Originally Posted by Observer

While this can all change, the Terry Taylor class at the Performance Center, which is the one to groom people who will be are being considered right now for somewhat imminent main roster spots are Nakamura, Almas, Alexander Wolfe, TM 61, Itami, Ciampa, Gargano, Hero, Samson and Dillinger. The next group down, meaning right now not imminent but they are the ones who would move up when those in the top group go to the main roster would be Tino Sabbatelli, Riddick Moss, Damo, Authors of Pain, Tommy End, Roderick Strong, Dan Matha (who is 6-7 and a bodybuilder but has hardly worked in developmental), Oney Lorcan, Wesley Blake, Buddy Murphy, Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder. Bobby Roode doesn’t train at the Performance Center as his deal is different, nor does Eric Young, Samoa Joe and I believe Austin Aries so they wouldn’t be in get-ready classes

Originally Posted by Observer

Shane Thorne of TM 61 will be undergoing knee surgery I believe on 1/12, which will put him out of action for several months ...

They are looking for new gimmicks for TM 61 (although with Thorne injured there is no rush for this), Blake, Murphy, Steve Cutler, Aliyah, Moss, Sabbatelli and Matha, which is a good sign in the sense they see something in them, just not as they are right now

Originally Posted by Observer

There have been some changes made in WrestleMania plans as noted in recent weeks, with the major thing being that the proposed Undertaker vs. John Cena match is off the boards. The card will be clearer coming out of the Royal Rumble, on 1/29 in San Antonio. Undertaker, and whoever was to challenge for the Universal title on Raw, would have been Rumble favorites if the idea was to go with tradition and have the Rumble winner challenge for one of the two the major titles at Mania.

While connecting dots can come up with a pretty good idea of the show, the key things known is that Undertaker right now is not scheduled to challenge for either title on the show. He did appear on the 1/9 Raw show, after first arriving on Smackdown, because when he was on Smackdown, it was to build for him to face Cena. Now he will face someone on the Raw roster. There was a tease of Braun Strowman on Raw, but it will not be Strowman as things stand right now.

Originally Posted by Observer

The key matches remain Brock Lesnar vs. Bill Goldberg, which based on current hints and direction looks likely to be presented as the main event on the show, HHH vs. Seth Rollins and Big Show vs. Shaquille O’Neal ...

Roman Reigns will obviously be in one of the major matches on the show. This also leaves open spots for Cena, A.J. Styles, Finn Balor (who is expected to be back in action around March unless that date is a Rumble swerve, which it probably isn’t) and Dean Ambrose. Ambrose and Miz is just starting as a program and timing wise I could see them building to a blow-off. But there is a tradition of the multiple person ladder match over the IC title as well ... If Jericho is to retain the U.S. title, that would seem earmarked for the Owens match, if that is the direction they continue.

There will be six or seven major main event level singles matches on the show, not including cruiserweights or women. The women’s match is not finalized, but Charlotte vs. Sasha Banks vs. Bayley vs. Nia Jax is the current proposed main woman’s match.

Originally Posted by Observer

Kenny Omega’s prior New Japan contract was to end on 1/31. The belief is that he was offered a two-year new deal. There are those who believe he has signed it but that is not confirmed information, although he has denied it.

Originally Posted by Observer

There is a very sad video message from Perry Saturn regarding his various health issues. He's attempting to raise money to pay medical bills and keep him from being homeless.

Originally Posted by Observer

Shawn Michaels did a TMZ interview where he said what is pretty clear, that he will never wrestle again.

Originally Posted by Observer

While there are no details Fred Ottman (Typhoon/Tugboat) was hospitalized for several days this past week.

Originally Posted by Observer

UFC star Josh Barnett will be appearing at tonight's TNA television tapings in Orlando and making his debut for a national U.S. promotion.

Barnett, currently on a USADA temporary suspension regarding an out of competition drug test taken on December 9th, has a pro wrestling background and was a disciple of Billy Robinson, one of the biggest stars of the 60s and 70s.

Barnett is expected to work some kind of an angle with TNA champion Bobby Lashley, which would be notable for a pro wrestling feud between a UFC star and a Bellator star.

Originally Posted by PWI

According to Ticketmaster's website, tickets for the WWE Hall of Fame Ceremony will now go on sale Friday, January 27th with a presale beginning on Wednesday, January 25th. This is the second time the sale date has been pushed back.

Originally Posted by PWI

Former ECW and NWA champion Steve Corino officially began working as a Coach for the WWE Performance Center this week, PWInsider.com has confirmed.

Corino officially departed Ring of Honor on 12/31 when his contract as an announcer for the company expired.

Originally Posted by PWI

The updated lineup for WWE NXT: Takeover San Antonio following last night's episode of WWE NXT:

*NXT Championship: Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Bobby Roode

*NXT Women's Championship Fatal 4 Way: Asuka vs. Nikki Cross vs. Billie Kay vs. Peyton Royce

*NXT Tag Team Championship: DIY vs. The Authors of Pain

Originally Posted by Observer

Wrestle Kingdom ended up a major success for NJPW. They picked up more than 10,000 new subscribers to New Japan World in a 24 hour period on 1/3 and 1/4, prior to the start of the Tokyo Dome show, bringing the total to about 60,000, an amazing one-day increase of a two-year-old business by 20 percent in 24 hours. Even more, 5,500 of those new subscribers came from the U.S. The total number of subscribers outside of Japan was about 8,500 to 9,000 on 1/3, but that’s the rest of the world, not just the U.S. Obviously that pales compared to WWE numbers, being only about four percent of those numbers which gives you an indication of just how competitive the two companies really aren’t as businesses even if New Japan puts on significantly better major shows. And in reality, when New Japan World was launched in 2015, the goal was 100,000 subscribers by January 4, 2016, so it has been a major disappointment.

Originally Posted by Observer

Things remain not strong in Pro Wrestling NOAH as they are struggling to replace the Suzuki-gun group. They recently closed their dojo and are said to be looking for a new location

Originally Posted by Observer

New Japan owner Takaaki Kidani stated that the reason they are running the 7/1 and 7/2 shows in Long Beach is: “The reason why we decided to go to US is what WWE did to us one year ago. I’m really frustrated. That’s the reason.”

Originally Posted by Observer

B.J. Whitmer signed a new deal with ROH after some talks with WWE about being a trainer.

Several of the people whose contract expired with ROH are working on a per date basis right now

Originally Posted by Observer

There was very little different with TNA. They had the same talent in the same positions as it’s seemed they’ve been in for months. The television wasn’t bad, nor was it good. It felt like the same spinning of the wheels going nowhere and throughout the show all l kept thinking was the saying about how the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. When I see modern pro wrestling and sports entertainment, there are things that are working and things that aren’t. What TNA has been doing for years hasn’t been working, yet the television show was exactly the same as far as the feel and look. It’s taped in the same place. It was all the same guys. The only difference was no Dixie Carter as an authority figure. They never used the name TNA except the closing graphic which listed Anthem Sports & Entertainment and TNA Wrestling Productions. The push was for the name Impact.

Originally Posted by Noid (Post 4913335)

The Grand Slam should be every active open championship in the WWE. Right now it would be World, Universal, RAW Tag Team, SmackDown Tag Team, US and IC.

Originally Posted by Big Vic (Post 4913403)

I was really dissatisfied with WWE when they had Christian seem to challenge for the US title near Raw 1000 only to switch it up at the last moment and challenge for the IC title and win. The dude won nearly every belt in the WWE besides the US title.

Originally Posted by XL (Post 4913473)

Nope. Kane was for a while in 2001.

Originally Posted by PWI

The 1/12 edition of Impact on Pop brought in 277,000 overnight viewers, down from last week's 290,000 viewers.

Originally Posted by Observer

Regarding rumors of Kurt Angle in the Royal Rumble, as of this morning, there is nothing to them. That isn't a cryptic thing. There's been no discussion as of today. Sometimes they don't call people until the last minute (which is why they sometimes get turned down because many older guys don't have time to get in shape).

Originally Posted by Observer

It was announced yesterday that Angle will be starring in a movie called "In the Ring" which was described as being a comedy like "Major League" about a group of local misfit wrestlers led by Angle are in a war against a multinational promotion to get a network television contract. Tommy Dreamer plays the role of Vince McMahon. A lot of wrestlers are in the movie including Christopher Daniels, Frankie Kazarian, John Morrison, Ken Anderson, Jay Lethal, Joey Ryan, Candice LeRae, Chavo Guerrero Jr., Kevin Kelly, Nick Aldis, Chad Lail, Dalton Castle and the Briscoe Brothers.

Originally Posted by Observer

Vince McMahon spoke to the New Orleans Times-Picayune earlier this week and when asked if he was going to retire, said, "No. No. Never. This is not work for me. I never go to work. Ever. Every aspect of the business, whether it's working with the talent or the writing staff, even on occasion working with the legal guys, it's all a big family. I never go to work." He also said that he doesn't miss being on television at all. He said he enjoyed it when he did it, but then he couldn't produce and direct the show, which is what he loves to do.

Originally Posted by Observer

Paul Levesque, Scott Armstrong and Marty Miller will be overseeing the production of the U.K. shows this weekend. David Finlay is a producer. There will be no Vince McMahon at the show nor his fingerprints on the show. The talent, if left to their devices, want to do all kinds of blow away high spots so we'll see how it turns out.

Originally Posted by Observer

Brock Lesnar will be at every Raw in February except the show in Las Vegas. He'll also be on the first Raw in March, on 3/6 in Chicago as well as the 3/20 Raw in Brooklyn and most likely (not confirmed but probable) the 3/27 Raw

Originally Posted by Observer

Paul Levesque held a press conference today in the U.K. to talk about the tournament this weekend. This was his response when asked about Kenny Omega:

"As far as Kenny Omega goes, I'm interested in talent period and if someone is talented as a performer and they want to come work for the WWE. If they want to work for the best in the world. If they want to come to the largest platform where they can truly show what they do off on a global basis then WWE is the choice for them. If they want to work for us and they are very talented then I'm interested in talking to them across the board. I hear a lot of speculation sometimes about well this guy who's been working for a long a time, or they wouldn't have interest or they would, or they're going after football players or this and that. I'm interested in talent at every level. Somebody with charisma, someone with the it factor, that is athletic, can do what we do...I'm interested in them. So, to me, anytime anyone questions me on a talent and if I'm interested in them...the fact that you are questioning me on it means that person is pretty talented so yes I'm interested."

Originally Posted by Observer

AXS TV opens up its 2017 Friday night fights with New Japan at 8 p.m. with Jim Ross and Josh Barnett commentating on the much-talked about Kazuchika Okada vs. Kenny Omega main event from 1/4 at the Tokyo Dome. The ratings over the next month for the Dome shows will play a factor in determining how prominent New Japan may be on the station going forward. The show is moved up one hour this year and the live MMA fights that follow now start at 9 p.m. instead of 10 p.m.

Originally Posted by Observer

The TNA show last night didn't air until 10 p.m. Eastern on The Fight Network. TNA finished editing late and sent it to Toronto, where they were racing against time to get it ready for air, and then one of the files was corrupted so they didn't get it done. They aired last week's show in the normal time slot and then aired the new show in the later time slot.

Originally Posted by Observer

Bill Apter spoke to Fred Ottman's wife show noted that he was in rough shape with four different infections including a kidney infection and had a 104 degree fever, but she said he was doing better.

Originally Posted by Observer

PW Insider reported a joint ROH and New Japan show will take place on 5/7 in Toronto. Plans are for at least four shows over eight days in May.

Originally Posted by PWI

Don West was brought back to help the company liquidate a lot of stock that is sitting in the warehouse in Nashville, TN. I was told it was a Jeff Jarrett suggestion. We are told there is going to be a massive unloading of merchandise with insane, even for Don West, deals.

Originally Posted by PWI

There is a lot of talk that TNA management and staff will all be condensed to be in one place. Currently, they are split between the TNA warehouse and the production office at Skyway Studios, which are located in two different areas of Nashville.

Originally Posted by Observer

Wrestler Len "Hard Rock" Hamilton filed a suit against Microsoft claiming that the character in Gears of War of Augustus Coel Train Cole was a rip-off of his character, claiming he provided photos and voice recording in 2005 for the character, which is voiced by another former pro wrestler, now actor Lester Speight (Rasta the Voodoomon in pro wrestling).

Originally Posted by Observer

New Japan today has announced a full schedule of events on New Japan World with English language commentary of the events that will air live.

As has already been reported, both major shows in February, the New Beginning in Sapporo on February 5th with the Kazuchika Okada vs. Minoru Suzuki IWGP title match and the February 11th New Beginning in Osaka with the Tetsuya Naito vs. Michael Elgin IC title match will have English language commentary.

The other shows between now and August with English commentary are:

March 6th -- 45th Anniversary show at the Tokyo Ota Ward Gym
March 20th -- New Japan Cup finals (winner to get an IWGP title match on 4/9)
April 9th -- Sakura Genesis at Tokyo Sumo Hall
May 3rd -- Wrestling Dontaku in Fukuoka's International Center Arena
June 3rd -- Best of the Super Junior finals
June 11th -- Dominion in Osaka Jo Hall (the biggest event between now and G-1)
July 1st -- The show in Long Beach, CA
July 2nd -- The second show in Long Beach, CA
July 17th -- Opening night of the G-1 tournament in Sapporo
August 11th -- A block finals of G-1 at Sumo Hall
August 12th -- B block finals of G-1 at Sumo Hall
August 13th -- G-1 Climax championship match at Sumo Hall

Kevin Kelly will be the lead announcer for the broadcasts. At this point it's unknown who will be working with him now that Steve Corino has taken a job as a trainer at the WWE Performance Center.

Originally Posted by PWI

The new Liberace-inspired Aron Rex character was something that was pitched to WWE years ago back when they were bringing Damien Sandow up from FCW. That pitched eventually changed to the more "Intellectual" character that fans got to see instead.

Originally Posted by Noid (Post 4913811)

I wonder if CyNick will believe it if it comes from Vince's mouth?

Originally Posted by BigCrippyZ (Post 4913607)

So basically Vince doesn't even have the wisdom or humility to look back to learn what they may have done wrong, need to improve upon, could do differently in the future to improve, etc. Explains a lot.

Originally Posted by The CyNick (Post 4913951)

Lol. Let's put up his bank account against yours. Maybe you should learn how to do things differently in life.

Fucking amazing reading moronic posts like this.

Originally Posted by Ruien (Post 4914243)

So you are done running a multi national law firm? Damn.

Originally Posted by Observer

The 2017 WWE Hall of Fame class has its headliner -- and it's someone that many doubted would ever be back with the company in any way.

ESPN broke the news on Monday afternoon that Kurt Angle would be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame on March 31st over WrestleMania 33 weekend in Orlando, Florida. The induction is the first association Angle has had with WWE in over a decade after parting ways with the company in 2006.

"I was shocked. I've been out of WWE for a long time and out of touch with them so I didn't really expect this," Angle told ESPN about the news. "It's a huge honor. This is the only Hall of Fame that I'm not in and probably (the one) I want to be in the most. This is the one that means the most for me. I had a lot of fun entertaining the fans for seven years with WWE, and I'm glad that my hard work paid off."

Originally Posted by Observer

Kurt Angle spoke to Sports Illustrated about his upcoming WWE Hall of Fame induction. Angle said that Steve Austin is at the top of his list to induct him and called the decision a "no-brainer."

