Emperor Smeat |
03-09-2018 10:43 AM |
Dirtsheets sponsored by A round of Applause for the Miz:
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Some updates regarding the NXT tag team titles. Adam Cole & Kyle O'Reilly will be champions going into the three-way match with Authors of Pain and Roderick Strong & Pete Dunne at the Takeover show in New Orleans. The idea is that O'Reilly is still champion and is picking a partner to replace Bobby Fish. Right now the idea is that Cole will be in both the ladder match for the North American title and the tag team title match on the Takeover show.
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Meltzer previously reported NXT was considering stripping the tag titles off of Undisputed Era and instead the winner of this year's Dusty Tag Classic would become new champs. Now its winner of the 3-way match gets both the tag titles and Dusty Tag trophy.
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Originally Posted by Observer
They are doing soft promotion for Alexa Bliss vs. Rumble winner Asuka, but from television this week, it sure seems like the original plan of Bliss vs. Nia Jax as the Raw title match is the direction. Charlotte Flair faces Ruby Riott at Fast Lane. Until that match is over, if the direction is Flair vs. Asuka for the Smackdown title, they really couldn’t announce it ...
There was a report from PW Insider that more names could be added to the IC title match. If that is accurate, Samoa Joe fits as a name. Strowman, who was originally to face Miz in an IC title , could also be fit in, although the backup plan for Strowman right now if he’s not moved to the Universal title slot would be some type of non-wrestling gimmick thing. The only other thing given a strong push on Raw is the Bayley vs. Sasha Banks storyline.
Right now the plan for the Matt Hardy vs. Bray Wyatt Ultimate Deletion type of match on the Hardy Compound is for it to be on Raw rather than WrestleMania. I think it fits better on Raw ... Plus, Jeff is almost ready to return and if he can return in time, Sheamus & Cesaro vs. Hardys makes sense as a Mania match given the storyline is no team in WWE is around that deserves a title match. However, that is not the plan as of this moment. Right now the plan is for no match with Sheamus & Cesaro at Mania, but for them to be part of the show in an angle of sorts, but they are part of a lot of things on the Raw side that are still in flux.
On the Smackdown side, the idea of Kevin Owens vs. Sami Zayn has been teased, and was strongly teased this week, but nothing has been more teased than Shane McMahon vs. Daniel Bryan. Bryan wasn’t even on the Smackdown show this week nor talked about in any meaningful fashion. If there is anything from that, one would think it would be Shane in the ring with a partner against Owens & Zayn, as Bryan’s representatives, given Shane vs. Bryan would need a clearance of Bryan to happen. However, the current plans have Owens and Zayn in the Andre the Giant Battle Royal.
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Spoiler tag used since its related to plans for NXT New Orleans and some changes made to initial plans. Also for current Mania plans in regards to the undercard.
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Originally Posted by Observer
Two of New Japan’s young lions have been sidelined with injuries serious enough that they are being kept off of the next tour.
New Japan's English website last night reported that Kitamura has been sidelined since March 4 with a concussion. He was originally set to take on Manabu Nakanishi a couple of days ago on the 46th anniversary show, but that match was postponed following the injury. Hikuleo has been out since March 3 with what the website described as ACL damage. Currently, there is no timetable for either's return.
Tanga Loa will be taking Hikuelo’s place on the New Japan Cup tour. He will be teaming with various other members of the Bullet Club in multi-man matches.
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Link: https://www.njpw1972.com/22890
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Originally Posted by Observer
New Japan announced a three-match show on 3/24 at its Los Angeles dojo including an autograph session. There will be a contract signing for the Jay White vs. Hangman Page U.S. title match plus a press conference with Katsuyori Shibata, Scorpio Sky, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Juice Robinson, David Finlay and Jushin Liger. Ryusuke Taguchi, Kushida and all the other names will also be doing autographs.
Ultimo Dragon makes his Australian debut of Wrestling Go in Sydney for shows on 5/11 and 5/12. Tenille Dashwood appears for the promotion on 7/12 and she also appears for Southern Pro Wrestling on 7/14 in Invercargill, New Zealand.
Zack Sabre Jr comes to Australia for World Series Wrestling International Assault on 6/22 and 6/23 in Melbourne, 6/24 in Adelaide and 6/24 in Sydney.
