TPWW's Official Dirty Sheets News Thread

[Mr. Nerfect]

If Merriam-Webster adds “kayfabe”, the dictionary will be the only place it is alive.

[BigCrippyZ]

[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by Random NJPW G1 2k18 gif:

Originally Posted by Observer NEW JAPAN G-1 CLIMAX TOURNAMENT LIVE AT 5:30 A.M. EASTERN SATURDAY MORNING FROM KORAKUEN HALL ON NEW JAPAN WORLD Michael Elgin & Ren Narita vs. Yoshi-Hashi & Sho Evil & Bushi vs. Bad Luck Fale & Tanga Loa Jay White & Yoh vs. Minoru Suzuki & Desperado Hiroshi Tanahashi & David Finlay vs. Hangman Page & Chase Owens Kazuchika Okada & Gedo vs. Togi Makabe & Toa Henare Toru Yano vs. Kota Ibushi Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Seiya Sanada Tetsuya Naito vs. Juice Robinson Kenny Omega vs. Tama Tonga Tomohiro Ishii vs. Hirooki Goto

Originally Posted by Observer ROH has had interest in C.M. Punk returning, presumably for the MSG show, but we're told that is a long shot. But feelers have been sent.

Originally Posted by Observer Titus O'Neil as a follow-up to what he wrote earlier in the week, wrote: "I'm nowhere near perfect, make mistakes as well as I have had to ask for forgiveness and give it as well. We can all grow in various areas of our lives. Accept full responsibility when you're wrong and in due season through actions, forgiveness and respect comes."

Originally Posted by Observer Indies Roundup: Impact announced Scarlett Bordeaux debuting with the promotion soon. Destiny Wrestling on 8/25 at the Battlarts Academy in Mississauga, ONT with Sami Callihan vs. Josh Alexander in a cage match and Michael Elgin vs. Petey Williams. Kagetsu vs. Viper for the World of Stardom title headlines Sunday's Stardom show in Osaka. Chelsea Green pulled out of U.K. shows this month due to a working visa issue she has to get taken care of.

Originally Posted by PWI Impact released the opening video for Sunday's Slammiversary PPV: Slammiversary is the night where passionate fans from around the world come together. To believe. To celebrate. And to dream. Here's a #FirstLook at the Cold Open from this Sunday's Slammiversary LIVE on PPV and @FiteTV. This one is going to be for you. #SlamXVI pic.twitter.com/csxaZ38Tze — IMPACT (@IMPACTWRESTLING) July 20, 2018

Link: https://twitter.com/IMPACTWRESTLING/...28660584652800

Originally Posted by PWI According to the USADA website, Brock Lesnar has been tested once ince re-entering the testing pool in advance of a planned UFC return in 2019. Lesnar's test was done sometime after July 11th.

Originally Posted by PWI The 7/19 edition of Impact did 275,000 overnight viewers, down from last week's 284,000 overnight viewers.

Originally Posted by PWI In regard to the teased WWE announcement this Monday, there’s been talk in the last several weeks of a women’s PPV featuring talents from the main roster coming out of a report from ProWrestlingSheet.com. Several female performers in the company have confirmed to PWInsider.com that they were told recently it was something the company has been working on developing. PWInsider.com has been told by one source the show would take place in September at the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, Long Island. There are a number of Sundays open at the venue. WWE does not have any events currently listed for Sunday 9/30, so that could be the date. That said, WWE does not have any TV tapings scheduled for the Northeast and Monday 10/1, they are in Seattle for Raw, all of which obviously would make staging such an event a lot harder than usual. Attempts to get WWE to confirm thus far have been unsuccessful. Stay tuned.

Originally Posted by Observer ROH and MSG reached an agreement to drop legal action in exchange for getting their date back. The description was that MSG had no intentions of taking a lawsuit bullet for WWE. When asked by the New York Post how things changed, Koff said that MSG were the people to ask. Essentially after the legal situation got started, MSG called and offered them back the date.

Originally Posted by Observer WWE is looking at promoting Hogan’s redemption by doing charitable things

Meltzer stated Hogan's recent Boys & Girls Club award was mainly due to WWE's efforts behind the scenes and less of Hogan being sincere on doing charity for non-PR reasons.

Originally Posted by Observer While not shown on television, at the arena, they aired a video on the late Bruno Sammartino, all-time wrestling hero in Pittsburgh. The crowd cheered this video loudly, as one current wrestler after another sang the praises of the man who was the childhood hero to some, and their parents childhood hero to many others. Except when Reigns was shown. It didn’t matter what he said. The dye has been cast with Reigns. Daniel Bryan can endorse him and the fans will boo the guy they’d never boo. The Rock can endorse him and the same thing not only would happen, but already did happen.

Originally Posted by Observer In the dressing room after the Cow Palace show, after both Juice Robinson and Jay White apologized to Jim Ross, apparently Josh Barnett spoke to both of them, White in particular about why he was so upset about what happened. Ross, who had Barnett on his podcast, didn’t say anything negative about Robinson and White and blamed it on the crew that set up the ringside area for not hooking the barricades together so that they wouldn’t tumble over on impact. New Japan’s timekeeper in another whip into the barricades during that match ended up with the barricades smashing his knee. Ross is doing better, but was in pain all week to the point he couldn’t sleep laying down in his bed and had to sleep in a chair for a few days

Originally Posted by Observer Robinson had his broken left hand examined this past week and he hoped it would have healed. When he broke it, they said he’d need a cast for six weeks. That would be in a few weeks. He was told it was healing well, but slower than expected and he would probably need the hand in the cast until late September

Originally Posted by Observer Jeff Cobb debuts for ROH on the 7/21 tapings in Atlanta. He’s got four dates, which would be Atlanta, the 8/25 tapings in Philadelphia and 9/28 and 9/29 in Las Vegas. The impression we have is that he’s chosen ROH over Impact because he loves working for New Japan and with ROH he can get off if New Japan wants him for a tour while if he signs with Impact, they won’t stop him from working with anyone, but Impact tapings would have to be his first priority

Originally Posted by Observer According to those at Impact, the story that PCO was offered a contract and turned it down aren’t true. They claim PCO was just asked to come in for a taping to put Brian Cage over and that was all that was offered to start with

Originally Posted by Observer Regarding a potential sale of WWE to FOX down the line, the bidding for much of FOX’s assets, such as cable stations like the regional sports networks and FX and its movie studios, looks to have been bid up to a $71 billion sale to Disney. Comcast had offered $65 billion but Disney came back with a higher bid and Comcast dropped out of the bidding, but Comcast is interested in purchasing Sky in the U.K. The point of this is the price got so high than FOX has far more cash then they expected to get out of the sale

Originally Posted by Observer While not confirmed, there is a lot of talk about Undertaker wrestling at SummerSlam

Originally Posted by Observer Charlotte is scheduled to start back on the road on 7/31. She explained her problems with her implants. She first got implants at the age of 21 and they were saline implants that leaked. She got them redone with silicon, and they also leaked, actually both of them. She didn’t know but she had started getting a lot of pain in her back and in different parts of her body. She didn’t know what was wrong because she couldn’t remember an injury. So she finally got checked and they included a mammogram which found that her pain came from her silicon leaking to other parts of her body, so she her breasts redone to prevent further leakage. Because of WrestleMania and being booked on Backlash, and shooting for the ESPN Body issue, she made the call to just work through it, get the surgery after Backlash, so she’d be back before SummerSlam

Originally Posted by Observer Regarding Ellsworth, he is not under contract and just being used on a per date basis. Since this comeback, he has only been working TV dates and no house shows. This run has helped his indie bookings as there are very few guys featured on WWE television these days that indie promoters can use. But that also means they have no long-term plans for his role since if they had a long-term idea, he’d be signed

Originally Posted by Observer Barbara Blank, 30, who was with WWE as Kelly Kelly from 2006 to 2012, is open for a return. She is currently working on a movie and a new clothing line. She left wrestling and married former NHL player Sheldon Souray, but the couple separated this past October. She was a regular castmate on the TV show “WAGS,” a realty show on E! about wives and girlfriends of sports stars (Brandi Runnels is on another version of that show currently) from 2015 to 2017, with her run with the show ending when she got separated. She is also working on a clothing line

Came from a recent interview Kelly Kelly had with website WrestlingNews.co: http://wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2018...in-wwe-return/

Originally Posted by Observer Matt Riddle pulled out of 8/18 and 8/19 dates with Over the Top Wrestling in Ireland and will be replaced by Juice Robinson. Interesting that coincides with SummerSlam weekend given the talk that WWE has reconsidered its position on Riddle after four months ago not even allowing him to work at Axxess. Time will tell.

Originally Posted by Observer The ten most-watched shows of the past week on the WWE Network were: 1. Extreme Rules; 2. Table for 3 with Eric Bischoff, John Layfield and Bruce Prichard; 3. Extreme Rules postshow; 4. Something Else to Wrestle with on C.M. Punk; 5. Extreme Rules preshow; 6. NXT on 7/11; 8. Table for 3 with Trish Stratus, Lita and Bliss; 9. 205 Live on 7/10; 10. 2018 Money in the Bank

Originally Posted by WrestleInc Above is a preview for the "Elias: Live from Bourbon Street" special that will air on the WWE Network this coming Monday after Table For 3 goes off the air. This was filmed at Razzoo Bar during WrestleMania 34 Week in New Orleans and will air for thirty minutes. WWE also announced that a "Walk With Elias: The Documentary" special will air on the WWE Network after RAW goes off the air on July 30th. Next week is a big week for Elias as his debut album is supposed to be released on Tuesday.

Link: https://youtu.be/qZfdfKpIZqg

Originally Posted by WrestleInc WWE has a new poll asking fans which milestone they are most looking forward to for Elias. As of this writing, 76% voted for his first title run while the rest voted for his debut album, which is supposed to be released on Tuesday.

Some other sheet news includes:

• Recent episode of the Talk Is Jericho podcast show had the Observer's Dave Meltzer as the guest talking about Bruiser Brody and the 30th anniversary of his death. https://omny.fm/shows/talk-is-jerich...brody-fullshow
• According to the Observer, official reason why Vince wasn't backstage at last week's Extreme Rules event is due to his annual mid-July vacation break.
• Early designs of WWE's rumored Women's Tag Team Championship belts were recently leaked online. https://twitter.com/ifyouseekcasey/s...53228297760768 , https://twitter.com/BeltFanDan/statu...56782114836481

Some stuff from TPWW Frontpage:

• Rich Swann Injured, Slammiversary Match in Jeopardy
• Various: Mae Young Competitor Removed, WWN Streaming Service
• Five More Wrestlers Announced for the Mae Young Classic
• Stephanie to Make “Historic Announcement” on Raw – All Women PPV?

[slik]

WGN America Set to Air Saturday Morning Wrestling Show: https://t.co/VKk9JHTNXU pic.twitter.com/C9N5iaBv70

— Pro Wrestling Sheet (@WrestlingSheet) July 24, 2018

Trademark filed for #STARRCADE by WWE.

— 17ABay �� (@TicketDrew) July 23, 2018

[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by SummerSlam's Main Event Preview:

Originally Posted by Observer Raw last night averaged 2.77 million viewers, down three percent from the prior week ... An interesting note, which is very much the exception to normal patterns, is that the women audience was more loyal, and actually grew, while the male audience was the one less interested as the show went on. In women 18-49, the first-to-third hour growth was 10 percent while the male drop was one percent. With teenage girls, the first-to-third hour growth was 15 percent while the male drop was seven percent. The three hours were: 8 p.m. 2.82 million viewers 9 p.m. 2.82 million viewers 10 p.m. 2.70 million viewers

Originally Posted by Observer 205 Live will face competition from “Miz & Mrs,” which debuts on the USA Network tonight after SmackDown. The episodes of "Miz & Mrs" will be 30 minutes long.

Originally Posted by Observer Paul “Triple H” Levesque spoke to ESPN.com about people saying WWE’s all-women’s Evolution PPV is happening because the women’s division wasn’t allowed to wrestle at the Greatest Royal Rumble: "Let's take the Saudi Arabia show off the table, and let's just say it never happened -- would anybody question that they deserve this opportunity? To me, it's a ridiculous statement, the timing of it. You cannot effect change in a region that, culturally, is trying to change, you cannot help them affect that change without being there."

Link: http://www.espn.com/wwe/story/_/id/2...n-pay-per-view

Originally Posted by Observer OVW’s Jaylee and ARW Pro’s Moxie Molly were the wrestlers that Sasha Banks & Bayley defeated in their tag match on Raw last night.

Originally Posted by Observer/Post Wrestling Indies Roundup: Ring Warriors will be airing on WGN America at 8 a.m. Eastern every Saturday morning starting on September 15. They’ll be taping TV at Sam’s Town Live in Las Vegas on August 8 and 9. ROH announced that everyone who joins HonorClub by August 1 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern time will get access to the pre-sale for next April’s G1 Supercard at Madison Square Garden. The pre-sale is through Ticketmaster and starts at 10 a.m. Eastern on August 8, then tickets go on sale to the general public at 10 a.m. Eastern on August 10. In the days before the pre-sale, a code will be sent to the email associated with your HonorClub account. Though how serious he is about this remains to be seen, Chris Jericho posted tweets today teasing that he’d be open to wrestling for Impact Wrestling and potentially competing at ROH and NJPW’s G1 Supercard at Madison Square Garden. Jericho wrote Of course!” in response to a question asking if he’d ever consider going to Impact “and “Hmmm…” when asked about the MSG show. PCW Ultra tweeted that Riddle is off their show in Wilmington, California on Friday due to “unforeseen circumstances”: “Due to unforeseen circumstances...Matt Riddle will not be performing at 'Sound The Alarm.' We will have a suitable replacement. Sorry for the inconvenience.” David Arquette tweeted that he had two fractured ribs in his match against RJ City for Championship Wrestling From Hollywood. Kenny Omega mentioned in this week’s edition of “Being the Elite” that he is working with a heel fracture in the G1 and has been getting by through adrenaline during his matches. He stated he injured the heel during his match against Cody at the Cow Palace earlier this month.

Ring Warriors: https://twitter.com/RingWarriorsNet/...35074403225602 , ROH: https://www.rohwrestling.com/news/jo...rd-msg-tickets , Jericho: https://twitter.com/IAmJericho/statu...93827055656960 & https://twitter.com/IAmJericho/statu...46327238193153 , PCW: https://twitter.com/PCWULTRA/status/1021805686173261824 , Arquette: https://twitter.com/DavidArquette/st...74109316841474

Originally Posted by Observer WWN/EVOLVE provided an update on Matt Riddle’s status with the company amid speculation that he could be signing with WWE: “EVOLVE Champion Matt Riddle has been the subject of rumors. Riddle is confirmed for all four August EVOLVE events, where he will defend the championship at EVOLVE 108 against Shane Strickland in a Hardcore Rules Match on August 4th in Philadelphia. If Riddle is successful, he will defend vs. Darby Allin at EVOLVE 110 on August 11th in Chicago. Riddle is set for non-title action vs. Austin Theory at EVOLVE 109 in Melrose, MA and JD Drake at EVOLVE 111 in Livonia, MI. If Riddle is still EVOLVE Champion after August, he will be added to additional dates. Riddle is currently scheduled to miss the September weekend due to previously approved personal obligations.”

Originally Posted by PWI TMZ reported that former WWE star "Grandmaster Sexay" Brian Christopher Lawler was arrested in front of his own for DUI on 7/7. According to their reportl, authorities observed Christopher speeding and swerving around 1 AM. They attempted to pull him over, but Lawler failed to stop. He finally stopped and according to the police report, Christopher "reeked of booze" and had an open 12 ounce can in his car's center console.

Originally Posted by PWI The Discovery Channel's Ronda Rousey Uncaged special on Sunday 7/22 brought in 2,249,000 viewers overnight.

Originally Posted by PWI For those asking why some members of the Smackdown Women's roster were at Raw last night while others were not, WWE sent their corporate jet to pick up the women who were on the road for the Smackdown live events to bring them to Raw. We are told that it was a last second decision to include them in the segment, which is why the rest of the female roster wasn't there. A few interesting things to think about regarding the 10/28 Evolution PPV: With the show be taking place in Long Island, NY, Monday Night Raw the next day is scheduled for Charlotte, NC. Traditionally, WWE holds PPVs in the same region as that week's TV to keep travel to a minimum, which won't be the case here. The next day, there will be a lot of production staff and wrestlers rushing from point A to point B. It should also be interesting to see if WWE decides to scale down the PPV show to use a smaller production model in order to allow the regular sets and production set-up staff to be in Charlotte to insure the usual set-up time for Raw. It's nearly an 11 hour drive with minimal traffic from Long Island to Charlotte, so the usual breakdown and set up for the next town schedule might not apply.