Originally Posted by Observer

Though he just returned to WWE earlier this month, it's unclear when Tajiri will be wrestling for the company next after suffering an injury.

WWE.com posted on Tuesday that Tajiri isn't medically cleared to wrestle after suffering a right knee injury at NXT's latest TV taping. Tajiri teamed with Shinsuke Nakamura against Samoa Joe & Bobby Roode in what may have been a dark match main event on that taping. The conclusion of the match saw Chris Hero make his NXT return as Kassius Ohno to confront Nakamura after it was over.

Originally Posted by Observer

WWE is holding 2016 year-end awards for NXT that will be announced on the one-hour pre-show prior to TakeOver: San Antonio. The categories are performer of the year, male of the year, female of the year, breakout of the year, tag team of the year, and TakeOver of the year.

Originally Posted by Observer

Ring of Honor has announced that Dragon Lee and Jushin Thunder Liger will appear at their Supercard of Honor show during WrestleMania weekend in Lakeland.

Originally Posted by Observer

Mickie James is backstage at the SmackDown tapings tonight in Memphis, though that doesn't necessarily mean she will debut on the show.

James had been widely speculated to be the eventual person who would be unmasked as La Luchadora. James was not under the mask on the previous shows with that character, but from the start of the angle it was always supposed to be revealed as her.

Originally Posted by Observer

With Steve Corino leaving Ring of Honor and his announcing duties with New Japan Pro Wrestling for a job at the WWE Performance Center, NJPW was tasked with filling the spot on their streaming service's English broadcast team opposite Kevin Kelly.

That spot has been filled, with Don Callis (formerly known as The Jackyl in WWF and Cyrus in ECW) announcing on the latest episode of his "Killing the Town" podcast -- that he does with Lance Storm -- that he has accepted a position to be NJPW World's new lead English color commentary voice.

Callis noted on the podcast that he had agreed to the deal within the last week and would be working on the broadcast team alongside Kelly, who he worked with previously in the WWF in the 1990s. Callis thanked Kenny Omega for helping facilitate the deal.

NJPW announced last week that they would be ramping up their English commentary broadcast schedule as they attempt to further appeal to international fans.

Originally Posted by Observer

Ring of Honor officially announced three dates for the upcoming 2017 War of the Worlds tour with New Japan Pro Wrestling.

The dates announced were May 7th at the Ted Reeve Arena in Toronto, May 10th at the Dearborn, Michigan Ford Community and Arts Center, and May 14th as a television taping at the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia.

No names were announced for the shows but all three events are expected to sell out.

Tickets will go on sale on Wednesday for ROH Ringside Members and on January 20th to the general public.

There may be one date added to the list as we had heard it was a four show tour.

Originally Posted by Observer

Regarding questions I'm getting asked a lot, all of the wrestlers who appeared in the WWE tournament have been signed. They are also able to work U.K. independent dates until or unless WWE starts running a full-time circuit.

Originally Posted by PWI

BREAKING: tomorrow (1/18/17) guest @KennyOmegamanX will be LIVE on #TheTazShow via @Skype pic.twitter.com/X9MsoqSj6P
— TAZ (@OfficialTAZ) January 17, 2017

Originally Posted by Inquisitr.com

Pro Wrestling Illustrated is one of the most beloved professional wrestling magazines of all time. Before the Internet, this was how wrestling fans got their news. It also gave fans a chance to have their voices heard when they held their year-end voting each year with the results completely chosen by the fans. One shocking result this year came when fans voted Roman Reigns as the Most Hated Wrestler of the Year in the PWI Awards.

When speaking about the fan-voted award for Roman Reigns, PWI mentioned that this was the first time in their publication’s history that a babyface – a fan favorite – won the Most Hated Wrestler award.

“More than a quarter of our respondents cast their vote for Roman Reigns as the Most Hated Wrestler of the Year, marking the first time in the history of the PWI Achievement Awards that a so-called “fan favorite” has won this distinction.”

Originally Posted by FloSlam.tv

In our search for the best wrestling on the planet, we noticed a gap in our offerings. Lucha libre, one of the oldest and most revered forms of professional wrestling, is on its way to FloSlam.

A pair of lucha libre promotions -- Pro Wrestling Revolution and Lucha Forever -- have joined the FloSlam family.

The promotions offer distinct takes on the artform that originated in Mexico. These multi-event deals will include live streams on FloSlam. After the initial airing, shows will be available for unlimited rewatching via our ever-growing library.

Originally Posted by PWTorch

Keith Lee announced on Twitter this past weekend that he has signed with EVOLVE. Lee had been under a non-exclusive deal that recently expired. EVOLVE quickly announced that he will face Chris Hero in one of his final EVOLVE matches on Jan. 27 in San Antonio during Royal Rumble weekend.

According to sources, ROH officials were aware that Lee was negotiating with EVOLVE, but he was still working on a handshake deal with ROH. Lee’s tag team partner, Shane Taylor, recently signed an non-exclusive deal with ROH. Lee had offers on the table from EVOLVE and ROH. ROH officials were aware of Lee’s negotiations with EVOLVE, but weren’t expecting him to sign there in the near future.

Lee and Taylor appeared as a tag team on ROH’s TV Tapings last weekend in Atlanta on Jan. 14. According to multiple sources, Lee didn’t tell anyone in the ROH locker room or the office that he was going to sign with EVOLVE. ROH ended up booking Lee & Taylor to go over strong on The Briscoes during an in-ring segment. One top wrestler was furious that Lee appeared on the tapings without notifying ROH management he was going to sign with EVOLVE and noted that he and Taylor were booked to look strong against The Briscoes, which likely would not have happened had Taylor notified ROH management he was leaving the company.

According to a source close to Lee, he chose to sign with EVOLVE because the money was the same and being under a non-exclusive deal really limits where talent can work outside of ROH. ROH recently added a clause to their non-exclusive deals that states that talent can’t wrestle on independents that air on FloSlam. With FloSlam expected to become affiliated with more prominent indie organizations in 2017, wrestlers under a non-exclusive deal will have a hard time finding bookings.

Sources have confirmed with PWTorch that one of the companies that ROH has added to the banned list for those under non-exclusive deals is Beyond Wrestling. Beyond Wrestling does not air regularly on FloSlam, as they’ve only had one show air on the service, but ROH is using a very broad interpretation of their clause to ensure talent doesn’t work for the company.

Originally Posted by Observer

As expected, Raw bounced back strong with no football competition, doing 3.26 million viewers on Monday night. That's only down six percent from the 3.46 million viewers that the bounce-back Raw the same week last year did, so the decline is far less than it was during football season.

It was up 13 percent from last week, and the usual goal is a ten percent increase the first week after football season ends ...

The story was a very strong open and a big fade. Whether that was attributable to the idea that people were curious to see Brock Lesnar, and after his appearance, there was nothing plugged for him later, or they just lost interest after the first hour, the ratings pattern wasn't good ...

The three hours were:

8 p.m. 3.52 million viewers
9 p.m. 3.22 million viewers
10 p.m. 3.07 million viewers

Originally Posted by Observer

In an interview with the Fox Sports' Wrestling Compadres podcast, WWE COO Paul "HHH" Levesque confirmed that a WWE women's tournament is happening this year, likely this summer.

The podcast aired a clip from the interview Wednesday with the full interview set to be released this Friday. You can listen below, starting at the 21:30 mark ...

Levesque said that the difficult thing has been trying to find the right time for the tournament, given their current schedule and the ever-changing landscape of WWE. He mentioned the UK tournament fit perfectly prior to the Royal Rumble and that he is hoping the women's tourney can happen this summer.

The plan is to recruit very similarly to the WWE Cruiserweight Classic where they "scour the globe" and find some talents that may be flying under the radar, increasing the talent pool for WWE as a whole.

Originally Posted by Observer

Levesque was also asked about intergender matches and while he understands that they may work for some smaller groups as shock entertainment value, he didn't think the WWE fanbase would be ready for a male to be seen beating up a woman in the ring. He prefers the women being able to stand out on their own athletic merits.

Originally Posted by Observer

It was announced on Talking Smack last night that Jerry Lawler would be calling the Royal Rumble match alongside Michael Cole and Corey Graves. Lawler will also be part of the pre-show in San Antonio. Both Lawler and Lita were pulled from their regular pre-show duties at the end of last year.

Originally Posted by PWI

You may not want to bother Randy Orton at the gym. There is a story making the rounds about Orton having a confrontation with someone who tried to get Orton to take a photo with him in the middle of a workout. When Orton did not, the fan snuck a photo of Orton working out instead and the two had words. When the story began making it's way online, Orton responded:

Apparently I hurt a fans feelings when I told him to F off at the gym yesterday. That's news? Been happening for 15 years. #getalife
— Randy Orton (@RandyOrton) January 18, 2017

Originally Posted by Observer

Darren Young tweeted an update about the injury that he suffered at the Main Event taping before Raw on Monday: "Hyperextension which resulted in a traumatic dislocation & fracture of the coronoid process of the right elbow. #blockthehate #standby"

Originally Posted by Observer

Chris Charlton translated an interview from NJPW owner Takaaki Kidani where he talked about the company's plans for expansion into the United States. Kidani said, "When you ask what it is we can do (with New Japan), it is to create an American based subsidiary and run shows there. In addition, it is to produce television in line with our Japanese content that can be sold cheaply to American cable networks. While we currently sell television content to AXS TV, the most popular and visible networks have a high demand for volume of content available cheaply."

Originally Posted by Observer

The Hardys are set to face Pentagon Jr. & Fenix on the March 31st WrestleCon show over WrestleMania weekend.

Matt Jackson of The Young Bucks tweeted a photo of them and the Hardys along with a message agreeing to their challenge to a match. The teams are scheduled to face each other at ROH's Supercard of Honor show in Lakeland, Florida on April 1st.

Originally Posted by Observer

PROGRESS Wrestling has confirmed that Tyler Bate, Pete Dunne, Trent Seven, and Mark Andrews will be wrestling for the company over WrestleMania weekend in Florida. PROGRESS is part of WWN's weekend of events and will be putting on a supershow with EVOLVE in addition to a show of their own.

Originally Posted by PWI

The Philadelphia Inquirer featured a story today on the city of Brotherly Love being passed over for Wrestlemania again and their continued push to bring WWE's flagship event to the city. "Philadelphia is proud of our longstanding partnership with WWE over the years,” Larry Needle, executive director of PHL Sports told the newspaper. “Bidding for WrestleMania was extremely competitive, but we are very confident that we'll have many more premier WWE events in Philadelphia in the near future. We're also looking forward to hosting one of the country's biggest sporting events this spring, the NFL Draft, and welcoming another fantastic slate of events throughout 2017 and beyond.”

Originally Posted by PWI

We are told that there were plans for Wrestlemania 34 to originally be in the Northeast (I believe in the NYC area) but that idea was dropped due to the excellent bid and presentation New Orleans made to bring the event back to the Big Easy.

Originally Posted by PWI

Kenny Omega appeared on The Taz Show with former WWE and ECW star Taz this morning on CBS Radio for an interview discussing his recent main event at the New Japan Wrestle Kingdom show, his future, his time in WWE developmental in the past and more.

During the interview, when asked what he might be able to discuss about his future, Omega stated that he wasn't being "suspiciously silent" or trying to make people think one thing to "work" them. He said that a year ago,when AJ Styles, Shinsuke Nakamura, Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson were all signed by WWE, it opened the eyes of New Japan that they needed to break away from the standard one year deals. He said talents were signed to unique deals and he was one of them ...

In terms of what would direct his decision-making, Omega said that he's not looking for monetary goals but is looking to change "the business as much as I can in my own way and do something with impact." He said he's come so far in Japan that he almost feels as if he's had a "complete career" there and is now mulling over what the next potential move for him could be. He said that by almost winning the IWGP title and not getting there, he would hate to feel like he's walked away from there without that.

Omega said that he wasn't sending out feelers but was open to receiving them, commenting that after the Dome and the buzz that he's gotten, it appears that WWE is more "receiving" of seeing Omega in a way that would allow him to "contribute" to that company. He said that he doesn't want to just take a payday for money but wants to contribute in a way that makes current fans happy and bring former fans back to the business. He admitted that seeing how former NJPW talents have been used there has opened his eyes to the potential.

Omega noted "no negotiations have ended" and it's not a case of one company outbidding another in the end.

"It's not a money situation."

Originally Posted by PWI

While there are a lot of rumors making the rounds about TNA executive changes, nothing has been officially set in stone yet. Obviously, Anthem will be restructuring the company going forward, but to what extent remains to be seen.

Marti Belle is gone as her deal has expired. Bell, who most notably had a run with the Dollhouse, had not been used at the last several TV tapings. She was not booked for the most recent set and the set before, she was actually fielded out by TNA to go work for Rocky Mountain Wrestling in Colorado during the same time period. She's always been good. On Twitter, she noted she was back where she began, meaning being an independent talent. She's working for the National Wrassling League group in Kansas City area that has been signing a number of talents to full-time contracts, but not word if she is signing there.

Originally Posted by Sports Illustrated

“The WWE Universe is different from the rest of the world,” explained Angle. “Even though I was wrestling all these great matches, most WWE fans didn’t see those matches. That makes me sad, but it would be nice if WWE somehow got my TNA library, as well as AJ Styles’s, Samoa Joe’s, and Bobby Roode’s so people can see the stuff we did. Those guys will continue to have great matches, but we also had some great ones in TNA.”

Originally Posted by Observer

SmackDown averaged 2.652 million viewers for Tuesday night's show, which was headlined by a steel cage match between Women's Champion Alexa Bliss defending against Becky Lynch ...

The show is now averaging almost 2.5 million viewers since moving to Tuesday nights and airing live, which is way up from the 2.1-2.2 million level they were at on Thursday nights.

Originally Posted by Observer

Two promotions in the United Kingdom have announced changes to upcoming cards for FloSlam broadcasts as it seems WWE is setting guidelines for where their UK contracted talent is allowed to appear.

IPW:UK, who will be airing a supershow on FloSlam live on Sunday, posted on Facebook that Pete Dunne will now face Tom Dawkins in a bonus match for the live crowd that won't be streamed on the service. Dunne had been scheduled to face Matt Riddle, who will now face Ryan Smile instead. Joseph Conners has been pulled from the show entirely.

The promotion posted, "Unfortunately in the early hours of this morning we learnt that due to contractual obligations with the WWE, certain wrestlers will be unable to appear on our FloSlam live broadcast this Sunday, namely in this instance, Pete Dunne and Joseph Conners."

In a move that seems to be related given a tweet they posted, Lucha Forever also announced that the main event of their debut show on April 17th would now be Shane Strickland vs. Travis Banks after Strickland had been scheduled to face Dunne, who will still be appearing on the show in some capacity. The promotion recently signed a deal to broadcast events on FloSlam.

Originally Posted by PWI

For a short period of time, there was an article on the WWE website with current talents giving comments on potential surprises in the Royal Rumble. Where this gets interesting is the headline of the piece was based around Seth Rollins' comments on Kenny Omega potentially appearing. The article was pulled but featured Rollins commenting that Omega's time with New Japan could be "up" but that he didn't know if that meant Omega in the Rumble.

Originally Posted by PWI

Deadline is reporting that much like Billy Batson himself, DC Comics' Shazam! movie will be split into two separate films.

The first will be be the 2019 "Shazam!" film that has been long announced with the second being a new film "Black Adam" starring The Rock, who first announced back in 2014 that he would be playing the character.

