[Emperor Smeat]

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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.

"From a creative standpoint, it's subject to change when you see something better. If I take this piece and put it here, that would really help. As opposed to what we were advertising or even the way we were going. You listen to the audience and if the audience is catching on to this or you think they may gravitate to that, that's where you go. You have to lead. ... I don't even think that way in terms of “what if that would have happened?” We just go do."

From the same interview Vince had with New Orleans Times.

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.

Wacky Sandow/Rex story from back in the day in regards to the origins of his new gimmick.


Some other sheet news includes:

• Website WrestlingDVDNetwork recently revealed the entire list of matches and content for the upcoming DDP DVD/Blu-Ray set. http://www.wrestlingdvdnetwork.com/f...ng-dvd/129145/
• According to reports, another DVD/BR the WWE is also planning on releasing this year is called "WrestleMania Monday is Raw" and will be highlights from RAW After Mania episodes.
• According to PWI, TNA recently got caught up in the back pay owed to wrestlers going as far back as last October.