Originally Posted by PWI The NXT UK brand will hold its first TV tapings this weekend on 7/28 and 7/29 at the Corn Exchange in Cambridge, England. Advertised for the tapings are WWE UK Champion Pete Dunne, Mark Andrews, Trent Seven, Tyler Bate, Zack Gibson, Toni Storm, Joe Coffey, Jinny, Jordan Devlin, Mark Andrews and Charlie Morgan. PWInsider.com has confirmed that Noam Dar, Rhea Ripley, Nixon Newell and Dakota Kai, among others, are also scheduled for the tapings.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling The timing of such a show could be interesting if the WWE has their rumored follow up show in Saudi Arabia in November, which was reported at the time of the first event this past April and stated that would likely run the next show in the capital city of Riyadh. I feel regardless of when the next Saudi Arabian event takes place, the same complaints will arise if the women are not part of that event. It is great they are promoting an all women’s show, but they have also entered a business agreement where they are heavily profiting from a Government that outright banishes female involvement on the shows.

Post Wrestling's John Pollock on the PR mess WWE is going to have going forward with the Saudi shows and the feeling of the all-women event only being done to lessen the backlash against them.

The Hollywood Reporter has a story here about HBO signing Bill Simmons to a new deal. It was noted that HBO's Andre the Giant documentary, which Simmons prodcued, was the most-watched documentary in HBO Sports history with nearly 7 million viewers across the network's linear and digital platforms.

Link: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/li...at-hbo-1129447


Some other sheet news includes:

• According to the Observer, WWE currently considering the idea of both Alexa Bliss and Carmella dropping their Women titles prior to October's Evolution PPV. Apparently WWE officials have not been happy with the quality of their matches as champ and don't want to end the historic PPV with a bad match.
• WWE recently released the trailer for AJ Styles upcoming DVD collection set. https://youtu.be/QbYnffZZKcw
• Based on recent SEC filings, several of WWE's high ranking members recently sold off large batches of their stocks with Kevin Dunn selling the most shares. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...4078/triple-h/
• In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, today is the 5th anniversary of Paige winning the NXT Women's Championship which is seen as one of the starting points of WWE's Women's Revolution and changing stance on women's wrestling. https://twitter.com/WWE/status/1021802558937944064?s=19

Some stuff from TPWW Frontpage:

• “Horsewomen” Marina Shafir & Jessamyn Duke to Make NXT In-Ring Debuts
• Stephanie McMahon Comments on Possibility of Women’s Tag Team Titles
• Indie Superstar Matt Riddle Possibly WWE Bound
• Various: New Match Added to “All In,” Moose Possibly Injured
• First All-Women PPV, “Evolution” Announced

[#1-norm-fan]

Originally Posted by Emperor Smeat According to the Observer, WWE currently considering the idea of both Alexa Bliss and Carmella dropping their Women titles prior to October's Evolution PPV. Apparently WWE officials have not been happy with the quality of their matches as champ and don't want to end the historic PPV with a bad match.

It's absolutely the right move... But Jesus. Why have the title on someone you don't trust in that position in the first place.

It always annoyed me when they'd have a title change on the PPV before WrestleMania just to set up a WrestleMania-worthy PPV. Just have it on your top guy to begin with. It makes who holds the title just come off as more trivial and meaningless when you let someone hold it and then take it off of them because NOW it's important who the champion is.

[Emperor Smeat]

Not sure about Alexa but WWE put themselves in a bind when they kept delaying Carmella's cash-in and causing self-inflicted problems afterwards.

Carmella pretty much cashed in at the worst time possible and to make sure her reign wouldn't be seen as a fluke, they had to hurt Charlotte's star status and ruin Asuka's status right after Mania. Them needing to bring back Ellsworth to regain her heat should have been a huge red flag that they messed up big time handling Carmella's cash-in.

[Mr. Nerfect]

They didn't need to do anything with Carmella though. It's their own fault. They gave her that stupid briefcase and held the Ladder Match in the first place. She should be nowhere near that sort of push. Nor should Bliss, for that matter. I'll believe the changes when I see them though.

WWE loves their duplicity, so it wouldn't surprise me if the women's PPV had Ronda vs. Natalya and Becky vs. Charlotte as your two title matches. Friends collide and cry and shake hands afterwards. Maybe they throw Asuka into the Becky and Charlotte match just because. It doesn't really matter. The belts don't really matter. They're on Alexa and Carmella, for crying out loud.

[Emperor Smeat]

Originally Posted by Noid They didn't need to do anything with Carmella though. It's their own fault. They gave her that stupid briefcase and held the Ladder Match in the first place. She should be nowhere near that sort of push. Nor should Bliss, for that matter. I'll believe the changes when I see them though.

They had the option to let her fail the cash in if after all that time, she still wasn't ready to hold a title. Wouldn't have been the first time a MitB holder failed and they had no problem having the first ever Women's Rumble winner fail at Mania.

Missed the boat not having her cash in while Ellsworth was originally around because they didn't want it to overshadow SummerSlam or Survivor Series Women's title matches. Then missed the window again because they didn't want it to overshadow the Women's Rumble and Asuka-Charlotte Mania match.

Then again, can probably just blame Vince for this mess since he originally wanted Ellsworth to win the case as one giant gag because he still isn't as receptive to women's wrestling in the WWE.

[Mr. Nerfect]

Lol at Triple H: "Let's just pretend that the giant sexist show didn't happen..." Okay, boss.

[Mr. Nerfect]

The idea is just a shallow attempt to follow the men anyway. Money in the Bank itself is a bit tired as a gimmick, and doesn't really make sense anymore. Why give people that sort of lifeline as a title shot? The first Ladder Match between the women could have been built up as a big deal between two women having a deeply personal feud. Instead it was an arbitrary clusterfuck.

I mean, is Carmella even worthy of the main roster, objectively speaking, let alone being the star of the division, which they have been telegraphing since June of last year?

[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by El Idolo Appreciation Day:

Originally Posted by Observer Despite Raw's ratings on Monday being down, SmackDown was up for the fourth straight week, averaging 2.34 million viewers for Tuesday night's show. The episode finished sixth for the night in total viewers on cable and fell from its usual number one spot in the 18-49 demo due to three separate shows celebrating Shark Week taking the top spots. For the sixth straight week and the eighth in the last 10, SmackDown was down in the year-over-year ratings. It did manage to retain 84 percent of the Raw audience from the previous night.

Originally Posted by PWI The debut episode of Miz & Mrs. last night on the USA Network brought in 1,473,000 overnight viewers.

Originally Posted by Observer Triple H spoke to SKy Sports about WWE’s Evolution PPV and was asked about the concept becoming a mainstay: “It's a question to be answered down the road. Do we need to have a women's only event? No -- just like we don't need a men's only event or anything else. I think that the opportunity is there whoever is the best, the most prominent box office attraction that is the main event. It doesn't matter if that's Raw, Smackdown, NXT, Wrestlemania. So can they have their own event? Can it be a mainstay? Yes, and if our fans want it and it's the right thing then we'll give it to them. The WWE universe will dictate to us what the approach is."

Link: http://www.skysports.com/wwe/news/14...-to-sky-sports

Originally Posted by Observer The WWE Network has added Coliseum Home Videos on British Bulldog Davey Boy Smith, George the Animal Steele, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, Bret Hart, Jake Roberts, The Hart Foundation, Ken Patera, Macho Man and Ms. Elizabeth, Bruno Sammartino, and Captain Lou Albano, along with two on Hulk Hogan. The Poffo family is featured on this week’s additions to the WWE Network’s hidden gems section. The matches that have been added are: Angelo Poffo vs. Pat Patterson (Championship Wrestling from Florida, 1977), Randy Savage & Magnum TA vs. The Mongolians (Georgia Championship Wrestling, 1983), Lanny Poffo vs. Nick Bockwinkel (Pro Wrestling USA, 1984).

Originally Posted by Observer After a few days off, the G1 Climax continues in Niigata overnight/tomorrow morning with B Block tournament matches. Here’s the card for the show, which will begin at 5:30 a.m. Eastern time: Kota Ibushi vs. SANADA Kenny Omega vs. Juice Robinson Tomohiro Ishii vs. Zack Sabre Jr. Tetsuya Naito vs. Tama Tonga Hirooki Goto vs. Toru Yano Kazuchika Okada & Gedo vs. YOSHI-HASHI & Sho Hiroshi Tanahashi & David Finlay vs. Togi Makabe & Toa Henare Jay White & Yoh vs. Bad Luck Fale & Tanga Loa EVIL & BUSHI vs. Hangman Page & Chase Owens Michael Elgin & Ren Narita vs. Minoru Suzuki & El Desperado

Originally Posted by PWI EVOLVE announced that Stokely Hathaway will enter the ring to team with Chris Dickinsin to face Tracy Williams in a "career vs. career" bout at the promotion's 8/12 return to Livonia, Michigan, climaxing a major storyline that has taken place over the last several months..

Originally Posted by PWI The Gamechanger Wrestling 'Janela Lost in NY' event on Friday 8/17 at the Melrose Ballroom in Long Island City, Queens will air live as an iPPV on Fite.TV. The Summerslam weekend event features: *Joey Janela vs. Hakushi. *Nick Gage vs. Meng. *Chris Dickinson vs. Teddy Hart. *PCO vs. Matt Riddle.

Some other sheet news includes:

• 2K Games announced Ric Flair will be the showcase star for WWE 2K19's collector's edition. https://www.wwe.com/section/wwe-2k19...r-announcement
• According to reports, Adam Cole's Twitter account was recently hacked by hackers trying to sell his social media info on the black market. https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/a...twitter-hacked
• ESPN had a recent interview with Stephanie McMahon talking about WWE's upcoming Evolution event and wanting it to become the "WrestleMania" for WWE's women's division. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...emania-of-the/

Some stuff from TPWW Frontpage:

• Titus O’Neil Says He Has “Zero Respect” for How Hulk Hogan “Apologized”
• James Ellsworth Seemingly Says Goodbye to WWE
• Various: PWG Battle of Los Angeles Matches, New All In Announcement
• Four More Wrestlers Announced for the Mae Young Classic

[XL]

Carmella cashed in the briefcase in April, MITB 2018 took place in June. They could easily have run an angle where the clock was running out on her time to cash in, as she gets more and more desperate as June rolls around and the contract “expires”.

[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by The Ballonmaker, Kazuchika Okada:

Originally Posted by Observer The company [WWE]also has great interest in Juice Robinson. Robinson has started to appear the last few weeks as a cast member in Being the Elite, which seems to be the best avenue to raise the American profile for an independent wrestler. It didn’t work out for Robinson the first time he was there, but even then, in Dusty Rhodes’ interview classes he was considered the best. His current profile is the biggest it’s ever been by far based off the reaction to his interviews and his recent matches, particularly the Cow Palace match with Jay White and the reaction it got. A number of New Japan regulars actually aren’t under contract, similar to A.J. Styles when he was there, so legally WWE can approach them without it being tampering. Others it has to be more nuanced, but they are making plays right now.

Originally Posted by Observer Juice Robinson did an interview last night after his match with Kenny Omega and said he's not only not going back to WWE but he's never going. We noted WWE had interest in bringing him back.

Originally Posted by Observer While this isn’t a secret, on the 7/20 ROH streaming broadcast, it was outright said that the Young Bucks contract with the promotion expires after the Final Battle show in September. That is correct. It’s just interesting that they noted it.

Originally Posted by Observer Another name that has been talked about once again, although they’ve [WWE] talked about him on-and-off-for years, and at first the hold-up was his Lucha Underground contract, is Angelico.

Originally Posted by Observer/PWI Indies Roundup: Pro Wrestling Revolver on 8/3 in Dayton at the Rockstar Pro Arena with Santana & Ortiz vs. OWE in the main event plus tag champs Dezmond Xavier & Zachary Wentz vs. Neveah & Jessicka Havok, and Sami Callihan vs. Matt Palmer in a street fight. PWA is doing a Will Ospreay vs. Robbie Eagles rematch on 8/11. PCW Ultra tomorrow night on FITE TV from Wilmington, CA with Pentagon Jr. & Warbeast vs. Sami Callihan & OVE, Shane Strickland vs. Flip Gordon, Tessa Blanchard vs. Britt Baker, ACH vs. Dragon Lee, Brody King vs. ?, Hammerstone vs. Timothy Thatcher and Jake Atlas vs. Matt Cross vs. Rich Swann (if he's healthy). Beyond Wrestling on Sunday in Worcester, MA has Joey Janela vs. David Starr in a no rope barbed wire match plus Matt Riddle & Tom Lawlor vs. Nick Gage & Matt Tremont, PCO vs. Brian Cage, Brody King vs. Josh Briggs, Tracy Williams vs. Wheeler Yuta, Jonathan Gresham vs. ?, Chris Dickinson & Jake & LAX vs. Jordynne Grace & Kimber Lee & Mia Yim & Skylar and Chuckie T & Orange Cassidy vs. Team Tremendous vs. Massage Force vs. Beaver Boys. Tickets for the Major League Wrestling return to The Melrose Ballroom in Queens, NY on 10/4 are now on sale at www.MLWTickets.com. The event, which will feature the return of L.A. Park (the original La Parka) has been titled Fury Road and will be taped for MLW's weekly Friday night series on BeIN Sports. The following press release was issued to PWInsider.com: IMPACT WRESTLING & XCITE WRESTLING PRESENT ONE NIGHT ONLY PAY PER VIEW , Saturday Night, August 25th , American Legion Post 80 , 76 Main St - Binghamton, NY

Originally Posted by Observer Tickets for the upcoming NJPW Fighting Spirit Unleashed event will be going on sale next week. New Japan announced this morning that tickets will go on sale August 1, next Wednesday, starting at 10:00 a.m. PST. Prices will start at $50 and will go up as high as $300 for Arena Premium Gold seats. Those who who get Premium Gold or Silver tickets will receive a currently unknown limited edition gift. This would be the third show New Japan has ran in California this year. They started with Long Beach back in March, where the Golden Lovers defeated the Young Bucks in the main event. Earlier this month they ran the Cow Palace in San Francisco where Omega defeated Cody to retain the IWGP title. Fighting Spirit Unleashed will be bringing New Japan back to Long Beach for the second time this year. Fighting Spirit Unleashed will take place on September 30 at the Walter Pyramid.

Originally Posted by Observer Another confirmation of one of pro wrestling's worst-kept-secrets is a Combat Zone Wrestling advertisement that just came out for the promotion's Saturday night New Heights show in Voorhees, New Jersey that is advertising, "Don't miss one of Matt Riddle's final indy appearances before going to WWE!" Riddle has pulled out of a number of dates, most notably SummerSlam weekend and dates in September over the past week, including being replaced by Trevor Lee in PWG's Battle of Los Angeles. It is widely expected WWE will announce Riddle at the NXT show in Brooklyn, or some time around that period and he will start in NXT imminently.

Link: https://www.f4wonline.com/sites/www....mattriddle.jpg

Originally Posted by PWI Ring Warriors announced today that current Impact Wrestling Champion Austin Aries will be working their TV tapings on 8/8 and 8/9 in Las Vegas following a back and forth on social media that ended with Aries declaring he was coming to the tapings and wouldn't be alone: Well @RingWarriorsNet, I have plenty Title Belts. What I really want? My own playground with its own TV show...say on @wgnamerica? So I’m coming for more than the @RingWarriorsNet Grand Championship. I’m coming for it all...and I’m not coming alone.#TheTruth #TheGameChanger https://t.co/WmiEuVn29l — Austin Aries (@AustinAries) July 26, 2018 PWInsider.com has confirmed, however, that Aries will be doing a lot more than just performing at the TV tapings. Aries will be working behind the scenes on both the creative and operational aspect of Ring Warriors, which will debut on WGN America this September on Saturday mornings.