Originally Posted by PWI

Adam "Hangman" Page and ring announcer Bobby Cruise have both come to terms with Ring of Honor and have signed new deals.

Donovan Dijak appears to be finishing up here as he's not currently scheduled for anything beyond the February TV taping in Pittsburgh (although one source noted that could change). That may be a by-product of WWE interest as the word that has been making the rounds the last two weeks is that WWE isn't comfortable offering anyone who was under a ROH deal an offer until they are 60 days out of their ROH deal expiring, obviously because they don't want to be accused of contract tampering. So, it's a case of talents now having to give notice to ROH, then wait a few months while working the indy scene to see if they will get a WWE offer. That likely explains why Kyle O'Reilly disappeared after his contract expired on 12/31.

As we noted last week, Keith Lee signed with WWNLive while having a ROH deal on the table. We are told that Lee and former tag team partner Shane Taylor were each offered contracts at the same time. Taylor signed immediately while Lee told ROH that he had other offers on the table. He informed ROH that he was going to sign with WWN over the weekend at the Atlanta TV taping and ROH told him they would finish him out in Texas against the Briscoes, obviously with the idea of closing the storyline out and putting The Briscoes over. Lee announced he was signing with WWN the next day and there's no clearcut answer to whether he'll actually work his final dates with the company.

Originally Posted by PWI

The following was announced on TrishStratus.com:

Trish Stratus welcomed Madison Patricia, her second child, a bouncing baby girl on Saturday, January 14, 2017.

Trish delivered her daughter with her midwife and husband by her side at Southlake Hospital in Newmarket, Ontario.

Three year old brother Max is said to be over the moon about the latest edition to the family!

The newborn's middle name honors Trish's Greek paternal grandmother who passed away last month.

Congrats to Trish, Ron and big brother Max!

Originally Posted by Observer

One of the big issues is that the TV people here think in terms of huge money television sponsorships, toy deals and the big goal of the Lucha Underground movie series, and these are multi-million dollar projects. The problem is they are not getting any of those deals based on the ratings they are drawing. The idea of house shows with a small profit margin and keeping the wrestlers busy and making money year-around isn’t part of the concept from the TV people, who are the key ones involved.

The problem is we’re a few years into the run and not one of those big deals has come through past I’ve seen some of the characters in a Slim Jim’s commercial. Still, the bottom line is that while they could have a cool cult thing with non-Hispanics if they didn’t go so far out to turn people off, the real money was with this product on a Spanish language station, and when this thing goes away with nothing to show for it other than tens of millions in losses and a missed opportunity, the real keys were the inability to get the product on a strong Spanish language station in the U.S. and onto television in Mexico. With names like Robert Rodriguez and Mark Burnett involved, I’m not sure why that never happened.

There is now talk once again of a Netflix deal, and Melissa Santos did an interview where she mentioned that, but that’s been talked about for a long time.

There’s also been very little promotion of the show itself as far as major media has gone. That was the province early on of Court Bauer, and when he left the promotion, nobody ever picked up the ball and they never got a media professional in that realm to take his spot.

Originally Posted by PWI

As we broke on Monday afternoon in the Elite section of PWInsider.com, the landscape of the WWE Network is expected to change as all signs are that Scotland's Insane Championship Wrestling will soon debut as programming on the WWE Network and that other promotions could follow. The belief is that ICW has a multi-year deal (depending on who is talking, the deal is believed to be 2 or 3 years) and that PROGRESS Wrestling in Great Britain and potentially others will soon follow.

The move is one that WWE has been discussing internally since last year, with the idea of adding independent wrestling material to a new tier of the WWE Network that would be available for a higher price point (believed to be $14.99) with discussions internally within WWE about everything from licensing indy content from existing television shows to paying promotions to create content. We are told feedback and viewing numbers for last weekend's the UK Championship Tournament were going to be a strong factor in determining how WWE moved forward with that plan. With the WWE Network about to hit it's three year anniversary next month, it makes sense that an announcement could be timed sometime soon.

Over the course of last weekend, the talk overseas was that WWE had all but completed a deal with Mark Dallas' Insane Championship Wrestling. The belief is that it's weekly "Fight Club" series would migrate to the WWE Network and air via VOD with disclaimers and a parental warning on the content, similar to how WWE Attitude Era material and the original ECW are featured on the Network. Fight Club currently streams on the Fite App, but the belief among many over the past week is that a deal is completed and could be announced at any point. There is no word whether the deal would also bring the company's major events, such as their annual Fear and Loathing show (which was carried via streaming platforms last year) to the WWE Network as well ...

There have been discussions of all sorts of other promotions potentially being part of the WWE Network, but the one that has been primarily discussed beyond ICW has been The UK's PROGRESS Wrestling, which is believing to be in discussions with WWE currently. What makes that interesting is the timing that PROGRESS will be making its United States debut over Wrestlemania weekend in Orlando, Florida as part of the WWNLive.com events there with a number of talents from the UK Championship tournament already announced. There are also plans for an EVOLVE vs. PROGRESS event that weekend, obviously on Flosports' streaming service ...

It's important to note that both ICW and PROGRESS have existing on demand subscription channels, so it will be interesting to see if they are maintained and continue to be updated or if WWE deals will mean the end of those platforms for either of those promotions or any others who sign up with WWE ...

While there have been rumors of Rev Pro (which will be running it's own debut event in the United States as part of Wrestlecon in April), we are told that they were not part of the current discussions with WWE.

It's also important to point out that we are told by multiple sources that ITV, coming off their 12/31 two hour pilot broadcast, is currently trying to formulate what their plan is for the World of Sports revival as they have had discussions of doing a weekly series in both a one hour and a two hour format, as well as potentially doing quarterly specials. Once the financials are worked out (we are told that there is no final decision even made on where the series might air), the plan is to try and offer talents contracts for that series if and when it is officially picked up, which means that those contracts will only make things even more complicated for the UK scene. The ITV pilot led to WWE pushing their plans for the UK tournament up several months and certainly there will be talents that play two ends - WWE and ITV - against the middle to see where they can get the best possible deal.

Originally Posted by Observer

Flo Slam and the WWE have approached the UK’s Revolution Pro about putting their shows on their respective networks. Revolution Pro turned down Flo Slam based on the idea their offer wasn’t financially worthwhile to them based on where they are at now. WWE’s approach was more of a feeling out process and no offer was made. Andy Quildan, who heads Revolution, told WWE he would listen to any offer but it probably wouldn’t be possible to make a deal due to his group’s relationship with New Japan. He said that was important to him due to loyalty to New Japan, and also because the NJPW alliance allows them to present unique match-ups that can’t happen anywhere else in the world, they can bring in talent that appears for no other UK promotion.

WWE will be paying ICW an annual fee for them to produce shows for the WWE Network. The deal is reportedly for $50,000 per year on a three-year deal, which would end in early 2020. This is said to be a tiny fraction of what Flo Sports is paying for Evolve content on its current deal, and is believed to be around half of the annual fee WWE would pay for a better drawing promotion for a weekend of shows. UK sources believe a deal with Progress is also completed. An official announcement of these deals could come as soon as this week. Two of ICW’s biggest stars are Drew Galloway and Grado, and Bram is used as a regular. There is some question as to if they would be able to be used on shows that air on the Network.

Originally Posted by Observer

The updated New Japan World subscription numbers are roughly 60,000 subscribers with 15,000 outside Japan and 45,000 from Japan. What’s notable is that there are tons more outside Japan subscribers than ever bought iPPVs in the day of iPPVs, as the outside of Japan numbers for the Tokyo Dome show in 2014 was closer to 1,000. Granted, that was before AXS aired New Japan and the popularity of the promotion was a lot smaller. But there are far less Japanese subscribers to the network than those who spent more money on iPPVs when that was first starting out in Japan. The WWE Network never hit it big at all in Japan either.

Originally Posted by Observer

It appears that Anthem Sports & Entertainment will be dropping the TNA initials and just calling the product Impact Wrestling. Those kind of cosmetic changes and new logo aren’t going to make any difference. Granted, the TNA name does have a negative connotation and I’d have dropped it as well, but Impact has close to the same connotation and the setting and style being the same will mean the results will be the same. They still have the problem that Lucha Underground also has, which is how can they make any money on this venture and the costs are higher than the television rights fees, and there’s not enough revenue generated elsewhere to make up the difference.

Originally Posted by Observer

As far as the three key contracts that were coming due, neither Matt Hardy, Jeff Hardy nor Drew Galloway have signed new deals with TNA. The Galloway situation is notable because of how the U.K. situation has greatly changed in a short period of time. Still, for the Five Star group, he was their spokesperson at a press conference this past week in Dundee, Scotland, for their next show and to announce the company’s television deal.

While the Hardys haven’t signed, things look good for them to stay. There are two options on the table, a guaranteed deal where they would have full control of their bookings outside the promotion, or a higher guaranteed deal where TNA would at least have to approve of their outside bookings. TNA likely wouldn’t nix anything unless it was maybe ROH (and maybe not since ROH is on The Fight Network so it makes no sense with Fight Network owning for those political issues to still exist) and of course WWE. Matt right now is leaning toward staying, since he has full control of his creative in TNA, which it’s highly unlikely he’d have in WWE. Jeff still hasn’t come to an agreement regarding number of dates per year, since the plan is to go back to running a regular house show schedule.

Originally Posted by Smelly Meatball (Post 4915782)

The current maker of WWE's championship belts recently revealed the WWE recently ordered new designs for the IC and US belts.

Originally Posted by Observer

Following Thursday's news of contracted WWE UK talents being pulled from FloSlam broadcasts, Friday saw more announcements of wrestlers being removed from scheduled appearances as restrictions regarding where they're allowed to work are put in place.

The "Working a Resthold" podcast announced that Pete Dunne, Mark Andrews, and Trent Seven would no longer be appearing on their live podcast in London on January 28th prior to wXw's show later that night.

The podcast posted, "Unfortunately, yesterday afternoon, Scott Andrews was informed that due to their new WWE contractual obligations, Trent Seven, Pete Dunne and Mark Andrews are now unable to participate in the show. On behalf of myself, Dannii and Marianne, we'd like to wish all three the very best for the future and would like to thank them for their professionalism."

They have updated their lineup with Eddie Dennis, Chris Brookes, Doug Williams, Jody Fleisch, and Johnny Storm now joining Marty Scurll and Ryan Smile.

Despite William Regal initially claiming that the signed UK talent would face "zero restrictions" regarding where they're allowed to work aside from dates where WWE needs them and some places that have contracts that would present a conflict of interest, it quickly became clear that wouldn't be the case.

Originally Posted by Observer

UPDATE: In what could possibly be related to Dunne, Andrews, and Seven being pulled from the podcast, Meltzer notes that WWE is bringing some of the UK talent to San Antonio next week for Royal Rumble weekend.

Meltzer also reports that contracted talents will be permitted to perform for certain promotions but the events cannot be distributed (televised, streamed, transmitted or taped) unless authorized. It is said that all talent was told this before signing deals, and is in all of their contracts.

Originally Posted by Observer

Kurt Angle has been pulled from Five Star Wrestling for the show next weekend in Dundee, Scotland. He was going to be a television announcer for the live Spike U.K. broadcast. I figured that was almost a lock to happen for all the obvious reasons.

Originally Posted by Observer

IPW UK announced for its Sunday show in Rochester, England, that Pete Dunne would do a dark match against Tom Dawkins since he can't air on Flo Sports, and Ryan Smile will replace Dunne in the main event against Matt Riddle. Joseph Conners is also off the show and will be replaced by Adam Maxted.

WWE did not pull talent (Trent Seven and Pete Dunne) from Saturday’s Revolution Pro show. Seven faces TNA’s Trevor Lee while Dunne faces NJPW’s Yoshi-Hashi. The show isn’t on FloSlam nor will it air live

Originally Posted by Observer

The company has released a Jimmy Snuka Collection today on the WWE Network and promoted it hard today in an e-mail blast. "Celebrate the Life of Jimmy Snuka" is more than a bit too much. Doing charity work and having class are hardly the same thing.

Originally Posted by Observer

New Japan also has a Jimmy Snuka special, not any kind of a tribute but they have put up a free match from 1985 with Bruiser Brody & Jimmy Snuka vs. Dick Murdoch & Masked Superstar from Sumo Hall. The finish is bad, as were most of the big match finishes of that era, but you really see how great Brody was at his character and what a phenomenal worker Murdoch is in this match.

Originally Posted by PWI

The 1/19 edition of Impact on Pop brought in 310,000 up from last week's 277,000 overnight viewers.

Originally Posted by PWI

EVOLVE announced they have signed 19 year old Austin Theory, from Atlanta, to a full-time deal.

Originally Posted by Observer

Vince McMahon was on crutches this past week because he had minor hip surgery, apparently similar to the surgery Undertaker had. Undertaker at some point is likely to need a full hip replacement but has been trying to put that off until he retires and had his problems temporarily taken care of with his recent surgery.

Originally Posted by Observer

There was some Internet controversy this week when it came out that a fan reaction they cut to showing disgust when Jericho had beaten Reigns for the IC title was actually cut in from earlier in the show and that fan was actually cheering that Reigns lost in real time.

Originally Posted by Observer

Zayn, Rollins and Reigns were backstage talking about their six-man tag main event. So the purpose of this segment was not to get anyone over, or build the match. It was to establish Zayn as a total geek. Zayn does have heat on him right now. They had him say some nonsensical stuff and Rollins & Reigns rolled their eyes at him, like “who is ths guy?” Unlike Bayley later, where an idea that they thought would get her over fell flat, this was very much about getting Zayn under.

Originally Posted by Observer

The loaded up Raw go-home show last night with the easiest competition since August did 3.29 million viewers, up slightly from the 3.26 million last week going against a marquee NBA game.

While next week's show should be way up, probably doing one of the best numbers of 2017 for the day after the Rumble, this does look to be the level, or perhaps a little above the level, the show will be doing the next few months ...

The three hours were:

8 p.m. 3.31 million viewers
9 p.m. 3.46 million viewers
10 p.m. 3.11 million viewers

Originally Posted by Observer

Linda McMahon had her confirmation hearing today in Washington D.C. with members of the Senate's Small Business Committee as part of her ongoing process to become the head of Donald Trump's Small Business Administration.

For those wanting McMahon to be questioned about WWE's business practices, that didn't happen. The entire hearing was cordial with most of the questions focusing on how McMahon would work with them in her role. Recently elected Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth of Illinois was the only one to bring up how WWE classifies its employees, noting that she talked about the issue with Linda previously.

Duckworth didn't pose any questions on the subject during the hearing, but posted on her Facebook account that she has concerns about WWE's labor practices under Linda that she hopes will be addressed as the confirmation process goes forward. Duckworth also wrote that she encourages McMahon to take a different approach at the SBA.

Stephanie McMahon and Triple H were there to support Linda at the hearing. Both were mentioned multiple times, including in awkward comments by New Jersey Senator Cory Booker.

Originally Posted by Observer

Kurt Angle told TMZ that he won't be in the Royal Rumble, saying that he hasn't talked to WWE about anything other than the Hall of Fame.

Originally Posted by Observer

Jim Ross posted an apology to anyone who was affected by his remarks about how WWE handled the death of Jimmy Snuka. Ross had said that he had no issues with WWE's tribute to Snuka and called trying to posthumously prove Snuka's potential involvement in the 1983 death of Nancy Argentino an "Oliver Stone quest." His remarks were covered in Sunday's edition of the Daily Update.

