[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by A Happy Becky Christmas:

Originally Posted by PWI The 12/22 Year In Review edition of Impact did 209,000 viewers, down from last week's 329,000 viewers.

Originally Posted by Observer Though cameras were rolling when NXT made its way to Japan for the first time ever earlier this month, it wasn't entirely clear how much of the show would ever make it to TV. But WWE announced on Friday that a two-hour version of the event from the Edion Arena in Osaka will be broadcast next week to close out the year of NXT TV. The show's main event previously aired two weeks ago as Shinsuke Nakamura regained the NXT Championship in his home country by defeating Samoa Joe. In addition to Nakamura vs. Joe, the show also featured the return of Tajiri to WWE for the first time since the Cruiserweight Classic as he teamed with Akira Tozawa to challenge Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa for the NXT Tag Team Championship. The NXT Women's Championship was on the line as well as Asuka defended her title against Nia Jax. Those three title matches, as well as Liv Morgan & Aliyah vs. Billie Kay & Peyton Royce and Oney Lorcan vs. Andrade "Cien" Almas, will air next week. The start of 2017 will also see another NXT house show broadcast on the WWE Network with NXT's December 8th event in Melbourne making its way to TV on January 4th. That show's Nakamura vs. Joe steel cage main event for the NXT title aired last week.

Originally Posted by Observer Anthem Sports & Entertainment Corporation announced the launch of the TNA Impact Wrestling app for the U.K. and Ireland called Total Access TNA Wrestling. It will be available on-line and on mobile platforms for 4.99 pounds per month. It will air weekly episodes of Impact at the same time as they air in the U.S. and Canada. There will also be a lot of library footage.

Originally Posted by Observer Mickie James was in Pittsburgh today doing her WWE physicals. She is scheduled to start on the Smackdown women's division if all goes right.

Originally Posted by PWI The Fite App ... is now carrying weekly TV episodes for Ring of Honor, Paragon Pro Wrestling, Insane Championship Wrestling Fight Club, Fully Loaded Wrestling, Future Stars of Wrestling, GXW, WXW Shotgun and Championship Wrestling from Hollywood for free in HD ... The App also features PPV events, including ROH's PPVs, streaming live and on demand. Currently, the ROH Final Battle PPV and the TNA One Night Only: December are available via VOD. The Fite App will carry the January TNA One Night Only PPV and the February ROH 15th Anniversary PPV live as well

Originally Posted by PWI Former WWE star Ryback was interviewed by former WWE Creative Team member Kevin Eck this week for Eck's website. When asked about CM Punk's comments about him on the infamous Colt Cabana podcast, Ryback commented, "Recently, Colt Cabana and myself had a talk, and he was very apologetic, even though he never said anything. But it meant a lot to me because we always got along in the few encounters we had. I will never know why [Punk] chose to say the things he did, and it definitely didn't help my career at that point. All I know is he was very banged up and miserable during the periods we worked together. I think people have to look at it this way: How many other people are out there saying that about me? I was always respectful of him in his time there, and before our runs together, he was always good to me. Working in the WWE, though, has a way to bring out the worst in everybody. I have made jokes [about Punk] over the years via social media, as it is fun to get a reaction from his followers from time to time, but if I were to ever see him, I would tell him, "If I really did ever hurt you [in the ring], I truly am sorry, but I don't think it was the right thing to do to say the things you did." Life is too short to hold grudges, and I truly wish him the best in his life."

Link to the interview: https://www.pressboxonline.com/2016/...ryback-part-ii

Originally Posted by PWI Although it had been suspected in the cause of her death this past April, the official cause of death for former WWF Intercontinental champion Chyna was an accidental overdose on a cocktail of painkillers, a muscle relaxer, sleeping pills and alcohol, the Los Angeles Times reported yesterday.

Originally Posted by PWI The 12/22 episode of Total Divas on E! jumped to 705,000 for the episode built around the Bellas taking an IQ test to find out who was the smarter of the pair. This jumped up from last week's 556,000 viewers. Obviously, the timeslot change to 9 PM helped the series.

Ended up being the second most viewers of the season.

