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Old 04-27-2017, 10:34 PM   #1020
Emperor Smeat
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Observer
Mauro Ranallo at this point remains under contract with WWE until 8/12 and presumably will not be allowed to do any pro wrestling broadcasting until that time, although that has not been made clear. The date is immaterial as the only true full-time announcing job that looks to be opening up would be the World of Sport show, and Ranallo’s name had never been mentioned as being under consideration. The timing of this was because a major news outlet was working on a story on the subject, and WWE needed Ranallo to essentially absolve Layfield to either weaken or kill the story. It is not certain whether the story will or won’t run, because many interviews were already done, but the key to the story was how it related to Ranallo’s situation.

While it appears that both sides have parted ways, as Ranallo’s statement would indicate, and there is paperwork in place that they have, the idea of Ranallo coming back is not a dead issue. There has at least been preliminary dialogue on that subject, but at press time, nothing was at the serious level of discussion. Ranallo is currently in England preparing for the broadcast of the Anthony Joshua International Boxing Federation heavyweight championship fight against Wladimir Klitschko at Wembley Stadium in England for Showtime. There is always the idea of him coming back, and WWE taking credit and pushing the company as being behind mental health awareness, and using him as an advocate, and using it for public relations is a possibility. But it is far from a lock he would be returning.
Quote:
Originally Posted by PWI
Over the last 24 hours, the talk in Great Britain has been that the planned May World of Sport TV tapings, which were to film a ten episode season for ITV, bringing the World of Sport brand back to weekly broadcast television in England, have been postponed. Tapings were slated for 5/25 and 5/26 at Preston Guild Hall following a popular WOS special that aired on New Year's Eve last December. Tickets for the tapings went on sale on 4/6 ...

Sources speaking under condition of anonymity confirmed that the May World of Sport tapings have indeed been postponed. There are plans to make an official announcement next week regarding the rescheduling of the tapings. The source stated that ticket sales were not the issue and that it was a logistical, scheduling issue that is leading to the delay.
Quote:
Originally Posted by PWI
PWInsider.com has confirmed that WWE NXT talents Theophilus Agbi and Chris Atkins were released by the company this week. Agbi had been training in the Performance Center after signing last year and never made TV. Atkins had a few televised appearances but had not been given a regular role.

As we noted earlier this week Andrea Ocampo, who worked on screen as Andrea D'Marco for the NXT brand as a ring announcer and backstage interviewer, also recently departed WWE.
Quote:
Originally Posted by WrestleInc
As noted, Chris Jericho's current WWE run is set to end as Jericho will begin touring with Fozzy in May. Jericho's last date on his current WWE run is this Monday's RAW in Sacramento, CA.
Quote:
Originally Posted by WrestleInc
Jim Ross posted his latest blog at JRsBarBQ.com. Here are some highlights:

WWE pushing Jinder Mahal:

"The Jinder Mahal ascension on the SDLive roster including him being the #1 contender for the WWE Title seems to be being overthought to some degree by a handful of pundits. The rapid advancement up the card of Jinder has some concerned, and I get that point, but I see it as worth the chance and, fast track or not, Mahal is somewhat of a calculated risk which is essentially the same thing that most promotions deal with when advancing new talents who suddenly appear on the main event radar.

"I like this booking because it involves a deserving, hard working talent who has unique skills, is fundamentally sound and has a unique, TV persona plus he provides Randy Orton with a new opponent. Question...what if Jinder Mahal becomes the next, WWE Champion? Stranger things have happened and it's not the worse idea that I've heard lately. This shocker might be worth a bit of consideration.

"I would merely suggest that Jinder doesn't have to yell wall to wall on his promos to make his points because most of us organically/automatically tune people out who scream at us especially if they are an antagonist."

Shinsuke Nakamura:

"Anxious to see the pending evolution of Shinsuke Nakamura on SD Live especially when the gets into a serious, title oriented storyline. The only missing piece to the game of the King of Strong Style is his ability to communicate effectively to his English speaking audience which is addressable. Love Shin's upside and charisma."
Quote:
Originally Posted by WrestleInc
As noted, Cody Rhodes recently stated on Twitter that he has not signed with any company. Wrestling Inc. has learned from sources close to the situation that Cody has come to terms on a new deal with Ring Of Honor. It's not known how long the length of the deal is.
Quote:
Originally Posted by WrestleInc
WWE announced the following on how Charlotte Flair made history in her main event match against SmackDown Women's Champion Naomi on Tuesday's blue brand episode:

Quote:
Charlotte Flair makes history by becoming the first female Superstar in history to battle one-on-one in Raw, SmackDown and pay-per-view main events

Following multiple Raw main events and a Raw Women's Championship victory against Sasha Banks at this past year's WWE Hell in a Cell event — inside the Cell itself, no less — Charlotte Flair made history once again last night on SmackDown LIVE by becoming the first female Superstar to compete in singles matches in the main event of Raw, SmackDown and a WWE pay-per-view
Quote:
Originally Posted by WrestleInc
As seen below, Curtis Axel made another appearance at the elementary school his son attends to read a book to the 3rd grade class and talk about bullying. This would be the 2nd or 3rd time Axel has tweeted about visiting his son at school to hang out with the students.