Originally Posted by Observer

Netflix has acquired the rights to "Nobody Speak: Hulk Hogan, Gawker and Trials of a Free Press." The documentary looks at the implication of Hogan's legal battle with Gawker.

Originally Posted by Observer

Will Ospreay will face the former Pentagon Jr. for XWAUK on March 12th in London.

Originally Posted by Observer

After the addition of Cesaro & Sheamus vs. Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson to the Royal Rumble kickoff show was announced earlier in the night, another match was added to Sunday's pre-show on tonight's episode of Raw.

Sasha Banks will face Nia Jax on the show as the Raw women's division gets another match at the Alamodome.

Originally Posted by Observer

WWE did allow Trent Seven and Pete Dunne's matches from Saturday's Revolution Pro show to appear on the RevPro streaming service. So even though it is unlikely RevPro will be on the WWE Network, at this point they appear to be on good terms with WWE. Regarding the talk on the show last night, two interesting notes. It was Trent Seven, not Tyler Bate who was pulled from the next Saturday podcast taped in London along with Dunne and Seven. But Dunne being in San Antonio for the Rumble would be in question since he was advertised for the main event against Jimmy Havoc for Progress Wrestling in London for a sold out show at the Electric Ballroom.

Originally Posted by Observer

More WWE contracted wrestlers in the UK have had a change in their schedules, with German promotion wXw the most recent to be affected by talent being pulled from appearances.

wXw announced in a press release on Monday that Pete Dunne, Tyler Bate, and Trent Seven are off of their show in London on January 28th. That's the same day that Dunne, Seven, and Mark Andrews were scheduled to appear on a live episode of the "Working a Resthold" podcast before WWE contractual obligations left them unable to participate.

Originally Posted by Observer

While everyone was focused on the happenings in the U.K. in recent weeks, some equally major moves were taking place in Mexico as Pentagon Jr., Daga and Garza Jr. all showed up at The Crash promotion show in Tijuana, a Konnan-booked company which indicated them leaving AAA.

Pentagon Jr. posted about leaving AAA on Facebook.

This comes just days before AAA was scheduled for a major press conference, believed to be announcing this year's TripleMania event.

All three showed up wearing Perros de Mal gear, and while that is AAA's most popular stable, AAA, which has gone on a trademark spree of late, can't trademark that term which was started by the late Perro Aguayo Jr., along with Damian and Halloween years ago, long before Konnan recruited the group into AAA. Right now the status of Perros Del Mal, a valuable merchandise name, is uncertain.

Pentagon Jr. will no longer be allowed to use that name, but will instead be called Penta El Cero Miedo. AAA owns the name Pentagon Jr. Lucha Underground owns the name Pentagon Dark.

Originally Posted by PWI

WWE issued a press release today announcing they would report their fourth quarter earnings and complete earnings for 2016 on 2/9.

Originally Posted by PWI

Bill Goldberg responded to busting himself open on Raw last night, writing the following on Instagram:

Going out a limb .... but I'm putting the pre match headbutt on the shelf for now... kinda made me a bit loopy out there. #learnfromurmistakes #whosnext #every1isnext #royalrumble @wwe

Originally Posted by PWI

It appears WWE's plans to unveil the latest WWE Hall of Fame statue over Wrestlemania week this April at AXXESS has been revealed.

Model Sean Perry posted on his Facebook page that he posed as the body model for a Flair statue that will showcase Flair in the prime of his career.

The studio Perry is referring to is ATTA Inc., studios in NYC, which has been involved in the design and construction of the statues over the last several years.

Flair signed a new full-time deal with WWE late last year but has only been used sparingly since coming to terms. He is the only two-time WWE Hall of Famer as he was inducted in 2008 alone and then again in 2012 s a member of the Four Horsemen.

WWE has unveiled statues of Andre the Giant, Bruno Sammartino, Dusty Rhodes and The Ultimate Warrior in recent years. In 2015, plans for a Hulk Hogan statue (and a DVD release that was to be built around the reveal of the statue at Wrestlemania 31 weekend) were canceled when he was let go from the company.

Originally Posted by PWI

Finn Balor is slated to undergo medical testing this week that could clear him to return to the ring, PWInsider.com has learned.

Balor won the WWE Universal championship at Summerslam but suffered a labrum tear against Seth Rollins when he was powerbombed into the barricade. He relinquished the championship the next night and underwent surgery.

Dr. Jeffrey Dugas told WWE.com at the time that, "Finn’s injury was pretty severe, more severe than normal. A really high energy injury, it did more damage than a standard shoulder dislocation where you simply tear the labrum. The prognosis is excellent, however. We were able to fix it all and put it back where it came from. I’m anticipating him getting back at full speed."

At the time of the injury, the belief was Balor would be out 4-6 months.

With the Royal Rumble about to kick off the official build to Wrestlemania, obviously WWE wants Balor back in the mix. We will see how soon that happens.

Originally Posted by Observer

SmackDown's Royal Rumble go-home show averaged 2.556 million viewers Tuesday night on the USA Network, down four percent from last week.

Originally Posted by Observer

The SmackDown Women's Championship won't be defended at the Royal Rumble, but the show's women's division will still be represented on Sunday.

Becky Lynch, Nikki Bella & Naomi will face Mickie James, Natalya & Alexa Bliss in a six-woman tag team match at the Alamodome. The match was announced on tonight's episode of SmackDown.

It will be James' first time wrestling on the main roster since returning to the company and being revealed as La Luchadora last week.

With the addition of the six-woman tag, the Royal Rumble will be a rare pay-per-view with three women's matches. Charlotte Flair defending her Raw Women's Championship against Bayley, along with Sasha Banks taking on Nia Jax are also scheduled for the show.

Originally Posted by Observer

During his appearance on SportsCenter yesterday, Roman Reigns said that Ronda Rousey could make a successful transition to WWE if she wanted to.

Originally Posted by Observer

4FrontWrestling posted the entire Kenny Omega vs. Tiger Ali match that took place for the promotion last weekend for free on YouTube. The appearance was Omega's first singles match since facing Kazuchika Okada at the Tokyo Dome, though Omega did work NJPW's New Year's Dash show in a 10-man tag match the next night.

Originally Posted by Observer

Ring of Honor announced that this year's Best in the World PPV will take place on June 23rd at the Lowell Memorial Auditorium in Lowell, Massachusetts. Tickets for the show and the TV taping the next night are already on sale for ROH Ringside Members and will be available to the general public on Friday at 10 a.m. ET.

Originally Posted by Observer

EVOLVE will hold shows in the Chicago and Detroit areas for the first time in May. They'll hold a show at Summit Park District in Summit, Illinois on May 20th before heading to the Monaghan Knights of Columbus Hall in Livonia, Michigan the next night.

EVOLVE also announced that Chris Hero's matches in San Antonio this weekend will be the main event of both shows. Hero will face Keith Lee on Friday and Zack Sabre Jr. on Saturday in his final matches for the promotion.

Originally Posted by PWI

It was officially announced that Xavier Woods will be cohosting the 2017 SXSW Gaming Awards with Twitch personality "OMGitsfirefoxx," aka Sonja Reed. The SXSW Gaming Awards will take place March 18 in Austin, Texas.

Originally Posted by PWI

Former WWE Producer Joey "Mercury" Matthews has resurfaced after being quietly let go by WWE sometime last year following a tour of Europe.

Matthews has been announced as the lead trainer for a new wrestling school Luke Gallows' promotion WrestleAmerica is opening in Middle, Georgia.

The school has already announced seminar camps for 2/7-2/9 and 2/28-3/2 for "seasoned wrestlers", priced at $100 per camp.

Originally Posted by PWI

Fred "Tugboat" Ottman remains hospitalized in Florida. We wish him our best. He has been hospitalized for a little over a week with multiple infections.

Originally Posted by PWI

The entire WWE NXT roster is slated to be backstage at the Royal Rumble PPV, so anyone from that roster could conceivably be tapped for a Rumble surprise.

Originally Posted by PWI

Former WWE star Dave Bautista was interviewed by The Daily Dead's Heather Wixson while over at the Sundance Film Festival for the release of his film "Bushwick" and had a lot of pointed comments about his (to date) final run with WWE in 2014 ...

Highlight from the wrestling centric portion of the interview:

Why his 2014 Run Didn't Work: "It was the company, man. They really just screwed me over. I was banging my head against the wall every day. It’s one of those things, I wish people knew how hard I fought to be there and how hard I fought to just give them the best matches and performances that I could. But it was an everyday struggle dealing with the company. It was such a f***ing nightmare."

The Original Plan for his last PPV Appearance and Fighting to Change It: "What most fans don’t realize is that I stayed an extra month. The reason I had to leave was because I had to go and do press for Marvel for Guardians of the Galaxy. They were actually nice enough to let me stay an extra month. They wanted me to stay that extra month and work with Daniel Bryan at another pay-per-view, but I just thought that didn’t even make sense. We were just starting the Evolution thing, so why couldn’t we run with that instead of me putting Daniel over again, which I just did at WrestleMania? We’re not going to have a better match there than we did at Mania. Let’s just work more with Evolution and build these guys up. So we did. Then right after we built the hell out of them and they were so strong as a unit, they broke them all up. I said, “What is wrong with you guys?” But that was my struggle. I also think a lot of people thought that I really quit, that I really walked out, when in reality, I really stayed an extra month more than I was obligated to do just because I really wanted to be there. I felt like I finally hit my stride and I was so happy to be there again.

Triple H and Stephanie McMahon blowing off his pitch to return at Summerslam 2014: "I said to them, because I wanted to come back for SummerSlam, “Wouldn’t it be great if I came back right when I’m also in the biggest film in the world?” Literally, it was Hunter [Triple H] and Stephanie [McMahon] who laughed at me, and Hunter goes, “We don’t even know if it’s going to be any good.” I swear to God. But I wanted to go back for SummerSlam, and they didn’t want me to come back. I think because they thought it was such a failure, that run, and it wasn’t a failure because of me. Sorry, I’m venting now."

Originally Posted by Smelly Meatball (Post 4917964)

Originally Posted by Observer

WWE is bringing the Royal Rumble back to Philadelphia next year.

Though much of this week's focus is on Sunday's show at the Alamodome, Philly.com broke the news on Thursday morning that the 2018 Royal Rumble will take place at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The event will be held on January 28th of next year.

In addition to the Rumble, the arena will also host three other WWE shows that week, with NXT TakeOver taking place on Saturday, Raw on Monday, and SmackDown on Tuesday. Holding four straight nights of shows in the same city is WWE's plan for their "big four" pay-per-views going forward.

Originally Posted by Observer

With NXT TakeOver: San Antonio taking place this Saturday, Paul "Triple H" Levesque held his regular quarterly conference call ahead of the show with members of the pro wrestling media on Thursday afternoon.

Despite TakeOver being the purpose of the call, much of the agenda was focused on WWE's United Kingdom Championship tournament and what restrictions contracted talents are facing.

Levesque said that you can't say enough good things about the wrestlers in the tournament. He noted that working with them was a wonderful experience, and said he looks forward to working with them in a bigger way in the future, reiterating that a weekly show from the UK is WWE's goal.

The topic of conversation quickly turned to what restrictions the newly signed wrestlers face after some have been pulled from appearances in recent weeks.

"There's a lot of confusion based on that." Levesque said. "A lot of the confusion is based on people's refusal to acknowledge the reality of the situation. We signed talent as a part of this UK tournament and are looking forward to doing hopefully what will become a weekly show over there. The talent knew going in what the deal was, they knew what the restrictions were, and they knew what the restrictions weren't. We're not restricting them from working for anybody, as long as it's not distributed. As long as there is no distribution outside of the live event."

Levesque said that some promotions came in after the fact to add a distribution component to their shows, which wasn't what their wrestlers signed up for.

"We're not heavy-handing anybody," Levesque said. "We're asking them to approve. We're asking them to work with us, to work with the groups that are, and I was very clear about this when I was over there, we want to work with groups that are cultivating talent, not groups that are just coming in and one-offing talent" ...

When asked about the differences in format between the UK tournament and Cruiserweight Classic, Levesque said that what works best depends on the goal of the tournament and what they're trying to accomplish. He expressed optimism in 205 Live, but noted that incorporating the cruiserweights has been a work in progress. He said that he still believes in the show and has high hopes for it, and likes the synergy between 205 Live and Raw ...

Levesque responded to a question from Meltzer about EVOLVE star Matt Riddle by noting that they saw Riddle's talent when he previously tried out for the company. He referenced the issues that led to Riddle's exit from the UFC by saying that he believes in second chances, but said that people have to go through a period of time where they prove themselves.

Without getting into the details, Levesque said that he helped nudge along the process to get Riddle taken care of and to a place where he could be cultivated as a wrestler. He said that Riddle was just promise during his tryout, but he's a talented kid and is doing very well.

Levesque noted in the opening of the call that the build to this TakeOver was unique because of challenges presented by WWE's strategic changes that affected NXT's schedule.

Originally Posted by Observer

There will be an NXT Awards show on WWE Network prior to Takeover at 7 p.m. Saturday night.

Originally Posted by PWI

WWE announced on NXT last night that TM-61's Shane Thorne underwent knee surgery and will be out 7-9 months.

Originally Posted by PWI

Austin Aries will be getting his first WWE action figure as part of Mattel's WWE Series 71, which will also feature Charlotte, Undertaker, John Cena, Finn Balr, Baron Corbin and Seth Rollins. The Revival will receive their first action figures as part of WWE Battle Packs 41. They can pre-ordered now at www.ringsidecollectibles.com. You can use code PWINSIDER for 10% off your order.

Originally Posted by Observer

There was a story going around that Brian James (Road Dogg) had replaced Ryan Ward as the head writer of Smackdown. The story is actually that James got a corporate promotion (the official title may be head consultant but we didn’t get the exact wording confirmed) , over Ward, but they are sharing the job of pitching Smackdown to Vince McMahon, who then rewrites it as he sees fit. James has been the guy reading the show to the other producers at the production meeting for some time now. So it’s not a major change in the show, nor are rumors Ward is no longer with the show correct, only that James got a promotion and would technically be above Ward in that way, but Ward is also still technically titled the lead writer of the show. James and Ward have essentially been co-head writer of the show since it started getting praised. James is considered Paul Levesque’s emissary on the show and to be one of the major power brokers going forward, particularly if and when Levesque does take over

Originally Posted by Observer

Netflix is near landing the rights to the documentary, “Hulk Hogan, Gawker and Trials of a Free Press,” the documentary that focuses on the case. Netflix reported has offered $2 million for the worldwide rights to the film

Originally Posted by Observer

Eric Van Wagenen’s appearance on the Masks, Mat and Mayhem show said that the long hiatus for Lucha Underground was not something they knew about when they were filming the season. That was clear watching the show, as on TV they were giving a hard push for Johnny Mundo vs. The Mack in an All Night Long match for likely “next week,” when next week isn’t coming until probably the summer. He said they weren’t told how long the break would be and they didn’t know when they would be back on the air. His guess was that it would be after the El Rey Network up fronts, so that Lucha Underground would be running when the fall TV season starts. But that came off more like a guess.

