[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by Happy Rusev:

Originally Posted by Observer Tuesday night's episode of SmackDown on the USA Network averaged 2.51 million viewers and was down nine percent from the previous week ... However, this week's number was up nearly 10 percent over the same week in 2016. That's the third straight week that SmackDown has had a year-over-year ratings increase ... With the start of the broadcast TV season next week, and with CBS, ABC, and NBC all airing shows with audiences typically in excess of 10 million viewers, SmackDown should see a decline for the next few months.

Originally Posted by Observer In response to criticism that Jinder Mahal's promo from SmackDown -- where he was scripted to mock Shinsuke Nakamura's looks and race -- has received, WWE issued a statement on the segment to the Washington Post last night. “Just like many other TV shows or movies, WWE creates programming with fictional personalities that incorporates real world issues and sensitive subjects," the company said. “As a producer of such TV shows, WWE Corporate is committed to embracing and celebrating individuals from all backgrounds as demonstrated by the diversity of our employees, performers and fans worldwide" ... The statement was a response to some mainstream criticism the segment got, including the story that was being worked on by the Washington Post. The Washington Post article also included quotes from Dave Meltzer, who called the segment embarrassing for WWE and discussed the history of the foreign heel character in pro wrestling. “Wrestling was always in its own little world,” Meltzer said. “Now everyone watches it, and you can’t get away with those kind of old tricks. The fan base will blame it on the company and not on the heel.”

Even the New York Times got involved with the reporter who interviewed Jinder a while ago hinting Jinder lied about never accepting to do a racist-like promo in the WWE. Link to the Washington Post article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...-thats-too-far

Originally Posted by Observer In his first interview since last month's health scare, Ric Flair detailed just how dire the problems were and how decades of alcohol abuse led to the situation. Flair and Wendy Barlow, Flair's fiancee and formerly Fifi the Maid in WCW, spoke to People magazine last week at the physical therapy center Flair's recovering at in Georgia. "The day he told me he had a stomach ache and it was really bad and he didn't feel good and we had to go was the day that saved his life, because he was slowly dying," Barlow said about the day she took Flair to the hospital. The years of heavy drinking led to organ problems and his bowel was "dying" before being put in a medically-induced coma and undergoing surgery. Barlow noted that doctors told her that Flair only had a 20 percent chance of surviving the surgery. Flair said that he didn't know how bad things were at the time, but Charlotte told him that a doctor told her to go see her father because he wasn't going to make it ... “I didn’t think I was an alcoholic, but obviously I was," Flair told People. “I’ll never drink again. I never want to go through this again.”

Link to more stuff from the interview and video of the interview: http://www.f4wonline.com/wwe-news/ri...k-again-243161

Originally Posted by Observer While we don't have much in the way of details on this, FloSports has sued WWN for $1 million over the idea that when they signed the contract with them, they were misled about their streaming numbers. The suit was filed in Travis County Court in Texas, the location where FloSports is based. The belief is that WWN is going to countersue. WWN matches this weekend will remain on FloSlam.

More details from website Fightful: https://www.fightful.com/flosports-s...s-during%C2%A0

Originally Posted by Observer All CMLL shows in Mexico City are canceled until anything changes due to the effects of the Earthquake on Tuesday that hit Mexico City. The government in the city has asked that all sports and entertainment events be canceled as long as the city is in a state of emergency. Arena Mexico and Arena Coliseo are fine to be used after a government inspection, so wrestling will start back up when the state of emergency ends. It's notable that today in Mexico is the national holiday, Dia de Lucha Libre.

Originally Posted by Observer Daniel Bryan on Twitter emphasized he would be coming back to wrestle, saying on a scale of 1 to 10, his wanting to return when he's contractually able (one year from now) is an 11. He talked about wrestling members of the Bullet Club, the Young Bucks, Cody, Kenny Omega and Marty Scurll, as well as wanting to do a hair vs. mask match at Arena Mexico with Atlantis.

