his right shoulder back in September but continued to work on it, but he had to cut way down on the amount of weight he could use, although he said he’s okay now. Still, his body looks very different today from when he first won the title and before when the decision was made to push him

Originally Posted by Observer Regarding Rich Swann, he and his wife, Vannarah Riggs (who wrestles as Su Yung) were back together by midweek if not earlier and were said to be doing well. Friends knew and she made it public writing on Facebook, “I can not wait to see my husband tomorrow. After such an awesome weekend of wrestling debuting in two different promotions across America, nothing would be better than to see his face.” I would suspect that she won’t be pressing charges. Ian Pickens, Swann’s attorney told Alex Marvez at The Sporting News that no charges have been officially filed and that the state attorney will make their decision on whether to file the charges. If no charges are filed legally, WWE may bring him back, but I don’t know if that would be a certainty. In theory, no charges should mean the slate is clean and he should return, but given the time we’re living in, they could simply decide not to use him

Originally Posted by Observer All the stuff last week about creating history when Bliss and Banks wrestled in Abu Dhabi was untrue as it turns out. There have likely been women wrestling on independent shows in Abu Dhabi before, but even if not, TNA ran on November 29, 2010 in Abu Dhabi and one of the matches on the show was Madison Rayne & Sarita vs. Velvet Sky & Angelina Love. The funny thing is Sarita actually works for WWE now as a coach so they should be aware of that. But they write their own history all the time. On television this week, Stephanie McMahon, when pushing the narrative, changed it from the first time women had wrestled in the Middle East to the first time WWE women had wrestled. If you consider Egypt part of the Middle East, and almost everyone does, that wouldn’t be correct either as WWE has had a women’s match in Egypt. So by the time Smackdown rolled around, it had been qualified again to the first women’s championship match in the Middle East

Originally Posted by Observer WWE has filed a claim for $6,105.40 against Scott Levy (Raven) and Marcus Bagwell (Buff Bagwell) for costs of depositions and transcripts in the lawsuit that was dropped. As noted, the case was dropped with no money going to Levy and Bagwell and before the case itself was discussed based on the WWE filing a countersuit against Levy and him backing off, and statements made by Bagwell which basically ruined his case

Originally Posted by Observer The most-watched shows for the week on WWE Network were: 1. Clash of Champions; 2. Clash of Champions Talking Smack; 3. Clash of Champions pre-show; 4. NXT on 12/13 (notable because this was the show that aired on USA, and based on its placing, it likely did the same or more viewers even though it aired on USA); 5. Table for 3 with Balor and Hardys; 6. 205 Live from 12/12 (up from usual); 7. This Week in WWE; 8. Replay of a Raw episode from about a month ago; 9. Ride Along with Breeze & Fandango; 10. WWE Main Event (which almost never cracks top 20)

Originally Posted by WrestleInc Kalisto got injured as a result of being struck in the face by a water bottle that a fan threw on this week's episode of 205 Live from Newark, New Jersey. The incident occurred as Kalisto was laying outside of the ring to sell a beatdown from Gentleman Jack Gallagher and The Brian Kendrick (teaming with Gran Metalik against Kendrick and Gallagher, the match got ruled a disqualification after Kendrick attacked Kalisto while Gallagher was the legal man). The incident got caught on camera and shows a water bottle bouncing off the floor and nailing Kalisto in the mouth. According to Kalisto's wife in a post on Instagram on Thursday, the assault required stitches and an MRI. She also speculates that her husband may have suffered a fracture.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc A fan tweeted William Regal and asked if he could wrestle one person from either the current main roster or NXT, who would he pick? Regal went with Shinsuke Nakamura. @RealKingRegal if you could have one more match (which you can!) with anyone on the current @WWE or @WWENXT roster who would you pick? — Alex Fernandez (@superfernandez1) December 20, 2017 @ShinsukeN — William Regal (@RealKingRegal) December 21, 2017

Some other sheet news includes:

• For those in Canada, the ESPN 30 For 30 Ric Flair documentary will air at 7PM EST on December 22nd on channel TSN 2.
• WWE's website recently listed their Top 25 Matches of 2017. http://www.wwe.com/article/top-25-matches-of-2017
• NBC Sports had a recent interview with Sasha Banks talking about which legend she wants to see in the Women's Rumble, being the face of WWE, and not being handed moments by the WWE. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...e-face-of-wwe/
• Orlando Sentinel had a recent interview with AJ Styles talking about playing video games with other WWE stars, his debut at last year's Rumble, and being proud at having quality matches. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...-rumble-debut/

Some stuff from TPWW Frontpage:

• Wrestlers Did Not Know About Women’s Royal Rumble Announcement
• Brock Lesnar’s Upcoming Schedule, Cena & Lesnar on 25th Anniversary Raw
• Raw and SmackDown to Be Commercial Free for First Hour Next Week

[Cool King]

Whoa, spoiler tags for the HoF stuff.

[Cool King]

It's a bit late now though, I'm sure I caught a few names.