Read a book to my son, Brock's, 3rd grade class today and talked about bullying! These kids have such awesome personalities! Very fun! @WWE pic.twitter.com/lhKhGJPxfM
— Curtis Axel (@RealCurtisAxel) April 26, 2017
Quote:
Originally Posted by Observer
Katsuyori Shibata was going to face Zack Sabre Jr., on one of the big shows on the current NJPW tour. In fact, Sabre Jr., was pulled from the tour because everything booked for him had to do with interaction with Shibata and the cards had all been made and he’d have had no spot. Shibata still has weakness on the right side and also will be undergoing another brain surgery in May.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Observer
Had the Hardys stayed with Impact, and done their planned long feud with the Young Bucks in ROH and Impact, they were also going to have a match on one of the Long Beach shows.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Observer
One indie promoter told us that Jack Swagger, who is coming on the market, has been asking for $4,000 per show coming out of the blocks, which they felt was high. That’s a big number for most indie promotions. He is working in May for FULL in Mexico in matches against Alberto El Patron, renewing their old WWE program. He’s working an overseas tour in Australia with Tommy Dreamer in June although given it’s Dreamer and it’s multiple dates, that could be a very different amount.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Observer
Sinclair Broadcasting is purchasing Bonten Media Group, which owns 14 small market stations in eight markets, for $240 million. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of this year. If ROH is put on the new stations, which is normally the case with Sinclair acquisitions, that would be the Tri-Cities in Tennessee/Virginia, Greenville, NC, Chico and Eureka, CA, Missoula and Butte, MT, Abilene, and San Angelo, TX.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Observer
According to those in the company, the push of Jinder Mahal has everything to do with a new strategy earmarking India. The strategy is a likely response to Impact’s deal to have a television show in the market produced in India. The push of Mahal and the former Bollywood Boys, Harv & Gurv Sihra, now named The Singh Brothers, Samir & Sunil Singh, started just before WWE announced the hiring of Sheetesh Srivastava as the new Vice President and General Manager of WWE India, indicating going stronger into the market. WWE has more social media followers in India than anywhere else, including the U.S. It’s been noted that most of the social media followers WWE has comes from countries that they don’t make much money in ...

It’s very clearly a last minute decision since they had done nothing to position him as a non-prelim guy, and then snapped their fingers and made him a main event championship contender. Sometimes this stuff works, although usually it only works with actual new characters and not someone who had been around for years. But you never know what will work on top if it isn’t tried, and the luxury of current WWE is that more than any other promotion, they take no hits if they try and fail. It’s been done before, such as the R-Truth heel turn and move into a main eventer role, which didn’t work and R-Truth wasn’t as low on the totem poll as Mahal, but people didn’t see him as a main eventer and he didn’t last in that position.

With Mahal, it’s a different issue as if they are doing it for the Indian market, even if it doesn’t click in the U.S. market, it may still be an effective international strategy. The one thing is, if he is pushed as a headliner, whether it takes in the U.S. or not, he will get over to people in India watching and he is like a million times better than Mahabali Shera or Great Khali, although obviously Khali did have the unique size to make him someone that would get over in a new market.

Another aspect of this is the company holding tryouts in Dubai 4/26 to 4/29. The key is that they are looking at getting anyone with any potential from Khali’s school. That beats Impact to the punch since Impact and Sony Six were planning a television show for India using locals as the top stars, and looking at getting the best students from Khali’s school
Quote:
Originally Posted by Observer
Regarding PW Torch reports on Mike Bennett and Maria Kanellis coming in, while we can’t 100 percent confirm that, it’s been strongly hinted to us that was the case since they left TNA. The impression we have is they are just waiting to start, and the way they’ve been booked in Northeast Wrestling would seem to indicate they aren’t going to be there much longer. Right now Bennett is filming a movie in Rhode Island that stars legendary actor Ed Asner of “Lou Grant” and “Mary Tyler Moore” TV fame. Asner has a pro wrestling connection in that he grew up and was friends from high school football with Bob Orton Sr., Randy’s grandfather and they kept in touch the rest of Bob’s life, as well as he was the star of the original 1974 movie “The Wrestler,” produced by Verne Gagne, and remained friends with Gagne, even visiting Gagne several years ago.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Observer
It used to be that you could figure out who would win on PPV based on the go-home show. In the sense that the guy on top on the go-home show would lose. But they’ve been mixing things up more. So far in 2017 winners on the go-home show went on to win on PPV 53 percent, while losers on the go-home show went on to win 60 percent of the time. In specifics when they are in tags or facing each other both on Raw and the PPV, right now the winners of the TV match and losers of the TV match have this year so far each won 50 percent of the time, so there’s no predicting who wins and loses on PPV on a formula based on the go-home Raw.
Wonder if the rise of wrestling betting played a role. Maybe even as a way for WWE employees to push the odds more into their favor for bigger payouts.






Some other sheet news includes:
  • Impact's Dutch Mantel recently tweeted Impact Wrestling will be debuting a new championship belt soon.
  • Sports Illustrated had a recent interview with Sting talking about Sting-Taker never happening at Mania and Seth Rollins being his favorite out of all WWE's younger/newer stars. https://www.si.com/extra-mustard/201...ions-john-cena
  • PWI managed to get some early details regarding the Vince film and some of the scenes planned are pretty crazy even by Vince standards. http://www.pwinsider.com/article/109...ilers.html?p=1
  • According to the Observer, the main reason Charlotte got traded to Smackdown was due to the WWE wanting to keep her status as the top female star but this time as a face.
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