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Originally Posted by PWI
Wrestling DVD Network reported yesterday that a new WWE DVD project has been added to the 2018 release schedule. A three disc DVD set entitled "The Evolution of WWE’s Women’s Division” looking at the increased role of women in WWE will be released on June 11 in the UK and June 12 in the US. This project replaces the canceled Shane McMahon DVD on the release schedule. Here is the synopsis:
"From Fabulous Moolah to Alundra Blayze, to the rise of Lita & Trish during the Attitude Era, to the Diva Search days and bra & panty matches, all the way to the current revival of the division with Charlotte, Sasha, Becky, Alexa, and Bayley.Witness the greatest matches and most memorable moments in the history of WWE women’s wrestling."
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Going to be interesting how they handle Moolah's impact considering her dark history with women's wrestling in the WWE and US in general. Link: http://www.wrestlingdvdnetwork.com/w...chedule/151831
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Originally Posted by Observer
WWE has just announced that its 4/28 Smackdown show in Halifax and 4/29 show in St. John, New Brunswick have been moved to 8/25 and 8/26. All tickets purchased for these shows will be honored. Fans who can't attend either show can also get full refunds at the point of purchase. The dates are moved because the top Smackdown talent will be appearing in Saudi Arabia that week.
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Originally Posted by PWI
A few quick notes about UItimate Deletion, which WWE is filming today at the Hardy Compound in Cameron, NC:
*Referee Shawn Bennett was sent to be the official referee for the bout.
*To answer many questions we've received, we are told Jeremy Borash is there working on the shoot.
*We have not heard of any other WWE talents being brought in for the filming.
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Originally Posted by PWI
The National Wrestling Alliance trademark was officially registered to Lightning One Inc., the company Billy Corgan owns that is handling everything related to the NWA since Corgan purchased it last year.
Since taking over the NWA, Corgan and NWA Vice President Dave Lagana have set out with building an audience for the brand and returning some credibility to the NWA championship with their Ten Pounds of Gold YouTube series, which has featured current champion Nick Aldis, former champion Tim Storm, Austin Idol, and Josephus, among others, meshing the history of the championship and strong characterizations while building to in-ring action.
The current storyline features Aldis going on a "crusade", defending the belt 20 times over the next 60 days. He is slated to defend against Tommy Dreamer at the 3/24 House of Hardcore event in Philadelphia.
As previously reported, Lightning One has also filed a copyright on The Dumont Network, the entity that once rivaled ABC and CBS as a national broadcast network and was the first channel to broadcast professional wrestling. It stands to reason that will be used at some point to distribute the NWA online.
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Originally Posted by PWI
UFC star Fabricio Werdum has backed off his claims that he would be meeting with WWE today in San Diego, a day after he told MMA Fighting that he would be meeting with WWE.
On his Twitter account, Werdum commented, "Hey guys to make it clear I spoke about maybe doing Lucha libre in México. Not WWE. I meant wwe style(pro wrestling) but I am a @ufc fighter and my focus 100% is fighting in the ufc and whatever decision I make after my fighting career @danawhite @Mickmaynard2 will be involved."
Yesterday, Werdum had spoken of wanting to be active in UFC and WWE at the same time, which other than Brock Lesnar, has never happened.
The MMAFighting article has removed all references to WWE, replacing it with the term "pro wrestling" and a note that Werdum had originally mentioned a meeting with WWE, mistakenly cited WWE instead of a Mexican lucha libre company.
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Twitter link: https://twitter.com/FabricioWerdum/s...97835613978624
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Originally Posted by Post Wrestling
The MLW promotion held their “Spring Break ‘18” card on Thursday night from the Gilt Nightclub in Orlando, Florida with a television truck on site and several new members working on the production end.
Thursday night’s show was being produced for a future broadcast and POST Wrestling has been told that a deal with a broadcaster is done and should be announced over the next few weeks.
As reported earlier in the day at SI.com, Bruce Prichard has been hired by MLW as a senior producer and POST Wrestling has confirmed that Prichard began on Thursday night in Orlando.
Prichard will also handle the role of being a senior agent in addition to his duties as senior producer.
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SI link: https://www.si.com/wrestling/2018/03...ague-wrestling
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Originally Posted by Observer
The idea is to very much portray Lesnar as someone who doesn’t care about WWE, or its fans, and isn’t dedicated to WWE, both to lessen his loss and also, just as importantly, to try and get a babyface reaction for Reigns as the guy who beats him and sends him packing. Three years ago they did everything in their power in the closing weeks to do that, and the result at Mania was that Reigns ended up being, by far, the most hated wrestler on the show, and Lesnar the most popular. The funny part of that is Lesnar going on ESPN and saying he was staying with WWE and not going to UFC shortly before Mania made him a huge babyface at Mania, not that he wouldn’t have been even if that didn’t happen. McMahon realized it and several days before called the audible of Seth Rollins ending up as champion rather than Reigns, to build for the coronation of Reigns at a more opportune date.