[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by Ziggy's Walkout of the Sheets:

Originally Posted by Observer Kalisto appears to have been injured when a fan threw a water bottle at him on Tuesday's episode of 205 Live. The bottle was thrown at Kalisto while he was laying outside the ring after he had teamed with Gran Metalik against Jack Gallagher & Brian Kendrick. The faces won by disqualification, with Gallagher & Kendrick continuing to attack them after the match. As Gallagher & Kendrick were walking away, the camera cut to a shot of a bottle, which wasn't empty, bouncing off the ground and hitting Kalisto in the mouth. Abigail Rodriguez, Kalisto's wife, posted an update yesterday which revealed that Kalisto needed stitches, had an MRI done, and suffered a possible fracture. Rodriguez didn't reveal any specifics about the potential fracture.

Some more details and statements: https://www.f4wonline.com/wwe-news/k...05-live-248486

Originally Posted by Observer With Vince McMahon having sold 3.34 million shares of WWE stock yesterday, the stock price fell $2.32 per share to $29.55. I wouldn't consider that anything alarming. There was a key stock analyst downgrade, as Citigroup downgraded from buy to neutral. However, the big picture is the same as it was and as long as the TV negotiations look positive, the company is in a good position to be more profitable. If it was WWE starting a new football league and not Vince McMahon on his own, that would be a very different story. When McMahon sold his stock, he did so at slightly below actual market value so the actual money he got was $95,791,200 and not the $106 million if he had sold the stock at its going rate. He has been selling bits of stock over the years at lower than market value.

Some details via PWI: https://www.pwinsider.com/article/11...ement.html?p=1

Originally Posted by Observer Zack Sabre Jr. contracted contagious bronchitis and had to pull out of the wXw 17th anniversary show tomorrow night in Oberhausen, Germany. The promotion announced that today, noting Sabre isn't allowed to travel. They were building it around Sabre's first match with the promotion in 16 months. Pete Dunne is being brought in as a replacement to face Marius Al-Ani. However, the match won't be allowed to air on wXw's streaming service. Al-Ani is said to be the most athletic guy on the German scene and a potential breakout star. Bad Bones defends the wXw title against Ilja Dragunov in the main event, while tag champs Walter & Timothy Thatcher face The Young Lions.

Originally Posted by Observer An update on the lineup for the MLW show on 1/11 in Orlando, FL at Gilt Nigh Club. So far announced is Shane Strickland vs. Jimmy Havoc in a death match, MVP vs. Low Ki, Matt Riddle & Jeff Cobb vs. Tom Lawlor & Seth Petruzelli, Penta 0M vs. Rey Fenix, Darby Allin vs Sammy Guevera, Brody King vs. MJF plus Santana Garrett, Jimmy Yuta Jason Cade, Barrington Hughes, Rhett Giddins, The Dirty Blondes, Saieva Al Sabah and Vandal Ortagun. Pro Wrestling Revolution on 2/24 in San Jose at Mount Pleasant High School with Ultimo Dragon vs. El Hijo de Trump (Eli Drake) for the PWF title plus Dragon Lee and Titan from CMLL appear. Wrestle Pro runs 2/3 in Rahway, NJ at the Rec Center and will be taping content for Impact using Eli Drake, Matt Sydal, Bobby Lashley, Moose, Alberto el Patron, Sonjay Dutt, Allie, KM, Braxton Sutter, Eddie Edwards and Mario Bokara. Ed Leslie has released an autobiography called "Brutus Beefcake: Struttin & Cuttin"

Brutus Beefcake link: https://www.pwinsider.com/article/11...raphy.html?p=1

Originally Posted by PWI It appears that TNA founder Jeff Jarrett has completed his rehab as his wife Karen posted a photo of Jarrett back at home and his longtime friend Hermie Sadler wrote on social media about how proud he is of the former WCW and NWA champion: Today's a big day for @RealJeffJarrett and his family. Wanna say how proud I am of him and thanks to @WWE for their help. Love ya bud. — Hermie Sadler (@HermieSadler) December 21, 2017 PWInsider.com has confirmed that Jarrett returned home from Tampa, Florida last night. Jarrett entered a rehab program shortly after it was announced that Impact Wrestling had severed their relationship with him. That came after Jarrett had taken time off from the company for personal reasons. Whether any of this means Jarrett and the company will mend fences and work together again remains to be seen. Jarrett spent the last two months in the WWE-sponsored rehab, only leaving for two short trips home for family events.

Originally Posted by PWI As first reported last month here at PWInsider.com, WWE confirmed that Crockett Promotion's Mid-Atlantic Wrestling would be added to the WWE Network's Vault section next month with 100 hours worth of episodes. WWE confirmed the PWInsider.com report while announcing the following content listing for the upcoming January WWE Network Collections: Raw 25: Celebrating 100 Moments Celebrate an unmatched TV milestone with the greatest moments from Monday Night Raw’s 25-year history ... New Classic Content: January 2018 Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling makes its WWE Network debut with this month’s new on-demand offering. Featuring nearly 100 episodes and over 70 hours of throwback action, travel as far back as 1981 and see the very early careers of WWE Hall of Famers such as "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat, Jake "The Snake" Roberts, Sgt. Slaughter, Ric Flair, and more. Enjoy a small taste of the latest offering with this New Classic Content collection, featuring 10 memorable episodes from 1981-1983 ... Coming in February • Celebrating Black History • Alexa Bliss

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

Originally Posted by PWI The 12/21 "Best Of 2017, Part 1" edition of Impact did 269,000 overnight viewers, well up from last week's abysmal 161,000 overnight viewers.