Originally Posted by Observer A Go Fund Me has been set up for Shayna Baszler's 33-year-old sister Eileen who is battling stage three breast cancer. She will need six months of chemotherapy, a double mastectomy and then radiation and hormone treatment.

Link to the fund for those interested in donating: https://www.gofundme/eileens-breast-chance

Originally Posted by Obsever Booker T will be hosting a podcast on 9/24 at 9 p.m. at Lucky Strike Hollywood on the corner of Hollywood and Highland after the conclusion of the No Mercy show. Appearing with Booker T are Kurt Angle, Rob Van Dam, Corey Graves and Dustin Runnels. All money raised will go to benefit victims of Hurricane Harvey.

Originally Posted by Observer Terry Funk told Jerry Lawler on his podcast that he sincerely means that he’s retiring from wrestling whenever he says it, but he loves wrestling too much to turn people down when they ask him to come back. He said that one of these times he knows that he’s going to “go to heaven.”

Funk's official reason for why he keeps unretiring a lot. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRvAzXWVqSM

Originally Posted by PWI EVOLVE announced this afternoon that WWE 205 Live star Cedric Alexander will be replacing former ROH champion Davey Richards on this weekend's EVOLVE 92 this Friday 9/2 in Livonia, Michigan and EVOLVE 93 this Saturday 9/23 in Summit, IL. The promotion was able to secure Alexander through their relationship with WWE as Gabe Sapolsky has been at the recent NXT TV tapings working with Triple H. The revised lineups for this weekend, airing on Flosports, with the exception of Alexander's matches, which will not be part of the broadcasts.

Revised card for both EVOLVE shows: https://www.pwinsider.com/article/11...ekend.html?p=1

Originally Posted by PWI Ohio Valley Wrestling will hold a benefit event this Saturday 9/23 to assist former WWE Tough Enough winner and long-time OVW alumnus Matt Cappotelli with the mounting medical bills he and his family face as he battles brain cancer for the second time.

More details about the event: https://www.pwinsider.com/article/11...urday.html?p=1

Originally Posted by PWI ROH will return to PPV this Friday 9/23 with the 2017 Death Before Dishonor event, which will air via all traditional PPV carriers as well as the Fite app. The App is currently offering a $10 credit with ROH PPV pre-orders. The lineup for Death Before Dishonor 2017 PPV features: *ROH champion Cody Rhodes vs. Minoru Suzuki in Suzuki's first match in the United States in 25 years. *ROH Tag Team champions The Young Bucks vs. The Motor City Machineguns. *ROH TV champion KUSHIDA vs. Kenny King. *The Kingdom vs. Bully Ray & The Briscoes. *Winners challenge Six Man Tag Team champions The Young Bucks and Adam "Hangman" Page. *Las Vegas Street Fight: Jay White vs. Punishment Martinez. *Last Man Standing: Jay Lethal vs, Silas Young. *Marty Scurll vs. Chuck Taylor.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc According to WWE Network News, the first season of Southpaw Regional Wrestling will be coming to the WWE Network on Monday, September 25. The popular series is currently only on WWE's YouTube channel. No word yet on when season two will be coming to the Network

