[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by NXT's 1st Ever Got Your Nose Match:

SPOILER: show

Originally Posted by WrestleInc As noted, an Independence Day Battle Royal will take place on Tuesday's SmackDown from Phoenix with the winner going on to face WWE United States Champion Kevin Owens at the July 23rd WWE Battleground pay-per-view. The only participant confirmed as of this writing is AJ Styles. It looks like Styles will be winning the battle royal as he is currently scheduled to face Owens for the title at Battleground, according to PWInsider. This will be Styles' second title shot from Owens after the two faced off at the WWE Backlash pay-per-view in May.

Spoiler tags used since its related to the results of next week's Independence Day Battle Royale for Smackdown.

Originally Posted by Observer The Miz was asked a question about the LaVar Ball segment from Raw by the Hard Hidz podcast while doing press in Singapore. He said that sometimes the guests don't totally follow scripts, but it's something that people are talking about. He said that he feels like WWE either chooses him or Chris Jericho to help guide segments with outside celebrities.

Link to the podcast: https://www.facebook.com/hardhidz/vi...7998034619090/

Originally Posted by Observer The WWE Network has added two more classic MSG shows. The events are from April 14th, 1975 and March 20th, 1983. A first look at the upcoming Kevin Owens DVD was also added.

Originally Posted by Observer The announcement came before even 2K Sports expected it, but Kurt Angle is the official pre-order bonus character for the WWE 2K18 video game. Angle himself announced the news on Twitter earlier this afternoon. He had posted the information early, originally using artwork ripped from speculative YouTube videos. He then confirmed the information a few hours later, using official artwork from 2K. The WWEGames Twitter account responded by writing, "We now know what it feels like to be hit with an Angle Slam. But it's true! @RealKurtAngle is the #WWE2K18 pre-order Superstar!" The trailer introducing Angle as the pre-order playable bonus character will air on the July 10th episode of Raw. The game will be released for the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 consoles on October 17th ... Angle was this year's pick even before his return, but unlike with past options, this wasn't a case where 2K first made a deal with Angle and that led to him coming back to WWE.

Originally Posted by Observer An armed robbery in Mexico has led to a unique matchup tonight in Tacoma. Penta 0M, who was scheduled to face Cody Rhodes in Tacoma, Washington for Defy Wrestling, was robbed this morning at gunpoint. In a story first written by Pro Wrestling Sheet, three men on motorcycles pulled up to him and pulled out guns while he was in Mexico headed to the airport in an Uber to fly into Seattle. The three men pulled out guns and forced him to give up his wallet, keys, cell phone, and backpack. The backpack contained things he was taking with him to the show including his mask and his ring gear, as well as his passport and paperwork. Reportedly he asked the gunmen if he could at least keep his backpack, but they refused. He was not injured, and after the robbery, attempted to board the flight but because he didn't have his passport, he wasn't allowed on it It's not clear when he'll be able to travel to the United States, but it is expected shortly. Defy announced that both Penta and Rey Fenix are off of tonight's show due to missing their flight.

Originally Posted by Observer Pro Wrestling NOAH will be represented at Impact Wrestling's Slammiversary pay-per-view on Sunday night. Impact announced today that NOAH's Naomichi Marufuji & Taiji Ishimori will be involved in the four-way match for the Impact/GFW Tag Team Championship at Slammiversary. That match features champions LAX (Ortiz & Santana) defending against Marufuji & Ishimori, AAA's Drago & El Hijo del Fantasma, and Laredo Kid & Garza Jr. Along with AAA and The Crash, NOAH is one of the international promotions that Impact has a working relationship with. The story is that it is a four-way match with teams from four different companies, to emphasize Impact's various business partnerships around the world. Laredo Kid & Garza Jr. are Impact regulars from The Crash.

Originally Posted by PWI Since Hijo Del Fantasma (aka King Cuerno) and Drago have been announced as appearing on the Impact Slammiversary XV PPV, there's been a lot of speculation that Impact has come to a working agreement with Lucha Underground. In checking with Lucha Underground sources, we are told that is not correct. Lucha Underground has no involvement in the appearances, which was a deal set up by AAA's Dorian Rodan as AAA has the rights to Fantasma and Drago's characters and has an official working relationship with Impact. So, if you were wondering if the appearances meant there could be additional LU personalites popping up on Impact television, that is not the case, unless AAA also owns their rights. Lucha Underground owns King Cuerno, so Fantasma could not appear under that name.

Originally Posted by PWI The folks over at www.WrestlingDVDNetwork.com are reporting the following content is set for the forthcoming WWE DVD set Dawn of Attitude, which will look at the importance of the year 1997 in WWE's evolutin into the Attitude Era.

Link to the entire contents: http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...-1997-dawn-of/

Originally Posted by PWI On the latest edition of his podcast at www.MLWRadio.com, Jim Cornette announced that he will be selling autographed copies of the restraining order Vince Russo took out against him at www.JimCornette.com, with half the proceeds being donated to the WHAS Crusade for Children, which benefits a number of children's charities in the States of Indiana and Kentucky.

