[Emperor Smeat]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


Some other sheet news includes:

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

Some stuff from TPWW Frontpage:

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