Link: https://twitter.com/AustinAries/stat...18832034930688

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling The WWE reported their second-quarterly report on Thursday, which covered the period from April through June, including WrestleMania 34. ... As of June 30th, the WWE Network had a total of 1,787,000 worldwide subscribers with 1,742,000 of those paid subscribers (1,272,000 U.S., 470,000 International). To analyze their retention rate from WrestleMania, on April 9th the network had a worldwide total of 2,124,000 subscribers with 1,808,000 paid and 316,000 free subscribers. For the entirety of the second quarter, they averaged 1,800,000 paid subscribers as compared to 1,634,000 for the second quarter of 2017.

Originally Posted by Observer ROH is trying to book C.M. Punk for the Madison Square Garden show on 4/6. We’re told the chances of this happening are slim as he’s told those close to him that he doesn’t have any interest in doing pro wrestling.

Originally Posted by Observer Harold Meij visited Hiromu Takahashi in the hospital this past week. Takahashi’s actual injuries still haven’t been revealed, but given it’s 18 days as of this writing after the match at the Cow Palace and he’s not home, that wouldn’t be a good thing

Originally Posted by Observer The company currently has 24 full-time women on the main rosters, not including Stephanie McMahon and Nikki Bella. Stephanie McMahon didn’t answer directly as to whether or not she’d perform on the show. She did say that the rumored women’s tag team titles idea that went around during the week would happen, but not right now. Paul Levesque spoke to Sky Sports and said it was up to the fans if this would be a one-time thing, noting that they don’t need to do an annual women’s only or men’s only show, but can it be a regular show, he said it could be if the fans want it to be and they will decide based on the fan reaction. There are another 30 woman wrestlers under contract between NXT and the U.K. division.

Originally Posted by Observer Due to TNA taping on 8/12 and 8/13, Don Callis won’t be there for the final three nights of G-1, so Kevin Kelly & Rocky Romero are going to be the broadcast team. Callis is expected back for the big shows going forward as the way the tapings work and New Japan big shows fall, there won’t be another date conflict for the rest of the year as things stand right now

Originally Posted by Observer There are reports that Alex Shelley (Patrick Martin, 35) announced his retirement at the last tapings. He cut a promo saying what we had already reported, that he was taking time off to finish school and heal up. His contract here expires before he’ll be back in action so he’d be a free agent at that time. But ROH did bring him to television for a promo. There are wrestlers tweeting that thanked him for wrestling and acted like he is retiring, and those in ROH were of the belief he was retiring

Originally Posted by Observer Chris Jericho, who at first said that he would never work in the U.S. for anyone (and turned down New Japan’s Long Beach and Cow Palace shows), but WWE, has teased the idea he’d be interested in doing the MSG show. He’s also teased he’d be open to work for Impact. Don Callis, who was the brains behind the original Jericho vs. Omega idea, since he was friends with both, may open the door and Jericho did love their PPV this past weekend. Callis and Jericho talk all the time

Originally Posted by Observer WWE is attempting to trademark the term Starrcade for pro wrestling, which indicates they are going to follow up and do another Starrcade show in the Carolinas probably in November

Originally Posted by Observer The ten most watched shows of this past week on the WWE Network were: 1. Table for 3 with Ric Flair, Ricky Steamboat and Angle; 2. Extreme Rules; 3. Elias Live from Bourbon Street; 4. NXT from 7/18; 5. Table for 3 with Bruce Prichard, JBL and Eric Bischoff; 6. 205 Live from 7/17; 7. WrestleMania 2018; 8. Money in the Bank 2018; 9. Something Else to Wrestle With with Conrad Thompson and Bruce Prichard on C.M. Punk; 10. Greatest Royal Rumble

Some other sheet news includes:

• Seems Jason Jordan is currently dealing with a "Daniel Bryan" type situation in the WWE. PWI reported he still has yet to be medically cleared from his recent neck injury even though he's already past WWE's timetable for his return. Rumor going around online is Jordan's doctors have cleared him but WWE refuses to do the same for unknown reasons.
• According to the Observer, a deal between Matt Riddle and WWE is likely already done but similar to other recent contracts, WWE is keeping things quiet until they make the official announcement first.
• Also according to the Observer, NJPW is likely going to make a strong push to sign Shinsuke Nakamura once his current WWE deal expires in a few months.
• Based on some data from WWE's recent investor's meeting, WWE's Saudi deal is rumored to be worth in the range of $49 million per year. https://twitter.com/mookieghana/stat...62477643202560
• Sports Illustrated had a recent interview with Chris Jericho talking about changing his character for NJPW, his new "goth" look, and the Alpha Club vs. Bullet Club match at his upcoming cruise event. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...er-in-wwe-and/

Some stuff from TPWW Frontpage:

• Toni Storm Added to Mae Young Classic
• There’s Been Talk About The Rock Returning to the Ring at WrestleMania 35
• Various: Average Size of WWE Champs, Reigns vs. Tonga, Impact Schedule
• WWE Reports Record Revenue in Q2 2018, Stock Hits All Time High

[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by Random NXT moment:

Originally Posted by PWI The 7/26 edition of Impact did 299,000 overnight viewers, up from last week's 275,000 overnight viewers.

Originally Posted by PWI The first trailer for WWE: Outside the Box, which is being produced by the team behind Robot Chicken and Camp WWE, was released

Link: https://youtu.be/NT-e4uXRpGA

Originally Posted by PWI Do you guys think it's a great idea to have the ROH/NJPW G1 Supercard at Madison Square Garden go head-to-head with NXT Takeover just across the river at the Barclays Center? That is some heavy competition right there. In my opinion, it would be better suited to that Friday instead where fans can attend all the big shows. If it was my call, I would start the ROH/New Japan show at 2 PM Eastern on Saturday for several reasons. One, there’s no reason to split the audience with the NXT crowd. Two, it sets the stage for a show NXT has to beat from an in-ring perspective. Three (and most importantly) ROH likes to run long with their major events. They are going to be running a major league, union-run building and if they run late, it’s going to cost them an insane amount of money. The earlier they start, the more leeway they will have to go as long as they want. They won't run a three hour show and they don’t want to be running MSG until 1 AM, especially when it’s going to be the most expensive investment in the history of Ring of Honor.

From PWI's weekly Q&A articles.

Originally Posted by PWI/Observer Indies Roundup: The latest episode of the National Wrestling Alliance's Ten Pounds of Gold was released this afternoon, covering NWA Champion Nick Aldis vs. Flip Gordon over the weekend in Nashville and the "All In" showdown between Aldis and Cody. This week’s episode of Lucha Underground averaged 125,000 viewers on the El Rey Network featuring the Gift of the Gods Match. The show was down 10,000 viewers from the week prior. After seven episodes this season, the show is averaging 120,000 viewers in their Wednesday night timeslot. After advertising that their show in Voorhees, New Jersey tomorrow will be “one of Matt Riddle’s final indy appearances before going to WWE,” CZW has changed it to just say that it will be one of Riddle’s final indie appearances. Gail Kim posted a tweet in response to someone who said they wanted to see her on WWE’s Evolution PPV: “Happy for the women in the company but if I ever made. Return, it would only be for @IMPACTWRESTLING.” She then followed up on that when asked why she isn’t interested in returning to WWE: “Bc I’ve been there twice. I have never been happy there. Life is about happiness. Impact Wrestling is my happiness. It’s not about money sometimes.... people just don’t understand that.” ROH announced Tenille Dashwood vs. Chardonnay and Punishment Martinez vs. Delirious for their Honor Re-United tour show in Doncaster on August 18.

NWA: https://youtu.be/hTGCQgP_J9s , Kim: https://twitter.com/gailkimITSME/sta...56635597578240 & https://twitter.com/gailkimITSME/sta...57566556909568

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling The G1 Climax tournament has hit the mid-way point following the first nine shows and return Saturday in Nagoya. Saturday’s card will be a B Block show and kicks off at 5 am Eastern on New Japan World with the following card: *Kenny Omega (4-0) vs. Sanada (3-1) *Tetsuya Naito (3-1) vs. Hirooki Goto (2-2) *Tomohiro Ishii (2-2) vs. Kota Ibushi (2-2) *Juice Robinson (0-4) vs. Toru Yano (1-3) *Tama Tonga (1-3) vs. Zack Sabre Jr. (2-2) *Kazuchika Okada & Gedo vs. Michael Elgin & David Finlay *Hiroshi Tanahashi & Shota Umino vs. Yoshi-Hashi & SHO *Minoru Suzuki & El Desperado vs. EVIL & Bushi *Jay White & YOH vs. Hangman Page & Chase Owens *Bad Luck Fale & Tanga Loa vs. Togi Makabe & Toa Henare

Originally Posted by Observer Keith Lee wrestled at his first NXT house show tonight in Jacksonville. He defeated Dan Matha in 15 seconds.

Some other sheet news includes:

• Recent SEC filing by the WWE revealed its role with Vince's plans for the XFL's revival. Mostly dealt with stuff that was previously reported in the sheets. https://www.pwinsider.com/article/11...-role.html?p=1
• Recent episode of the Edge & Christian podcast show had Beth Phoenix as one of the guests talking about WWE's upcoming Evolution event. https://art19.com/shows/ecs-pod-of-a...6-f6bf46ab5a66
• Website Collider had a recent interview with The Miz and one of the topics talked about included how Total Divas prepared him for his own reality series. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...es-to-miz-and/
• Florida newspaper the News-Press had a recent interview with Charlotte talking about getting reactions from crowds, being a homegrown talent in WWE, and WWE's Women's division. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...-the-norm-now/
• In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, Triple H (49), Dolph Ziggler (38), and "Hangman" Adam Page (27) all celebrated their birthdays today.

Some stuff from TPWW Frontpage:

• MMA “Horsewoman” Marina Shafir Makes NXT Wrestling Debut
• Juice Robinson Says He “Ain’t Ever Going Back” to WWE
• Videos: Nikki on Cena, DDP at WWE PC, Tyler Breeze Wrestles at NXT
• Japanese Wrestler Meiko Satomura Added to Mae Young Classic

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Flip Gordon signs new contract to keep him with Ring of Honor until 2020 -Fightful.com

[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by Countdown till the Arrival of the Era of Joe:

Originally Posted by Observer The return of Brock Lesnar and Ronda Rousey last night led to Raw doing 2.90 million viewers on average, actually beating the final average on June 19 by 1,000 viewers. It was the best number for the show since April 30. The big takeaway was that the audience grew strongly in hour two, and while it fell in hour three, the 2.82 million viewers for hour three was the best since April ... The three hours were: 8 p.m. 2.88 million viewers 9 p.m. 3.01 million viewers 10 p.m. 2.82 million viewers

Originally Posted by Observer Kazuchika Okada will return to Ring of Honor this September at Death Before Dishonor. ROH announced this afternoon that he will be a part of a ten man tag team featuring stars from both Ring of Honor and New Japan. Okada will team with CHAOS teammates Baretta, Tomohiro Ishii, Rocky Romero and Chucky T against Bullet Club members Cody, Matt Jackson, Nick Jackson, Marty Scurll and Hangman Page.

Link: https://twitter.com/ringofhonor/stat...14255934779393

Originally Posted by Observer Sunday’s Total Bellas season three finale averaged 617,000 total viewers and a 0.29 rating in the 18-49 demo. While the rating was down, viewership was slightly up from last week. The finale was down from the past two years, but average viewership for the season was up from season two and only down slightly from season one.

Originally Posted by Observer/PWI/Post Wrestling Indies Roundup: A GoFundMe has been started to help with funeral expenses for Tracy Caddell, the father of Trevor Lee and a former wrestler and promoter. The campaign has reached more than its goal, with Lee writing that any extra will go to having a headstone made and to support Caddell’s fiancee. LA Park has been announced for MLW’s War Games show in Fort Lauderdale, Florida on September 6. Daisuke Sekimoto is set for Fight Club: PRO’s August 31 show in Wolverhampton, England. The band Downstait are releasing the official theme song for All In this Friday. Major League Wrestling is moving to sign a number of their talents to contracts, PWInsider.com has learned. Former MLW Champion Shane Strickland is confirmed to have signed a "long-term" contract. PWInsider.com has confirmed that Ring of Honor has signed Joey Matthews (aka Joey Mercury during his time in WWE) to a deal to work for the company both as a trainer at their training academy but also as a producer behind the scenes. Matthews has always had a great mind for the business so this is a big positive for the company. For those who have asked about the Ring of Honor/New Japan G1 Supercard next year at Madison Square Garden, it will be a Saturday evening event. Ring Warriors announced today that DDT star Shigiro Irie has been added to their TV tapings next month at the Sam's Town Casino in Las Vegas for the promotion's debut this September on WGN America. Jado has been out of action since July 20th due to a left foot injury and New Japan has announced he will miss the rest of the G1 tour. Jado had been working on the undercards of the G1 shows in tag matches. Jado last wrestled on July 20th at Korakuen Hall in a tag match with Yoshi-Hashi against Tetsuya Naito and Bushi.

Trevor Lee: https://www.gofundme.com/unexpected-...of-a-great-man , MLW: https://mlw.com/2018/07/30/la-park-r...rt-lauderdale/ , Fight Club Pro: https://twitter.com/Fightclubpro/sta...67289402122242 , All In: https://twitter.com/DownstaitBand/st...28144256479232

Originally Posted by Observer The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation stated they believe there was no foul play in the death of Brian Lawler, and nobody believed there was. Lawler was found hanging in the jail cell he was living in solitary on Saturday night. Corrections officers administered CPR until paramedics arrived. He was rushed to Regional One Medical Center in Memphis where he passed away.

Originally Posted by PWI WWE Hall of Famer Scott Hall has been at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida this week, working in the ring with NXT and PC talents. Beth Phoenix was at the PC last week.

Link: https://youtu.be/05ShjmogUO0

Originally Posted by PWI We are told that the current plan is for Mauro Ranallo to be one of the lead announcers for the Mae Young Classic tournament next month.

Originally Posted by PWI Former WWE Raw Women's Champion Nia Jax, who was off the road this past weekend, posted on social media that she was rehabbing. No word yet what her potential injury might be.

Originally Posted by WrestlingInc The current card for the WWE live event from Osaka, Japan on August 31 looks like this: * Titus Worldwide vs. The Revival * The Riott Squad vs. Ember Moon, Dana Brooke and Natalya * Finn Balor vs. Jinder Mahal * Elias vs. Bobby Lashley * Braun Strowman vs. Baron Corbin * Kairi Sane vs. Mickie James * Ronda Rousey vs. Nia Jax with RAW Women's Champion Alexa Bliss as special referee * WWE Cruiserweight Champion Cedric Alexander vs. Akira Tozawa vs. Drew Gulak * Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins vs. Drew McIntyre and WWE Intercontinental Champion Dolph Ziggler * Appearances by RAW Tag Team Champions The B Team, Sasha Banks, Bayley, Bobby Roode and Bray Wyatt

Originally Posted by WrestlingInc No word yet on what kind of injury Mickie James is suffering from but RAW Women's Champion Alexa Bliss noted on last night's RAW that her best friend is currently out of action because she's injured. Mickie wrote the following on Twitter and told fans she will be back soon: Thanks for all the love everyone. I'll be back soon. I tell ya what @AlexaBliss_WWE I couldn't have picked a better friend & ally myself than in @AliciaFoxy . You both looked and did so amazing last night! #FoxyLady ?? ??????? https://t.co/juBObMR0yc — Mickie James~Aldis (@MickieJames) July 31, 2018

Link: https://twitter.com/MickieJames/stat...14980588507137

Originally Posted by WrestlingInc WWE has a new poll asking fans if WWE Universal Champion Brock Lesnar is above authority after he hit the F5 on RAW General Manager Kurt Angle last night. As of this writing, 53% voted yes while the rest went with no.

Originally Posted by Observer Brock Lesnar's behavior on Raw this week nearly cost Paul Heyman his job with WWE when The Beast Incarnate didn't want to leave his comfortable dressing room and appear in the ring. Lesnar is booked for one more Raw before SummerSlam to continue building toward his match against Roman Reigns. Dave Meltzer noted on Wrestling Observer Radio that Lesnar is scheduled to be at the August 13th Raw in Greensboro, North Carolina. The Greensboro Coliseum Complex will host the go-home Raw before SummerSlam. Heyman is scheduled to be at the Raw in Greensboro as well. Angle came close to firing The Advocate this week on Raw, but Lesnar's last-minute appearance saved Heyman's job, although Lesnar assaulted Heyman as well.