Originally Posted by PWI There's been continued talk of a Total Divas' spinoff titled "The It Couple" based around Miz and Maryse's life in Los Angeles. The series, as it has been pitched, would also feature Dolph Ziggler and musician Ryan Cabrera as well as Maryse's best friend and her mother as regular characters on the series.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc Earlier today, Kurt Angle did a Q&A with his fans on Facebook. Here are some of the highlights: Favorite WWE match of 2017: "[Brock] Lesnar vs. [AJ] Styles [at Survivor Series]. Classic!" The Shield's future: "The Shield will come together again. Not right now. Bad timing with Roman [Reigns] getting sick and [Dean] Ambrose getting hurt. There will be another reunion. Promise!" What match got him into the main event scene during his first year with WWE: "The triple threat versus Triple H and Rock at SummerSlam. It was crucial to my title run. I got my bell rung in that match, but I toughed through it." Who will win the Women's Royal Rumble match: "Nia Jax. Need I explain why?"

Link: https://www.facebook.com/realkurtang...56959228243047

Originally Posted by WrestleInc Director Stephen Merchant announced this week that he has finished WWE Studios' "Fighting with My Family" movie that is based on Paige and her wrestling family, produced by The Rock's Seven Bucks Productions company. PWInsider notes that there are plans to do an advance screening of the movie during WrestleMania 34 Week in New Orleans but there's no word yet on when the movie will be released. The Rock will make an appearance in the movie as himself. Florence Pugh stars as Paige while Lena Headey of Game of Thrones fame will star as Paige's mother, Sweet Saraya. Nick Frost plays Paige's father while Vince Vaughn appears as WWE Hall of Famer Jake Roberts and WWE NXT Superstar Zelina Vega (Thea Trinidad) stars as AJ Lee. Indie star Tessa Blanchard was Pugh's stunt double for the in-ring scenes with Trinidad.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc The new "Happy Rusev Day" shirts are apparently a big hit. With the exception of the 5XL size, all the other sizes are sold out at WWEShop.com and are expected to be back in-stock on Monday, January 1, 2018.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc Today marks 20 years since the nWo took over WCW Monday Nitro for the first-ever (and only) nWo Monday Nitro on December 22, 1997. At the time, WCW was launching Thunder on Thursday nights and the plan was for Nitro to be an nWo-branded show while Thunder would be WCW. Eric Bischoff was set to face Larry Zbyszko at Starrcade that Sunday with the stipulation that Bischoff would get control of Nitro for the nWo if he were to win. The episode above was done as a test and the rating sharply dropped, which caused WCW to quickly change their plans. Zbyszko went on to defeat Bischoff and Nitro remained a WCW-branded show for the rest of its existence.

Link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTC2Axk_znc


Some other sheet news includes:

• Observer reported filming for The Marine 6 has finished which means Becky Lynch and The Miz are expected back soon for the WWE.
• In another potential sign of the XFL's return, WWE recently had the league's website redirect to a 404 Page instead of WWE's official website. http://xfl.com/
• Recent episode of the School of Morton podcast show had One Man Gang as the guest talking about facing Hulk Hogan, memories of the Z-Man, and working with Andre the Giant. https://www.pwinsider.com/article/11...-more.html?p=1
• ESPN had a recent interview with Rey Mysterio talking about his current status, WWE's struggles with 205 Live, and if he wants to return to the WWE. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...return-to-wwe/
• Mauro Ranallo is currently dealing with a family emergency due to his mother being rushed to a hospital recently. https://twitter.com/mauroranallo/sta...rc=twsrc%5Etfw

Some stuff from TPWW Frontpage:

• Various: Big E on Turning Heel, Total Divas, Lucha Underground Schedule
• Kurt Angle Says Reaction to Jason Jordan Storyline Is Going as Planned
• Dean Ambrose Injury Update and Possible Return Time Frame

[Lock Jaw]

Originally Posted by Emperor Smeat In another potential sign of the XFL's return, WWE recently had the league's website redirect to a 404 Page instead of WWE's official website. http://xfl.com/

So, did someone hear the rumours of the XFL coming back and then just kept trying to go the website and then jumped into action to report that it had an error message now?

Just imagining someone constantly refreshing XFL.com

[Juan]

Shocked that 3XL and 4XL sizes sold out

[Mr. Nerfect]

Rusev is such a glorious man. For a long time, he has reminded me of Steve Austin. I can't put my finger on exactly why. If they just got out of his way, he could be a huge star.

