[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by Lariato/Clothesline Appreciation Day:

Originally Posted by Observer Ranallo deleted all references to being a WWE announcer on his Twitter account. As of right now, he is under contract to WWE through 8/12.

Originally Posted by PWI This morning, WWE star JBL responded to several allegations that have been levied against him in recent days via Twitter. One of those allegations were that JBL sparked Mauro Ranallo's recent depression issues with comments made about Ranallo on the air. JBL responded: @JoeCroninJCS No Joe, and I won't-I shouldn't commenting on Internet stuff. I play a heel. I sincerely wish Mauro nothing but the absolute best. — John Layfield (@JCLayfield) April 7, 2017 JBL also responded to an allegation made by Justin Roberts about bullying Roberts endured while touring with the Smackdown brand as a ring announcer, including his passport being stolen. In his excellent book Best Seat In The House, Roberts tells many stories about JBL's behavior on international tours when it came to hazing and bullying Roberts. JBL responded: I won't answer Net rumors-but I didn't take Justin Roberts passport. Could have been anyone/he was hated by the whole crew. He's an idiot. — John Layfield (@JCLayfield) April 7, 2017 However, it should be noted in Roberts' book that he never accuses JBL of the theft. He simply recounts the story about how his passport disappeared, leaving him stuck in Great Britain when it was time for the rest of the crew to depart. Nowhere in the book does JBL get blamed for that passport disappearing, although there are many other antics that Roberts specifically recounts JBL as being responsible for.

More new stories about JBL's bullying antics in the link: http://www.pwinsider.com/article/108...t-him.html?p=1

Originally Posted by Observer John Layfield may have put his foot in his mouth this morning. When asked about Justin Roberts and when they stole Roberts' passport while he was in Europe, Layfield said, "I won't answer net rumors, but I didn't take Justin Roberts passport. Could have been anyone. He was hated by the whole crew. He's an idiot." In an article hours later, John Hennigan (Mundo) was quoted as saying that on that trip, Layfield asked he and Joey Mercury to steal Roberts' passport. Hennigan talked in the article about how he knew if he did it he'd no longer be bullied, but he wouldn't do it because he wouldn't have wanted something like that done to him, and figured he got heat for not doing it. There's more on that in this Deadspin story about Layfield. Forbes has a story on Layfield as well.

Originally Posted by Observer I have gotten texts and DM's as well as spoken personally to 15 different Justin Roberts who all contacted me after the article I wrote. Justin was the only one without any interest in going back who would speak publicly. The rest were just thanking me because they went through the same thing. It's way worse and well known that I had imagined. Only one of them knew Mauro, only their own experiences. Source is Dave's own Observer message board account. Subscribers can view the thread here: http://theboard.f4wonline.com/viewto...2303&start=675 Edit: To be clear, by "15 different Justin Roberts" he means others in the company who have been bullied by JBL. Edit 2: Worth reviewing.... Daivari shoots on JBL (and others) bullying Muhammad Hassan Mark Henry shoots on JBL bullying him Matt Hardy shoots on JBL bullying other wrestlers Rene Dupree shoots on JBL being a backstage bully Ivory shoots on JBL bullying rookie talent

Link to the shoot videos in the source: https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCirc..._15_different/
Apparently the stories about JBL's bullying are a lot worse than previously assumed. Blue Meanie also revealed in the past JBL attacked him for real at ECW One Night Stand 2005 because he spoke out in public about JBL's bullying antics. Links to the video shoots inside the source: https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCirc..._15_different/

Originally Posted by PWI The 4/6 edition of Impact on Pop brought in 309,000 viewers, up from last week's 297,000 viewers.

Originally Posted by Observer Michael Paris (DJZ) wrote about his surgery in Mexico that it went well, that they fixed his colon (which was ruptured in taking a 450 splash in a match Wednesday night in Mexico City) and will make a full recovery in a few weeks. He said he'll have to take time off from the ring but was scared at one point that his career was over. He said he's not happy to have a sweet scar on his stomach, but he's glad to be alive.

Originally Posted by Observer Glenn "Kane" Jacobs is expected to announce on 4/11 officially that he's running for Mayor of Knox County, TN. He will be running as a Republican as opposed to a Libertarian.

Originally Posted by Observer Deadline reported that Kurt Angle and Paul "Big Show" Wight have signed with the Agency for Performing Arts for potential acting roles.

Originally Posted by PWI With all the talk of the Superstar Shake-up this Monday at the Nassau Coliseum, obviously there is going to be a lot of talk of who should move brands. As I discussed last month in the Elite section of PWInsider.com, the two major names that had been talked about when it came to "trades" between Raw and Smackdown were AJ Styles and Roman Reigns. In the case of Styles, there was a desire within the company to reunite him with Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows. In recent days, there's been more talk of Gallows and Anderson moving to Smackdown and Styles remaining where he is, however. There's also been a lot of talk about greatly changing the Women's roster. There's been a big pitch to move Sasha Banks to Smackdown in recent days. Last week, there was a pitch to shift Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss and have them switch brands. As we discussed Wednesday morning on the We Don't Need No Stinkin' Name Show, there has also been talk of bringing Andrades "Cien" Almas to the main roster, so it's possible that could happen shortly as well.

