[Emperor Smeat]

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Originally Posted by Observer Matt Cappotelli has passed away after his second battle with brain cancer. Cappotelli's wife, Lindsay, wrote on Facebook: "Hey Team Capp...I’ve been struggling with what to say and how to say this, and I’ll probably end up rambling, but here goes. Today my love-my strong, sweet, beautiful love-took his last breath at 3:30 a.m. and went Home to be with Jesus...exactly one year after his brain surgery. You think you can be prepared for this when you know it’s coming, but you just can’t. The only person who’s comfort I want right now is the one who can’t give it to me. I miss him so much. I know where he is now is so much better, but it doesn’t change how much I miss him." Cappotelli was 38 years old. Last June, Cappotelli underwent surgery after being diagnosed with a grade four glioblastoma brain tumor. Ninety percent of the tumor was able to be removed, but the remaining portion was too close to his brain stem. Lindsay wrote last month that they met with Cappotelli's neuro-oncologist and it was decided that he was at the point where they should discontinue treatments. Cappotelli, who appeared to be universally well-liked by those who knew him, was one of the winners of season three of WWE Tough Enough. He was an up-and-coming star in OVW until his first brain cancer diagnosis in 2005 led to the end of his in-ring career. John Hennigan (John Morrison), the other winner of Tough Enough season three, posted about Cappotelli's passing: "My first best friend in the wrestling business and to this day one of the best people I’ve ever known Matt Cappotelli has passed on. I’m gutted about this news. Matt inspired everyone around him especially me early in my career. He is loved and will be missed."

Links: https://www.facebook.com/groups/4327...1676064297690/ , https://twitter.com/TheRealMorrison/...32662006816768

Originally Posted by Observer A number of college athletes and independent wrestlers were a part of the latest WWE tryouts held at the WWE Performance Center this past week ... Here is a list of the more notable names that were a part of this tryout camp: Jake Kasper, a two time All-American from Duke University. The article noted that Gerald Brisco compared him to a young John Cena. Chelsea Green, formerly of Impact Wrestling as Laurel Van Ness who also competed in the Tough Enough 2015 reboot. Terrell and Terrence Hughes, twin sons of D-Von Dudley who made a few appearances in Impact Wrestling earlier this decade. Rob Strauss, also known as Robbie E. Former Impact wrestling star and also a competitor on the reality show Amazing Race. Rory Gulak, brother of Drew Gulak. He has an amateur wrestling background and has competed in places like CZW and CHIKARA.

Link with more details: https://www.f4wonline.com/wwe-news/w...tryouts-260671

Originally Posted by PWI The current plan for Ronda Rousey's official return from her "WWE suspension" is for it to happen on the Raw in Buffalo, NY the day after the Extreme Rules PPV. Rousey will be working all of her currently advertised live event appearances including a 7/7 bout against Nia Jax at Madison Square Garden and a 7/8 Bridgeport, CT tag team bout teaming with Jax against Alexa Bliss and Mickie James.

Originally Posted by PWI In some interesting news, The Wales Comic Con announced that WWE Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels would not be able to attend their December 2018 event, but that WWE would be sending Dolph Ziggler, Cesaro and Sheamus to appear instead. What is interesting about this is that Ziggler's current WWE deal was expected to expire this summer, so the booking could be a sign that they have come to terms on a new deal or that both sides are working under the agreement that a new deal is expected to be signed.

Originally Posted by PWI ESPN is reporting that Vince McMahon has told people close to him that he expects to spend in the area of $500 million when he relaunches the XFL in 2020. Initially, the number being reported that he would spend would be around $100 million. Of course, since that announcement WWE's stock has more than doubled and they announced TV deals where they will be making 3.6 times more in programming fees in the US alone starting next October. Suffice it to say, he has more money to spend now than he did when the deal was announced. With a half billion being committed to the projected, the chances of attracting name players has gone up. And players are what will draw eyes to the product, in my humble opinion.