After waiting three years, here we are, ready to do what has been planned since 2015. And now there are other concerns. Nobody still knows the fan reaction for Lesnar after the last two weeks, although the 3/12 Raw in Detroit will be the first indicator. And there are still enough questions of whether the match will take place that the hottest wrestler in the company, Braun Strowman, is not in a program nor at this point even scheduled in a match because he’s the designated backup if Lesnar blows up or Reigns becomes a P.R. issue if Johnny Bravo releases his long-teased tape and depending on the media legs of the story, if there is a legitimate story. The concern is enough that rather than put him in a match and change the card if something bad happens, they are not scheduling a few key players until they are sure the issues with the main event is settled.
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Originally Posted by WrestleInc
The Wrestling Observer Newsletter adds that publicly WWE officials are still moving forward with the idea that Lesnar is leaving and part of the mentality right now is to downplay Lesnar on his way out so it won't look like such a big loss if he does leave. The idea is to create an environment where fans celebrate Lesnar's departure instead of having them feel that UFC just landed one of WWE's biggest Superstars.
WWE has had each creative step laid out for the WrestleMania 34 main event between Lesnar and Roman Reigns but Vince McMahon changed things last week based on his reaction to the photo of Lesnar in Las Vegas with UFC President Dana White on Elimination Chamber Sunday getting so much attention from the fans and the press. This is why Lesnar was not on RAW for the face off with Reigns. As noted, one of WWE's goals for the Reigns vs. Lesnar build is to get Reigns cheered by the crowd, which is something that isn't always guaranteed, leading to a positive reaction when he wins the title at WrestleMania. WWE also wants the build to come across like a shoot as much as possible.
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Originally Posted by Observer
WWE has done a great job with manipulations when it comes to Ronda Rousey. When she comes out, they are looking for members of the audience who react huge like she’s this giant superstar, and do close-ups of them, to make it appear everyone is reacting to her like that. Long shots tell that isn’t the case. But she is popular enough and they were chanting her name and reacting to her at the level of a major star babyface. She’ll be on Raw every week through Mania. After Mania, it will definitely be tricky to keep her as something special if she’s there all the time. She was fine on her promo work. She’s very good with her facial expressions, but it’s only been two needed, the smiling babyface who is nearly moved by the reaction and loves being there, and the intense scowl, which she popularized in UFC, and is getting over already.
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Originally Posted by Observer
At this point, and this is a surprise, none of the WWE events over WrestleMania week are sold out on the primary market, even the Raw after Mania (although that was only 100 tickets shy). WrestleMania and NXT are both close to sold out, close enough that one would think both will end up being sold out. The price of entry for both WrestleMania and NXT on the secondary market has fallen to $30, while Smackdown is $35, Raw is $48 and the Hall of Fame is $50. ROH on the secondary market is $50 for the lowest priced ticket. New Japan in Long Beach at $125 remains the most expensive price of entry for a ticket on the market right now.
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Originally Posted by Observer
NXT used the TNA old gimmick where they announced that the loudest fans at the tapings will get free merchandise. That could be coming from Jeremy Borash, who worked for TNA and used to pump up the crowd similarly and now works out of Orlando for NXT.
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Originally Posted by Observer
Tentatively, the plan is for All In tickets to go on sale in May. There are ideas regarding streaming the show, but nothing is official on that yet.
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Originally Posted by Observer
At this time, unless something changes, the Young Bucks vs. Kenny Omega & Kota Ibushi is the main event for 3/25 in Long Beach, which means no Tetsuya Naito vs. Chris Jericho. It would be overkill to put them on the same show in a 4,700-seat arena that sold out instantly. The Jericho situation is interesting because when asked about New Japan on Twitter, Jericho responded when asked if he was done with New Japan, wrote “Unfortunately yes.” But he hasn’t answered any questions about it past that statement. I do know that New Japan was interested in Jericho for Long Beach and at one point the Tetsuya Naito match was supposed to be there.
If Mysterio can’t make the Liger match in Long Beach, Jericho was also talked about in recent days as a potential replacement, but that would be a short notice deal and honestly I don’t think that’s the best use of him to work a match with Liger with no storyline unless he wants to get a big surprise pop that night, do it unannounced, and be there mostly to set up an angle for Dominion or a future U.S. show. Jericho is on tour with Fozzy now, through 3/16, and then goes back for another tour 3/27 through 4/8 and will be back touring later in April for a few shows, then back touring again on 7/12 through August). At one point he was at least considering working the 6/9 Dominion show in Osaka Jo Hall
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Originally Posted by Observer
Former WWE wrestler Pete Gas (Peter Gasparino), 47, who grew up as one of Shane McMahon’s best friends and a high school football teammate, is now a Senior Sales Representative for WB Mason out of Jacksonville, FL.
