[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by Ambassador of Suplex City Thursday:

Originally Posted by Observer WWE is expected to make another round of aggressive talent signings from Japan, Mexico and the U.K. over the next few months. The name we heard they are most interested in is Kazuchika Okada, as apparently the key people in charge just found out that he’s tall. New Japan has offered Okada a five-year contract. We don’t know if the deal has been executed and Okada has publicly said he’s loyal to New Japan. They are said to be looking past New Japan, which was their previous target, and now looking at talent in other Japanese groups. There is a top name from AAA and Lucha Underground they are after as well who has never worked for a mainstream U.S. promotion before and is unhappy with the Lucha Underground creative. Because of the weakness of the peso vs. the dollar, everyone who works Mexico is looking for as much American work as possible. There was a time where if you were a top wrestler in Mexico, you could earn more than in WWE unless you were a pushed guy in WWE, but now any kind of a decent WWE deal is going to pay better than a Mexican deal for just about anyone.

The Observer is also reporting that plans for the McMahon Family’s WrestleMania 32 role have been changed in the last few days. While the opening Raw segment is usually re-written every week, the opening promo for this past Monday’s Raw in Chicago was re-written just moments before the show started, as if Stephanie’s promo from the week before never happened. The opening segment for this week was supposed to feature Shane responding to what Stephanie said last week, and say a key line, which is that Stephanie and Triple H better make good on their promise to quit WWE if Shane beats The Undertaker. Otherwise, Shane will fire them both on Raw the night after ‘Mania. It’s also worth noting that word going around WWE is that Shane got “lost” during his promo in Chicago. Shane also got “lost” during his return promo two weeks ago and Vince reportedly did a good job at covering for him, and it wasn’t very noticeable to the crowd.

Possible Mania spoiler in regards to Shane's stipulation on the Authority:

SPOILER: show

Originally Posted by Observer Vince McMahon, Stephanie McMahon & HHH are all advertised for the 4/11 Raw at the Staples Center in Los Angeles -- one week after WrestleMania. I guess that means they don't all get fired on the day after or the people doing the advertising are being told the wrong info.

Originally Posted by Obsever Exactly how much of this is legit or exaggerated you can make up your own mind, but the Vince McMahon vs. HHH dynamic is something that everyone is talking about internally, even more since Shane McMahon appeared on the scene. The feeling is that if Shane McMahon actually does come back into the company in an executive capacity that it’ll be Vince playing Shane against HHH and Stephanie. While publicly HHH will say Vince loves NXT, the internal perception is very different, seeing it as a touring brand filled with so many guys Vince doesn’t believe are money ... The questions regarding Reigns given how he’s not gotten over with HHH as his adversary for so long has led to plenty of finger pointing, although a lot of people pointed to the crotch chop on Raw as the sign HHH is no longer really behind the cause of getting Reigns over as a face. Perhaps that’s just paranoia and frustration, but the way Reigns was eliminated at the Rumble and the HHH/Reigns interaction with him has been curious to say the least

More details on the rumored internal power struggle and it spilling over to other areas.

Originally Posted by Observer Shawn Michaels was interviewed by ESPN and teased being a part of Mania, and indicated he would be part of the show. There were at least two suggestions for Michaels that we’ve heard. One was to be the referee in the HHH vs. Reigns title match, as the concept (Batista being the original choice) was to put in a guest referee to stack the deck against Reigns for him to overcome. The other was to do a run-in similar to the DX and NWO deal last year in one of the matches. In that instance, he’d be part of a group scene with legends similar to last year. Michaels said he retired because he wanted to focus on raising his kids and that he felt he needed a clean break from wrestling because wrestling can infiltrate every aspect of your life.

According to PWInsider, AAA star Garza Jr. is set to work a WWE tryout camp in March. Garza, the nephew of former WCW star Hector Garza, is expected to sign with the company for NXT and possibly the WWE Global Cruiserweight Series. The belief is that despite Garza’s young age, his experience will bring a veteran mindset. Garza’s cousin Ultimo Ninja will be coming with him to the tryouts

A deal is very close to selling season one to Netflix, and if that deal happens, it makes the iTunes deal obsolete because why would people pay a few dollars for an episode or a higher figure for the full season when they can just get it for a Netflix subscription? The idea as it stands right now is if the deal happens, the Netflix deal will only be for the first season and iTunes would still get the second season

In other Lucha Underground news, tapings for Season 3 starts on March 19th and once finished, nothing else is planned for tapings till early 2017.