Originally Posted by PWI There's been a lot of talk this morning about Alberto el Patron going live on Periscope knocking WWE, while standing next to Paige, who is still under contract to WWE and was trying to "ssh" him, including Patron saying that everyone who works for WWE are "p****ies" especially the guy "with the big nose", obviously a reference to Triple H. One WWE source believed Patron's recent shots at the company came from WWE trying to book Paige to appear at AXXESS Wrestlemania week but telling her they did not want Patron in Orlando with her. Obviously, she did not appear at AXXESS.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc ODB, who recently returned to Impact Wrestling, spoke to The Roman Show this past weekend. She noted that she had been away from the business to start her food truck business, which is called "The Meat and Greet". "It's stationed in Daytona Beach," ODB said. "I am working with WWE Hall of Famer Jimmy Hart. It's located at Jimmy's bar. I'll be traveling all over the Florida area selling my sides and cooking." She noted that she has not been keeping up with pro wrestling during her time away. "I've been out of the scene for the past three years," she said. "I've been going to barbecue festivals not wrestling shows. I am ready for whomever. I got a couple of more years left."

Originally Posted by WrestleInc The A.V. Club has a new interview with WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross, who was promoting his "Ringside" show in Chicago at Zanies Rosemont on May 21st. Below are some highlights: His new deal with WWE: "I think I'm going to do 30-40 dates in my first 12 months of my deal. Those dates are to be determined. There's nothing they can assign me that I haven't done before. How many wrestling matches you think I've called in my lifetime—100,000? If they want me to do U.K. or NXT or Main Event, I don't care. It's all good to me. My days of being the lead guy, the No. 1 voice—all that is way yesterday. Guys who've had those issues like I have had in my career, they have self-esteem and confidence issues. I have both those. Totally happy to admit it, but I ain't got them no more. I'm 65 years old. I feel great, I just lost my wife, I'm trying to get back on my feet here, and I've said this and I truly mean it: I'm happy to get my jersey back. I'm happy to re-sign with my old team. Whatever role I need to play, I'm fine with."

Link to the interview with more highlights: http://www.avclub.com/article/jim-ro...s-retir-253359

Originally Posted by Observer The women’s tournament was officially announced as a new special WWE network show. The 32-woman tournament will feature women from 17 different countries, so the idea is to give it an international flavor. Most of the best women who do not have an existing contract with WWE or another promotion are expected to be invited, including American and U.K.-based women who tour for Stardom. The tournament was originally scheduled for January, but moved back when WWE prioritized a U.K. territory and proposed television show getting off the ground due to ITV airing a wrestling product ... The idea was to be similar to the cruiserweight classic, which would mean a ten or 11 or so week television show taped at different intervals at Full Sail University most likely, although that is not official. We are aware that women had been contacted a couple of months ago and told to clear their schedules for late May, although that could change. We do know that Toni Storm, the top foreigner from Stardom, who was wrestling at Axxess (and the general response we got was the U.K. contingent both men and women were much better than the NXT regulars) and Io Shirai have been contacted for the tournament. People like Storm and Tessa Blanchard have been considered a lock all along. I’d expect Jinny from the U.K. based on her doing matches at Axxess and getting good reviews for them. The belief is Shirai has also agreed to go, although nobody in Japan seems to know for sure what her situation is. Nixon Newell, who was to start about that time, would make sense and she and Kairi Hojo, also scheduled to start around that time, makes sense ... A number of women set for the tournament are getting contract offers, so the idea seems to be to sign at least the key people they are looking at pushing as the winners up ahead of time so the cruiserweight situation doesn’t repeat itself. Even though it seems kind of weird because women are a key part of NXT, Raw and Smackdown, but the working idea is to come out of the tournament with a one hour weekly show for the network, like 205 Live. The only way I can see that is to drop Main Event on Monday and tape the women’s show before Raw. It’s a different dynamic because for women, the indies aren’t as lucrative and there aren’t the options like for Ibushi where there’s no need to sign a full-time deal, so the odds of one of the top women they want to push turning down a contract offer are a lot lower. I was told that the field is about 90 percent booked right now.

Some other sheet news includes:

• As reported above, Deadspin had a recent interview with Johnny Mundo/John Morrison regarding JBL's bullying rep with Mundo revealing JBL asked him to steal Justin Roberts passport. Also revealed JBL had the habit of cutting MNM's jackets and then do nothing as they'd get yelled by management for the jackets being destroyed. http://deadspin.com/ex-wweer-on-anno...enc-1794126676
• Chris Jericho revealed on his Instagram account his podcast show called Talk Is Jericho is currently in the Top 100 list for most listened podcast shows in the world. https://www.instagram.com/p/BSkpoz0l2qM/
• According to Dave Meltzer, WWE currently has plans for Kurt Angle to wrestle as part of his current run in the company although he still needs to pass the physicals to make it happen. https://twitter.com/davemeltzerWON/s...46063081107456