Ric Flair recently spoke with Pardon My Take on a number of wrestling and non-wrestling related topics. Here are some of the highlights: The WWE locker room environment now: "The guys pretty much stay to themselves, lot of video games and social media. The guys don't go out like we used to in our day. It's different times...Lot of the guys are too PC, they even travel by themselves, rather than four guys raisin' hell, driving down the road, it's different times for sure." Wrestling regrets: "I really can't say that I did [have regrets], the problem with being an athlete, the minute you start thinking about what you're doing, or what you're about to do, or the consequences, you shouldn't be doing it and I never lived life like that." Most painful injury: "I can't really put anything up, I've been in an airplane crash and hit by lightning. I cracked a C5 in my neck in 1989 wrestling Dusty, but I didn't really feel the pain until the next day." Getting struck by lightning: "It actually hit my umbrella, but I still consider getting struck by it, it killed the guy behind me. It shot my umbrella about 30-40 feet in the air and I said 'What the hell did that?' I turned around and the lighting had gone from my umbrella and went right through his eye and killed him. Right there in the runway, I'm on a tarmac in Richmond, Virginia."

Originally Posted by Observer Alberto el Patron, when in Mexico promoting Combate Americas, said that he expects he’ll be returning to AAA this year. The impression we have is that talks between Alberto and the company have already started, so his missing Heroes Inmortales in October is settled. Publicly, AAA had backed Alberto’s story and always wanted to work with him since he’s charming and he’s a big star and they need big stars.

Originally Posted by Observer NJPW has done an interesting move to help create interest in New Japan World prior to the Tokyo Dome show. They have put up, for free, at least for the time being, every 1/4 Tokyo Dome show from 1992 to 2016, basically promoted as 25 years of free Tokyo Dome shows. There are a few exceptions as due to contractual issues, matches involving Brock Lesnar and Naoya Ogawa are not on the service. Some of the shows during the dark ages of Inoki killing the product before the recent resurgence weren’t good. But the 90s shows were huge sold out events with classic matches featuring top American stars along with Japanese legends, although not the depth of quality like the last four or five years where the shows were pretty much off the charts. There were also some incredibly horrible matches like when they were doing fake MMA tournaments and such, including the Sting vs. Tony Palmore bout

Originally Posted by Observer There are understandably a lot of morale issues as talent has now been told that the fourth season of Lucha Underground won’t start taping until October 2017. Originally the indications were the season would start taping this past month, and then it was moved to the spring. The current season will go through May or so. Since they aren’t likely to air a new season after this until early 2018, that also extends the time of the seven season contracts that most of the wrestlers are on.

Originally Posted by Observer Drew Galloway’s TNA contract expires in mid-February. He got a pretty strong offer to stay several months back ($200,000 per year) which he turned down because it was the exclusivity deal where they would be in charge of his outside bookings, and he’s all over the indies in the U.K. in particular and the U.K. scene is pretty interesting. But he’d be available at that time for companies like WWE or New Japan, where the TNA contract obviously was a tough one since New Japan doesn’t use any of the TNA guys. Plus one would think he’d be tailor-made to be a top guy with the ITV group, but there’s no guarantee that one gets off the ground. It is interesting because theoretically he’s a guy people should want, and he’s got the size, the look, the ability, and the talking ability to be a top guy

Originally Posted by Observer Zack Ryder underwent reconstructive knee surgery for what ended up diagnosed as a ruptured patella tendon that he suffered in winning the tag team Battle Royal on 12/13 in Washington, DC. The surgery was on 12/15 in Birmingham. He was told by one doctor he’d be out four to six months, but another said six to nine months. Either way, he’s missing WrestleMania and a return would be April at the earliest but WWE isn’t going to rush him back so June is more likely if his recovery goes as well as hoped for, and it could take longer than that

Some other sheet news includes:

• Recent episode of Talk Is Jericho podcast had both Sami Zayn and Seth Rollins as its guests. http://podcastone.com/pg/jsp/program...93&pid=1697399
• According to the Observer, the original plan regarding the Foley-Zayn-Brrrrrrraaaauuuun storyline involved spreading the motivation talks, fake trade deal, and 10 minute match over several weeks instead of being crammed within a week. Foley was planned to be out mid-December till early January but WWE decided to push back Foley's break which was meant for hip surgury. Ended up speeding up the storyline and now are doing stuff meant for when Foley would have returned.
• In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, Roadblock: End of the Line ended up being the first WWE ppv to not get a match rated 4 stars by the Observer since TLC 2015 (December 2015).
• According to the Observer, WWE is currently planning a heel turn for Sasha Banks after her feud with Nia Jax is over.