Originally Posted by Observer There has been a push for New Day doing a major entrance at Mania. What we are told is that they wanted to fly around the stadium on unicorns, but the company has not approved it and we’re told it’s less than 50 percent that it will be approved.

One of the ideas the New Day was pitching for their Mania entrance this year.

Originally Posted by Observer There will be a substantial delay if there will ever be a Jimmy Snuka trial, as a hearing regarding Snuka’s mental competence that was scheduled for this month has been moved to 5/30 to give mental health experts sufficient time to complete their evaluations and decide whether he fully understands the charges and if he’s competent to stand trial. Snuka’s attorney claimed he is not competent to stand trial due to dementia and post-concussion related issues

Originally Posted by Observer However, the one point that everyone talks about is the treatment of Breeze on the main roster. It created an issue that a lot of NXT talent, while the goal is the main roster and the money on the main roster, they are loving it in NXT, and they see Breeze as someone who was an NXT star who was ready to be a WWE star and then got treated the way he did. It led to a lot of questions regarding whether people wanted to be brought up. Don’t get me wrong, people do because the money difference is huge, but there’s also the feeling that NXT is really fun and the main roster is the culmination of a lifelong dream but very frustrating. In particular there was the heat because of the timing of the “Breaking Ground” show on the network where they made it such a big deal how Breeze was moving to the main roster, and that by the time that segment aired, he was getting buried like a job guy on the main roster.

Observer on how a growing number of people in NXT are worried about getting a future call up based on WWE's recent poor track record and the poor handling of Breeze.

Originally Posted by Observer During a podcast interview with Ric Flair, Michael Hayes said that Terry Ray Gordy Jr. (the son of Terry Gordy, who previously worked as Jesse of the Jesse & Festus tag team with Doc Gallows) and Buddy Roberts Jr., who did some independent wrestling out of Chicago, would be accepting the Hall of Fame plaques for their respective fathers. He didn’t say Kevin Von Erich would be inducting The Freebirds, but did hint at it. Von Erich said he was coming but has only talked with the WWE twice, and neither time did they tell him he would be inducting Hayes.

Originally Posted by Observer As we mentioned on last night's Wrestling Observer Radio, Ken Anderson is not only no longer in TNA, but he cut a promo where he said a nasty word about TNA at an ICW house show over the weekend.

On why the name Johnny Nitro was dropped: Well, I always liked “Johnny Blaze” but we announced in on TV and it was under copyright by Marvel. Then I had Johnny Spade and that name sucked, then I had Johnny Nitro. Johnny Nitro was one of my favorite names. I wish I was Johnny Nitro. I don’t think I ever needed to change but Vince didn’t like the name ‘Nitro’ because it reminded him of WCW so we picked John Morrison out of a hat one day… I don’t know if anyone would ever say that but that’s why, yeah.

Origins of the John Morrison name from a recent interview Johnny Mundo had with The World According to Wrestling podcast. http://www.wrestlezone.com/news/6833...sEfwA8bO87O.16


Some other sheet news includes:

• Lucha Underground recently released the official poster for their upcoming live March show: https://uproxx.files.wordpress.com/2...xsw-poster.jpg
• According to the Observer, the WWE is currently considering the idea of a possible New Day vs Bullet Club Elite (Omega's stable) match occur at some point in the near future. Both stables have been pushing their companies to do it if possible.
• Obervser also stated WWE is currently undecided on the main event for this year's Mania with the WWE title match going from a lock to now a toss up between it and Taker-Shane.
• Jeff Jarrett currently in negotiations with BT Sports for a potential UK tv deal for GFW.
• According to reports, Kenny Omega is likely going to miss the next couple of ROH ppvs due to current visa issues.
• ROH revealed they are currently working on plans for another tv deal to be made within the near future and the goal to be in the Destination America or better range for national coverage.
• According to the Observer, Reigns currently expected to return on tv by March 21st for his Mania feud build against Triple H.
• NXT's lead writer recently got promoted as the new lead writer for Smackdown.
• Titus O'Neil recently had an interview with Rapzilla and one of the topics involved if he was going to quit from the WWE. Titus stated he wants to stay until his contract is finished and then make a decision on his future from there. http://rapzilla.com/rz/features/inte...day-suspension