[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by Hawkins reaction to the sheet news:

Originally Posted by Observer Though he was injured when a fan threw a water bottle at him on 205 Live last Tuesday, Kalisto didn't miss any time because of it. Kalisto was back in the ring before Raw went on the air last night and got a win against Tony Nese on Main Event. Abigail Rodriguez, Kalisto's wife, had posted on her social media accounts last week that Kalisto needed stitches and had an MRI done due to the water bottle being thrown at him. The bottle, which wasn't empty, bounced off the ground and hit him in the mouth. According to a tweet from a WWE employee, the person who threw the bottle was caught by security.

Originally Posted by Observer “WWE Photo Shoot” with The Miz will debut after Raw next Monday. The concept of the series is wrestlers being shown pictures from throughout their career and telling stories about them. WWE has already uploaded the episode online. Johnny Gargano surprised his parents by giving them his first action figure before it’s released in stores. Last night's show wasn't commercial-free in the first hour for at least some international markets. The same will likely be true for SmackDown tonight. Jack Gallagher picked his top 10 video games of the year for Giant Bomb. Chris Harrington found that Jimmy Uso is the new iron man of WWE (someone who is wrestling the most without taking a break of 40 days) after Dean Ambrose’s injury.

New show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeO4C8e4pjw , Gargano: https://twitter.com/JohnnyGargano/st...58293392191488 , Reigns: http://www.wwe.com/shows/raw/2017-12...n-reigns-fined , Gallagher: https://www.giantbomb.com/articles/j...017/1100-5662/ , Uso: https://twitter.com/mookieghana/stat...19997774655489

Originally Posted by Observer NJPW will be making a video game-related announcement at their fan festival on January 3rd. NJPW has a hype video for Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Jay White at the Tokyo Dome with English subtitles. There’s also a video for the four-way Junior Heavyweight title match. wXw uploaded WALTER vs. Ilja Dragunov from the 2017 16 Carat Gold Finals for free for 24 hours. It got some praise as one of the best matches of the year. Matt Riddle & Jeff Cobb will be part of Fight Club: PRO’s 2018 Dream Tag Team Invitational.

NJPW game: https://www.njpw1972.com/19643 , Tanahashi-White: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHQ33nl_CQM , 4-Way Jr title: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7kh6kyjans , wXw: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoWyWAo4Ci4 , Fight Club PRO: https://twitter.com/Fightclubpro/sta...83476873846786

Originally Posted by Observer The first major match between Brock Lesnar and Kane is now being advertised for the January 27th house show in Baltimore, which is the night before the Royal Rumble. Lesnar has been added to the card as a replacement since the main selling point locally, The Shield in a six-man tag, is off due to the injury to Dean Ambrose. Local advertising is billing it as the first-ever meeting between the two in a Universal Championship match. The original main event, as was the case with most house shows in January, was The Shield vs, Sheamus, Cesaro & Samoa Joe. It's now being broken up as Roman Reigns defending the Intercontinental title against Joe, and Seth Rollins & Jason Jordan defending the Tag Team titles against Sheamus & Cesaro. Lesnar's next appearance on WWE television will be on the New Year's Day episode of Raw. He'll be on the show to further the build to his triple threat title defense against Kane and Braun Strowman at the Royal Rumble pay-per-view.

Originally Posted by Observer NXT wrestlers Alexander Wolfe (formerly Axel Tischer) and Marcel Barthel (formerly Axel Dieter Jr.) returned for a surprise one-time appearance at wXw's 17th anniversary show in Oberhausen, Germany today. They made the save for their former Ringkampf stablemates WALTER and Timothy Thatcher against the RISE stable. After Alexander Wolfe and Marcel Barthel appeared for wXw yesterday, Kairi Sane returned to Stardom for an appearance today to say goodbye to Yoko Bito as Bito is retiring. Kassius Ohno is also in Japan (since Rachael Ellering is wrestling for Stardom) and was spotted at the most recent DDT show. Finn Balor tweeted about Raw being live on Christmas: “Its always hard leaving home, even harder on Xmas eve. I told my mum ‘I’m sorry that we have RAW on Xmas day & I have to go wrestle’ She replied ‘Well isn’t it better than you NOT being able to go wrestle on raw on Xmas day!’ Perspective”

Sane: https://twitter.com/we_are_stardom/s...04603455258624 , Ohno: https://twitter.com/narukiroy/status/944778963838226433 , Balor: https://twitter.com/FinnBalor/status/944978227038244864

Originally Posted by Observer NJPW released the official promo video for Wrestle Kingdom 12.

NJPW: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnhujUGb6j4

Originally Posted by Observer With Money in the Bank scheduled to be a dual-brand show in 2018, it appears that there will be an NXT TakeOver special in conjunction with the weekend. Dave Meltzer reported in the most recent edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that an NXT TakeOver show is currently planned for June 16th, 2018 in Chicago, which is one day before Money in the Bank will take place at the Allstate Arena. With the already announced "big four" weekend specials, the addition of another show means that there are five TakeOvers scheduled for next year.

Originally Posted by PWI Any word lately about Neville? Is he simply waiting for his WWE contract to expire?? There was a little movement a month or two ago, but nothing since. Generally WWE can suspend contracts with talents that are hurt or not working so if that is the case, he could be waiting a long time. If he wants out he should talk to management about getting a release.