Some other sheet news:

• 2K Games announced WWE 2K19 will include a new Tower mode feature. https://wwe.2k.com/news/wwe-2k19-towers/
• WWE announced their Youtube channel recently reached 30 million subscribers. https://www.wwe.com/article/wwes-off...?sf194555937=1
• WWE recently released a tribute video in honor of the passing of Nikolai Volkoff. https://youtu.be/50LhVy4VUuk
• In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, today is both the 39th anniversary of Roddy Piper's WWF tv debut and 2nd anniversary of his passing.
• Update to WWE's deal with Saudi Arabia as the Observer's Dave Meltzer reported the actual amount is around $45 million per year for 10 years.
• Recent episode of The Ross Report podcast had Chris Jericho as the guest talking about ways to get Reigns cheered during matches and the biggest problem with heel turns in the WWE. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...n-reigns-heel/

Some stuff from TPWW Frontpage:

• Rikishi & Scotty 2 Hotty Comment on Brian Christopher’s Death
• Jerry Lawler Makes First Public Comments on Brian Christopher’s Death
• Lince Dorado and Mustafa Ali Injured
• Three New Wrestlers Added to Mae Young Classic, Including Madison Rayne
• Rey Mysterio/Young Bucks Match Added to All In – Updated Card

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Daniel Bryan has heat on him for using the phrase 'WWE's announcement' during his promo on SDLive talking about EVOLUTION. Talent has been instructed to say 'Stephanie's announcement' or 'Stephanie and HHH's announcement' when referring to EVOLUTION in promos. - Sean Ross Sapp, Fightful

[RP]

insert black dick here

[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by Brock Lesnar's Stance on the Red Brand:

Originally Posted by Observer Coming off the previous night's Raw posting a three-month high in the ratings, SmackDown followed suit with a three-percent increase from last week's number. This Tuesday's 2.401 million viewers was the highest total for the brand since the May 1 episode of the show. The bad news is that the year-over-year ratings for SmackDown were down for the seventh straight week and 12th in the last 13. SmackDown finished fifth for the night in total viewers on cable but topped the 18-49 demo with a 0.75 rating. Miz and Mrs., which immediately followed SmackDown on the USA Network, had its ratings hold up fairly well from last Tuesday's season premiere. Episode two did 1.303 million viewers. It finished 12th for the night in total viewers and third in the 18-49 demo, much better than any of the non-WWE programming on USA.

Originally Posted by Observer Another member of the New Japan Pro Wrestling roster is set for Ring of Honor's next pay-per-view. ROH announced today that Jushin Thunder Liger will be wrestling at Death Before Dishonor in Las Vegas on Friday, September 28. Liger last appeared for ROH as part of their War of the Worlds tour with NJPW in May. He also wrestled against Rocky Romero at NJPW's event with CEO Fighting Game Championships in Orlando this summer.

Link: https://www.rohwrestling.com/news/ju...urns-roh-vegas

Originally Posted by Observer Tye Dillinger and Cedric Alexander have both issued apologies after old tweets where they joked about rape were uncovered. In 2011, Dillinger wrote “Its not rape if they’re sleeping.” He apologized for the tweet last night: “I have no excuse for my old tweets. I was a different person six years ago, and I’m beyond ashamed at what I considered ‘humor’ . I’m so damn embarrassed and I’m truly sorry to anyone I’ve offended.” In 2012, Alexander wrote “Its not rape if you yell SURPRISE!” and sent out another similar tweet later that year. He apologized today: “Six years ago I found ‘humor’ in bad jokes. At the time it was a harmless joke between friends. In those 6 years I've become a father, husband & grown into a much different man. I have offended and hurt many with my past and for that I am deeply sorry & apologize for my actions”

Tye: https://twitter.com/WWEDillinger/sta...99519340400641 , Cedric: https://twitter.com/CedricAlexander/...82126808174592

Originally Posted by WrestlingInc It's worth noting that Cedric activated the @Tweet_Delete app on his account yesterday to delete all old tweets, with the exception of a re-tweet before making the apology.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling The WWE has not commented on either individual. The jokes were very tasteless and obviously, the subject of rape should never be joked about or to be made light of. The tweets were made years ago, and I feel the apologies for the jokes should be enough. That said, you cannot predict how the WWE will react to a story like this when the empowerment of women is such a major part of the promotion’s present image. This should also be a lesson for aspiring performers of properly using online media and understanding that what you send out to the world could have detrimental effects on your career years down the road.

Originally Posted by Observer The general election to decide the next mayor of Knox County, Tennessee is taking place tomorrow. Glenn Jacobs (Kane) is expected to easily defeat Democrat Linda Haney.

Originally Posted by Observer Kairi Sane and Akira Tozawa have been announced for WWE’s house show in Osaka, Japan on August 31.

Link: https://www.sportingnews.com/jp/wwe/...21krq8ah6fiaj8

Originally Posted by Observer/Post Wrestling Indies Roundup: After their last event at the venue sold out almost immediately, there are still plenty of tickets left for NJPW Fighting Spirit Unleashed at the Walter Pyramid in Long Beach, California on September 30. Tickets went on sale at 1 p.m. Eastern time today. ROH announced that this month’s three Honor Re-United tour shows won’t be airing live on HonorClub. They’re being shown live exclusively on Fite TV, with ROH noting that they’ll be available on demand on HonorClub “at a later date.” ROH World Champion Jay Lethal vs. Adam Brooks in a non-title proving ground match is set for the Honor Re-United show in Edinburgh on August 16. Brooks will get a future shot at the title if he wins. beIN Sports, which is the TV home of MLW, has been taken off Comcast/Xfinity amid a carriage dispute between the two sides. MLW airs on the station on Friday nights and then uploads their TV shows on YouTube at 6:05 p.m. Eastern time the next day. The build to Nick Aldis vs. Cody Rhodes at All In continued in the NWA’s latest video. There were a lot of eliminations from the B Block after Wednesday’s G1 card. Kenny Omega remains unbeaten in the tournament after pinning Zack Sabre Jr. and moving up to 12 points and a 6-0 record. Omega, Tetsuya Naito, and Kota Ibushi are the only ones alive in the B Block. Zack Sabre Jr., Tomohiro Ishii, Sanada and Hirooki Goto were eliminated after today’s show and join Tama Tonga, Toru Yano and Juice Robinson in those that are out. The big matches for the B Block this weekend are Saturday in Osaka with Kota Ibushi vs. Tetsuya Naito and Kenny Omega vs. Tomohiro Ishii.

ROH: https://www.rohwrestling.com/news/ho...m-live-fite-tv & https://twitter.com/ringofhonor/stat...97442995970048 , Lethal: https://www.rohwrestling.com/news/ca...world-champion , NWA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YsCB4-lj-c

Another excerpt from Shinsuke Nakamura’s book: You had no choice but to do what the company wanted. But then Kazuyuki Fujita refused to accept a match with Brock Lesnar for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship which was scheduled to be the main event. Given your previous track record, you were selected to take his place and be the challenger. “Part of that was luck. But that match was seriously rough. First, Lesnar was saying all this stuff about how he respected New Japan, but it felt to me like that was just for show, that he didn't really respect the promotion. Like, somewhere, he was looking down on Japanese people. I lost the match, and that was the first time I cried at pro wrestling after a match.” Why did you cry? “It was the main event at Tokyo Dome. This was a pretty hallowed stage, and I knew I hadn't fought the way I imagined I would. And there was, like, this temperature difference between me and Lesnar. I didn’t get the sense he had any love for pro wrestling. It felt like he was just doing his job.” Another match to defend the title was later canceled because of contract trouble with Lesnar. He was stripped of the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, but be never returned the belt itself; he ended up running off with it. “I felt like this was too much; he was seriously scoffing at us. Lesnar won the championship and took the belt home, I told Simon if the company didn't get it’s shit in order, that belt was definitely going to get nicked. I didn't honestly believe that when we fought. But it ended up just like I feared. He has the physical stuff, plus a straightforward strength and a certain amount of flexibility, so there was a bit of the monster to him. But I didn't like his personality, you know? He might have made a real mark in UFC, but he didn't even seem to notice the audience booing. I was like, "Oh, this guy's a heel to the core."”

From Nakamura's recently released biography involving working with Lesnar in NJPW.

Originally Posted by PWI WWE uploaded a few more "Home Video Classics" yesterday continuing what will be the classic content for the month of August on WWE Network. They added the following titles: *1989 - Ultimate Warrior *1989 - Demolition *1992 - Ultimate Warrior

Originally Posted by PWI Destiny Wrestling announced: Its official - Bad Intentions Saturday Aug 25 will now be a One Night Only @IMPACTWRESTLING TV TAPING! with special guests just added OVE and @Tess_Blanchard so get your tickets before its sold out https://t.co/gdcBimhMup pic.twitter.com/DBO4LL9A9V — Destiny Wrestling (@DestinyWrestle) August 1, 2018

Link: https://twitter.com/DestinyWrestle/s...76355201720321

Originally Posted by PWI WWE have applied to trademark Akam, Rezar, The Bludgeon Brothers, and Velveteen Dream.

Originally Posted by WrestlingInc WWE stock fell to $77.60 today, down $1.51 from yesterday's number, but a couple more executives were able to sell off more stock before the dip in price. Several World Wrestling Entertainment executives recently sold a combined $160,000 worth of company shares. According to SEC filings, Kevin Dunn and Michelle Wilson have sold even more units of WWE stock. According to the documents, Kevin Dunn sold another 1000,000 shares of WWE stock at different prices on July 30th. He sold 55,496 at $78.586, 26,804 at $79.683, and 17,700 shares at $80.306. This netted WWE's Executive Vice President of Television Production $7.92 million. He previously sold 122,926 shares for $10.2 million in July. WWE Co-President Michelle Wilson sold 140,000 shares of WWE stock on July 31st at a price point of $80.03 for $11.2 million. The number is in addition to the $12.1 million she made earlier in July when she unloaded 121,181 shares at $82.52. Dunn has a remaining amount of 214,170 shares left, while Wilson has slightly more with 223,426 shares of WWE stock. If Dunn and Wilson elected to sell off the rest of their shares in WWE at the current price of $77.60, it would net them an additional $16.6 million and $17.3 million respectively.

Originally Posted by WrestlingInc Mark Henry was really impressed by Brock Lesnar's performance on RAW this past Monday night. As Lesnar ended Monday Night Raw by not only attacking general manager Kurt Angle, but physically assaulting his long-time manager Paul Heyman, the "World's Strongest Man" took notice. While appearing on SiriusXM's Busted Open on Tuesday morning, Henry not only complimented Lesnar, but he went so far as to say that it was his best promo ever. "First of all, I'm going to go on record as saying something that I've never said about Brock Lesnar ever," Henry said. "Best promo he ever cut. When he grabbed Paul Heyman and he said you are not my friend, and he started ripping him. I was like he doesn't need Paul Heyman. That promo was fire. That's what Brock needs to do... I thought that segment was really good." Henry didn't stop in his praise of Lesnar. He also complimented Heyman for his work, especially in the physical aspect of things. "Paul Heyman was as spectacular as he always is, playing the role, not only that, but the physical part of it," Henry added. "Because you don't want to see Paul have any physical interaction and he did [on Monday] and he was tremendous. I'm just so happy we were blessed with that."

Link: https://twitter.com/BustedOpenRadio/...69772581007362


Some other sheet news includes:

• In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, today is the 12th anniversary of the infamous Batista vs Big Show ECW Championship match at the Hammerstein Ballroom and the 5th anniversary of the infamous August 1st Warning reveal in TNA.
• Recent episode of the Talk Is Jericho podcast show had both Mark Henry and Busted Open Radio's Dave LaGreca as the guests talking about WWE's legacy in MSG. https://omny.fm/shows/talk-is-jerich...wemsg-fullshow
• Matt Riddle recently confirmed rumors of him being in talks with the WWE for a possible contract and leaving the indies very soon. Was revealed during a recent interview he had with Sports Illustrated. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...-wwe-and-njpw/
• Void Magazine had a recent interview with Alicia Fox talking about her recent injury, thoughts on her current character, WWE's Women's division, and more. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...her-character/

Some stuff from TPWW Frontpage:

• WWE: SD Dark Matches, Rousey on Colbert (Video), Otunga Robber Story
• Three More Wrestlers Added to Mae Young Classic

[Mr. Nerfect]

Had no clue Brock put his hands on Heyman on Raw. I wonder if when Brock leaves they pair Heyman up with a heel Roman Reigns in order to give Heyman something to do?

[#1-norm-fan]

Nah. No way they pair Heyman with Reigns or turn him.

I can however see Heyman turning on Brock and then coming out the next night on Raw just assuming Reigns is gonna take him on as his advocate now and then taking a spear.

[Mr. Nerfect]

Yeah, that's more likely.

[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by Clothesline & Lariato Appreciation Day:

Originally Posted by Observer While there are still five more wrestlers left to be confirmed for this year's Mae Young Classic, it doesn't look like one of those spots will be filled by Jazzy Gabert. The 36-year-old Gabert wrote on Twitter today that she won't be returning for the 2018 tournament: "As you by now might know, I will not be at the #myc this year! The hope was high, I saw your tweets. Thank you for your support! Wishing all the fantastic girls on the Tournament lot of success and most of all FUN! I will be watching" ... Last December, Gabert revealed that she was offered a WWE contract following the Mae Young Classic but was "disqualified" during medical testing due to having three herniated discs in her neck. She underwent neck surgery earlier this year and has returned to the ring.

Link: https://twitter.com/Jazzy_Gabert/sta...41485777711105

Originally Posted by Observer/PWI Indies Roundup: The ticket prices announced for the CMLL Anniversary show on 9/14 suggests that there will not be an L.A. Park vs. Rush mask vs. hair match as was originally scheduled. Tickets go on sale on Saturday at 11 a.m. Nothing has been announced. There are people in Mexico who are connected who told me earlier this week that the match was now off but they weren't with CMLL. The belief is if that match was happening, the prices would be higher than they are listed. Matt Taven will be on Monday's CMLL show in Puebla. He was already announced for weekend shows. The top two matches on Monday, which does stream head-to-head with Raw, are Caristico vs. Volador Jr., and Atlantis & Octagon & Taven vs. Cuatrero & Forastero & Sanson. AAW runs Saturday night in LaSalle, IL at the Knights of Columbus with ACH vs. Jeff Cobb for the AAW title, Mat Fitchett & Davey Vega vs. LAX for the tag titles, Kimber Lee vs. Jessicka Havok for the women's title, Trevor Lee vs. Myron Reed for the Heritage title, Eddie Kingston vs. MVP Scarlett Bordeaux vs. Allie Kat. Defy Wrestling on 8/10 in Seattle at Washington Hall with Shane Strickland defending the Defy title against Brian Cage, Toni Storm vs. Nicole Matthews plus Trent Seven, Tyler Bate and guest ring announcer Melissa Santos. Major League Wrestling announced the following: PENTAGON JR. & REY FENIX TO DEFEND MLW WORLD TAG TEAM TITLES AGAINST LA PARK & EL HIJO DE LA PARK OCTOBER 4 IN NEW YORK CITY

Originally Posted by Observer Rumors all week are true that WWE has now decreed that wrestlers in the U.K. division are no longer allowed to take any bookings over a seven day prior period to a WWE U.K. event. Southside Wrestling noted that both Joseph Conners and Dan Moloney are off their 8/19 show due to that.

Originally Posted by Observer As was noted in the latest Observer that this was likely, it is now official that Verizon Fios viewers will no longer have access to Bein Sports due to the inability to come to an agreement on carriage charges with the current contract expiring. Antonio Briceno, the station's USA Deputy Managing Director said that the station offered to extend the current contract with the same rate and terms but Verizon chose to drop the deal. He said Verizon falsely claimed they were trying to get a significant rates increase.

Huge hit to Major League Wrestling due to the amount of markets they have lost for the time being. Official statement from Bein Sports: https://www.pwinsider.com/article/11...-fios.html?p=1

Originally Posted by Observer WWE announced a new book called "Creating the Mania: An Inside Look at how WrestleMania comes to life" by Jon Robinson will be released this coming Tuesday by ECW Press. This will talk about how the storylines were come up with and more.