Link to the article: http://www.wwenetworknews.com/2017/0...o-wwe-network/

Originally Posted by WrestleInc As noted, Paige started training at the WWE Performance Center on Monday as she looks forward to her return to the ring for WWE. The Wrestling Observer Newsletter notes that Paige has already received full clearance to return, she's just getting back into ring shape now. The former Women's Champion has been out of the ring for more than 1 year after having neck surgery. Paige On Why WWE Suspended Her, If She Does Drugs See Also Paige On Why WWE Suspended Her, If She Does Drugs Word is that WWE officials already have a storyline for Paige's return and that it will be for the SmackDown brand.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc WWE officials are still interested in doing a Horsewomen vs. Horsewomen feud as multiple ideas have been discussed, according to The Wrestling Observer Newsletter. One issue being discussed is making sense of Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch being on SmackDown while Sasha Banks and Bayley are on RAW but that could be solved by having the match on a joint pay-per-view such as the Survivor Series in November. There's also been talk of doing a Flair vs. Ronda Rousey singles match at some point. It was previously believed that Ronda's first singles match would be against Stephanie McMahon. There are unconfirmed reports that Shayna Baszler has signed a contract with WWE. She was backstage for the first set of WWE NXT TV tapings after The Mae Young Classic finals but she was not used. After being booked strong in the tournament, the 37 year old was expected to sign with WWE when she stopped booking new indie dates.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc The main event of this past Tuesday's SmackDown was originally scheduled to be a triple threat match with Charlotte Flair, Becky Lynch and Naomi, according to PWInsider. The plan was changed late in the day for Tamina to be added in the match.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc There was a lot of backstage talk at last night's WWE SmackDown in Oakland over the "that's too far chant" during WWE Champion Jinder Mahal's promo on Shinsuke Nakamura, where he referred to Nakamura as Mr. Miyagi, according to PWInsider. It's worth noting that the segment was not uploaded to YouTube. Another hot topic backstage last night was the low attendance. We noted before that the building was believed to be 30-40% full.

Originally Posted by Observer Part of the feeling is the company wants to rebrand itself and get away from the negativity associated with the TNA reign, and that as long as they are in Orlando, the feeling is they are TNA wrestling. The negative on this is that the few fans left watching regularly are likely die-hards of TNA wrestling, and with all the wrestling product available, particularly from WWE, it’s harder than ever before to get fans to watch non-WWE television because they can’t even keep up with WWE television, and it’s no longer the case where there’s any debate over product quality in fans’ eyes left, leaving the promotion in a very difficult position. As noted before, the long-term goal is to make Impact a Canadian company, due to some economic advantages, and also because Anthem is based in Toronto.

Some details on why Anthem wants to move Impact/GFW to Canada for future events.

Originally Posted by Observer The Rey Mysterio situation is very interesting right now. He's one of the biggest, arguably the biggest name on the free agent market right now. But he's also the most expensive to book. With both New Japan and ROH looking to expand, he'd seem like a great fit because he can work with so many of their guys, as long as it's a limited schedule. He looked great with Will Ospreay and Ricochet for What Culture a few weeks back. But his price is way above what ROH pays for anyone which is why nothing has happened there. We've never heard much about him and New Japan, but with New Japan eyeing running more on the West Coast, he'd be very valuable to them, but his price, which can be $10,000 per match, is more than New Japan is likely paying for anyone. He's getting enough bookings at that price to be making a good living on the indies, but he lives a superstar lifestyle and it's night like he's getting enough bookings to make the seven-figure annual WWE money he made. But at last word, all talks regarding him and WWE had also fallen through

Some other sheet news includes:

• Recent survey by the WWE asked fans their interest in non-WWE promotions for the Network, potential new features for the Network, and special goodies for a new pay tier on the Network. http://www.f4wonline.com/wwe-news/ww...options-243191
• Ric Flair returned to his home today after a lengthy stay in a hospital due to his recent health problems.
• During a recent interview with In Touch Magazine, the Bellas Twins hinted they want to return to the WWE at some point next year and likely as a tag team.
• During a recent Q&A session on Twitter, Daniel Bryan revealed he currently is planning on resuming his in-ring wrestling career once his current WWE contract expires. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...eam-wwe-match/
• CBC's Q Radio Show had Chris Jericho as the guest talking about why Jericho feels Bobby "The Brain" Heenan is the greatest wrestling talent of all-time. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...-greatest-all/
• This week's Flashback Friday episode for the WWE Network will focus on the Cruiser Division and be a replay of the entire CWC tournament. The collection set starts at 12PM EST and ends at 11PM EST. http://www.wwe.com/wwe-network-flashback-friday
• Anthem has officially changed the name of GFW back to Impact Wrestling with the Observer stating all references to GFW have been removed from press releases.
• According to the Observer, Toni Storm currently isn't expected to be signing a deal with the WWE either this year or next year.