Originally Posted by PWI Tyson Kidd has been officially hired by WWE as a full-time employee and will be working as a Producer. Kidd was not just at Smackdown this past week, but Raw as well. Kidd was not the official producer for any matches this past week, but was observing and watching the process to begin to familiarize himself with the job and responsibilities, PWInsider.com was told. It was his first official week on the job. Kidd also noted on Twitter that he would be on the next season of Total Divas.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc The main event for SummerSlam has been changed, according to a report from Dave Meltzer in the latest edition of The Wrestling Observer Newsletter. As seen on RAW last week, Roman Reigns challenged the winner of the Samoa Joe vs. Brock Lesnar WWE Universal Championship bout to a title match at SummerSlam. Meltzer confirmed that the main event of SummerSlam was changed a few weeks ago to Reigns vs. Lesnar. The original plan was for the SummerSlam main event was for Lesnar to defend the WWE Universal Championship against Braun Strowman. Lesnar was then slated to lose the WWE Universal Championship to Reigns at WrestleMania next year. With Reigns vs. Lesnar taking place at SummerSlam, it would appear that the WrestleMania main event has been changed as well, although WWE could do a third Reigns vs. Lesnar match at the show. Meltzer speculated that given John Cena declaring himself a "free agent," WWE could go with Reigns vs. Cena as the main event of WrestleMania.

Meltzer also hinted Lesnar-Joe II is also being considered as a possible option for the Universal title match at SumemrSlam and Lesnar-Strowman might still happen at a later date although as a non-title or regular match.

Originally Posted by Observer WWE officials have been planning a movie project on WWE Hall of Famer Mae Young, which is one of the reasons they are branding her so heavily as the pioneer of women in wrestling with the upcoming Mae Young Classic tournament. The movie would then establish Mae as the Babe Ruth of women's wrestling.

Originally Posted by 411Mania According to The Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the War Machine tag team (Hanson and Ray Rowe) are currently free agents. They lost the tag title match at the Best in the World PPV, but didn’t take the fall. They did lose in their only match the ROH TV Tapings that followed. They are still working with New Japan, and the are considered to be “in the driver’s seat” in terms of negotiating their future.

Originally Posted by Observer Lucha Underground Talent are really concerned regarding the future. Nobody has heard anything at all about future dates (some have asked me and I don’t know anything either) and it’s been a full year since they taped now. It’s all about whether the owners want to put up the money to tape another season. The TV mentality is different from the sports mentality in the sense sports are geared to last forever but TV shows only do a few seasons and 100 episodes, which have been taped, is like a magic number. El Rey will never cancel the show but El Rey doesn’t spend enough for the show to come close to covering costs. After the first season, the owners, after some time of it being up in the air, agreed to put up money for the next two seasons and the currently airing season would be it, unless they agree to fund a fourth season. We’d heard dates like November and January originally for season four filming so nobody knowing dates isn’t necessarily a bad sign since that is still far off, but a lot of the talent has been unhappy about not getting questions answered and wanting to be able to negotiate to go other places

Originally Posted by Observer The original test run of T-shirts for the Bullet Club and its members at Hot Topic, which were at selected stores over the past few weeks was a big enough success that every Hot Topic store has ordered a full line of Bullet Club, Young Bucks, Kenny Omega, Cody Rhodes and Marty Scurll T-shirts. They started showing up in about 15 percent of the Hot Topic stores in the U.S. last week. The original deal was to eventually market Bullet Club shirts nationwide, but the individual shirts were test marketed, with the Young Bucks in about 143 of the 800 to 900 stores and Omega & Rhodes in a slightly lower number and Scurll not in many at all. But all the shirts greatly over performed and they will all now be in all stores starting roughly 7/17. The story behind this is execs from Hot Topic were in Orlando for WrestleMania and saw Bullet Club and Elite and Young Bucks stuff all over the place, and asked WWE why those popular shirts aren’t part of their deal. By calling, they found out they weren’t WWE shirts so made the deals themselves with the individuals

Quick idea on Omega's and Young Buck's merch generating power in the indies and why they don't have any real financial incentive to sign with the WWE.


Some other sheet news includes:

• Amarillo Globe-News had a recent interview with Becky Lynch talking about WWE's women's divisions, upcoming 1 year anniversary of New Brand Split Era, and a potential women's only Rumble match in the future. http://amarillo.com/pro-sports/sport...own-live-event
• Recent episode of the Jim Cornette Experience had the Observer's Dave Meltzer as the guest talking about modern wrestling and PWG. http://www.mlwradio.com/download-the...xperience.html
• While answering a question from a fan on Twitter, Triple H hinted at Asuka's main roster call-up likely occuring by SummerSlam.
• In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, Sasha Banks is currently tied for 3rd place all-time in WWE history for most ppv title match losses in a row at 6. If she loses at Great Balls of Fire, she will tie Naomi for 2nd place all-time with 7 losses in a row. Lita currently owns the record at 9 title match ppv losses in a row. https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCirc...nks_the_worst/
• According to the Observer, the new deal Mauro Ranallo signed with the WWE contained terms similar to a restraining order against JBL and others who caused Mauro problems on Smackdown. Was also revealed both Micheal Cole and Triple H played a big role in getting him to stay in the WWE.