From PWI's weekly Q&A articles about the status of Neville. Seems WWE is just going to wait till Neville's contract expires before letting him go.

Originally Posted by PWI The territory system was massive before Vince McMahon decided to take New York to a global entity. We always hear about Jim Crockett Promotions, Mid-South Wrestling, Championship Wrestling from Florida, AWA, & WCCW and the impact they all had on the wrestling business. Which other territories, in your opinion, doesn't get the credit they deserve? Which are overlooked and underappreciated? The UWF under Bill Watts comes to mind. That was a company that could have gone national as a wrestling product but the oil recession in their territory hurt their business. I always loved Memphis Wrestling. It was a highlight of my week, always fun to watch. Portland Wrestling was really good too, as were Georgia and Calgary.

Also from PWI's weekly Q&A articles about underappreciated wrestling promotions.

Originally Posted by PWI What is the status of ITV's World of Sport? There was so much hype that it would be brought back in the UK. What happened? They cancelled their tapings in April and nothing has been announced since. Their twitter account hasn’t posted in over six months. At this point is seems as if it’s on hiatus, at best. If/when WWE starts their UK territory my guess is it will stay on hiatus.

Final tidbit from PWI's recent weekly Q&A articles this time about ITV's World of Sport

Originally Posted by PWI SpikeTV, which was the home for Monday Night Raw when WWE partnered with Viacom and then later became the home for TNA/Impact Wrestling, will end on 1/18/18, replaced by The Paramount Network. It would have been a completely different world for Impact had Dixie Carter accepted a lower rate for the company in 2014 instead of pushing for a raise, which led to SpikeTV moving on, setting the stage for Impact to go Destination America, PopTV and eventually being sold to Anthem Media.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc WWE has a new poll asking fans which victorious Superstar had the merriest Christmas on last night's RAW. As of this writing, 60% voted for new RAW Tag Team Champions Seth Rollins & Jason Jordan while 14% voted for John Cena, 9% for Braun Strowman, 8% for Absolution, 4% for Finn Balor, 2% for Samoa Joe, 1% for Hideo Itami, 1% for Kane and 1% for the team of Akira Tozawa, Cedric Alexander & Mustafa Ali.

Some other sheet news includes:

• Ratings and viewership for RAW has been delayed by a day due to this week's Christmas holiday.
• In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, today is the 34th anniversary of The Iron Sheik defeating then champion Bob Backlund for the WWF title at MSG in New York City.
• In another "WWE Did You Know" type fact, Rusev celebrated his 32nd birthday yesterday.
• Based on early betting odds, John Cena is currently favored to win next year's Royal Rumble followed by Roman Reigns. In terms of Smackdown, Shinsuke Nakamura currently has the best odds at winning for the brand and is #3 overall.
• The next episode of WWE Network's newest show called "WWE Photo Shoot" will air at 11:36PM next Monday and feature Ceasro as the guest.
• Recent episode of School of Morton podcast show had Tommy Dreamer as the guest talking about forgiving Paul Heyman and ECW's demise, working for Vince McMahon, and favorite part about working backstage for the WWE. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...vince-mcmahon/
• NewsHub held a recent interview with Charlotte talking about NXT, her wrestling debut, NXT's Four Horsewomen, first ever Women's Rumble, and possibly facing Ronda Rousey at Mania 34. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...ng-the-rumble/

Some stuff from TPWW Frontpage:

• Brian Kendrick Injured After Being Hit With Hideo Itami’s “Go to Sleep”
• WWE: Women’s Rumble, Sami for Syria, Rusev Day, Christmas Video
• WWE Says Dean Ambrose Will Be Out for Nine Months
• WWE Fastlane PPV Main Event Possibly Revealed

[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by The Simon System bodybuilding supplements, now available at the TPWW Store for the low price of $9.99:

Originally Posted by Observer Even with coming on Christmas night and against a strong NFL audience, Raw only dropped three percent from last week with 2.69 million viewers ... Unlike Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve, which traditionally do bad numbers, Christmas doesn't seem too bad and New Year's night historically has done okay, as it's a big night for overall television viewing, but usually has strong college football competition. The three hours were: 8 p.m. 2.95 million viewers 9 p.m. 2.62 million viewers 10 p.m. 2.54 million viewers

RAW also lucked out of NFL having a poor choice of games for the night and avoiding going against Cavs-Warriors for the NBA's set of games. Wasn't as lucky for rankings since their highest hour was #6.

Originally Posted by Observer Randy Orton and Shinsuke Nakamura have been officially announced for the 2018 Royal Rumble match. They join Elias as the only wrestlers to be confirmed for it so far. Ruby Riott and Natalya will be in the women’s Rumble, joining Naomi and Asuka as the first four announced for it. Hideo Itami tweeted that he hopes Brian Kendrick gets well soon after accidentally breaking Kendrick’s nose and orbital bone with a GTS on Raw. Itami used the Rings of Saturn, which Neville had been using prior to his absence, instead of the GTS for the finish of his match against Jack Gallagher on 205 Live. AJ Styles, Randy Orton & Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn & Jinder Mahal was the dark match after SmackDown and 205 Live last night. Daniel Bryan was the special guest referee for it and did a comedy spot where he ran the ropes with Zayn. Goldberg, Cesaro, and Zelina Vega are all celebrating their birthday today. Goldberg turned 51, Cesaro turned 37, and Vega is now 27. Mae Young Classic participant Jazzy Gabert (Alpha Female) will be the guest on Friday’s episode of the Edge & Christian podcast.