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

Originally Posted by Observer Kazem Famuyide, an MLW podcaster, has gotten a job with WWE on its writing team. He started earlier this summer on a three-month summer trial.

Originally Posted by PWI The third season of WWE Story Time, which features animated retellings of superstar stories, will premiere on the WWE Network following SummerSlam August 19.

Originally Posted by PWI WWE Network News revealed today's "Hidden Gem" that will be added to the streaming service will be another clip from OVW Christmas Chaos which happened on January 31, 2001 featuring Stone Cold Steve Austin. OVW – 01/31/2001 “Raising Hell in OVW Stone Cold Steve Austin takes a rare trip to Ohio Valley Wrestling to leave a stunning impression on both fans and competitors.” This is actually the second clip WWE has added from this Louisville Garden show recently. A few weeks ago, Kane versus Leviathan a.k.a. Batista was added which features a run in from Steve Austin.

Originally Posted by PWI The following "Home Video Classics" have been added to the WWE Network yesterday: 1993: UK Fan Favorites 1993 1994 Paul Bearer--Hits From the Crypt 1995: Shawn Michaels 1997 : Sunny

Originally Posted by Observer There has been no hinting on television regarding a John Cena vs. Undertaker match at SummerSlam, with two weeks of television left to take place. The match had gone around in certain circles including insider circles. SummerSlam will probably have two or three pre-show matches and will go no less than five hours and could go as long as six hours.

Originally Posted by Observer This is the last word anyone had heard regarding Hiromu Takahashi and it’s based on the belief from a few weeks ago. The New Japan doctors believe it will be nine to 12 months before he can return. The belief is that he suffered a broken neck, which sounds terrible and that’s why nobody has said anything public. The good news is that they had found no evidence of nerve damage so it’s all about the healing of the bone and making sure it can absorb the type of punishment in a New Japan ring. They were thinking he could get back to training and being athletic in six months, but were looking at the extra three to six months before letting him wrestle because of the type of style he works

Originally Posted by Observer Here’s an amazing stat. From August 1995, when he returned to action after missing time after an operation to remove a brain tumor, until June 2018, Jushin Liger wrestled at least one match in every month, which covers 22 years and 11 months. He didn’t wrestle a match in July because he wasn’t booked on the G-1 tour.

Originally Posted by Observer For what it’s worth, the fact that not only is Jay Lethal still wrestling, but there was no move to even take the title off him, tells you pretty clearly in this day and age that ROH management doesn’t believe the Taelor Hendrix claim that she was taken off television for not sleeping with him. Even if there is a little bit of doubt that it could be true, in a public company, with the charge out there, in this day and age, the very least they’d do is quietly remove him from shows

Originally Posted by Observer A piece of trivia regarding however this ends up going down in the future. The reason Don Callis was brought in to run the company is because Leonard Asper of the Asper family, which owns The Fight Network, Impact and tons of things in Winnipeg (the old Winnipeg connection) had a conversation with Chris Jericho about how the company has lost so much money and all of its problems. Jericho told him that Impact had been run by snakes and that those type of people are only going to rip him off. He went so far as to say that he should hire Callis to run the company or fold the company

Originally Posted by Observer There’s been a lot of talk regarding the shoulder programming that FOX is going to do in conjunction with WWE. Keep in mind that FS 1 and FS 2 is losing tons of hours of programming with the loss of UFC, and when we listed the decline in hours for UFC, that was only live fight programming, not the loss of hype shows before and after the events and all the endless hours of replays on both networks. The idea of NXT on FS 1 makes all the sense in the world, but those involved in the process told us it wouldn’t be happening. WWE is interested in keeping that as exclusive network property but FS 1 gives the show wider distribution and my belief is that distribution would also lead to larger crowds for the live events and more merchandise opportunities, plus it’s more programming WWE can sell and it’ll help FS 1 ratings. What has been talked about are things like FS 1 doing pre-game shows every Friday night before Smackdown and post-game shows on Sundays after PPV shows. Richard Dietsch just reported on the Friday & Sunday ideas this past week. It’s already been reported they are looking at a weekly studio show, perhaps on Wednesday, the WWE version of UFC Tonight. The problem is FS 1 shows of that ilk are supposed to be journalism and not pure hype. One can argue UFC Tonight was more hype but they discussed issues like lawsuits and fighter pay that I wouldn’t expect a WWE show to do on its own. UFC fighters also are a lot more open on interviews because the winning and losing on their own merit and lack of media training leaves them more unfiltered Those at FOX have said there are no announcements planned right now regarding any new programming and those involved in those deals have said the original FOX deal as far as in-ring wrestling programming goes only involved Smackdown and there was no talk of any other wrestling

Originally Posted by Observer There’s been overtures to Fenix and Pentagon Jr., even though as far as I’ve heard both still have three seasons left on their Lucha Underground deals. But they are two of the key guys on the indie scene right now

Originally Posted by Observer Another note regarding the 10/28 women’s PPV is that October is the annual Susan G. Komen month on WWE television

Originally Posted by Observer Josh Thomson, one of Cain Velasquez’s long-time teammates, did an interview about Velasquez training last week at the Performance Center. Thomson said that Velasquez was looking to fight but he and UFC haven’t come to an agreement so he was looking at his options. Thomson thought that he could retire from fighting and go into pro wrestling, although technically both the UFC and WWE each have contracts that specifically forbid that. Even so, UFC did allow Rousey to do just that since she and Dana White are close, and also allowed Lesnar. C.M. Punk, on the other hand, needed to send legal threats to WWE after already being fired for WWE to not try and legally stand in the way of him fighting in UFC. This is not an athletic thing in the sense Velasquez is a great athlete, but he does come in with a lot of injuries and just turned 36 this past week. And I just don’t see him having a pro wrestling personality. As far as a young Velasquez with his drive, he’d blow everyone away in the drills, work harder than everyone and have more stamina than everyone, but the personality aspect would still be a challenge. The one WWE should be looking at after he retires is Daniel Cormier as an announcer. Since the company has the doctrine they need an African-American guy in the same third wheel position on every show, Cormier would blow away Coachman on day one, blow away Saxton on day one, and fairly quickly surpass Watson. The only negative is that everyone knows Saxton is good but the role he plays makes him bad, and if they try to take Cormier out of his game and program him to announce WWE style, there’s a good chance he wouldn’t be good either

So if you ever wonder why WWE went with 3 man teams for commentary and why the 3rd guy was always an African American, turns out its because of a mandate from the WWE and not something by pure coincidence.

Originally Posted by Observer Regarding the debut of Marina Shafir on 7/26, one person internally noted to us that “It’s really scary how natural these four women (Rousey, Baszler, Shafir and Jessamyn Duke) are in the ring. Just wait until you see Jess and Marina. All four are tremendous in their own way. Maybe recruiting women MMA fighters is going too be the future of the recruitment process.” I could definitely see the idea of WWE going after charismatic or very pretty MMA fighters, especially if they come from markets WWE is looking at recruiting from, in the future. They’ve already had interest in the past in Paige VanZant and while you never know how someone will adapt, she seems a natural with how well she did on “Dancing With The Stars” and the fact she’s unlikely to ever be a championship level MMA fighter, and going forward, WWE exposure is going to be so much more than UFC, that they can open up more doors for them outside of the ring/octagon.

Originally Posted by Observer World of Sport did 937,000 viewers between ITV, ITV+1 and ITV HD, which meant that 8.6 percent of people in the U.K. watching television were watching the show. In the U.S. that would be unreal for a wrestling show to do that. Nothing like that has happened since the Attitude Era. A 10:50 a.m. Sunday morning replay did 155,000 viewers.

Originally Posted by WrestlingInc Big E revealed in his recent TampaBay.com interview that they have looked into releasing some sort of branded pancake product. WWE previously released the BootyO's cereal for the group. "We've definitely explored trying to do something in that vain," Big E said when asked if there will be New Day frozen pancakes coming soon. "Cereal is easier. Right now our cereal is at FYE and FYE.com. … We're talking to people in licensing for a way for this pancake nonsense to be available to our fans."

Link: https://www.tampabay.com/things-to-d...akes_170379590

Originally Posted by WrestlingInc WWE has a new poll asking fans if Charlotte Flair stole Becky Lynch's thunder on this week's SmackDown. As of this writing, 80% went with yes while the rest went with no. As noted, Flair returned and defeated SmackDown Women's Champion Carmella in a non-title match, earning a spot in the title match at SummerSlam with Becky.

Some other sheet news includes:

• In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, today is the 26th anniversary of Ron Simmons becoming the first ever African American to win a World Heavyweight championship in professional wrestling. Simmons defeated then champion Big Van Vader for the WCW World title.
• WWE added a new collection set in memory of Nikolai Volkoff to the WWE Network earlier today. Entire list of contents in the set via PWI: https://www.pwinsider.com/article/11...ction.html?p=1
• Website Fan Fest had a recent interview with Mick Foley talking about his career being associated the most with Hell in a Cell 1998, Owens homage to Foley at Extreme Rules, and his 1996 Boiler Room Brawl against Taker being one of his favorite moments. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...emembered-for/

Some stuff from TPWW Frontpage:

• Kane Wins Election and Becomes Mayor of Knox County, TN
• Aleister Black Injured
• Trent Barreta and Chuck Taylor Added to All In
• Rey Mysterio Likely Returning to WWE After All In
• Big Cass Returning to Wrestling, Now Known as “Big Cazz”
• Daniel Bryan’s Contract Expires in a Month and He Still Hasn’t Re-Signed

[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by Classic WCW Nitro gif:

Originally Posted by Observer Impact Wrestling's positive momentum coming out of Slammiversary XVI hasn't translated to much ratings success. Last night's Impact averaged 248,000 total viewers on Pop TV, along with a 0.05 rating in the 18-49 demo. That's the show's lowest audience of 2018 and down from last week's 299,000 viewers. There was a moderate post-PPV bump for last week's episode, with it up from the 275,000 that the Slammiversary go-home show did on July 19. The previous low mark for Impact this year was 254,000 viewers for the episode that aired on June 28. Impact was also down in the year-over-year ratings, with the August 3, 2017 edition of the show having done 276,000 viewers. Impact did face competition from the NFL last night. The first preseason game of the year averaged 6.67 million viewers on NBC.

Originally Posted by Observer All 32 wrestlers have been confirmed for this summer's Mae Young Classic. The final five participants were announced for the tournament today, with Sienna, Xia Li, Rachael Ellering, MJ Jenkins, and Zatara rounding out the lineup. Tapings for the tournament will be held at Full Sail University next Wednesday and Thursday, leading into the finals taking place at WWE Evolution on October 28.

Link: https://www.wwe.com/shows/maeyoungcl...y-rachel-evers

Originally Posted by Observer Almost all the women in the Mae Young Classic, which will be taped on Wednesday and Thursday in Orlando, are in Orlando now. Most were in yesterday and the rest were supposed to be in today. They are all there to spend the weekend practicing their matches.

Originally Posted by Observer Brian Lawler's funeral took place today in Memphis. Jerry Lawler noted that this was the saddest day of his life. Spellbinder Del Rios, Reggie B. Fine, Kevin Lawler, Tony Williams and other family members spoke at the funeral. Dave Brown led the ten bell salute. They played his entrance music. They had a little red wagon with photos on display stemming from a little red wagon promo he did early in his career in Memphis. Doug Gilbert was one of the pall bearers. Also in attendance were Scott Garland (Scotty 2 Hotty), Rudy Charles from WWE, Matt Riviera, promoter Bert Prentice, Jerry Jarrett, Koko B. Ware, Downtown Bruno and Bill Dundee.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling CW30 in Memphis will have a special Brian Christopher tribute edition of “Jerry Lawler’s Classic Memphis Wrestling” this Saturday at 11 am. The visitation and funeral for Brian are today in Cordova, Tennessee and he will be buried at Memorial Gardens in Bartlett, Tennessee.

Originally Posted by Observer/PWI Indies Roundup: Michael Elgin suffered a right arm injury in his match with Kazuchika Okada on Monday in Takamatsu. He arm went out catching Okada on a move. There is no word on the severity of the injury but he's expected to get an MRI on it next week. He's still working through the tournament. While he was selling it as part of the story in his match with Bad Luck Fale yesterday, that was all selling and he was telling people it wasn't bothering him in the match. Jeff Jarrett vs. Fenix for the AAA Mega heavyweight title is now official after last night's AAA TV tapings, for a TripleMania match on 8/25 at Arena Ciudad in Mexico City. Northeast Wrestling has two major weekend shows, the first being tonight in Norwich, CT at Dodd Stadium with Rey Mysterio Jr. vs. Darby Allin and Jack Swagger vs. Flip Gordon, as well as Matt Riddle vs. Brad Hollister and also making appearances are The Young Bucks, Marty Scurll, Renee Young, Christian, Corey Graves, King Kong Bundy, Billy Gunn, Jimmy Hart and The Kingdom. They also run tomorrow night for what is annually one of the biggest indie events of the year, The Night Under the Stars at Dutchess Stadium in Wappingers Falls, NY with Mysterio Jr. vs. Gordon, Swagger vs. Gunn plus Robbie E, Tenille Dashwood, Young Bucks, Christian, Renee Young, Corey Graves, King Kong Bundy, Tito Santana, Jimmy Hart and Marty Scurll. Smash Wrestling on 8/26 in Toronto at The Phoenix with Jeff Cobb vs. PCO vs. Brody King, Joey Janela vs. Tyson Dux for the Smash title and Tessa Blanchard vs. Vanessa Kraven. Tickets for the 9/28 Ring of Honor Death Before Dishonor PPV event at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas as well as their 9/29 TV taping in the same venue officially went on sale at 3 PM Eastern via Ticketmaster.com. Former Quebecer Pierre Carl Oulette will be working pretty much all the scheduled MLW events going forward, starting with the 9/6 return to Fort Lauderdale event, which will be headlined by Wargames. This past Wednesday’s episode of Lucha Underground was down to 114,000 viewers, which was their lowest number since July 4th. After eight episodes, the current season is averaging 119,500 viewers per episode on the El Rey Network.

Originally Posted by Observer The XFL was wanting to put a team in the Bay Area but isn't having much luck. Both the Oakland Coliseum and the Cal Stadium in Berkeley turned the league down. The Coliseum said the schedule would cause problems in getting the stadium ready for the Oakland A's opening games. Cal simply turned down the XFL's request to play there.

Originally Posted by 411mania According to sources, there is some backstage speculation that WWE may once again be ending their brand split in 2019 in order to keep their new deal with FOX. WWE officials are reportedly concerned that FOX could back out of the deal due to ratings. As previously reported here on eWrestlingNews.com, WWE and FOX agreed to a five-year deal back in May that is worth $1.025 billion for SmackDown! to air live on the FOX Network beginning in October 2019. WWE officials, including Vince McMahon, are reportedly worried that FOX could back out of a long-term deal due to the ratings for SmackDown! Live. If this were to happen, WWE would more than likely panic and end the brand split. It should be noted that the exact details of the FOX-WWE contract are unknown and it’s said that FOX likely couldn’t back out of a deal worth that much so easily. The worst case scenario is that WWE SmackDown! Live would be moved to FS1 if it can’t compete live on Friday night’s.

Link: https://411mania.com/wrestling/new-s...-due-fox-deal/

Originally Posted by PWI Wrestling DVD Network confirmed that there will be a best of WWE 24 DVD release by the end of the year. It had been one of the potential releases we noted earlier in the year was on the planning board. It will likely have a December release.

Link: http://www.wrestlingdvdnetwork.com/b...hedule/158249/

Originally Posted by PWI Attorneys for World Wrestling Entertainment filed an application on 8/3 with the United States District Court of Connecticut, seeking to receive the attorney fees the court has ordered they are eligible to receive from attorney Konstantine Kyros following Kyros being sanctions by the court in regard to ongoing concussion-related lawsuits that have been filed against the company. WWE is seeking to be reimbursed for legal fees incurred in connection to the motion for the sanctioning ... WWE is seeking a total reimbursement of $176,486.74, broken down to $154,745.50 in legal fees for K&L Gates LLP, $19,663 in legal fees for Day Pitney LLP as well as travel and lodging costs for Jerry S. McDevitt and Curtis B. Krasik in the amount of $2078.24 ... Kyros has until 8/23 to respond to the court.