Originally Posted by Observer

Dutch Mantell is officially back on the TNA creative team with John Gaburick and Matt Conway

Originally Posted by Observer

Darren Young’s injury was a hyperextension of the right elbow which resulted in a traumatic dislocation of the coronoid process of the right elbow. In other words, he hyperextended, dislocated and broke his elbow in taking a bump against Epico on the 1/16 Main Event tapings in Little Rock

Originally Posted by Observer

I’m not sure if its’ because of bad quarter hours, but there has been a doctrine in recent weeks to keep the cruiserweight matches on Raw much shorter. Even this week when Swann vs. Dar went 5:00, almost the entire match was during the commercial break

Originally Posted by ClockShot (Post 4918140)

Would have went that Ring of Honor show in Lowell in a heartbeat. But that's waaaaaaay up there.

Bummer.

Originally Posted by ClockShot (Post 4918140)

Would have went that Ring of Honor show in Lowell in a heartbeat. But that's waaaaaaay up there.

Bummer.

Originally Posted by Damian Rey 2.0 (Post 4918336)

We all know It was clearly the plan based on the booking that Batista was to come in as a huge face, only to have the crowd turn on him and insert Bryan into the Rumble, where the SHIELD would then take on and get put over by the reuniting Evolution.

C'mon guys those plans were in place for months. Batista is just working us.

Originally Posted by PWI

We are told that WWE is waiting until the last second to make decisions on whether there will be any big surprises booked in the Royal Rumble in regard to outside talent popping up.

In regard to three rumors making the rounds for the Royal Rumble that we've been asked about in the last 24 hours, we are told Hulk Hogan is slated to be in Los Angeles this weekend. Kurt Angle, who has been the name we get asked about the most in terms of Rumble surprises, has told TMZ there's no chance he will be in the Rumble. Konnan has said publicly that Rey Mysterio's deal with Lucha Underground has expired, which, if the caee, would mean he's free and clear to appear in the Rumble if WWE wanted him. The NXT roster, even trainees, are also in Texas this weekend.

Originally Posted by Observer

The tryout match with the NXT women's four-way done last night in Houston was not good. Both the crowd didn't get into it and it was a sloppy match. They will likely be working it again tonight in Dallas to get ready for Sunday.

Originally Posted by Observer

Pete Dunne, Mark Andrews and Trent Seven are all working on Sunday for Progress Wrestling at their show in London at the Electric Ballroom. They had been pulled from a show in London as well as a podcast the day before. We were told that five of the wrestlers in the U.K. tournament were being brought to San Antonio this weekend including the final four. So that looks to have changed. Tyler Bate is not listed for anything this weekend in the U.K. Dunne defends his Progress title against Jimmy Havoc in the main event.

Originally Posted by Observer

WWE will be taping one week of NXT programming tomorrow night before they go on the air, at about 7 p.m. in San Antonio.

Originally Posted by Observer

Nikki Bella has been named Executive Producer of Total Divas going forward.

Originally Posted by Observer

WWE has moved the women's six man match on Sunday's Royal Rumble show to the preshow. Given the main show is four hours and has five matches, that would indicate maybe a surprise segment, as well as very long matches.

Originally Posted by Observer

Mada Abdelhamid, who was on the last season of Tough Enough in 2014, has quit the promotion. He had done a few promos but wasn't figured into anything in NXT and had yet to be used on television.

Originally Posted by PWI

Kurt Angle has pulled out of his scheduled signing at Wrestlecon, T-Mart Promotions (who were bringing him in) announced today. They are providing refunds for anyone who paid for Angle in advance. Obviously, Angle will be a little busy that weekend as hes being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.

Originally Posted by PWI

The 1/26 edition of Impact on Pop brought in 307,000 viewers, largely even with last weeks 310,000 viewers.

Originally Posted by Observer

Full details aren't available at this time regarding the WWE's ratings from Monday night, but as expected, Raw increased significantly with the day after the Royal Rumble show. The episode did about 3.61 million viewers, up ten percent from last week.

Last week's go-home edition of Raw averaged 3.29 million viewers, which was up slightly from the 3.26 million the show did the week before.

The promotion of Triple H's return during the show didn't stop the third hour from being the least watched, but it did manage to minimize the decline.

The three hours were:

8 p.m. 3.63 million viewers
9 p.m. 3.64 million viewers
10 p.m. 3.57 million viewers

For a comparison, last year's day after Rumble show did 4.09 million viewers, so it was a 12 percent year-to-year decline. That show was up 18 percent from the week before, and was bolstered by an appearance by Dwayne Johnson.

Originally Posted by Observer

Those who were disappointed that Samoa Joe didn't appear at the Royal Rumble didn't have to wait very long for him to make his main roster debut.

While appearing on Raw for the first time, Joe attacked Seth Rollins in the main event segment of Monday night's show. The face-to-face confrontation between Rollins and Stephanie McMahon that had been advertised going into the night led to a promised collision between Rollins and Triple H later, but Joe blindsided Rollins before he could join Triple H in the ring.

The segment ended with Rollins passing out to the Coquina Clutch.

Joe's debut had been speculated about for weeks as he's been in a holding pattern in NXT since dropping the brand's title to Shinsuke Nakamura for the second time last December. His only appearance at NXT TakeOver: San Antonio was when he was shown on camera sitting in the audience.

Originally Posted by Observer

With the Elimination Chamber less than two weeks away, WWE didn't waste time building to SmackDown's next pay-per-view on Tuesday night's show.

Shane McMahon announced in the opening segment of SmackDown that AJ Styles, Bray Wyatt, Baron Corbin, The Miz, and Dean Ambrose would challenge John Cena for the WWE Championship in an Elimination Chamber match on February 12th.

Originally Posted by Observer

NJPW World has made the Kazuchika Okada vs. Kenny Omega match from the Tokyo Dome available to watch for free for a week.

Originally Posted by Observer

King Jerry Lawler's Memphis BBQ Company opened in Cordova, Tennessee on Monday night. Lawler is an owner of the restaurant.

Originally Posted by Observer

Revolution Pro Wrestling announced that Omega would be appearing at their Epic Encounter show on April 13th at York Hall in London. The Young Bucks were previously announced for the show as well.

Originally Posted by Observer

EVOLVE posted the full video of Chris Hero's farewell speech from last Saturday for free on YouTube.

Originally Posted by Observer

There were also complaints regarding people getting their seats moved and problems with seating which we've gotten a few of and were making their way around social media. The complaints included the usual disabled parking lot being shut down by the building as WWE made it exclusive for talent, so disabled veterans and handicapped people who are used to parking there and were directed there by unknowing people working at the entrance had to park elsewhere. The WWE said they were not aware of that issue.

Originally Posted by Observer

There was a plan to make a bigger deal of John Cena tying Ric Flair's record but it was rewritten out of the show. I think so many people know it's not a real number (16) for Flair's titles, plus from a history perspective, as great as last night's match was, a short title reign is kind of weak for the record setter which may be why it's being downplayed. That also could be an argument not to have done it, but that was the long-term plan when it was supposed to be a big deal.

Originally Posted by Observer

Chris Jericho suffered a minor ankle injury last night when he and everyone else was being thrown around by Brock Lesnar.

Originally Posted by Observer

Pete Dunne, Trent Seven and Mark Andrews both ended up working for Progress on Sunday in London. Andrews won a multiple person match over Marty Scurll, Trent Seven, Jack Sexsmith, Sebastian, Dave Mastiff and Nathan Cruz to get a title shot. Dunne retained his Progress title losing via DQ to Jimmy Havoc in the main event. So the only guys brought over were Wolfgang and Tyler Bate, who both worked on Saturday night's show in San Antonio in matches taped for NXT this week.

Originally Posted by Observer

Also on the pre-show, WWE revealed this year's NXT Awards. Shinsuke Nakamura won both Overall and Male Competitor of the Year. Asuka won Female Competitor of the Year. The Revival won Tag Team of the Year, and their match against DIY from TakeOver: Toronto won Match of the Year.

Originally Posted by PWI

The Senate Small Business Committee approved President Donald Trump's nomination of Linda McMahon as administrator of the Small Business Administration, a cabinet level position earlier today. She will now go before a United States Senate vote to confirm the position.

Update: The initial news about the approval listed McMahon as being unanimously approved. As it turns out, there was one person who voted against her in United States Senator Cory Booker, the same Democrat who recognized that Triple H and Stephanie McMahon were at the approval hearing earlier this month and cracked that Stephanie was more intimidating looking.

Originally Posted by PWI

Impact Wrestling tweeted the following about a new digital Series 'A Day in the Life' beginning February 1st.

New Digital Original! Coming 2.1 #ADayInTheLife

2.1: @RobbieEImpact
2.8: @MooseNation69
2.15: @AllieImpact
2.22: @TheEddieEdwards pic.twitter.com/OtiOAUWhux
— IMPACT WRESTLING (@IMPACTWRESTLING) January 30, 2017

They also announced the 'My First Day' digital series will be concluding on February 25th, as well as announcing who will be featured on the final four episodes. Hopefully, talent still associated with the company.

#MyFirstDay wraps 2.25, don't miss final 4 episodes!

2.4: @RealMikeBennett
2.11: @realjoshmathews
2.18: @babyhebner
2.25: @CodyRhodes pic.twitter.com/wPMDdTvQIu
— IMPACT WRESTLING (@IMPACTWRESTLING) January 30, 2017

Originally Posted by PWI

WWE will run the new, renovated Nassau Coliseum for the first time on 4/10 with a live Monday Night Raw taping.

Prior to the venue shutting down in May 2015 for a complete renovation that saw capacity lowered, WWE had been running there for decades, dating back to the early 1970s when the Coliseum first opened.

The first episode of Saturday Night's Main Event was taped in the venue and the second Wrestlemania had it's New York portion featuring Mr. T boxing Roddy Piper hosted there. The venue also hosted a number of PPVs over the years, including Summerslam 2002 which saw Shawn Michaels return to the ring against HHH, Brock Lesnar win his first WWE championship and was one of the best top to bottom WWE shows ever.

Originally Posted by Observer

Following the best ratings number Raw has posted since last year's episode after WrestleMania on Monday night, SmackDown had a big jump as well for their post-Royal Rumble show on Tuesday.

The show averaged 2.817 million viewers. That is up 10 percent from last week's total and is the best number for the brand since December 27th, which was the return of John Cena to television after a lengthy absence. It was the third best number SmackDown has done since the live draft special last July.

Originally Posted by Observer

Dave Meltzer reports that Rollins suffered an injury on Raw in his brawl with Samoa Joe. WWE confirmed the news in an announcement on their website that played into Rollins' storyline with Triple H and Joe. WWE's announcement said that Rollins suffered an injury to the same right knee where he previously tore his ACL.

WWE's post noted that Rollins would be evaluated later this week to determine the extent of the injury.

If Rollins is out for an extended period of time, it would be a blow to the WrestleMania 33 card after Rollins' previous knee injury kept him out of last year's show in Dallas ...

Video of Rollins leaving the building on crutches after Raw is available to watch below:

BREAKING: @WWERollins' right knee was re-injured at the hands of @SamoaJoe this past Monday night on #RAW! More: https://t.co/8aYrlzUHSP pic.twitter.com/VYxpVBoj3J

— WWE (@WWE) February 1, 2017

Originally Posted by Observer

Seth Rollins posted a series of tweets about the knee injury that he suffered on Raw: "Wanted to take a second to thank everyone who has reached out to me over the last two days. Life doesn't always go your way, but that is no excuse to surrender. If anything, obstacles exist to help us grow and evolve. This reinjury to my surgically repaired knee is real and a lot is up in the air right now, but one thing remains constant: my resolve. This doesn't end for me until I've reclaimed the throne. And for me, fighting and defeating Triple H is the only way. I will work harder than I ever have and push myself beyond what I know. This isn't over. The only way to wear the crown is to slay the king. I know what must be done and there's nothing that can stop me."

Originally Posted by Observer

Though the card could always change -- especially with the show being over a month away -- WWE is advertising that Kevin Owens will soon get a match with Brock Lesnar.

Madison Square Garden's website lists a "special attraction WWE Universal Championship match" between Owens and Lesnar for the venue's SmackDown brand house show on Sunday, March 12th. If that does happen, it would be the first time Owens and Lesnar have faced each other.

Despite it currently being listed as a title match, that could change with Owens defending his Universal Championship at Fastlane on March 5th.

The inclusion of the two Raw stars is the most noteworthy thing about the advertised MSG card, but some of the show's other matches could give an indication on SmackDown's post-Elimination Chamber booking.

Originally Posted by PWI

WWE Hall of Famer Mick Foley annnounced on Facebook that he was cleared for hip replacement surgery, writing, "I am cleared for hip surgery! It OK couple months, but I was able to get my health insurance back, and by getting my right hip replaced whenever I have a break in my schedule. The bad news is that a hip replacement will not allow me to fly for about six weeks, due to potential blood clotting issues – which can be fatal. Really nothing to play around with. The good news is that the GM position doesn't offer much in the way of long-term job security – so that break might present itself as a natural course of events." Foley noted that he would be keeping all of his scheduled bookings.

Originally Posted by Observer

ESPN's 30 for 30 documentary on the XFL airs tomorrow at 9 p.m. ET. Basil DeVito spoke to The Post in Athens, Ohio about the documentary.

Originally Posted by Observer

MLW Radio noted that seasons one and two of Lucha Underground are coming to Netflix on February 15th. The two seasons will also be available on Netflix in Canada.

Originally Posted by Observer

The third season of Lucha Underground will resume on the El Rey Network on May 31st.

Originally Posted by PWI

Ricochet aka Prince Puma did an interview with Spain's SoloWrestling.com where he confirmed he is no longer under contract to Lucha Underground but cannot appear for another promotion's TV until Season Three of LU runs its course. There's absolutely been WWE interest in him in the past.

Originally Posted by Observer

Rollins was getting an evaluation on the knee on 2/1 in Birmingham and the early word was that he’d be out about eight weeks, meaning that Mania was possible but not definite. Obviously he’ll want to do it under any circumstances when it’s that close of a call but WWE these days, for legal reasons, is far more cautious about throwing talent back into the ring before they are ready than has been the case historically.

Originally Posted by Observer

The much talked about ESPN 30 for 30 show "This is the XFL" debuts tonight at 9 p.m. Eastern time. Vince McMahon was interviewed and is prominently featured. Charlie Ebersol, the son of Dick Ebersol, who co-owned the promotion with Vince, put this together. The show was gotten mixed reviews from those who have seen the screener.

Originally Posted by Observer

There's more controversy in the AAA situation with Pentagon Jr. & Fenix. AAA is attempting to now trademark Penta el 0M and Fenix El Rey, which are the latest names they have been using. They never used those names in AAA, and the attempt is to prevent them from using those names in the U.S. and in Mexico. AAA already trademarked Rey Fenix, even though a character in Puerto Rico had used it previously and Fenix had never used it in AAA.

Originally Posted by Observer

The Squared Circle Sirens web site noted a number of names at the current 42 women WWE tryouts this week. Among the names there are Nicole Matthews, Miranda Salinas, Hyaneyoung, Renee Michelle, Anna Theresa (who won the Ms. New York beauty pageant this past year), fitness competitor Stephanie Rowe and Lei'd Tapa.

Originally Posted by PWI

WWE Hall of Famer Kevin Nash disclosed on his Instagram account that he would soon be going in for surgery after MRIs revealed he had suffered a torn rotator cuff and torn labrum. The former WWF and WCW World champion did not disclose how he suffered the injury, but the announcement accompanied video of him working out.

Nash noted it would be the 31st surgery he has undergone.