Itami: https://twitter.com/HideoItami/statu...98692116725760 , Bryan: https://twitter.com/coupdebanks/stat...20565042323456 , Gabert: https://twitter.com/EdgeRatedR/statu...80928153161728

Originally Posted by Observer Sports Illustrated spoke to Kenny Omega about Wrestle Kingdom 12 and his upcoming match with Chris Jericho. Omega said he wants it to be a wake-up call to both NJPW and WWE and hopes it will lead to more crossover between the companies for the sake of good business. He claimed the match will “evoke a new kind of emotion from people watching.” The Eli Drake vs. Johnny Impact main event from Bound for Glory, which featured interference from Alberto El Patron, will air on Thursday’s best of 2017 episode of Impact. Impact won’t be shown on Spike TV in the UK this week, but the recap episode and a new show will air on January 5th. XWA UK has started to put their events on Pro Wrestling: EVE’s on-demand service, including Kota Ibushi’s appearance from earlier this year and Keith Lee vs. Daisuke Sekimoto.

Omega: https://www.si.com/wrestling/2017/12...-chris-jericho , Impact: http://impactwrestling.com/best-2017-part-2/ , XWA UK: https://eveondemand.pivotshare.com/c...ing/9534/media

Originally Posted by PWI A six woman tag during the WWE Holiday Tour at the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, Long Island was halted after Paige was taken out by a kick to the back of her neck from Sasha Banks and went down. According to several readers, Paige had her back to Banks and it appeared she didn't realize the kick was coming. Paige was out of the ring for a long time following a neck surgery in 2016. The match was stopped and officials immediately tended to Paige, who was walked to the back after several minutes. WWE officials had brought a stretcher to ringside but Paige was walked out. The scene was described as "awkward" and "serious" and did not appear to be the planned finish for the match. PWInsider.com is working on additional details. Stay tuned.

Originally Posted by PWI With the Carolina Panthers now for sale, do you think Vince may try to buy them instead of relaunching the XFL? There are a lot of rumors out there saying that may be his goal with the stock sale. He may want to buy the Panthers, and he is originally from the area, but he will need a lot more than 100 million dollars. Forbes has them valued at $2.3 billion so Vince would need a lot more money to make that purchase on his own. It could be that he wants to be a minority partner. If so, I don’t understand why he would need to form a new company to do that. From where I sit, buying into an NFL team is not something that would drive away stockholders. Starting the XFL again? Obviously that would be. My hope is that if it's a decision between buying the Panthers or retstarting the XFL, he does the former.

From PWI's weekly Q&A articles about the growing speculation Vince is buying a NFL team instead of reviving the XFL.

Originally Posted by PWI Ring of Honor announced a Fan Appreciation sale that is now ongoing, featuring up to 35% off on shirts, DVDs and more at this link. After their great Final Battle PPV, the promotion will hold its first TV taping of 2018 in Nashville, TN on 1/20/18 at the Nashville Fairgrounds.

Link: http://www.rohwrestling.com/shop


Some other sheet news includes:

• Smackdown's ratings and viewership for this week has been delayed till tomorrow.
• TV Insider had a recent interview with Jim Ross talking about calling matches with Jerry Lawler and Vince, working with Macho Man, the 1-2-3 Kid vs Razor Ramon match, and missing out calling Foley's 1st WWE title victory. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...grets-missing/
• MLive had a recent interview with Kevin Owens talking about the reactions he wants from fans, HBK, and his Hell in a Cell match against Shane. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...and-john-cena/
• During a recent interview with The Orlando Sentinel, Laurel Van Ness reveals her current contract with Impact Wrestling expires June 2018. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...tract-expires/

Some stuff from TPWW Frontpage:

• Omega Says Nakamura Hasn’t Done Been Compelling In-Ring Yet in WWE
• WWE: Matt Hardy Uses Piano Theme, SD Dark Matches, SD Title Picture
• WWE Confirms Brian Kendrick Suffered Broken Orbital Bone and Nose

[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by WWE's Most Prestigious Star Ever ... Vacant:

Originally Posted by PWI Paige was checked out by WWE doctors following her match at the Nassau Coliseum but we have not heard she was sent to a local hospital. The word backstage was that she suffered a stinger when she was kicked from behind by Sasha Banks. If that is the case, I would expect WWE will pull her from the remainder of the live events this week as a precautionary measure, especially given her history with neck issues.