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

Originally Posted by PWI Scheduled for the remaining first season episodes of Miz & Mrs. on the USA Network: 8/7 - "When Daddy Mike and The Miz's worlds collide, mother-in-law Marjo steps in to daddy duties." 8/14 "The big day arrives! But can Maryse convince her mom that the delivery room will be off limits?" 8/21 - "Mike, Maryse, Monroe, Marjo, and four pets make the move from LA to Austin. What could go wrong?" 8/28 - "Mike and Maryse trade designer shoes for cowboy boots as they embrace their new life in Texas."

Originally Posted by PWI The election victory of WWE star Glenn "Kane" Jacobs in the race to become Mayor of Knox County, TN has received a LOT of mainstream media attention over the last twelve hours. The former WWF Champion addressed his supporters last night in his acceptance speech: Here’s a clip from his speech. pic.twitter.com/oeA85HefBp — Travis Dorman (@travdorman) August 3, 2018 WWE issued the following: Congratulations to @KaneWWE on being elected Mayor of Knox County, Tennessee! https://t.co/I4E5YQhYCC — WWE (@WWE) August 3, 2018

Kane: https://twitter.com/travdorman/statu...94715258519552 , WWE: https://twitter.com/WWE/status/1025190178602864640

Originally Posted by PWI As previously noted on PWInsider.com, WWE Hall of Famer Scott Hall was at the WWE Performance Center helping with in-ring training of NXT and PC talents earlier this week. PWInsider.com can also confirm that Hall was joined by Kevin Nash as well at the PC with the duo giving advise and assistance.

Originally Posted by WrestlingInc Cody Rhodes announced "All In" by Downstrait will be the official theme for the event. You can listen to it on iTunes, or hear a clip of it in the video below (12:55 mark). Here it is! One of the official songs for @ALL_IN_2018 @DownstaitBand strikes again! Here on iTunes: https://t.co/3OikpdGEyI pic.twitter.com/RBjOSkc75s — Cody Rhodes (@CodyRhodes) August 3, 2018

Link: https://twitter.com/CodyRhodes/statu...88903455444993

Originally Posted by WrestlingInc Thursday marked the 20-year anniversary of Sunday Night Heat, which served as a supplement program to Raw as well as a preview show on pay-per-view nights. Heat holds a special meaning to Trish Stratus as she made her WWE debut on the show (on the March 19, 2000 episode). In honor of its 20th anniversary, Trish has counted down her top 10 Heat moments. You guys, remember Sunday Night Heat?? Can u believe it premiered 20 years ago? Here's some of my Heat moments, including the kick off for my rivalry with @REALLiSAMARiE + number 1 is super special! https://t.co/tsBJyF86BI — Trish Stratus (@trishstratuscom) August 3, 2018

Link: https://twitter.com/trishstratuscom/...56585437532160

Originally Posted by WrestlingInc Above is new video of Liv Morgan revealing the origin of her blue tongue - blue candy. Liv says she's been doing the blue tongue since coming to RAW with the rest of The Riott Squad, and it became a thing by accident but she likes it and no one has complained, so she hopes to keep doing it.

Link: https://youtu.be/3SedvdSnAxk

Originally Posted by WrestlingInc WWE SmackDown is scheduled to go to Friday nights on Fox beginning October 19, 2019, but it looks like there could be more WWE programming on the Fox networks. There is said to be a very good chance that FS1 will air a SmackDown pre-show each Friday night, according to Richard Deitsch of The Athletic. There's also talk of FS1 hosting post-shows following major WWE pay-per-view events, such as SummerSlam. Regarding on-air talents for the potential WWE pre-shows and post-shows on FS1, Deitsch noted that the talents would be hired by Fox but there would likely be some kind of approval from WWE. It was reported earlier this summer that there was talk of doing a weekly WWE studio show on FS1, perhaps on Wednesday nights.

Link: https://theathletic.com/446290/2018/...rout-and-more/


Some other sheet news includes:

• Recent episode of the Edge & Christian podcast show had Luke Harper as the guest. https://art19.com/shows/ecs-pod-of-a...e-fd421edb3ce2
• For those interested, PWI compiled a list of all the upcoming WWE DVD sets arriving during the rest of this year. https://www.pwinsider.com/article/11...eases.html?p=1

Some stuff from TPWW Frontpage:

• Nakamura vs. Jeff Hardy Added to SummerSlam – Updated Card
• Johnny Impact Injured During Photo Shoot
• All 32 Competitors in Mae Young Classic Revealed

[Mr. Nerfect]

I really doubt FOX would have entered a deal with WWE not knowing they were getting a B-show on Friday nights. I don't know why they'd gamble with the promise of a product the WWE just does not produce and has not produced in a number of years. I'm not TV contracts guy, but I imagine the deal is pretty set in stone with the out clause being if SmackDown performs woefully bad. I imagine it would have to be something out of the television norm. So ratings going down 10% is probably not going to affect them. Going down 20%? I can't imagine why FOX wouldn't have something built in to cut bait if SmackDown suddenly becomes poison property.

[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by NOTHING:

Originally Posted by Observer Raw last night, built around Ronda Rousey's show in-ring debut, did 2.80 million viewers, down three percent from last week, although last week was the best number since April 30 ... Rousey kept the third-hour drop to be much lower than usual, only 126,000 viewers. Last week's third-hour drop was 197,000 viewers from hour two, and that was better than usual. If there was a Rousey effect notable, it was that women 18-49 grew five percent during a period it usually falls. However, the heavy-women emphasized third hour, with the final two bouts being women's matches, saw the men's 18-49 demo drop six percent from hour two to three, a demo that usually holds steadier. Rousey's first match did not crack the Google search rankings, so it didn't have the mainstream buzz what would lead to unusually good numbers. The three hours were: 8 p.m. 2.83 million viewers 9 p.m. 2.85 million viewers 10 p.m. 2.73 million viewers

Originally Posted by Observer PWinsider reported that Hogan, who lives in Florida, is backstage at SmackDown in Orlando tonight. They noted that Mae Young Classic participant Kaitlyn is also backstage

Link: https://www.pwinsider.com/article/11...o-are.html?p=1

Originally Posted by Observer Madison Rayne and Mia Yim were interviewed by TVInsider ahead of the Mae Young Classic. Rayne spoke about wanting to be signed by WWE after the tournament: “That’s 100 percent my hope. That’s 100 percent my goal. That’s what I’m training for and mentally preparing myself for because I think if you don’t go into something like this prepared to make it to the finals and to win the finals and watch your career take off in an entirely new direction, then you're short-changing yourself.”

Link: https://www.tvinsider.com/707008/ash...-wwe-contract/

Originally Posted by Observer/PWI/Post Wrestling Indies Roundup: Michael Elgin tweeted an update on his bicep injury and noted that no serious damage was found: “Update - no tear in the bicep. Some scratches to the muscle and bruising/injury to the bicep head. A couple weeks of light pulling movements (but I just trained back and a few sets of biceps so it's good to go) well ok, it was painful. But no servere damage” MLW announced that John Hennigan, Tommy Dreamer, Shane Strickland, Kotto Brazil & Barrington Hughes will face Sami Callihan, Jimmy Havoc, Leon Scott, Sawyer Fulton & a partner that has yet to be announced in a War Games match at their show in Fort Lauderdale, Florida on September 6. ROH announced that they’ll be coming to Stage AE in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on November 3 for a set of TV tapings. Survival of the Fittest 2018 will then take place in Columbus, Ohio on November 4. The winner will earn a future shot at the ROH World Championship. PCW has an iPPV on 9/7 with Tessa Blanchard vs. Diamante. Blanchard will be auctioning off her Slammiversary ring jacket. Warbeast vs. Reno Scum was also announced Week two ratings for World of Sport do not look good. The preliminary number for yesterday's show was 609,000 viewers, down 34 percent from last week. The reality is they didn't have anything that compelled people to return, and since the show reached an older age group, they were likely watching due to nostalgia, which never holds up long-term. The final number will probably rise slightly, but this could not have been a worse sign. Northeast Wrestling is bringing in Ultimo Guerrero to face Flip Gordon on its 8/11 show in Bethany, CT. JT Dunn, Brian Milonas, Brad Hollister and Robbie E are also on the show. Eve has a double main event no 8/11 in London at the Resistance Gallery at Bethnal Green with Kay Lee Ray vs. Viper. Based on the announced lineup of the "All In" event thus far, it would appear Kenny Omega vs. Pentagon Jr. is the next headline bout to be announced. At one point in the planning of the event, Omega vs. Rey Mysterio was on the drawing board. FITE TV will be carrying “Joey Janela’s Lost in New York”, which is being put on by Game Changer Wrestling over SummerSlam weekend. The event will cost $13.99 on FITE and will likely feature Matt Riddle’s final independent match for the foreseeable future. The Crash has announced that women’s champion Tessa Blanchard will return on September 8th for a card in Tijuana.

Elgin: https://twitter.com/MichaelElgin25/s...25223683510272 , ROH: https://www.rohwrestling.com/news/ro...umbus-november

Originally Posted by Observer New Japan has taken disciplinary action against Tama Tonga following what they are calling 'inappropriate conduct'. NJPW’s official English site released a statement this morning saying “NJPW takes actions taken by our wrestlers seriously. In light of recent inappropriate conduct by Tama Tonga including SNS usage, the company has decided to take disciplinary actions against said wrestlers, and will issue updated guidelines to all wrestlers.” Tama Tonga has been making waves on social media, specifically Twitter, since splitting from the Bullet Club and forming his own faction with the Guerillas of Destiny and Bad Luck Fale, including trading barbs with the likes of Roman Reigns. He was recently suspended from the service for a short period of time. Reasons for the suspension were not made clear, but tweets insulting fans using profane language have since been deleted. There was also an incident on a recent G1 card where he grabbed a fan by the throat after a match. His most recent tweet was a video posted on August 5 where he was shown littering in a public area.

Link: https://www.njpw1972.com/33832

Originally Posted by Observer There was a lot of talk regarding an incident at the Revolution Pro show at the Cockpit in London today[Sunday]. Kurtis Chapman wrestled Chris Ridgeway. Sam Adonis came out and made a number of homophobic slurs, the f word, the h word and also used slurs directed at mentally disabled. The crowd was upset, with a large section turning their back on him and chanting "Don't bring him back." It hurt the crowd until the main event. Promoter Andy Quildan seemed upset and offered an apology before the main event started saying that everyone was welcome at RevPro.

For some reference, Sam Adonis is Corey Graves brother. Since the incident, Graves hasn't commented on this or his thoughts on what occurred at the event.

Originally Posted by Observer With his time as an independent wrestler soon coming to an end, Matt Riddle lost the EVOLVE Championship at the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on Saturday. Shane Strickland defeated Riddle in a hardcore rules match at EVOLVE 108 to win the title. The story of the match was that Riddle refused to give up despite Strickland working over his left arm and repeatedly hiting double stomps, including one that was off a ladder and through a table while Riddle was hung on the ladder. Strickland eventually won with his JML Driver finisher. This was the third time Riddle and Strickland have faced off in EVOLVE this year, with their previous matches ending in a no contest and a disqualification. WWN confirmed last month that Riddle would be on all of EVOLVE's August shows and that he would be adding more dates if he was still champion after that. The company has EVOLVE 109 in Melrose, Massachusetts today, EVOLVE 110 in Cicero, Illinois on August 11, and EVOLVE 111 in Livonia, Michigan on August 12.

Originally Posted by PWI Former EVOLVE Champion Matt Riddle, who is expected to debut with WWE at the Takeover: Brooklyn event, suffered an injury during his hardcore match against Shane Strickland over the weekend in Philadelphia, PA. According to an Instagram post made by Riddle's wife (which included a nasty photo of the injury), the former UFC fighter had the skin ripped off the tip of his finger due a deep cut suffered during a spot with a chair in the match ... Riddle, who dropped the EVOLVE title in that bout, wrestled the next day against Austin Theory in Melrose, MA but has been pulled from some independent bookings since the injury.

Link: https://instagram.com/riddleolymom/?utm_source=ig_embed

Originally Posted by PWI In its breakdown of the August Collections added on WWE Network, the WWE website revealed that the Hardys and Stephanie McMahon will be getting their own Collections in September.

Originally Posted by PWI Former WWE World Champion Dave Bautista continued to speak out against the Disney firing of Guardians of the Galaxy Director and Writer James Gunn. In an interview with Shortlist.com, Bautista went as far as to explain he was willing to walk away from the film, which he is contracted to do, if Disney drops the existing script. “Nobody’s defending his tweets, but this was a smear campaign on a good man,” Bautista explained, “I spoke to Chris Pratt the day after it happened and he’s a bit religious so he wanted time to pray and figure it out, but I was more like: f*** this. This is bulls***. James is one of the kindest, most decent people I’ve met.” On where he stands on Guardians Vol 3., the scheduled sequel that is slated to be released in 2020, Bautista was adamant that he wanted Gunn's existing script to be used for the film. If not.... “Where I’m at right now is that if [Marvel] don’t use that script, then I’m going to ask them to release me from my contract, cut me out or recast me. I’d be doing James a disservice if I didn’t.” Bautista also noted that he didn't believe the letter the Guardians cast released last week in support of Gunn would get Disney to reverse their decision, but would shed light on Gunn's character as a person.

Link: https://www.shortlist.com/entertainm...twitter/368730

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling This year’s SummerSlam event will feature the kickoff show beginning at 5 pm Eastern from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn and the main show beginning at 7 pm. The TakeOver card the night prior will have a one-hour pre-show at 6 pm followed by the main card at 7 pm.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling John Cena has indicated he will be appearing on the WWE’s live event on September 1st in Shanghai, China. It will be Cena’s first match back since participating at the Greatest Royal Rumble event in Saudi Arabia this past April where he took on Triple H.

Originally Posted by WrestlingInc In a conversation with Rolling Stone, Kane shared whether he was return to WWE in-ring action. "WWE is always going to be part of me and hopefully I'll always be part of it," said Kane. "I haven't ruled out making special appearances every now and then. My main priority is being mayor, of course. [My role in the WWE] does bring a lot of attention to Knox County, so that's cool. It's just a matter of making sure everything I do — WWE or any other outside stuff — does not impact my role as mayor."

Link: https://www.rollingstone.com/politic...-mayor-707213/


Some other sheet news includes:

• 2K Games recently released the first official screen shot for WWE 2k19. https://twitter.com/AJStylesOrg/stat...45463562125312
• English version of Shinsuke Nakamura's autobiography called "King of Strong Style 1980-2014" was released today by book publisher VIZ Media.
• WWE announced they will be airing a Parade of Champions special for this year's Mae Young Classic tournament on their official Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube accounts tomorrow at 7PM EST.
• Recent episode of the Chasing Glory with Lilian Garcia podcast show had Renee Young as the guest talking about Total Divas, how she and Dean Ambrose became a couple, and her work on commentary in the WWE. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...as-because-of/

Some stuff from TPWW Frontpage:

• All In Pricing + New Four Way Match Announced (Updated Card)
• Sami Zayn Undergoes Surgery on His Other Shoulder
• All In Broadcast Information Announced + Three New Matches
• Dean Ambrose Expected to Return Around SummerSlam
• Matt Hardy Injury and “Retirement” Speculation Update

[Mr. Nerfect]

Sam Adonis plays a Trump supporter as a heel down in Mexico last I checked. He's a heel. I doubt he actually believes the things he said. He's doing it to get heat, but wrestling is heatless now. Bring him back. Pay him to get his ass kicked.

[Evil Vito]

Originally Posted by Noid Sam Adonis plays a Trump supporter as a heel down in Mexico last I checked. He's a heel. I doubt he actually believes the things he said. He's doing it to get heat, but wrestling is heatless now. Bring him back. Pay him to get his ass kicked.

He called his opponent a fag and said the crowd looks like they have downs syndrome.

Waving around a Trump flag and (in the case of this show) lapping it up about Brexit or whatever would've gotten him heat enough. You don't need to go for even cheaper heat.

[Mr. Nerfect]

Originally Posted by #BrotherVito DELETED He called his opponent a fag and said the crowd looks like they have downs syndrome. Waving around a Trump flag and (in the case of this show) lapping it up about Brexit or whatever would've gotten him heat enough. You don't need to go for even cheaper heat.