Originally Posted by PWI

Tommy Dreamer has been tossed off balconies and set on fire, but it was his dog that nearly cost him an eye.

In a freak accident yesterday, Dreamer's dog's paw stuck him in the eye, breaking one of Dreamer's contacts in half and severely scratching his cornea. The swelling of the eye was so bad that doctors stopped fishing for the remainder of the contact lens.

If you need any indication of how much Dreamer is hurting, he actually pulled himself off international bookings in Germany this weekend.

Dreamer posted a photo of his eye on Twitter and it is pretty gruesome. We aren't posting it here because we didn't want to upset anyone with a weak stomach, but if you want to see it, you can at www.Twitter.com/TheTommyDreamer.

Originally Posted by PWI

WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross' autobiography Slobberknocker: My Life in Wrestling will be officially released in hardcover on 10/2. The book is being co-authored by Paul O'Brien, who has written several excellent books of pro wrestling-centric fiction. The book is being released by Sports Publishing.

Originally Posted by PWI

Yoshihiro Tajiri, who has been out of action with a knee injury, is expected back within the next two weeks.

Originally Posted by Observer

The Royal Rumble PPV drew an announced crowd of 52,020. We don’t have an exact number. With the setup, had every possible seat been filled and with those blocked off for the stage, they could have gotten about 67,000 in. I was told three-quarters of the upper deck was tarped off, which would indicate a set up for around 45,000 to 47,000. We were given a 42,000 number from someone who knows the building but that is only an estimate. Coming into the show, the expected paid attendance was expected to be 35,000 to 40,000 but San Antonio is traditionally a decent walk-up market. WWE didn’t release any real numbers of gate info past the announced entertainment number. It’s possible the paid will be made clear at some point with financial figures. There are also no gate numbers available at this point, although we were told ahead of time that it would have been the largest live gate for a WWE show that wasn’t a WrestleMania.

Originally Posted by Observer

Ric Flair will start his third podcast in a few weeks, with Robert Flores as the co-host. Flores, who used to work for ESPN and now works for the MLB and NHL Network, is a big wrestling fan. It will be on the MLW Network. Not sure what happened with Conrad Thompson, who is close friends and was strong at working with Flair. Thompson does shows with Bruce Prichard, and is now starting a show with Tony Schiavone

Originally Posted by Observer

The new episodes of Lucha Underground will start airing again on 5/31. The key to this is that would peg the end of the season at 10/18.

The contracts actually specify a six month lag after the final episode of the season ends for the talent to be free to sign elsewhere, which would put th time frame at April 2018. But my feeling is that could be challenged and they could be free in October. Right now WWE is very conservative about signing talent until completely free and clear. The two key contracts are Prince Puma (Ricochet) and Rey Mysterio. Puma is gone for sure, but he’s concentrating on New Japan for now, but there is certainly a strong feeling he’ll wind up in WWE. Mysterio could be signed to a new deal. I could see that going either way. He’s the highest paid guy in the company and the company is losing tons of money, and while his name could be of value in many ways, their usage of him thus far both in and out of the ring has been a major disappointment. The problem with him is that at 42, and with bad knees and inability to work a full schedule, I’m not sure what WWE would do with him past being a brand ambassador type. And he can probably make a lot more on his own than what that pays, unless WWE will give him the HHH type of schedule

Originally Posted by Observer

Over the past few weeks, the WWE has been calling a lot of the women from the past and told them they wanted them for WrestleMania

Originally Posted by Observer

WWE has contacted talent in Asia looking for passport details and other info regarding an Asian tournament, similar to what was done in the U.K. They appear to be speeding up the process in response to the WCPW World Cup tournament. To make sure there is no confusion, the talent being contacted has been outright told no outside bookings if signed in the U.S, U.K. or Japan

Originally Posted by Observer

Regarding Balor and talks of him being in the Rumble, he had an evaluation over the past week and was not cleared. I don’t know that he was ever considered for the Rumble in the first place as his target return was always said to be late February or more likely early March. But he expected to be on the WrestleMania show in some form.

Originally Posted by XL (Post 4922878)

Would it?

Originally Posted by PWI

The 2/2 edition of Impact on Pop brought in 299,000 viewers, down from last week's 307,000.

Originally Posted by Observer

The "This was the XFL" special last night on ESPN did 917,000 viewers, which is a good number for such a show.

Originally Posted by PWI

Kevin Kelly, who has served as the voice of Ring of Honor since 2010, departed the company this week, PWInsider.com has confirmed.

Kelly had taken a full-time job with the company in their office last year, juggling his announcing duties with logistical duties that were meant to ease the pressures on ROH booker Hunter Johnston. At the time Kelly took the full time job, he had told PWInsider.com that he was there to work as a liaison between the wrestlers and the office to insure better communications and to help spearhead projects that ROH needed to work on, such as a streaming service and an updated website.

We are told that Kelly gave notice and departed the company. He completed his duties for the office this weekend is not currently scheduled for any additional announcing for the company at this time. He was not scheduled for this weekend's ROH events and is scheduled to travel to Japan to call the 2/5 New Japan Pro Wrestling event in Sapporo, so it would appear his exit from ROH would have no bearing on his NJPW duties. New Japan has expanded their English language commentary for their New Japan World streaming service.

Originally Posted by Observer

An update on the Kevin Kelly situation is that he had to make a choice between keeping his full-time office job with ROH or his commitment to New Japan, as New Japan wanted him in Japan for the entire week this coming week. So he chose New Japan, which pays well, well enough to get Don Callis back into a business that he pretty much walked away from 15 years ago. Kelly is expected to still be used as on-air talent by ROH.

Originally Posted by Observer

Cody Rhodes talks WWE wrestlers' knowledge of the indie scene.

On leaving WWE on his own accord: "I've done everything and more I was hoping to do, a lot of these independent groups come across like independents, they come across as brands. It's cool that I've done the more smaller independent shows, but also the larger companies too, last year I wrestled at WrestleMania, Pro Wrestling Guerrilla's Battle of Los Angeles, TNA's Bound For Glory, Ring of Honor's Final Battle and then obviously I did New Japan Pro Wrestling's Wrestle Kingdom, so the statistic is rather staggering for me, to have a period of these events coming so fast in a featured way, it ways heavily on my mind because you want each to be good."

Originally Posted by Observer

Jim Ross promoted his WrestleMania weekend show in Orlando. On WWE using older wrestlers to build the product: "They’re using some guys with some miles on the tires -- I’m not saying if the tires are treadless or not. But there’s two ways to use those veterans.You can use them against each other, get more eyeballs on the product and expose the younger talents in other ways, or you can figure out the way for the veterans to best give the rub to younger guys. WWE is doing a nice job of that right now."

Originally Posted by PWI

Kenny Omega was announced today for Ring of Honor "Honor Rising" events at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan on 2/26 and 2/27. The word that is making the rounds is that Omega will be making appearances Stateside for ROH later this year as well.

Originally Posted by PWI

Since we have gotten some emails about a few TNA related topics, here is the latest:

*As of this writing, the company has not locked in Matt and Jeff Hardy to new deals.

*Drew Galloway has also yet to sign a new deal.

*Dixie Carter has moved out of the TNA offices in Nashville, TN and is not involved in any TNA decision-making. Her husband, Serg Salinas, is also no longer with the company. He lists on his LinkedIn Profile that in January, he left the company to work as General Manager of Trifecta Entertainment and Tex-Ville Tunes Music Publishing in Nashville, TN. Trifecta Entertainment was the company Dixie Carter owned and ran before TNA.

*Jeff Jarrett is believed to be coming on board as the new Executive Producer, replacing John "Big" Gaburick, but we have heard differing accounts of whether Jarrett's deal is done. Jarrett is still moving forward with GFW so it's possible he will try and bridge the two entities together going forward. I wouldn't be shocked to see the GFW TV that was filmed in Las Vegas eventually end up on Fight Network, but that's only my gut feeling.

*The latest word is John Gaburick is not leaving the company as we have heard he has restructured his deal to remain.

*There have been no major office departures and thus far, no real talk of moving the company to Toronto (yet).

*Dutch Mantel is officially on Creative, joining Matt Conway, Gaburick and Madison Rayne.

*Don West is, thus far, only back to help liquidate the TNA warehouse. We are told there was a ton of merchandise that needed to be sold off so the company is working towards that end. Bringing back West was a Jarrett idea.

Originally Posted by PWI

The owners of Lucha Underground, Lucha Libre FMV LLC, have applied to trademark "Penta OM", the new name for the former Pentagon Jr.

What makes that interesting is that Pentagon Jr. left AAA to become an independent talent and changed his name because it was owned by AAA. AAA's Dorian Rodan was named head of Lucha Libre FMV right before Pentagon's exit and now that company is filing a trademark on Pentagon's new independent name, premumably to prevent him from actually using it.

Originally Posted by SportsNet.ca

Legendary professional wrestler Bret (Hitman) Hart says he’s 100 per cent recovered and back in the gym a year after surgery for prostate cancer.

Hart says it was a tough battle and he feared the worst, but he benefited from early detection.

The situation is not the same for his older brother, who also has prostate cancer.

Hart says his brother didn’t go for testing or take care of things early, and now he’s looking at maybe a year to live.

Hart, who is 59, has had serious health issues before -- he suffered a stroke in 2002 that left him partially paralyzed, but he made a successful recovery.

Originally Posted by SlickyTrickyDamon (Post 4923556)

They can't copyright a name they have never used.

Originally Posted by Observer

WWE numbers fell from last week, which isn't a story because the Monday after Royal Rumble is likely to be one of the two or three highest rated shows of the year.

But what was a surprise was how far they tumbled, as last night's show averaged 3.10 million viewers. To put that number into perspective, only five shows in 2016 outside of football season were lower, and this was with a fairly loaded show with Bill Goldberg and a fresh main event with Roman Reigns vs. Samoa Joe ...

With the exception of two shows in August against the Olympics, two June shows against major NBA playoff games, and a Monday that fell on July 4th, this week's number was lower than any non-football Raw of 2016.

It also had a bad drop and a very weak third hour.

The three hours were:

8 p.m. 3.34 million viewers
9 p.m. 3.17 million viewers
10 p.m. 2.84 million viewers

Originally Posted by Observer

Ivan Koloff, 74, one of pro wrestling's leading heels of the 70s and 80s, is battling liver cancer.

Koloff is best known for his January 18th, 1971, win over Bruno Sammartino in Madison Square Garden which ended up being Sammartino's only pinfall loss in that building in his entire career. The win ended Sammartino's nearly eight year run as WWWF champion.

Originally Posted by Observer

WWE issued an update on Shinsuke Nakamura's storyline knee injury, noting that there were no tears in Nakamura's knee and that he wouldn't require surgery.

Originally Posted by Observer

The custom WWE Championship that WWE sent the New England Patriots after their Super Bowl 51 win was heavily featured during the team's victory parade today. Rob Gronkowski posted a picture with the title before the parade began and it appeared several times on the TV broadcast.

Originally Posted by Observer

EVOLVE announced that Michael Elgin and Donovan Dijak would be wrestling for the promotion over WrestleMania weekend, which probably says something about Dijak's future with Ring of Honor. Elgin & Dijak will challenge for Tracy Williams & Fred Yehi's EVOLVE tag titles on March 30th in Orlando, Florida. Elgin will also face Zack Sabre Jr. the next night.

Originally Posted by Observer

Paige's life story could soon be making its way to the big screen.

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson announced on Facebook on Tuesday that his Seven Bucks Productions company is producing a film based on WWE wrestler Paige (real name Saraya-Jade Bevis) and her family. The movie was inspired by a documentary that aired on Channel 4 in the UK that chronicled Paige and her family's career in the wrestling business.

Based on the documentary, the film will be titled "Fighting With My Family."

"Years ago (2012) while shooting Fast & Furious in London, I was up at 3am (too much caffeine) and stumbled upon a documentary on a UK station about a local wrestling family and their daughter's unlikely journey into the global spotlight," Johnson wrote.

"That daughter, is current WWE Women's Superstar, Paige. The family element I saw in the doc, is what grabbed my attention. That no matter how crazy life gets, no matter how dysfunctional our families can sometimes be and especially regardless of how much we fight -- we're always there for each other when it counts. That's what families do."

Stephen Merchant will write and direct the film, with Johnson noting that Merchant grasped how gritty and heartfelt the comedy-drama should be. Johnson also noted that they would be partnering with WWE Studios and Film 4 on the project.

The Hollywood Reporter's story on the film said that Florence Pugh and Jack Lowden have been tapped for starring roles, with Johnson making a cameo as himself in addition to his position as executive producer.

Paige's wrestling career is currently on hold after she underwent neck surgery last year. She was also suspended by WWE twice for wellness policy violations in 2016.

Originally Posted by Observer

The WWE signed a multi-year deal with Dana Warrior, the widow of Ultimate Warrior. This is part of continuing to market the Ultimate Warrior name, have her be part of the annual Ultimate Warrior Award, etc.

Originally Posted by Observer

Adding to a class that already includes Kurt Angle as its headliner, it was revealed on Monday afternoon that The Rock 'n' Roll Express would also be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2017.

The announcement that Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson would be joining the Hall of Fame was made by CBS Sports, with WWE also posting an article about it on their website. Morton & Gibson were voted into the Wrestling Observer Hall of Fame in 2014.

"It was a surprise," Morton said to CBS Sports. "I had a message on my phone (from WWE) to call the number back. I think they got ahold of Robert at the time. When they called, it was just like a suckerpunch. It just knocked us off our feet."

"It's an honor for Ricky and me to go into the Hall of Fame," Gibson said.

Originally Posted by Observer

John Layfield will be doing a new "Legends with JBL" show on Wednesday talking with Stan Hansen. Those shows are always interesting.

Originally Posted by Observer

Charles Robinson revealed in an interview on WWE.com that he tore his plantar fascia while refereeing John Cena vs. AJ Styles at the Royal Rumble and reflected on what it was like to be there for Cena's 16th title win.

Originally Posted by Observer

Don Callis makes his debut calling New Japan Pro Wrestling ... as he'll be calling the New Beginning in Sapporo with Kevin Kelly. The show will be headlined by Kazuchika Okada defending the IWGP Heavyweight Championship against Minoru Suzuki.

Originally Posted by Observer

Kenny Omega, The Young Bucks, Ricochet, and Will Ospreay will be appearing for OTT Wrestling at a big show in Ireland on April 15th at National Stadium. The promotion also had a show today with Drew Galloway making a surprise appearance and Mark Haskins wrestling for the first time since taking time off with a neck injury last year.

Originally Posted by PWI

As we reported yesterday, Seth Rollins was back in Birmingham, Alabama regarding the MCL tear in his knee. The hope among those I've spoken to today is that Rollins will be good to go by Wrestlemania, pending any further complications.

Erick Rowan is at the WWE Performance Center this week working towards being cleared from his torn rotator cuff.

Rich Swann was pulled out of in-ring duties due to a foot or ankle issue. That's why he disappeared from his storyline against Neville.

Hideo Itami is off the injured reserve.

Originally Posted by Pro Wrestling Sheet

Pro Wrestling Sheet has learned there’s some truth to rumors claiming Nikki Bella will be done in the ring after WrestleMania 33 … but we’re told she won’t be leaving WWE.

Sources with direct knowledge tell us Nikki had been trying her best to deal with the pain her neck has been feeling while also traveling a full-time schedule … however, it’s become too much.

As we previously reported, she had only intended to be a part-time performer upon her return.