Originally Posted by Observer After the first two matches took place on SmackDown this week, WWE has revealed the bracket for the United States Championship tournament. Zack Ryder vs. Mojo Rawley and Xavier Woods vs. Aiden English are the two remaining matches in the first round. The winner of Ryder vs. Rawley will go on to face Bobby Roode, with the winner of Woods vs. English advancing to face Jinder Mahal.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Whjd7kzki7E , Bracket itself: https://www.f4wonline.com/sites/www..../usbracket.jpg

Originally Posted by Observer Tuesday night's SmackDown on the USA Network averaged 2,656,000 viewers, which was up three percent from last week and nearly matched Raw's ratings on Christmas Day the night before. SmackDown finished a higher-than-usual third for the night on cable and first in the 18-49 demo with a 0.82 rating. For the second straight week, SmackDown was down year-over-year as the December 27th, 2016 episode featured the return of John Cena on a stacked show. That episode is still the only show to beat Raw since the WWE draft edition of SmackDown that kicked off the brand split. SmackDown finished 2017 averaging 2.546 million viewers per week, up slightly from the 2016 average of 2.487 million for the live shows that started in July of that year. The 2017 average for those same five months was almost identical to the year-end average, coming in at 2.541 million. As a comparison, Raw numbers were down an average of 5.1 percent.

Originally Posted by Observer Tommy Dreamer announced these first round matches for his TV title tournament on 1/26 at the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia: Luchasaurus vs. Willie Mack vs. Matt Cross MJL vs. Crazzy Steve Brian Cage vs. ? Austin Aries vs. Matt Riddle Dan Maff vs. Ace Romero Kevin Kross vs. Little Guido Eddie Kingston vs. Bull James Alex Reynolds vs. Super Crazy Kenn Doane vs. Lisa Marie Varon Mike Mondo vs. Swoggle Scheduled for Evolve on 1/14 in Brooklyn is Keith Lee vs. Chris Dickinson for the Evolve title, Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Walter and Timothy Thatcher vs. Fred Yehi. I saw Sabre vs. Walter in PWG and it was an incredible match. There will also be an eight-man Style Battle tournament earlier in the day with first round matches of Matt Riddle vs. Rayo, Shane Mercer vs. Kyle the Beast, Walter vs. Nick Gage and Joey Lynch vs. Joey Janela. Low Blows Wrestling Parties will have a Wrestle Kingdom party on 1/4 at Buskers on the Ball in Dublin. The party will run from 5-11 p.m. This will be the barometer to test interest in non-WWE parties that would continue in 2018. Rick Nash of Low Blows gave a preview for bandwagoners to catch up on everything they need to know about NJPW and WK12 next week.

House of Hardcore: https://www.pwinsider.com/article/11...hilly.html?p=1

Originally Posted by PWI For those wondering if WWE did anything special for the talent for working through the Christmas holiday, not only did the company throw a Christmas party for all of them after Raw on Monday, but we have also heard that WWE picked up the Chicago hotel bill for both the Raw and Smackdown rosters as a thank you for being away from their families over the holiday.

Originally Posted by PWI Legendary Japanese star The Great Muta will make a rare appearance in the United States on Friday 1/19/18 for PCW Ultra in California, teaming with Penta El Zero M to face Sami Callihan and Johnny Ultra. The event will air live on FiteTV for $14.99, which you can download for free for your cell phone or mobile device by clicking here.

Details and rest of the event's card: https://www.pwinsider.com/article/11...n-fite-tv.html

Originally Posted by PWI Here are the first confirmed WWE DVD releases for 2018: 1/16 - WWE Tag Team Collection (4 animated WWE Studios movies) 1/23 - WWE Clash of Champions 2017. 2/6 - Best of Raw and Smackdown 2017. 3/6 - 2018 WWE Royal Rumble. 3/20 - Best of WWE NXT 2017. 4/3 - Raw 25th Anniversary. 4/17 - WWE Elimination Chamber & Raw PPV TBA. As previously reported on PWInsider.com, WWE has tentative plans for the following DVD releases as well: *Best of 2017 - PPV matches. *30th Anniversary of Summerslam. *A new title devoted to The Shield. *Best of the Hardy Boyz. *"Unreleased" Collections devoted to Randy Savage and Shawn Michaels. *A feature documentary on AJ Styles. *Shane McMahon's "Craziest Moments." *A collection of WWE 24 documentaries.

Originally Posted by PWI Next Wednesday's WWE NXT will be a two hour year in review broadcast. NXT will tape TV in Atlanta, GA at the former WCW Saturday Night home, Center Stage. Officially set for the 1/27/18 WWE NXT Takeover: Philadelphia event is NXT champion Andrade "Cien" Almas (with Zelina Vega) vs. Johnny Gargano. Speaking of NXT, Johnny Gargano noted on social media that he gifted his parents his first-ever NXT action figure for Christmas in advance of its official release. Gargano noted that growing up, his parents bought him lots of WWE toys and he wanted to return the favor. That is pretty awesome.

Originally Posted by PWI For those who have asked why Gail Kim is on the same USO tour that WWE sent The Miz and Alicia Fox on, Kim's husband Robert Irvine is also on the tour. It's not a sign of Kim returning to WWE, although you'd be surprised how many emails we received asking if it was.