I'm as PC lefty as they come. I don't mind this in wrestling if that guy is going to be a heel. It is inauthentic for a Trump supporter to come out and make intelligent points or be sensitive to the feelings of "liberal snowflakes." The whole gimmick should be based on a privileged perspective of free speech. If you want to be a PC lefty and get offended at heels getting heat, then maybe it's time to admit that wrestling is not for you. It's also probably time to admit that you're still capable of being worked. I'm just glad someone is making an effort in 2018.

[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by Random AJ Styles gif:

Originally Posted by Observer After a period of fairly steady growth over the last month or so, SmackDown ratings dropped nine percent last night from the previous week. The show averaged 2.197 million viewers, the lowest audience for SmackDown since July 3 ... SmackDown retained a smaller-than-usual 78 percent of the Raw audience from the night before, which would lend credence to the speculation that some of that audience was interested in Ronda Rousey's match, not necessarily WWE as a whole. SmackDown was down 15 percent year-over-year as double digit declines are becoming normal as of late. Over the last 10 weeks, they are averaging an almost 10 percent decline.

Starting to become apparent last year was very likely the peak for Smackdown during the current Brand Split era.

Originally Posted by RingSideNews.com Brock Lesnar’s match at SummerSlam could tell a lot about the direction WWE is going to take from this point on. Although Roman Reigns is supposed to be the guy, who knows what Vince McMahon will end up doing? Joe Peisich said on Barn Burner Radio’s Fired Up podcast that Lesnar had a very interesting meeting with Mr. McMahon last week before Raw. “I’ll break some news. Brock Lesnar last week had a meeting with Vince and the higher ups with WWE and he has told them that he wants to work with both.” “He wants to work with WWE and UFC. I don’t know how that’s going to happen, but if Brock does not lose the title at SummerSlam you could see him working for both WWE and UFC. Like I said, I don’t know how that works but he wants to work for both.” Lesnar’s name is a highly valued commodity in sports so if anyone cold pull off that kind of deal, it would be Lesnar.

Link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/...275187926?mt=2

Originally Posted by PWI This scenario may not be popular, but what are the chances that Brock Lesnar keeps the title until his UFC match? Would WWE see this as promotion of their champion and their company? Only Vince McMahon knows what the chances are but to me, I think it would be a really, really bad move. It would hold the Title hostage into next year, plus WWE doesn’t get much, if anything, out of Brock bringing their belt to a real fight, especially if he gets his butt kicked in that fight.

From PWI's weekly Q&A articles.

Originally Posted by Observer Above, you can see tonight’s Mae Young Classic Parade of Champions starting at 7 p.m. Eastern time, where the full roster of women competing in this year’s tournament will be officially introduced. The first set of tapings is set for tonight at Full Sail University and will continue tomorrow.

Link: https://youtu.be/2yacnc0SUwI

Originally Posted by Observer With the first night of tapings taking place today, WWE has revealed a few additional details about the 2018 Mae Young Classic ... There will be a three-person commentary team for the tournament, with Michael Cole, Beth Phoenix, and Renee Young calling the action. Cathy Kelley and Shadia Bseiso, the first Arab woman to sign with WWE as a wrestler, will be the backstage interviewers, and Kayla Braxton will be the ring announcer. Bseiso also has experience working in television. "A few years ago I was put in charge of all of the announcers in the company," Cole said in an interview with ESPN. "My goal when I took over was to have, for the first time, a full-time female commentator on one of our main shows. That is still my goal today and it led to, for the first time, having two women in the announcing booth for the Mae Young Classic. It blows me away that this is happening because as little as two years ago I would not have seen this happening"

Link: http://www.espn.com/wwe/story/_/id/2...ommentary-team

Originally Posted by PWI The first pre-sale for Ring of Honor's G1 Supercard in Madison Square Garden moved a huge amount of tickets today. PWInsider.com has been told by ROH sources that the company has already sold out about half of MSG. If you don't factor in the 9/1 All In event, that's a record amount of tickets sold for Ring of Honor and pretty much guarantees that ROH will shatter its existing attendance records. The pre-sale will continue until Friday morning, when the general on sale kicks off at 10 AM EST. Needless to say, ROH is absolutely thrilled. Meanwhile, the "All Out" pre-show party put together by Pro Wrestling Tees, which will take place outside of the Sears Center Arena on 9/1 before the All In PPV, has already sold out.

Originally Posted by PWI/Observer/WrestlingInc Indies Roundup: Tickets for the 10/14 Impact Wrestling Bound for Glory 2018 PPV at the Melrose Ballroom in Long Island City, Queens, NY will officially go on sale via Ticketmaster.com on Saturday 8/25 at 1 PM Eastern. Pentagon Jr. vs. Sami Callihan in a Mexican Death Match has been announced for Impact’s TV tapings at the Rebel Entertainment Complex in Toronto on Sunday. WWE Hall of Famer and producer Arn Anderson will be appearing at the Midwest Wrestling Elite debut show "Make or Break" on Sunday, September 30 in St. Louis Park, Minnesota. This will be The Enforcer's first-ever Minnesota indie wrestling appearance. Anderson is scheduled to appear in front of the live crowd and he will participate in a pre-show meet & greet. After Tetsuya Naito defeated SANADA in the G1 this morning, EVIL brought Hiromu Takahashi’s jacket down to the ring. Naito mentioned that Takahashi wasn’t with them and said he doesn’t know whether Takahashi will be back from his neck injury soon or a while from now. He told Takahashi to come back as soon as he can, the Los Ingobernables de Japon members fist bumped, and Naito fist bumped Takahashi’s jacket. Takahashi posted a picture of himself fist bumping the TV screen to join in with the rest of LIJ.

Originally Posted by PWI Karl Anderson tweeted this morning that he will welcome his newest child today: Anyways... Having my 4th son in the morning.. What a #PowerfulBrother I am ???? Love n respect to all of the @WWE fans, and my friends n family Worldwide .. ???? pic.twitter.com/jrpAOoRfhA — Karl Anderson (@KarlAndersonWWE) August 8, 2018

Link: https://twitter.com/KarlAndersonWWE/...57622682398720

Originally Posted by PWI WOW, Women of Wrestling, will hold their first TV tapings for their weekly series on AXS TV on Wednesday 10/10 and Thursday 10/11 in Los Angeles, CA at the Belasco Theater. Tickets are already on sale via Ticketmaster.com, starting at $25. AXS TV is handling the production and distribution for the series, which will debut in 2019. Talent scheduled for the taping include Amber O'Neal, Santana Garrett, Barbie Hayden and Katie Forbes. The series is the latest incarnation of a women's wrestling promotion from David McLane, the original founder of GLOW in the 1980s.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling were able to get some quarter-hour breakdowns from Monday’s Raw and this is from an internal WWE report. We were told that the lowest quarter of the show came from 10:30 pm – 10:45 pm, which featured the women’s tag match with Sasha Banks & Bayley vs. The Riott Squad and was listed as doing a 2.0 quarter. That number rose to a 2.2 for 10:45 pm – 11 pm and then up to a 2.5 for the overrun segment, which featured Ronda Rousey’s match with Alicia Fox. The report we were informed about listed the entire show as doing a 2.2 and I’m aware other places reported the show doing a 1.96. Both are basing the number off an average viewership of 2.8 million viewers for the entire episode. My assumption is that the rating is being calculated with a different total number of homes that the USA Network is in to explain the difference, although the rating is being calculated off the same number of viewers. We were not able to get a viewership figure for the Rousey vs. Fox match, only the rating for the overrun.

Originally Posted by WrestlingInc WWE posted this graphic with the top active WWE Superstars with the most Instagram followers, as of today - Ronda Rousey with 11.119 million followers, John Cena with 9.931 million, Triple H with 5.259 million, SmackDown General Manager Paige with 4.848 million and Randy Orton with 4.419 million.

Link: https://www.instagram.com/p/BmOmTdjH...ource=ig_embed

Originally Posted by WrestlingInc WWE has a new poll asking fans which SmackDown Superstar plays the strongest mind games. As of this writing, 60% voted for Randy Orton while 18% voted for Samoa Joe, 17% for The Miz and the rest went with SmackDown Women's Champion Carmella.

Originally Posted by WrestlingInc How WWE negotiations are going: "We started off with the Royal Rumble at the beginning of the year in January. There was another offer on the table to do the Greatest Royal Rumble, and in between those two events, we've been going back and forth in conversations, trying to work out the right deal. It's still up in the air. Nothing [is] secure, yet."

From a recent interview Rey Mysterio had with the Miami Herald: http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...-negotiations/

Originally Posted by WrestlingInc ROH did a "10 Questions" with Marty Scurll and asked him about his upcoming match against Kazuchika Okada at "All In" on September 1. "It's a great opportunity to show the world what I'm capable of," Scurll said. "A lot of times this year I've been in big tag matches or multi-mans, which are fun, but I believe I thrive in singles competition. It's going to be special."

Link: https://www.rohwrestling.com/news/10...s-marty-scurll


Some other sheet news includes:

• Recent episode of the Pancakes and Powerslams Show podcast had one of WWE's belt makers as the guest. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...-title-design/

Some stuff from TPWW Frontpage:

• Aleister Black May Not Be Cleared in Time for NXT TakeOver Due to Injury
• Jerry Lawler Says He Has Doubts that Brian Christopher Committed Suicide
• Various: Becky Lynch on Not Dating Wrestlers, Anderson Expecting Child
• Broadcast Dates & Commentary Team for Mae Young Classic Announced

[slik]

A source informed me today that #WWE still has not finalized a location for #WrestleMania 35 Axxess. They’re still considering different ideas, such as doing multiple store locations or a smaller version of Axxess somewhere. #Raw #SDLive @TheBarnBurns

— Brad Shepard (@TheBradShepard) August 9, 2018

[Emperor Smeat]

Also seems he was becoming very frustrated with the direction of his character resulting in the outburst and going way beyond what was approved for his character.

[slik]

Colt Cabana files lawsuit against CM Punk (includes court documents) https://t.co/q6JKJcCNnH #WWE pic.twitter.com/pu0rRDSiRm

— NoDQ.com - WWE Summerslam news #Summerslam (@nodqdotcom) August 9, 2018

[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by Scott Steiner's Official Stance on Fat Guys:

Originally Posted by PWI With Aleister Black out due to injury, WWE NXT Champion Tommaso Ciampa will defend against Johnny Gargano in a Last Man Standing match on 8/18 in Brooklyn, NY at the Barclays Center. The change was announced this evening via a video interview with NXT General Manager William Regal: There was talk of having the match inside a steel cage but the pitch was shot down. The remainder of the Takeover card will feature: *WWE NXT Women's Championship: Shayna Baszler vs. Kairi Sane. *WWE NXT Tag Team Championship: Undisputed Era vs. Moustache Mountain. *WWE NXT North American Championship: Adam Cole vs. Ricochet. *WWE EC3 vs. Velveteen Dream.

Link: https://youtu.be/ntU_o0sjPss

Originally Posted by PWI WWE Network News is reporting that this week's "Hidden Gem" is a dark match from a WWF Superstars taping in Salisbury, Maryland on November 21, 1995, which saw the final match of then-WWF Women's Champion Alundra Blayze in the company as she faced Japanese legend Lioness Asuka. Blayze aka Madusa would be released shortly after, setting the stage for her infamous appearance on WCW Monday Nitro, where she dropped the Championship belt into a trash can.

Originally Posted by PWI Sinclair Broadcast Group, the parent company of Ring of Honor, has lost its bid to purchase Tribune Media as Tribune officially announcing this morning that they had terminated the purchase agreement and have filed a lawsuit against Sinclair for breach of contract ... Sinclair currently has over the air stations in 39% of the United States. The purchase would have brought that number up to 42%, but it remains to be seen if some miracle can occur that leads to the purchase being somehow salvaged. Had the deal been completed, the expectations had been that Ring of Honor's footprint as a TV series would have greatly expanded on a national basis and eventually also land on WGN America with either an existing or new ROH TV series on the national cable station. ROH had created a two hour pilot episode earlier this year, using material from the 2017 Final Battle PPV event, to showcase what the series could be to Sinclair officials. There has long been talk of ROH doing a two hour weekly cable broadcast if and when they had the proper forum. WGN America (which broadcast WWE Superstars several years ago) was expected by some to be that platform, although Ring of Honor never officially announced any plans. Today's lawsuit obviously scuttles those plans.

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

Originally Posted by PWI The Chicago Sun-Times reported this afternoon that Ring of Honor Star Scott "Colt Cabana" Colton filed a lawsuit against former WWE Champion Phil "CM Punk" Brooks in Cook County Circuit Court in Illinois on 8/7 over alleged unpaid legal fees and breach of contract, stemming from the lawsuit that WWE physician Doctor Chris Amann filed against the two in regard to Punk's appearance on Cabana's Art of Wrestling podcast ... Cabana is alleging that when Dr. Amann's attorneys contacted him with a cease and desist letter related to the podcast in December 2014, Punk told him not to respond. When Amann filed his lawsuit against them, Cabana alleged that Punk told him, via text, that his legal bills would be covered. However, Cabana alleges that he received an April 2016 email from Punk regarding a financial billing Punk had received from his legal representatives, Loeb & Loeb, with Punk writing, "To date I have spent $513,736 dollars on this Amman lawsuit. My outstanding bill is at least 300K. Half of all this is yours. Divide the 513,736 by 2 that is what you owe me and what I expect you to pay me. Starting now, I will no longer be paying your bills. You are on your own. Whatever my bill is currently, will be cut in half and half will be yours. If you choose to make this all ugly, that's fine too. I hope you won't, but I gave up on you doing what is right a long time ago" ... Cabana retained Loeb & Loeb until March 2017, when he claimed that he was forced to hire his own representation. In the lawsuit, Cabana stated he was "informed and believed" that Punk caused Loeb & Loeb to withdraw as Cabana's attorney. After their courtroom victory over Amann's lawsuit, Cabana's attorneys approached Punk, seeking payment of $200,000, the cost of Cabana's legal fees post-Loeb & Loeb. Punk turned that overture down, leading to Cabana's claim of breach of contract. Cabana is also claiming that had he not listened to Punk and just responded to the original cease and desist letter, he would not have dealt with any "costs, expenses or losses" in regard to the Amann case. Cabana is asking for $1 Million in punitive and exemplary damages and $200,000 (aka the cost of his representation during the Amann lawsuit) in general damages. He is seeking a jury trial. Obviously, Punk has not yet responded to the lawsuit..

More details and link to the report: https://www.pwinsider.com/article/11...dated.html?p=1

Originally Posted by PWI/Post Wrestling/Observer Indies Roundup: Former ECW World Champion Mikey Whipwreck, who has trained a number of names, including Curt Hawkins, Tony Nese, The Amazing Red, Jay Lethal, and Zack Ryder, among many other names, is opening The Underdogs Pro Wrestling School in Hazleton, PA. The School, located at 601 South Poplar Street, will officially open on 8/20 and will be associated with Premier Pro Wrestling, also operating out of Hazleton. Chris Charlton has been added to Friday’s G1 broadcast at Budokan Hall, they were very happy with his performance on Wednesday with Kevin Kelly & Rocky Romero. NJPW are looking at touring Australia again at the end of this year. The actual announcement and schedule is expected to be made after the G-1 tournament is over The Arkansas State Athletic Commission has voted to change Act 860, which deregulated pro wrestling events if they were held in conjunction with a charitable organization. The new regulations are that shows in conjunction with charity still need for the promoters to be licensed, all the wrestlers on the show will need to be licensed, have a physical and have blood work done. The question becomes how the athletic commission can change a law that was passed by the state legislature and signed by the Governor Mysterio Jr., was going to start with MLW to work a tag program against Pentagon Jr. & Fenix starting next month before his WWE talks got serious. MLW has signed Brian Pillman II to a multi-year deal and they are looking to give a big push to Tom Lawlor. There was an idea to go a match in an MMA gym with Lawlor vs. Jake Hager in an MMA cage, but Hager opted not to do it, thinking Bellator wouldn’t like him to do so. PCW Ultra has announced Rich Swann and Sami Callihan are off their 9/7 shows due to contract obligations, which means Impact, probably for the show in Manchester, England that weekend. Announced for the show is Daga vs. ACH, Shane Strickland vs. Rey Hours, Penta 0M vs. Hammerstone and Brody King vs. Eddie Kingston. BCW on 8/30 in Melbourne, Australia has Tajiri vs. Nick Bury. 9/1 in Adelaide, Australia has Rob Van Dam vs. Jonah Rock vs. Syd Parker.