We’re told the pain often causes numbness to one side of her body, so she’s hoping some time away will allow her to wrestle every once in awhile for WWE at big events in the future.

Our sources say Nikki’s contract is also up around the same time as Mania, but those close to the deal believe they’ll agree to a new one before WM33 that would keep her around for the foreseeable future.

Originally Posted by Observer

SmackDown viewership was down last night to 2.627 million viewers, a drop of seven percent from the previous week, despite a main event featuring the two biggest stars on the brand in John Cena and Randy Orton ...

This was the go-home show for Sunday's Elimination Chamber PPV, the last SmackDown-exclusive PPV before WrestleMania.

Originally Posted by Observer

Following an announcement that was made in Japan earlier in the day, Impact Wrestling announced on its website on Tuesday night that the company had entered an official working relationship with Pro Wrestling NOAH.

"We look forward to making a formal announcement soon in Tokyo and seeing IMPACT Stars compete at NOAH’s Yokohama event on March 12," Impact Wrestling wrote when announcing the agreement. "We are thrilled to build this relationship even further with more details to come."

Some of those details will likely be revealed when that formal announcement is made, but it appears that the promotions will at least be sharing talent going forward.

Originally Posted by Observer

WWE added Randy Orton vs. Luke Harper and Dolph Ziggler vs. Apollo Crews & Kalisto in a handicap match to Sunday's Elimination Chamber card on last night's SmackDown. The updated Elimination Chamber lineup is:

• John Cena defending the WWE Championship against AJ Styles, Dean Ambrose, The Miz, Bray Wyatt, and Baron Corbin in an Elimination Chamber match
• Alexa Bliss defending the SmackDown Women's Championship against Naomi
• Randy Orton vs. Luke Harper
• American Alpha defending the SmackDown Tag Team Championship against The Usos, Heath Slater & Rhyno, The Ascension, Breezango, and The Vaudevillains in a tag team turmoil match
• Becky Lynch vs. Mickie James
• Nikki Bella vs. Natalya
• Dolph Ziggler vs. Apollo Crews & Kalisto in a handicap match

Originally Posted by Observer

Another match was also added to the March 5th Fastlane card last night as Jack Gallagher became the number one contender for Neville's WWE Cruiserweight Championship by winning a fatal five-way match on 205 Live. Neville vs. Gallagher joins Kevin Owens vs. Goldberg for the Universal title and Roman Reigns vs. Braun Strowman as the matches already announced for Raw's last brand-exclusive pay-per-view before WrestleMania.

Originally Posted by Observer

It was announced last night that Gran Metalik would be making his 205 Live debut next week.

Originally Posted by Observer

NBC in Chicago ran a story about former WWE broadcaster Mike Adamle and the health issues he's battling. Adamle has been diagnosed with dementia and is possibly suffering from CTE as well, among other health problems. Adamle participated in the interview to tell his story and in the hopes that it would help others experiencing similar issues. Adamle is a former NFL player and has been a broadcaster for a number of outlets.

Originally Posted by Observer

Paige and Alberto Del Rio were interviewed by TMZ Sports, with Paige saying that she'd consider trying out MMA when her time with WWE comes to an end.

Originally Posted by PWI

Natalya noted on her Instagram account that she met Andre the Giant's daughter Robyn backstage at last night's Smackdown taping in Seattle. That is the first I've heard of her visiting at a WWE event. A few years back, she made an appearance at a comic convention to promote a graphic novel based on her father's life and noted she had no relationship with WWE at that point.

Originally Posted by Observer

Nigel McGuinness makes his debut on commentary for NXT on the episode that airs tonight on the WWE Network.

Originally Posted by Observer

wXw announced today that Pete Dunne would no longer be wrestling for the promotion on February 24th, with Revolution Pro Wrestling also announcing that Dunne would be wrestling for them on the same date instead against the former Pentagon Jr.

Originally Posted by PWI

The Rock announced that Nick Frost and Lena Headey would be starring in "Fighting With My Family", the WWE Studios comedy based on the lives of The Knights, Paige's family, which was officially announced yesterday. Frost is absolutely amazing as a comedic actor. I've been a huge fan of him since he was one of the stars of "Spaced" and "Shaun of the Dead. Headey is best known from "Game of Thrones" but was equally great in "Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles" series that was cancelled woefully premature by FOX. Rock made the announcement via Twitter:

Welcome the brilliant/bad ass @IAMLenaHeadey & the often mistaken as my twin @nickjfrost to our cast. #FightingWithMyFamily @SevenBucksProd pic.twitter.com/q7Y3hvKgse
— Dwayne Johnson (@TheRock) February 8, 2017

Originally Posted by PWI

Darren Young posted on his Instagram account that he will be getting his elbow loaded with some "serious hardware" tommorrow in Birmingham by Dr. Dugas. He also noted there is no timeframe set for his in-ring return.

Originally Posted by PWI

Deadline Hollywood reported that WWE Studios has purchased the English language remake rights to Norwegian slasher "Cold Prey". The film is described as a cross between "The Grey" and "The Revanant" with a strong female lead. The plot centers around a group of friends who decide to ski out of bounds and are forced to take shelter when a storm hits, finding themselves imprisoned in an abandoned ski lodge along with a maniacal killer. The original film has already spawned a few sequels ."Cold Prey" is hailed as one of the best and most successful modern Norwegian horror franchises. Casey La Scala, who was a producer on "Donnie Darko" and the upcoming "Amityville: The Awakening", will serve as writer and executive producer on the project. La Scala recently wrote, produced and directed "The Remaining" for Sony.

Originally Posted by PWI

WWE Network News is reporting that we will get one more Collection this month, a 2017 Hall of Fame Collection, listing the following synopis:

WWE Hall of Fame: Class of 2017

One of the greatest entertainers in WWE history, Kurt Angle headlines the 2017 WWE Hall of Fame Inductees. Enjoy some of the Olympic Gold Medalist and six-time World Champion’s unforgettable accomplishments from his illustrious WWE career. Plus, be sure to keep an eye on this WWE Hall of Fame Collection as the Class of 2017 takes shape, with more memorable moments added for every inductee.

Originally Posted by PWI

WWN announced that Michael Elgin and Donovan Dijak will be joining EVOLVE during WrestleMania weekend.

Evolve Tag Team Champions Fred Yehi and Tracy Williams will defend against Elgin and Dijak at EVOLVE 80 on March 30.

Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Elgin has been signed for EVOLVE 81 on March 31st.

Originally Posted by BigCrippyZ (Post 4923560)

Um, you can't copyright a name. You can however file for a trademark.

Originally Posted by SlickyTrickyDamon (Post 4925500)

Isn't that sort of vindictive baseless trademark filing considered grounds for lawsuit/fines?

Originally Posted by PWI

In their earnings report, WWE announced that as of 1/31, the WWE Network has 1.5 million paid subscribers, with 1.4 million paid in the United States and 0.4 million paid internationally.

WWE did not announce how many subscribers they currently have if you include the free subscriptions they have given away through Wrestlemania to former paid subscribers

Originally Posted by Observer

Revenue numbers are the highest in company history. Profits are still well below the pre-Network levels, although most projections are they will be at or ahead of those levels in 2017 due to an increase in TV rights fees and lower tax rates.

Most of the year was actually somewhat even in profits except that last year in the fourth quarter the company lost $1.2 million and this year's fourth quarter profits were $8.0 million. Total revenue in quarter four was $194.9 million, up from $166.2 million in quarter four of 2015 ...

U.S. subscriber numbers at year-end were 1,033,000, up from 940,000. However, the Network division overall decreased in profitability for the year from $48.4 million to $36.9 million, due to increases in costs of the Network programming and a major decline in PPV.

Virtually all significant profit growth comes from television rights fees. Profits were up on television from $88.0 million in 2015 to $114.8 million in 2016, even though revenue increased by $10.6 million. Some of that is misleading, in the sense that they expense some things to the Network that were formerly expensed to television ...

If there was a hidden negative, it's that live event attendance, while up overall due to running more shows, decreased in profitability as well as average attendance.

For the main brand shows, the average paid attendance in quarter four was 5,300, down from 6,300 in the same quarter last year. That doesn't factor in NXT events. The total profits for all fourth quarter shows, including NXT events, fell from $7.3 million to $6.2 million in the fourth quarter.

Originally Posted by Observer

In the main take, Vince McMahon spoke of touring the 205 Live wrestlers with their own house shows, similar to NXT, as well as a European outpost with regular touring, stemming from the U.K. special. He didn't give any timetable as to when this would happen.

The idea of a U.K. or Europe based satellite group is something that has been talked about a lot, but the idea of doing house show tours with the cruiserweights is something that is new. If all groups are running and there are two NXT shows, that would leave the company with as many as six events every Saturday night.

Originally Posted by Observer

Vince also said the brand extension is working extremely well, as they expected. He said there is some crossover with viewers, which they wanted, but they are introducing new viewers to SmackDown and that’s what they have been trying to do. He also mentioned fresh talent going from brand to brand, using Roman Reigns potentially jumping to SmackDown as an example.

Originally Posted by Observer

Dwayne Johnson in step one apparently, is upset with Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank (Johnson has a shoe line with Under Armour) for his public support of Donald Trump, saying Plank's comments were divisive and lacking in perspective.

Originally Posted by Observer

Lance Archer will be undergoing surgery for a herniated disc in his lower back which will put him out of action for a long time. The timing couldn't be worse since he and Davey Boy Smith Jr. were primed for a run as the top foreign tag team in New Japan. For tonight's tag title match, Smith Jr. will team with Takashi Iizuka. Pro Wrestling Sheet reported that he's expected to undergo surgery at some point over the next week.

Originally Posted by Observer

Mick Foley will be writing a Christmas book called "Saint Mick" this year for release during the Christmas season.

Originally Posted by Observer

Matt Cross (Son of Havoc) just found out that he broke his leg four weeks ago on a show in Seattle. We had heard he injured his leg doing a moonsault and he'd been canceling his shows. When the leg wasn't getting better as quick as he'd hoped for, he got an X-ray and found out it was broken.

Originally Posted by PWI

The 2/9 edition of Impact on Pop brought in 252,000 viewers, down from last week's 299,000 viewers.

Originally Posted by Observer

The four-show Tokyo Dome series on Wrestle Kingdom 11 on AXS, which ended with a show headlined by Kushida vs. Hiromu Takahashi, that aired on 2/3, were considered successful by the station. It was enough that changing to airing more up-to-date matches is something likely to be discussed.

Originally Posted by Observer

Jeff Jarrett has replaced John Gaburick as the main guy in TNA. This happened about two weeks ago but has been largely kept quiet. Gaburick is still with the company, but Dixie Carter and Serg Salinas are gone. Salinas is completely gone while Carter may still have a title but no longer is working out of the office and essentially is a non-entity. Salinas is listed as having left the company last month to become General Manager of Trifecta Entertainment. Trifecta Entertainment was the publicity company that Carter ran prior to the family purchasing TNA. Jarrett has spoken with people with the idea he’ll be able to make deals soon.

Originally Posted by Observer

Jarrett has been trying to set up a meeting with the people doing ITV World of Sport. World of Sport wants someone to run their wrestling operations as they don’t want to be running a wrestling promotion, have no experience at it, but are interested in a promotion so they can run a weekly television show. The expectation is ITV will be making a decision shortly about wrestling. We’d heard talk of February tapings, and obviously that’s not happening but they are still in touch with people and talking like it’s a go, but this is also the television business where you operate like it’s a go as long as the idea is still alive.

It does look like Jarrett may be trying pull of an international relationship with TNA, Crash, NOAH and ITV just judging from recent meetings. Jarrett and Crash makes sense given that Jarrett is working the main event himself at the next Crash show, and bringing Eli Drake from TNA in as well. The problem is that the biggest stars Crash and Konnan have would be Rey Mysterio Jr., Penta 0M, Rey Fenix, Jeff Cobb, Ricochet, Brian Cage, etc. who are all under contract to Lucha Underground which means they can’t work for TNA.

Originally Posted by PWTorch

Keith Lee was advertised for his final ROH appearances last week in San Antonio on Feb. 2 and Dallas on Feb. 3 in his hometown. According to multiple sources, ROH officials had decided earlier in the week not to use him on Saturday, but for some reason this was never communicated to Lee until Friday night.

Lee teamed with Shane Taylor as scheduled to face The Briscoes on Friday in a match that was set up at ROH’s TV Tapings in January. When Lee got his check for the show on Friday, he noticed he had only been paid for one match.

Lee attempted to find out what the plans were for him in Dallas on Friday. According to one source, Lee couldn’t find ROH booker Delirious to find out what was going on. Eventually an ROH official informed Lee he was off of the show on Friday. Another source noted that if Lee had been able to wrestle in Dallas, he would have been able to say goodbye to the company in front of his hometown fans.

One longtime ROH wrestler noted that they were happy that Lee was done with the coming. Many wrestlers were unhappy last month when ROH signed Shane Taylor to a contract, but Lee ended up announcing he was going to sign with EVOLVE. Lee made the announcement in January on his Twitter account a day after the ROH TV tapings had taken place.

Originally Posted by Observer

Raw started lower than last week, but declined far less during the show, and ended up at 3.07 million viewers, down one percent from last week.

It was the least-watched Monday Raw that didn't go up against a major sports event or fall on a major holiday, dating back to 1997.

Unlike the Charlotte vs. Sasha Banks title match, which was a huge ratings hit as the main event, the lone ratings positive out of Charlotte vs. Bayley is that the third hour number didn't fall at the same pace as it usually does ...

The three hours were:

8 p.m. 3.20 million viewers
9 p.m. 3.15 million viewers
10 p.m. 2.91 million viewers

For a comparison, last week's three hours were 3.34 million, 3.17 million, and 2.84 million.

Originally Posted by Observer

Continuing the WrestleMania season tradition of announcing Hall of Fame inductees before Raw on Mondays, WWE added Teddy Long to the 2017 Hall of Fame class this week.

WWE chose Fox Sports to break the news, with an article also appearing on their own website. Long joins Kurt Angle and The Rock 'n' Roll Express as the already announced members of this year's class.

Originally Posted by Observer

Vince Vaughn has been tapped for a role in "Fighting with my Family," the film that Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's production company is producing about Paige and her family. Vaughn will play an "80's wrestling star who squandered his money and opportunities because he didn't have the capacity to handle his fame."

Originally Posted by Observer

Kelly Kelly was backstage at Raw, with WWE posting a video on their YouTube channel teasing her making an appearance at WrestleMania.

Originally Posted by Observer

Ring of Honor has announced Jay Lethal vs. Cody Rhodes in a Texas bullrope match and The Kingdom defending their trios titles against Silas Young, Beer City Bruiser, and a mystery partner for the promotion's WrestleMania weekend show in Lakeland, Florida on April 1st.

Marty Scurll defending the TV title against Lio Rush is also set for ROH's 15th Anniversary PPV on March 10th in Las Vegas.

In addition to the Honor Rising cards that were released, NJPW announced a Togi Makabe 20th anniversary show for February 21st at Korakuen Hall. Makabe will team with Tomoaki Honma against Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano in the show's main event.

Originally Posted by Observer

Kazuchika Okada is scheduled to face Tiger Mask W in a non-title match for NJPW on March 6th.

Originally Posted by PWI

According to MMAFighting, Brock Lesnar has notified UFC about his retirement from MMA. Lesnar has not made an official announcement but a UFC spokesperson has confirmed that they were notified.

