[Emperor Smeat]

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Originally Posted by Observer Regarding the “Superstar shake-up,” when we first heard about it, the talk was that the key moves would be Roman Reigns to Smackdown and A.J. Styles to Raw. This was months ago. This past week we were told that Reigns isn’t going anywhere and the key moves were said to be Styles to Raw and The New Day to Smackdown. The latter makes sense since the tag team division in Smackdown has been weak from day one. However, with Cena leaving for a while, moving Styles also, which is taking the two most over guys on that side off the table, makes no sense. Smackdown gave you the impression that Styles will be moving over. He wasn’t booked for any program going forward and settled his issue with Shane McMahon.

Originally Posted by Observer Michael Paris (Impact's DJZ) was injured last night at The Crash show in Mexico City. He has undergone major surgery due to issues with his colon rupturing and internal bleeding stemming from that. He was in great pain. He took a 450 splash in a match with Rey Horus, Laredo Kid, Mr. 450, Septimo Dragon and Ultimo Ninja and couldn't continue. He's doing better today and the surgery was successful. Sexy Star was also apparently injured an in great pain and taken out of a title match. Not sure if that was just a way for her to lose her title without doing a job or it was a real injury. Fans thought it was real.

Originally Posted by Observer Sonjay Dutt has signed a deal with Impact. He's been tight with Jeff Jarrett for some time so that's not a surprise. He had spent a week as a guest instructor for WWE at the Performance Center and also worked the ROH show in New York last month.

Originally Posted by Observer The WWE Network has added a lot of 1981 and 1982 Mid South Wrestling shows, including a stream of them in a row so they can be viewed in context. They've also posted old episodes of Tuesday Night Titans, 1997 episodes of ECW that build up the Barely Legal PPV, and older episodes of NXT.

Originally Posted by Observer The WWE will be releasing a three disc DVD called "Kurt Angle: The Essential Collection" this summer according to Wrestling DVD Network. It will feature Angle matches with Steve Austin, The Rock, John Cena, Edge, Shawn Michaels, HHH and others.

Originally Posted by Observer WWE announced a partnership today with SEGA for a free-to-play idle mobile game called WWE Tap Mania. It's developed by The Tap Lab in Cambridge, MA for launch later this year.

Originally Posted by PWI Our friends at www.ProWrestlingTees.com announced the following: April 17th is Your Last Day To Buy Hardy Tees At ProWrestlingTees DELETE DELETE DELETE Last Chance To Get Your Hardy Boys Merch

Originally Posted by Observer A.J. Brooks (A.J. Lee) has been doing media promoting her autobiography. Her main point was that she is suffering from bipolar disorder, as does her mother. She said WWE wanted to do an angle based on that and she said she wasn't comfortable with it and they took her off TV for two months after that.

Originally Posted by PWI WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross will present his "Ringside with Jim Ross" show on Sunday 5/21 at 2 PM with Chicago, IL before the WWE Backlash PPV at Zanies. Tickets for the event will go on sale this Saturday at 10 CT.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc The latest episode X-Pac 12360 is now online, which you can watch in the video above or download on iTunes. Ron Funches returned to join Sean Waltman and his crew for the show this week, which also featured highlights from the Kliq Q&A over the weekend. They sent us these highlights: The Big Show upset about the Braun Strowman spot during the Andre the Giant Battle Royal: "Before thing was even over, Big Show had a bunch of guys that were in the Battle Royal back in the back and he was going off… I think it was over the stuff with him and Strowman. Because they had a moment there and I think the moment got taken from them too quick."

Originally Posted by WrestleInc As noted, WWE announced on Wednesday that Simon Gotch of The Vaudevillains had been released from the company after he apparently requested his release. The Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports that former partner Aiden English is scheduled to receive a push coming out of the breakup of The Vaudevillains. Regarding Gotch's departure, there had been speculation on his release ever since the backstage fight with Sin Cara in the summer of 2016. That fight was said to be a "one-sided destruction" by Cara and it was reported at the time that "Gotch's mouth sometimes gets people mad at him." The Observer noted this week that Gotch's personality rubbed a lot of people the wrong way.

Originally Posted by Observer One of the funniest Vince-isms of the week was the decree that the term Camping World Stadium, the site of the show, couldn’t be used. So it was the Citrus Bowl, the old name of the stadium.

Originally Posted by Observer Expect a bigger role for Matt Taven in ROH. His successfully main eventing Arena Mexico as a single and doing well in title matches there has upped his stock.

Originally Posted by Observer DDP did an interview and noted it was WWE that chose Bischoff to induct him. He said that he would have wanted Dusty Rhodes to do so, but since Dusty passed away, he listed five people, Jake Roberts, Scott Hall, Bischoff, Austin and Foley and the company went with Bischoff. It’s notable that Angle also wanted Austin to do so but they went with Cena. Austin was not in Orlando all weekend. From what we understand, although nothing has been said about it, the contract with Austin and WWE for putting regular podcasts on the network has expired. People have asked about it since the one he did with Ambrose, which got a lot of negative reviews. The Austin podcasts at first were the highest rated shows on the network other than the PPV shows. They went with Jericho at one time after there was an issue with WWE and Austin, but then went back to Austin, and then to JBL, and even though the JBL shows were good, for whatever reason, the company made the decision not to do them.