Originally Posted by PWI The ROH/NJPW show on 4/6 in Madison Square Garden had sold 12,000 tickets at last word, which was a few hours ago. They did a password sale today. Tickets go on sale to the public tomorrow. It is not a lock that it will be sold out by the end of the day tomorrow, but it is certainly possible. It is a lock that the show will be sold out by the time the show takes place.

Originally Posted by Observer The eight first-round matches for the CHIKARA King of Trios tournament that takes place Labor Day weekend in Easton, PA at the Palmer Center: Mighty Molly & Solo Darling & Aja Perera vs. Kikutaro & Los Ice Creams Justin Gabriel & Michael Tarver & Darren Young vs. Juan Francisco de Coronado & Sloan Caprice & Rick Roland Jean Pierre Lafitte (PCO) & Rey Bucanero & Katie Lea (Katarina) vs. Merlok & Hermit Crab & Cajun Crawdad Madison Eagles & Jessica Troy & Shazza McKenzie vs. Shoko Nakajima & Yuka Sakazaki & Miyu Yamashita Rezerhawk & Nytehawk & Dangerhawk vs. Adam Hoffman & Mick Moretti & Jack bonza Volgar & Callux & Frantik vs. Fire Ant & Green Ant & Thief Ant Chris Dickinson & Cameron Zagami & Brian Milonas vs. Dasher Hatfield & Mr. Touchdown & Boomer Hatfield Air Wolf & ThunderFrog & Wildkat vs. Icarus & Tony Deppen & Travis Huckabee

Originally Posted by Observer President Harold Meij, in an attempt to help in marketing the product overseas, has banned English language swearing and middle finger usage from the product. In trying to garner more sponsors, things like the swearing in the Juice Robinson promos and heavy swearing in-ring were going to have to go. Those who have been swearing in English in their promos were privately spoken to and asked as best they can to clean up their promos. All the wrestlers were told this week to not swear or try not to offend people on social media. There are ideas for expansion of sponsorships in new markets that require a product suitable for all ages. The reality is the product’s popularity has nothing to do with any swearing and eliminating that won’t have any effect, so if it’s not necessary and impedes expansion, why allow it

Originally Posted by Observer There are other negotiations All In going on including the possibility of a regular television replay airing after the exclusive PPV window ends. The idea is to more get as many people watching as possible, so in a sense they are undercutting their own PPV by allowing it on Honor Club, with the idea of using the show to build up Honor Club subs ... It will be treated similar to a PPV by Honor Club, meaning Honor Club VIP’s will get the show for free while regular Honor Club subscribers can get the iPPV version for half price. The regular television PPV will run at $39.99 and $49.99, which was actually an insistence from their side at running it lower as the PPV companies wanted it at closer to WWE prices. Fite TV, which should be the key for outside the U.S., will be at $39.99. WGN America wanted to do the entire show live, but Cody and the Young Bucks had an idea for what they wanted from the show and live television of the big matches wasn’t going to work.

Originally Posted by Observer For what it’s worth, at the present time, the planned fall Raw live event main events are Reigns vs. Strowman. They could go face vs. face, but that indicates at least the possibility of one of the two turning

Originally Posted by Observer The reason Jessamyn Duke didn’t debut yet is because she was a little hurt although she did recently do a practice match at the Performance Center, did good things, but like anyone, just needs more ring time in actual match situations. We’re told that the feeling on her, at least by some, is that she’s a prodigy at this. With Ronda Rousey, everything has been so completely produced to such a degree that it’s really not fair to compare her progress but still, Rousey’s got something quickly that few have. But her match with Bliss is expected to be scripted move-for-move at the Performance Center. More and more people are really open to the idea that MMA is a great place to recruit new women because of how quickly people like Duke, Marina Shafir, Shayna Baszler, Ronda Rousey and Sonya Deville were able to adapt.

Originally Posted by Observer The photos on social media of Frank Shamrock and Shawn Michaels together were from the Performance Center this past week. Shamrock is the agent for Mauro Ranallo and they’re in negotiations. There is talk of springboarding the Showtime documentary on Ranallo into a major college speaking tour on mental health

Originally Posted by Observer Still no hints of a Cena return, past him being booked on the 9/1 show in Shanghai, where he has vowed to debut a new finishing move. Cena has dropped from 254 to 236 pounds and is ripped. At his age, it’s better for his joints and injuries to be lighter, plus it’ll allow him to be less typecast in Hollywood being less bulky. Then again Dwayne Johnson went in the other direction, from 220 (when the idea was to expand his acting range and get parts that didn’t rely on an overpowering physique) 260 to do the intimidating action hero roles

Originally Posted by WrestlingInc Keith Lee took to Twitter today and wrote the following after making his WWE NXT TV debut with a win over Marcel Barthel last night: Humble gratitude for all the positive feedback on the debut last night. Let us see what kind of ride we can create. Only time will tell...#BaskInMyGlory for #iAmLimitless pic.twitter.com/Tl1uZbslpr — Keith Lee (@RealKeithLee) August 9, 2018

Link: https://twitter.com/RealKeithLee/sta...74436801773576

Originally Posted by WrestlingInc In recognition of the worldwide growth and increased popularity of women's wrestling, Pro Wrestling Illustrated has announced that it will expand its annual PWI Female 50 issue to the Women's 100, effective this year. Like the annual PWI 500, the Women's 100 will include worldwide talent, including women from Mexico, Japan, Europe, and around the globe. In previous years, the Female 50 was exclusive to women competing in the U.S. and Canada. "With the rise of women's wrestling in WWE, as well as the growth of promotions like STARDOM, Pro Wrestling EVE, and on the independents, there is an incredible amount of female talent out there today. It definitely seems like the right time to expand our ranking from 50 spots to 100," said PWI Senior Writer Dan Murphy, who also co-wrote the book Sisterhood of the Squared Circle: The History and Rise of Women's Wrestling (with Pat Laprade). "I think this will be one of the most ambitious and timely projects PWI has undertaken and I'm very excited to be coordinating it," Murphy said. The Women's 100 will be released this fall.

Some other sheet news includes:

• According to the Observer, both Pentagon Jr and Rey Fenix have recently told promoters their status for 2019 indies dates are now currently in doubt due to WWE's recent interest for both of them.
• DDP recently rebranded his DDP Yoga service to now be called DDPY going forward. https://www.instagram.com/p/BmQrhmCA...ource=ig_embed

Some stuff from TPWW Frontpage:

• WWE: No Current Plans for NXT on FOX, Bobby Fish Return Update
• WWE Interested in Top Indie Star Shane Strickland
• Jason Jordan’s Neck Injury Reportedly Worse Than Expected
• Could Chris Jericho Eventually Wrestle for Impact?
• Renee Young Will Be on the Raw Commentary Team This Monday

[Simple Fan]

If New Jsoan is going PG then Juice might as well go back to WWE. I hope Impact becomes a non PG promotion and capitalize on some of these guys wanting to cut loose.

[Savio]

Just like you were worked last week eh?

[Mr. Nerfect]

Originally Posted by Savio Just like you were worked last week eh?

I genuinely have no clue what you are talking about.

[Mr. Nerfect]

That being said, you don't need the gimmick. I'm fine with New Japan going PG for example, because you don't need that sort of content to be compelling. If Adonis cut promos where he talked about all the things he can't say, that would be enough, but this actual backlash for him just living the gimmick in the world of wrestling is a bit weird to me.

Like, what is the point of wrestling anymore?

[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by Heel Batista Appreciation Day:

Originally Posted by PWI The 8/2 edition of Impact did 168,000 overnight viewers, down drastically from last week's 248,000 overnight viewers. It is one of their all time low numbers.

Last time they hit a sub-200k number was December 14, 2017 and only two other times since January 2016.

Originally Posted by Observer A big main event has been signed for MLW’s television tapings in October. Pierre Carl Ouellet, better known as PCO, will take on LA Park at the television tapings, which are being called MLW Fury Road. This replaces a match that was originally signed for the show, which was Pentagon Jr. and Rey Fenix teaming up to take on LA Park and El Hijo de LA Park. There wasn’t a reason given why the match was changed other than it was circumstances beyond their control.

Originally Posted by Observer This week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter noted that there is interest within WWE to bring both Pentagon and Fenix in. However, they still have three seasons left on their Lucha Underground contracts, as well as indie dates for 2019, so it is unlikely they will be brought in anytime soon.

Originally Posted by Observer A year after a torn ACL kept her out of the inaugural tournament, Tegan Nox (the former Nixon Newell) suffered an injury to her other leg at last night's Mae Young Classic tapings ... She tried to continue but wasn't able to, and the match ended by referee stoppage. Nox was looked at by doctors and was visibly emotional after the injury. Paul "Triple H" Levesque spoke to the crowd about the situation and initially indicated that Nox had a broken leg, along with a broken heart over not being able to finish what she started. He said it would just be a bump in the road for her. Levesque later did an interview with espnW, noting that Nox was being taken to the hospital to determine the specifics of the injury. "To come here tonight and be in a position to where, let me just say, it couldn't have been any more heartbreaking for her," Levesque said. "Emotionally, just couldn't have been any more heartbreaking. I don't know, at this point, what happened. She landed funky on a dive and hurt herself. "The doctor looked at it and it was so painful at the point that he couldn't manipulate the disc to see if it was an ACL. So we have her headed over to the hospital now and check what it is."

Originally Posted by PWI Triple H praised the competitors in the 2018 Mae Young Classic: The 2018 #WWEMYC showcased the triumph and heartbreak that makes our business so special. Incredible competition with phenomenal athletes over two historic nights. Thank you to the talent, @WWEPerformCtr coaches and @WWE staff for another @MaeYoungClassic. pic.twitter.com/bdxpyA0dWj — Triple H (@TripleH) August 10, 2018

Link: https://twitter.com/TripleH/status/1...rc=twsrc%5Etfw

Originally Posted by PWI After a week of issues between the two parties, The BeIN Sports Network has returned to Verizon FIOS, which means that users of that service will once again be able to watch the Major League Wrestling: FUSION TV series, which airs on Friday evenings at 8 PM EST.

Originally Posted by PWI Ring of Honor Chief Operating Officer Joe Koff provided the following comments to PWInsider.com regarding today's sellout of the ROH and New Japan G1 Supercard in Madison Square Garden: "We are humbled and appreciative of our fans and their belief and support of Ring of Honor and New Japan Pro Wrestling. All we can say is Thank You!"

Originally Posted by PWI/Observer/Post Wrestling Indies Roundup: Tickets for the Thursday 4/4/19 Wrestlecon Mark Hitchcock Memorial Supershow at the NYC Hilton Midtown will go on sale on 8/28, it was announced today. The convention's annual Supershow is among the best independent events of the year. MLW sources have confirmed to PWInsider.com that they have signed Brian Pillman Jr. to a "long-term" deal. The promotion also announced that Pentagon Jr. and Rey Fenix are off their 10/4 taping in NYC. There's been a lot of rumors about the brothers' long-term future and the WWE's interest in them in the last several weeks. The two are signed to Lucha Underground contracts currently. New Japan announced in storyline that if Tama Tonga, Bad Luck Fale or Tanga Loa interfere in any of the G-1 matches on Saturday they will be suspended for three months. Kazuchika Okada has been announced for the 8/17 show at Arena Mexico. It will be the first time he's ever wrestled for CMLL in that building. Announced for the Impact show at Mediacon in Manchester, England at the Bowlers Exhibition Center on 9/9 is Jimmy Havoc vs. Sami Callihan and LAX vs Jonny Storm & Jody Fleisch. The theme of the show is going to be Impact vs. U.K. The latest NWA video on the Nick Aldis vs. Cody match and the MSG sellout. Wednesday’s episode of Lucha Underground on the El Rey Network averaged 115,000 viewers, almost identical to last week’s figure of 114,000. This week’s show was built around a match between the Worldwide Underground and The Reptile Tribe.

NWA: https://youtu.be/_ptchVEftT4

Originally Posted by PWI My least-favorite thing about the Evolution PPV announcement was the same as the all-women Royal Rumble: Stephanie McMahon. Too much self back patting for my taste. I think it would have worked better as a quick aside; maybe a promo package or if Charlotte or somebody mentioned it in a promo. Why do they have to beat it over our head that they’re doing good things? Can’t they just have a women’s revolution without telling us about it constantly? You’ll never be equal if you keep telling people you’re not equal. You have to understand that it's just not how WWE does things. They want to promote how great they are and how evolutionary their ideas are. It's as much a narrative about legitimizing the company and showcasing how important what they are doing is as much as it's a storyline week to week. They are promoting themselves to stockholders to partners to licensees and to fans and if they can get Stephanie and Triple H over as these benevolent, crusading execs who are trying to take the company - and in this case, the women - into the future, then it builds them as much as everyone else. It's totally self-promotion, but if it helps WWE push their agenda, the company is going to be happy to do it, as would any other company, wrestling or otherwise. Sometimes, a lighter touch works better, but WWE doesn't do subtle.

From PWI's weekly Q&A articles.

Originally Posted by Observer Brian Danovich, who was on the 2004 season of Tough Enough, passed away from an apparent suicide at the age of 36. Danovich tore his pec on the show where they cut the competitors down to the ones who would make the season. He wanted to keep going and ended up getting a developmental contract out of it, but didn't last long, passed away this past week of an apparent suicide. That was the season of The Miz, The Boogeyman, Daniel Puder and Daniel Rodimar.

Hulk Hogan’s apparent return to WWE: “Before he died, Bruno Sammartino and I talked a lot about this issue of why WWE would even want Hogan back in…. I don’t know if it’s nostalgia or a feeling that they owe him or something. But to forgive him for what he said. Apparently, he was in his early to mid-50s when he said this, he was a grown man. And his use of the N word, it wasn’t just once, it was a number of times in that conversation, and in such a disparaging, condescending, racist tone… And everyone always talks about forgiveness. Well he’s been forgiven many times, for lying about steroids, for lying about drug use, just for lying in general. How many times do you forgive the guy?”

From a recent episode of The Matt Riviera Show podcast with former WCW commentator Chris Cruise as the guest. More highlights from the episode: https://www.prowrestling.com/former-...n-wgn-america/

Originally Posted by WrestlingInc There will be WWE Story Time and Table For 3 marathons on the WWE Network this coming Monday. A new Table For 3 with Xavier Woods, Matt Hardy and Zack Ryder will premiere after RAW goes off the air. Below is the synopsis for the thirty-minute episode: "Matt Hardy, Xavier Woods, and Zack Ryder gather to discuss the power of using digital and social media platforms."

Some other sheet news includes:

• Major League Wrestling announced both Pentagon Jr and Fenix have been pulled from their October 4th MLW Fusion tapings due circumstances beyond their control. Mexico's AAA promotion recently hinted both guys are very likely leaving the company after this month's TripleMania event.
• According to PWI, it took about 19 minutes for ROH's MSG event to reach sold out status once tickets when on general sale. Observer reported last night's early sales were at 12,000 tickets sold.
• According to the Observer, Wrestlemania 34 had around 59,900 paid tickets out of the 78,133 announced for the event's attendance.
• In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, WCW once considered the idea of having a wrestler named Spam Man as a way to get a sponsorship with Spam. https://twitter.com/JerseyAutentico/...81889549635584
• Rumor going around the net is that Nikki Bella is currently dating someone within WWE's management. Supposedly Nikki was never actually interested in ever hooking back with Cena and has been keeping this relationship in a hush status for at least the past 2 months.
• Also apparently an old rumor involving Randy Orton pulling out his wiener for the sole purpose of rubbing his hand on it before shaking someone's hands has recently started going around the net. Supposedly that was his way of greeting newly hired writers to the WWE.

Some stuff from TPWW Frontpage:

• John Cena vs. Kevin Owens Announced for WWE Super Show-Down
• Tegan Nox Comments After Her Injury at Mae Young Classic
• ROH/NJPW G1 Supercard Sells Out Madison Square Garden Fast
• Tegan Nox Suffers Bad Leg Injury During Mae Young Classic