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Originally Posted by Observer
In what sounds like a desperation scare tactic, Lucha Underground sent out cease and desist letters to at least two reporters (Steve Bryant and Ryan Satin) who wrote stories on things that took place at their TV tapings over the past two weeks. LU makes all fans and performers sign non-disclosure agreements because they don’t want their news getting out, but the idea of threatening reporters with legal action for covering news when it happens is ridiculous and will never hold up. But obviously it’s meant as a threat to see if they can scare them away from not reporting on the news
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Originally Posted by Observer
Dorian Roldan, who runs AAA, has told several people that he’s looking at buying Impact. We don’t know if that’s just talk or something serious
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Originally Posted by Observer
The most intriguing things are that if Raw moves to FOX, it would have to be cut to two hours, but it’s audience would like rise. Right now USA Network is in 91,465,000 homes. FOX is probably in closer to 115 million, so in theory, if Raw were to average three million viewers on USA, it would increase to 3.77 million just for the added penetration, but there would also be a second increase because far more people watch FOX than USA. So it should get numbers well over 4 million, perhaps significantly more. On the flip side, if Smackdown is on FS 1 instead of USA, the drop in homes should decrease the audience 8.4 percent, plus there would be the added drop of moving to a station with a lower usual viewership, a 2.5 million would probably drop to closer to 2 million.
Still, if, and that’s a big if, Raw does end up on FOX, that increase is far bigger than whatever decrease Smackdown should end up with. But if FOX wants both for FS 1, that becomes a problem because you’re looking at double-digit audience drops for both shows. Plus, FS 1, being a sports channel, will have issues if there are major sports events on Monday or Tuesday, such as key playoff games, in leagues far bigger than WWE. Another plus for FS 1 is that NXT could not draw a number strong enough for USA most likely, but as a weekly show, it definitely could draw a number strong enough for FS 1. So that could add to FS 1's overall rating, something that is key to the value of having WWE and meaning they could pay more for that type of programming or other shoulder programming like they do with UFC
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Meltzer on potential issues for the WWE if they take FOX's offer for a new television deal. WWE also loses out on an overrun for RAW due to news commitments. Besides that, FOX is also reported to be considering the idea of drastically cutting down the amount of ad time for their shows in the future.
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Originally Posted by Observer
There are plans now to strengthen 205 Live and once again try touring with it, perhaps around May or June for another set of experimental tapings. Actually the time frame was listed as sometime between May and September. I keep hearing people say Ricochet and Lio Rush are being groomed for 205 Live sooner than later. Even through Rush isn’t getting any kind of a push in NXT, there are people there who are very high on his ability to be a star, well, as much as they’ll let someone that size be. I think Ricochet in 205 Live, even though he could be the face and top star of the brand, is a bad idea because that’s a limiting stigma. Before the big star was Enzo, but now they with augmentation from outside 205 Live talent similar to how the first two shows ended up. They are also planning on doing a cruiserweight tag team championship to be introduced in the spring or summer. Right now there’s more value in a women’s tag title, but the problem is, you’d have to have two of them
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Originally Posted by Observer
Don’t expect anything with Walter right now. While interest is definitely there, the description from the WWE side is it wasn’t a direct offer made for right now and that the timing for him to come in has to be right. They feel that there will come a time when they will be needing a big man of his ability, but unless they have direct plans for him, there’s no point in him coming in and getting lost in the system, plus, he’s made it clear that he’s set on continuing what he’s doing
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Some other sheet news includes: - NWA released a new video for their Ten Pounds of Gold series focusing on the upcoming Crimson vs Nick Aldis championship match. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAGFyChx4-w
- According to PWI, Sunny/Tammy Sytch is currently in the process of being transported to Pennsylvania to deal with current legal issues there and is expected to have her parole for prior legal issues be officially revoked. https://www.pwinsider.com/article/11...date-.html?p=1
- According to the Observer, the main reason why WWE picked a 100k stadium for their upcoming Australia tour is due to them wanting to break the all-time record for crowd size which is currently 56k (Ronda vs Holly Holm in UFC) and their own record from 2002 at 55k. Also currently reported to be officially announced as a PPV event during Mania week.
- In regards to the upcoming Saudi Arabia 50-man Rumble show, Observer reports it will be a WWE Network special event.
Some stuff from TPWW Frontpage:
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