Originally Posted by Observer At the Wrestlecon kickoff party, Ric Flair said he was out of the podcast business completely because he can’t stay objective about WWE due to his daughter’s position and his statements affecting her career. He said that straw that broke the camel’s back with the company was saying that he thought Balor would never main event at WrestleMania due to his size. He said he got so much heat from the company for that comment that you wouldn’t believe it. Can you imagine the equivalent of this in any other sport? The company very much doesn’t want the perception that they are all about size, even though if you look at the top three matches and where the 205 Live match was at Mania, it’s is still a strong attribute. One of the reasons Bret Hart gave up his podcast was his feeling that it wasn’t worth it due to the reaction if he said anything negative about the company, although in his case he also noted time and the fact he wasn’t making significant money with it as reasons for giving it up.

Originally Posted by Observer The reason the original women’s storyline for this year, which was to culminate in Bayley beating Charlotte to win the four-way at Mania and take the title was changed to having Bayley win a TV match earlier was the feeling that they needed more ups and downs in the story to get from January to Mania so did the title change earlier.

Originally Posted by Observer One of the strangest statements of the past week came in an article about Kurt Angle in the National Post of Canada. He talked about his four DUI’s between 2007 and 2013, and said that there was actually a fifth DUI, but he wouldn’t say where or when, and that he paid a judge off $800 in cash and he threw the case out. Considering how completely illegal that is both from his perspective, let alone a judge’s perspective, that’s something amazing that he would say it. If it’s true, he committed a federal crime and the judge should be disbarred. If it’s not true, why would you ever make up a story like that.

Originally Posted by Observer Now, Ranallo was known for re-tweeting positive comments, perhaps to the extreme, but many people do the same with Twitter. I try not to a lot, but if you work your ass off and mentally spend yourself to do an issue or a big story, and people thank you, you really do like it and you really do want to say “Thank you.” Many do it because of the idea it promotes your brand and such, but if you’ve watched Ranallo do any sport, whether it be pro wrestling, boxing, kickboxing or MMA, you can tell, like his style or not, that he works extremely hard in preparation. The actual subject is the company hired somebody well known to have a mental health issue, and has worked for years to educate people on that subject and be almost a public spokesperson for it. It’s a company that has a strong public stance against bullying, yet people who have worked and do work for the company one after the other will tell you internally it’s very different. This won’t turn into a subject like the bullying of women based on being overweight (and the company’s version of overweight when it comes to women is quite unique as many who have worked there have noted) or appearance that the company would never do today because what did get people upset were essentially non-real life portrayals in television angles. This isn’t a television angle. There are many people in pro wrestling who privately battle similar issues, perhaps not as bad, but very few go public, and none would to the extent Ranallo has to essentially try and be a spokesperson and an advocate for it. Most people know someone, and many know a lot of people in the same situation. And everyone knows how tight Layfield is with Vince McMahon. The belief across-the-board is Layfield’s weeding out those who can’t take it comes from above. I think the other aspect is knowing people who have known Ranallo for years and essentially being told exactly how this would probably play out right before it did also makes this situation so upsetting. There was a terrible lapse of judgment here, and the fact WWE continued to replay the show indicated a lack of remorse and understanding of the issue. The company is in a very weird position right now because Ranallo not being there makes this a public issue. But it’s a story that will probably not get them any negative publicity even though it’s real. So corporately, they don’t have to react and haven’t. Hopefully, this is the wake-up call to change and realize the old days are over. In most modern wrestling companies, they are over. There really may only be one left. As much as that one company despises the old days of carny rasslin, in reality, behind-the-scenes, they may be the last major one left with the same mentality.

Some more details about the JBL-Ranallo on-going situation with Observer speculating Mauro's return might get delayed due to Justin Roberts book being released. Also the growing belief from his sources about upper management being responsible for Mauro's current bout of depression since they like to use JBL as their mouthpiece whenever they hate someone.


Some other sheet news includes:

• Horror makeup artist Tom Savini was revealed to have created the custom mask Kalisto wore at Mania 33 for the Andre Battle Royale match. http://bloody-disgusting.com/news/34...estlemania-33/
• Some more tales about JBL's bullying habits in the WWE were leaked recently from Justin Roberts new book. Also revealed Triple H had the habit of trying to pants Roberts whenever those two were together. Tommy Dreamer was revealed to be the person who kept JBL in check when Smackdown and ECW brands started to tour together. https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCirc...ustin_roberts/
• According to the Observer, both The Drifter and Andrade Cien Almas are expected to be getting called up soon to the main roster and could appear as early as next week's trade episodes.
• Also according to the Observer, Mick Foley's current deal with the WWE recently expired although it was never an actual contract but something based on dates. Since he's going to be away for a while for hip surgery and recovery, his current deal expired as a result.