Lesnar has also been removed from USADA's drug testing pool, as he is no longer officially a member of the UFC. He was suspended till July 15, 2017 but his suspension is frozen now since he is no longer in the testing pool. If he chooses to return to UFC at a later date, he will have to serve the remaining five months of his suspension before he can fight again.

Originally Posted by Observer

In what was a formality given how the process had gone up until this point, Linda McMahon was confirmed as administrator of President Donald Trump's Small Business Administration on Tuesday morning.

The United States Senate voted on McMahon's nomination and confirmed her by a vote of 81-19. She was previously approved out of the Senate's Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee by an 18-1 vote.

Originally Posted by Observer

Melina Roucka (Rosa Mendes) announced her retirement today[Feb. 13]. She hadn't wrestled since April 2015, when she was written out of storylines after finding out she was pregnant. She made the announcement on her daughter's first birthday.

Originally Posted by Observer

Contenders Clothing, a men's active lifestyle apparel company, has partnered with WWE to co-brand WWE boxer briefs called the WWE Contenders Collection. There will be adult and youth boxer briefs of John Cena, Roman Reigns, A.J. Styles, Dean Ambrose, Randy Savage, Ric Flair and Steve Austin. They will be available for order on 2/21.

Originally Posted by Observer

Dorian Roldan on Twitter confirmed for the first time the Lucha Underground deal on Netflix. He only said it would be available in the spring. The target date was this week and it will be available in both the U.S. and Mexico.

Originally Posted by PWI

When TNA tapes Impact Wrestling from 3/2-3/5, they will back in the original Impact Zone, soundstage 21. They had not taped in that soundstage for years due to it not being available as it was booked by other productions on days TNA wanted to use it. This is the same soundstage that the company had a full-time lease for years ago.

Originally Posted by PWI

New Japan World added their own tribute to the late Chavo Guerrero Sr.

The streaming service has added two WWF Light Heavyweight Title matches between Guerrero and WWE Hall of Famer Tatsumi Fujinami from 1980 - the first from 5/9/80 from the Fukuoka Sports Arena and the second from 8/9/80 at Shea Stadium in Queens, NY.

You can watch free at http://njpwworld.com/search/tag/man_45

Originally Posted by ProWrestlingSheet

Pro Wrestling Sheet has learned there were big plans for the Emmalina character … but after multiple rehearsals, producers realized she couldn’t pull off what they were looking to accomplish.

Sources tell us Emmalina was intended to be a throwback to characters like Sable and The Kat — however, delays were caused after officials felt like she wasn’t committing enough to the role and ultimately they decided to just let Emma be evil again.

We’re told producers are still big fans of the character’s concept though — which is why they held hope it would work out — so it’s always possible that they’ll hold onto it for another female in the future.

Originally Posted by Smelly Meatball (Post 4928705)

Originally Posted by Observer

Tuesday night's episode of SmackDown on the USA Network averaged 2,626,000 viewers, down just 1,000 from last week's show.

As has been the case with episodes following brand-specific pay-per-views since the roster split, there was no PPV "bounce back" this week following Sunday's Elimination Chamber show.

Originally Posted by Observer

Vader posted a sad tweet regarding his health on Twitter: "As I enter my final days, proud of the Father Son Brother Football player Pro WrestlerThe Super Heavy Big Man Goat Im Grateful for the Time."

Originally Posted by Observer

The entire immediate McMahon family visited Washington, DC yesterday as Linda McMahon was confirmed and sworn in as the new administrator of the Small Business Administration, which produced what will become a memorable photo in the Oval Office with President Donald Trump. As has been noted, nearly half of the people in the picture, including the President of the United States, have been recipients of at least one stunner from Steve Austin.

Originally Posted by Observer

Last night's SmackDown and Talking Smack were interesting in terms of WWE's booking for WrestleMania season. It was announced on Talking Smack that there would be a battle royal to determine a new number one contender to challenge for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania after Randy Orton refused to face Bray Wyatt, which figures to be a storyline that plays out over the next few weeks.

WWE also began to set up tension between AJ Styles and Shane McMahon with Styles complaining that he didn't get a one-on-one rematch for the title and Daniel Bryan not taking responsibility for the decision.

Originally Posted by Observer

A new WWE.com video series premieres tomorrow. The show is called "My Son is a WWE Superstar," and the first episode features Finn Balor and his parents.

Originally Posted by Observer

Jay Lethal will face either Adam Cole or Bobby Fish in a top contenders match at Ring of Honor's 15th Anniversary PPV in Las Vegas on March 10th. Lethal's opponent will be whoever loses the Cole vs. Fish ROH World Championship match prior to that at Manhattan Mayhem.

Originally Posted by Observer

Mark Andrews vs. Shane Strickland is set for PROGRESS Wrestling on February 26th at the Electric Ballroom in London. That show will be headlined by Mark Haskins, Jimmy Havoc & Flash Morgan Webster vs. Pete Dunne, Trent Seven & Tyler Bate.

Originally Posted by Observer

The Tampa Bay Times has an article featuring wrestlers from the area sharing Andre the Giant stories following the announcement that HBO would be partnering with WWE to make a documentary about Andre's life.

Originally Posted by PWI

Finn Balor is officially advertised for the May European tour for RAW shows.

Originally Posted by PWI

Goldberg is advertised for the March 27 RAW Taping in Philadelphia which should be no surprise as its the go-home RAW for WrestleMania

Originally Posted by PWI

Prior to the Rumble it became apparent (a lot due to betting odds being 1/25 at one point) that Randy Orton was winning the Rumble. All last week it was apparent again due to similar reasons that Bray Wyatt was winning the WWE Title. Goldberg becoming champion is now a similar situation, with almost everyone knowing the results pre event, and even the WMania33 Card being online before matches are announced, Cena/Nikki vs Miz/Maryse springs to mind. My question I guess is how does Vince feel about this? Does he even pay attention to the online sites getting everything correct from sources et al pre event? Surely he doesn’t want viewers knowing what happens in advance?

He knows that stuff gets out there and most of the time doesn’t make changes because of it. If he believes in his plans, he shouldn’t either. But make no mistake, he hates that it leaks and if he finds out who did it, he will fire them in most, if not all, cases.

Originally Posted by PWI

WWE Hall of Famer Bob Backlund posted the following on Facebook

"I called George the Animal steel yesterday. His wife answered the phone. I asked if Mr. Steel was there. She said he was not at home. Then she said who are you. I told her my name and she said that he may not come home this time. As tears slowly came to my eyes, I told her that everyone loved GEORGE THE ANIMAL STEEL. HOPE".

Originally Posted by Observer

There may be a first on tonight's Impact show. Because of legal threats from Lucha Underground, when the Hardys vs. Super Crazy & Psicosis match airs on Impact tonight, taped from a few weeks ago at the Auditorio in Tijuana, the referee will have to be digitized out. Marty Elias was the referee in the match and he's under contract to Lucha Underground, who evidently was looking for the piece to not air at all. The Crash promotion and Konnen tried to be careful to keep anyone under contract with Lucha Underground who worked their show away from what was being taped for TNA, but nobody considered the referee. They had other referees there, but Elias, because he's bilingual, is the guy they like in the ring when American talent works with Mexican talent.

Originally Posted by Observer

According to Pro Wrestling Sheet, the movie "Fighting with my Family" will be shooting wrestling scenes on Monday night at the Staples Center, likely before or after Raw.

Originally Posted by PWI

Ring of Honor is proud to announce that RING OF HONOR will be conducting the first ever WOMEN OF HONOR Tryout Camp and Seminar in partnership with Japanese female organization STARDOM!

ROH Camps have been the main catalyst to over 70 attendees getting ROH opportunities on live events, some of which are on national television. If they were never seen at these camps then they may never have had an ROH opportunity. Now, the first ever WOMEN OF HONOR camp will be held to search for the next great WOMEN OF HONOR stars as well as two competitors who may earn a tour of Japan with STARDOM!

Originally Posted by PWI

Washington Times has an op-ed column on how Vince McMahon created a culture that defines America in 2017. Both Stephanie McMahon and Triple H commented about the piece, as you can read below.

"People have underestimated @VinceMcMahon 4 decades, never realizing he has created a culture that defines America" https://t.co/ROFfuBigFT"
— Stephanie McMahon (@StephMcMahon) February 15, 2017



.@VinceMcMahon vision can be seen not only sports & entertainment, but EVERYWHERE! #HonoredToSitUnderTheLearningTree https://t.co/q710VNYrTT
— Triple H (@TripleH) February 15, 2017

Originally Posted by PWI

Ring of Honor will present their 15th Anniversary PPV on Friday 3/10 from The Sams Town Casino in Las Vegas, airing on traditional PPV outlets and streaming live on The Fite App, which you can download to your cell phone, Samsung Smart TV, iPad, iPhone and other mobile devices for free.

The updated lineup for the PPV features:

*ROH champion Adam Cole vs. Christopher Daniels.

*ROH TV champion Marty Scurll vs. Lio Rush.

*ROH Tag Team champions The Young Bucks vs. Roppongi Vice - Las Vegas Streetfight.

*Jay Lethal vs. Bobby Fish to determine top contender to ROH title (should Fish win belt on 3/4, Adam Cole will face Lethal at PPV)

*ROH Six Man Tag Team champions The Kingdom vs. Dalton Castle & The Boys.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

We noted earlier this week how John Cena is scheduled to take more time away from WWE after the April 2nd WrestleMania 33 pay-per-view in Orlando. It's believed he will be filming The Pact, which is set for a theatrical release in 2018.

The Wrestling Observer Newsletter notes that Cena has a lot of projects planned for this year. He is currently off advertising for SmackDown events beginning the week after WrestleMania, including the June 8th Money In the Bank pay-per-view from St. Louis.

Originally Posted by Observer

Jeff Jarrett and officials from Anthem Entertainment are meeting with ITV in the U.K. on 2/16 regarding the proposed World of Sport wrestling show.

Originally Posted by Observer

There’s nothing new on Drew Galloway or the Hardys as far as contracts go, but all three are expected at the TNA tapings.

Originally Posted by Observer

I don’t know when or how extensively at this point, but the plan right now is that Angle will be doing at least some wrestling in WWE. He would have to pass a physical, and obviously at best it would be very limited

Originally Posted by Observer

Jim Ross wrote that he’s been hearing that Angle will be inducted into the Hall of Fame by Cena

Originally Posted by Observer

Kelly Kelly was backstage at Raw in Las Vegas. She’s one of the women who they called several weeks back regarding an idea for WrestleMania. Lisa Varon (Victoria) just teased something on Snapchat and since we were told they were calling the women stars of the past for an idea, she would fit in that category.

Originally Posted by Noid (Post 4930062)

Hang on. Cena's first WWE Title run lasted 280 days (exactly the same length as JBL before him). But he also had that reign that lasted over a year. That's at least two.

Originally Posted by Noid (Post 4930064)

I haven't been particularly interesting in ROH lately, but that Daniels promo did make me order one of their PPVs. I'd actually find it to be quite the touching moment if he beat Adam Cole for the belt. Daniels "deserves it" as much as anybody. You can have Jay Lethal be his first opponent and that would be a great match for ROH too.

Originally Posted by Noid (Post 4930063)

Interesting to hear about Angle wrestling. It'd be much nicer to have him versus Styles at Mania this year than Styles vs. Shane McMahon.

Originally Posted by Observer

The wrestling world got some sad news Friday morning as it was learned George "The Animal" Steele died Thursday night at the age of 79 years old.

Dave Meltzer reported Thursday that Steele (real name Jim Myers) was in hospice care.

Originally Posted by 411Mania

WWE Chairman Vince McMahon has updated his Twitter, commenting on the passing of Hall of Famer George “The Animal” Steele, who passed away last night. You can read McMahon’s tribute to Steel below.

George Steele was only an animal in the ring. He was one of the truly nice men in the world. #RIP pic.twitter.com/uOvnlztlOs

— Vince McMahon (@VinceMcMahon) February 17, 2017

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

It was reported yesterday that Nicole Bass had passed away. The news came from her girlfriend, Kristen Marrone.

However, Pro Wrestling Sheet is now reporting that Bass has not passed away, but that she will be taken off of life support today. Doctors say that she is brain dead. The site adds that Marrone posted that Bass had passed because she felt as though Bass was already gone.

The report of Bass’ death was picked up by several sites last night, and was reported on due to the fact that Bass’ girlfriend Kristen Marrone had announced the news.

Originally Posted by Observer

Jeff Jarrett and Ed Nordholm, who are running TNA, met with ITV yesterday in the U.K. They were looking at a deal where Anthem would buy into the promotion and have certain roles. The goal is to make the ITV World of Sport show have television outside of the U.K.

Originally Posted by Observer

All Pro Wrestling will be on iPPV on Fite TV tonight from Daly City, CA with Cody Rhodes vs. Pentagon Jr. and Will Cuevas vs. Zack Sabre Jr. The show starts at 10:30 p.m. Eastern time. Jeff Cobb and Joey Ryan are also on the show.

Fite TV also has a show on Sunday which is taped, with Jim Ross announcing and Jerry Lawler vs. Jeff Jarrett and Hardys vs. War Machine as the main events.

Originally Posted by Observer

TNA just made a contract offer to bring back Nick "Magnus" Aldis back. The deal hasn't been completed at press time but talks are significant.

Originally Posted by Observer

Impact did 325,000 viewers last night, its best number since 12/15 and up 29 percent from the prior week.

Originally Posted by PWI

Charles Robinson tweeted earlier today he was getting surgery.

Heading into surgery! Very excited for great results. See you soon @WWE @WWEUniverse pic.twitter.com/DckQ7Cm8YW
— Charles Robinson (@WWERobinson) February 17, 2017

All done! That to @Lodi1Brad for helping me out! #TrueFriend pic.twitter.com/D7NWx66sEV
— Charles Robinson (@WWERobinson) February 17, 2017

Originally Posted by PWI

The Rock announced on his Instagram page that former TNA Knockout Thea "Rosita" Trinidad was joining the cast of the WWE Studios film "Fighting with My Family" to portray a Divas champion in the film based on the life of Paige's family in Great Britain:

Originally Posted by PWI

Deadline Hollywood is reporting that Starz is close to picking up an eight-episode series order on the hour-long drama "Heels". The show follows two rival brothers on the independent wrestling circuit as they war over their late father’s wrestling promotion, vying for national attention in small-town Georgia is actively is being developed by Paramount TV. The project will be written by Michael Waldron and to be directed by Kyle Patrick Alvarez.

If the series is launched, it would be the second pro-wrestling centric series that is forthcoming, following Netflix ordering a season of GLOW, a new 80s set dramedy based on the original Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling that has filmed its first season.

Originally Posted by PWI

Why in the blue hell is there a four-man announcer booth on Smackdown?

They want Mauro to call wrestling, Tom Phillips to handle the "promotional" pushes, JBL to be the heel and they like Otunga and wanted to give him a role.

Originally Posted by Observer

Lisa Varon (Victoria) just teased something on Snapchat and since we were told they were calling the women stars of the past for an idea, she would fit in that category.

Originally Posted by Volare (Post 4930419)

19 million, jesus fuck that's insane.

Originally Posted by Smelly Meatball (Post 4930305)

Originally Posted by Smelly Meatball (Post 4930305)

Originally Posted by DaveWadding (Post 4930509)

If you look at the link, The World lost 40 million dollars total, including submarining that one year.