[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by Sting channeling his inner Ric Flair:

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."

Link to the ESPN article: http://www.espn.com/wwe/story/_/id/1...ame-class-2017

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."

Link to the interview: http://www.si.com/extra-mustard/2017...tion-interview

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.

Link to the awards: http://www.wwe.com/article/triple-h-...the-nxt-awards

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.

Some other sheet news includes:

• RAW's rating and viewership numbers got delayed till later this week due to the MLK Jr holiday.
• Kurt Angle was revealed to be this week's guest for ESPN's weekly wrestling segment.
• In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, today is the 40th anniversary of Howard Finkle's debut in the WWE.
• In another "WWE Did You Know" type fact, WWE's Youtube channel is currently the 4th most viewed channel on the service with a little over 13 billion total views. In terms of actual revenues, they only earn a few million per year at most from it.
• According to reports, Darren Young joined Taijri in being recent offerings for the Papa Shango Curse. Young suffered an arm injury during a match against Epico at yesterday's Main Event tapings.