Link: http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/2...00-million-xfl

Originally Posted by PWI/Post Wrestling/Oobserver Indies Roundup: Major League Wrestling today announced 5 additional participants known as the “fearless 5” for the first-ever Battle Riot match on July 19th in New York City. Jimmy Havoc, Brody King, Low Ki, Head Shrinker: Samu and ½ of the World Tag Team Champions Rey Fenix will all vie for a world title shot as they compete in the 40 wrestler Battle Riot at the Melrose Ballroom in Queens, NY. Impact Wrestling has announced a four-way match for Slammiversary with Johnny Impact vs. Rich Swann vs. Rey Fenix vs. Taiji Ishimori, as well as confirming the Hair vs. Mask match between Pentagon Jr. and Sami Callihan for the show on July 22nd in Toronto. Wednesday’s episode of Lucha Underground averaged 99,000 viewers on the El Rey Network that featured the three-way Grave Consequences Match. Their number was up by a small margin from 96,000 the week prior. WWN announced that all events will be put up for VOD on their subscription streaming service within 72 hours instead of the prior two weeks, and noted last weekend's shows were up within 24 hours. David Arquette, who was at the Bar Wrestling show last night, will face RJ City on 7/15 at the Oceanview Pavilion in California.

Originally Posted by PWI The 6/28 edition of Impact did 254,000 overnight viewers, down from last week's 262,000,overnight viewers.

Originally Posted by PWI How is the All In event being distributed? Is it gonna be on IPPV? Will they have a distribution deal? Nothing has been made official yet, but the show will air. I have heard AXS TV has made overtures about carrying the show, but we haven’t heard there is a deal in place.

From PWI's weekly Q&A articles on current status of ALL In's broadcast plans.

Originally Posted by SEScoops.net Ryan Satin of Pro Wrestling Sheet reports that there have been discussions of putting NXT on FS1. Satin says the announcement is “imminent” Brad Shepard of Bodyslam.net confirmed the news as well, claiming that the deal was done last week, and the announcement should be made no later than next week This is huge news for NXT, which will now be available to a much larger audience should the news prove to be true. It should be interesting to see what kind of success the program has on FS1. It should also be noted that Shepard teased the return of Saturday Night’s Main Event to Saturdays on FOX.

Link: https://www.sescoops.com/huge-nxt-ne...y-coming-soon/

Originally Posted by Observer The National Labor Relations Board region has ruled that the claims by Leslie Smith have merit and will be filing a claim against UFC that the fighters are not independent contractors, but are employees. Obviously if the complaint goes through, this strongly relates to WWE in particular. This would also lead to a claim that UFC was discriminated against for being released for her out of the ring unionizing activities. Lucas Middlebrook, the attorney for Smith, told MMA Fighting that the complaint would be filed in one month. It would eventually end up with a hearing before an administrative law judge in Philadelphia. A very good story on this is here. In the big picture, this is a massive story.

Going to lead to some massive fallout on the WWE if Smith manages to win.

Originally Posted by Observer I'm not sure if this is the case for Brooklyn, it likely is, but it is definitely the case for November in Los Angeles, that NXT Takeover shows are permanently being moved up one hour to 7 p.m. starts on Saturday night. The NXT Takeover live events will start closer to 6 p.m. I was told the idea isn't longer shows, but that's probably what will wind up happening. Right now the directive is that the shows will be less than three hours in length, when before they were just over two hours, and then lengthened to close to two hours and 30 minutes.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc Steve Austin recently appeared on Talk Is Jericho where he discussed how his adrenaline-pumping anthem was created thanks to the incredible talents of Jim Johnston. Austin said he was previously coming out to a much slower song from his Ringmaster gimmick and he needed a change. This is when The Rattlesnake went to Johnston with a CD and an idea of how they could make his music fit the new and edgier Stone Cold gimmick. "I went down to the studio and back in the day you know Chris I was pretty hands-on you gotta be," Steve Austin said to Chris Jericho. "So I walked in there and I had a CD and I hand it to Jim Johnston and go, 'it's called Bulls On Parade by Rage Against The Machine' and I played it. "He got it," Austin continued, "and so I don't think my entrance music sounds anything like it but it was inspired by that and man I tell ya what the way he came up with that glass breaking I don't know how he came up with that idea when he looped in that siren, I don't know how or why he put that in a stroke of genius or luck or whatever it was that happened, magic?

Link: http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...n-for-his-wwe/


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