Originally Posted by Observer AXS TV is doing a New Japan marathon on 12/29, playing the three Omega vs. Okada matches from 8-11 p.m. Eastern and then 11 p.m. to 2 a.m. for West Coast prime time, and then airing Power Struggle from 2-4 a.m To show how bad things are in Puerto Rico, WWC has still not run a show since the island was crippled by the hurricane. CWA has run two shows since the hurricane and WWL is talking about coming back in February or March. The hurricane basically destroyed a wrestling industry that had been having regular shows for about 45 years. Young Bucks Merch is now a subsidiary of a new parent company called Killing the Business, and they’ve filed for trademarks on “Being the Elite” and “Killing the Business. The Kingdom has apparently signed exclusive ROH U.S. contracts as they did their final date for Northeast Wrestling on 12/17 Another person let go at Impact was Bob Rosen, who built and transported the rings, headed the ring crew and did various other functions.

In regards to Impact news, supposedly Rosen almost had a major heart attack while working for Impact recently and only took a break after management noticed how tired he was at work. Doctors found out his heart was 99% blocked and he barely avoided having a life threatening situation occur. He felt with the recent staff cuts, he couldn't take a break due to lack of manpower and his big reward for being that loyal was getting the pink slip afterwards.

Originally Posted by Observer Although there are rumors about Styles vs. Cena at Mania, I’m told that right now that is incorrect, and Cena is in a much bigger match than Styles. The only thing I was told is it will be clear within a few weeks what that match is. Bigger than a WWE title match seems to limit it to a non-regular or surprise guy and the only names I can come up with would be Undertaker, Batista, Goldberg or Hogan, and at Hogan’s age with his back problems, it would surprise me if he could get cleared even if the sponsors were okay with his returning. My guess is the top of the Mania card will be shot largely on the 25th anniversary Raw because that will be the show with the largest viewing audience of the year most likely

Originally Posted by Observer Canyon Ceman told the Los Angeles Times that in 2016, WWE was focused on signing people from China, but in 2017, it was the Middle East. The reasoning is he claimed they had 11 million Facebook followers in Egypt. Ceman claimed that the Performance Center gives wrestlers ten years worth of experience in three years. I’d love to see who is farther along, ten year vets working for legit promotions or guys who have had three years since starting at the PC. Ceman also noted that WWE could no longer do stereotypical Middle Eastern heels like the Iron Sheik and General Adnan. “Now you neither want to nor can you get away with that so easily,” he said. “There is evolving complexity over how to portray someone’s cultural heritage in a way that is respected, interesting and creates love or animosity in the audience.” Granted, they’re not Middle Eastern heels, but exactly how is Mahal or the portrayal of Rusev until a few weeks ago any different from the stereotypical Anti-American heels that date back to the beginning fo time

Originally Posted by Observer The most-watched shows on the WWE Network this past week were: 1. Clash of the Champions; 2. NXT on 12/20; 3. Beyond the Ring Holiday special with Mick Foley; 4. Survivor Series; 5. Best of Ride Along; 6. Table for three with Hardys and Balor; 7. WrestleMania 2017; 8. Royal Rumble 2017; 9. Ride Along with Rusev, Breeze and Fandango; 10. 205 Live from 12/19

Originally Posted by WrestleInc WWE has published an article naming the top 10 Superstars of 2017. The list looks like this: 10. WWE Cruiserweight Champion Enzo Amore 9. WWE Universal Champion Brock Lesnar 8. The Shield (Dean Ambrose, RAW Tag Team Champion Seth Rollins, WWE Intercontinental Champion Roman Reigns) 7. Kevin Owens 6. The Miz 5. Jinder Mahal 4. The New Day and SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Usos (Tie) 3. RAW Women's Champion Alexa Bliss 2. Braun Strowman 1. WWE Champion AJ Styles

Some other sheet news includes:

• A former WWE Board of Directors was recently forced to resign from his duties at MLB due to a long history of inappropriate behavior and alleged sexual harassment while working in MLB's management.
• National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum recently awarded Gerald Brisco with their Outstanding American award.
• Observer reports Velveteen Dream is currently expected to return to NXT next month after mysteriously being dropped from TV post-Takeover WarGames event. Rumor going around speculates he got busted by the Wellness Policy and WWE wanted his suspension to be a quiet one.
• CBS Denver had a recent interview with DDP talking about the rumors of Vince going back into football, helping Justin Credible after being drunk at a recent indie event, and possibility of making another surprise Royal Rumble appearance. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...-getting-back/

Some stuff from TPWW Frontpage:

• Paige Pulled From WWE House Shows This Week After Injury Last Night
• Impact News: Next PPV, More House Shows Planned, GFW “Returns”
• Becky Lynch Returns at WWE House Show

[Lock Jaw]

I can see Mojo beating Ryder and Roode to get to the finals. Meanwhile, Xavier beats Aiden English and then upsets Jinder Mahal.

Finals are Xavier vs. Mojo Rawley and Mojo wins the title after some distractions from Jinder.

Jinder and the Singh Bros feud with New Day, and Mojo gets a chance to show what he can do as a heel with the US title.