Originally Posted by Jordan X (Post 5246584)

In response to the report that dubya dubya E is gonna make a star from the MITB winner the first guy that popped up in my mind was Almos. Drew Mac would be a great choice too but I personally see more in Andrade.

Originally Posted by Fignuts (Post 5246682)

Top stars in NXT make around 50-60,000, which is a nice income, but not enough to be able to buy your mom a new house at a moment's notice.

Originally Posted by Fignuts (Post 5246682)

Top stars in NXT make around 50-60,000, which is a nice income, but not enough to be able to buy your mom a new house at a moment's notice.

Originally Posted by Observer

Tuesday night's SmackDown on the USA Network averaged 2.072 million viewers, down seven percent from last week's episode. It was the second straight night of bad ratings news for the company -- as Raw was down from the previous week and down over 26 percent year-over-year.

SmackDown retained a higher-than-usual 87 percent of the Raw audience and thus was "only" down just over 18 percent from 2018 ...

Miz and Mrs., which followed SmackDown on the USA Network, did a series-low 940,000 viewers, so last episode having the show's highest ratings for the second part of season one was likely a result of the higher-than-usual SmackDown number.

Originally Posted by Observer

Former WWE creative team member/indie wrestler RD Evans posted a video referencing quitting at this year’s Hall of Fame ceremony. He’s changed his Twitter name to R.D. “Quitman” Evans. At the end of the video, Evans holds up a “Will Wrestle 4 Food” sign, says that’s a terrible idea and he doesn’t want to wrestle, and then changes it to “Will Wrestle Orange Cassidy 4 Food.”

Originally Posted by Observer

At Starrcast II, Bret Hart and Tom Magee will take part in an event where they’ll discuss their famous “lost” match from 1986. Mark Henry, Allie, and Rosemary were also announced for Starrcast.

Originally Posted by PWI

No Sasha Banks at WWE TV this week and there doesn't seem to be any known indication of when she would be returning based on those we've spoken to.

Luke Harper was not at Smackdown last night.

Originally Posted by PWI

WWE Network News is reporting that July 28, 1985, Midsouth Wrestling "Wrestlefest" event will be tomorrow's Hidden Gem.

07/28/1985 – Mid-South Wrestlefest 1985 [Duration: 01:46:23]

Dusty Rhodes battles ‘Nature Boy’ Ric Flair, while Ted Dibiase faces Jake ‘The Snake’ Roberts in this star-studded spectacular.

The event which took place in Tulsa, Oklahoma featured the following action:

• Al Perez vs. Mark Ragin
• One Man Gang vs. Wendell Cooley
• Barbarian (John Nord) vs. Brickhouse Brown
• The Fantastics vs. Eddie Gilbert & Jerry Gray
• Ted DiBiase vs. Jake The Snake Roberts
• Dutch Mantell vs. Butch Reed
• NWA World Champion Ric Flair vs Dusty Rhodes
• Bill Watts, Hacksaw Duggan, & Dick Murdoch vs Kareem Muhammed, Kamala, & Skandor Akbar

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Lucha Central has reported on the recent television viewership figures AAA has been posting on Friday nights on TV Azteca’s Azteca 7 network. This past Friday’s show on Good Friday did a 3.2 rating and 5,400,000 viewers for the show featuring The Young Bucks defeating Pentagon Jr. and Fenix for the AAA tag titles from the Rey de Reyes card last month. The audience number is up 38% from the previous week’s episode that averaged 3,900,000 viewers. This past week’s audience was their highest mark since starting on Azteca 7 with the previous weekly high of 4.4 million viewers.

Originally Posted by WrestlingInc

As noted, this week's WWE RAW saw Cesaro come to the roster from SmackDown, in a late Superstar Shakeup move. Dave Meltzer mentioned on Wrestling Observer Radio that Cesaro came over due to WWE wanting to keep some of the couples together. The Cesaro roster change was not originally planned for the Shakeup.

There was reportedly a lot of negativity within WWE over Charlotte Flair and Andrade being split up in the Superstar Shakeup. Meltzer noted that there were a lot of people who were not happy with Flair and Andrade being on different rosters coming out of the Shakeup. That is part of the reason why WWE quietly brought Andrade and Zelina Vega back to SmackDown this week. Vega returning to SmackDown meant Aleister Black had to move to the blue brand as well.

Originally Posted by WrestlingInc

Sasha Banks is reportedly at a stalemate with WWE, according to Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio ...

Word from within WWE is that Banks wants to sit out the rest of her contract, according to Meltzer.

There's no word yet on when Banks would be eligible to leave the company but Meltzer noted that WWE could add time to the contract for the time she spends not working, similar to the situation with Neville in late 2017. She could be out of action for a significant amount of time if WWE adds time to the contract.

It was noted that WWE does want Banks back in the mix, but she wants things to be different. Those differences are unclear and not agreed on because the two sides have not made up yet.

Originally Posted by Iceman King Gertner (Post 5246704)

Yeah same here, same gig. I ain't limousine ridin or jet flyin.

Originally Posted by PWI

The third episode episode of Viceland's pro wrestling documentary series Dark Side of the Ring on 4/10 garnered 214,000 overnight viewers for their Bruiser Brody episode, up from last week's 181,000 overnight viewers.

Next Wednesday's episode will focus on the Von Erich family.

Originally Posted by Observer

Rhea Ripley issued an apology after using a homophobic slur while appearing on a Twitch stream with Brennan Williams, Mansoor Al-Shehail, and Reina Gonzalez. The stream had an option for viewers to tip $15 and receive an insult in Spanish or Australian. Ripley wrote in her apology: “Demi Bennett speaking here: I know a lot of you are upset with me after tonight, but I just wanted to publically say that I am sorry. My brain to mouth filter came down for a second and I forgot that some words are a big no no to a lot of people. I am a firm believer that everyone should be treated equally, whether that be race or sexual orientation. With that said, I just wanted to say how dearly sorry I am to everyone that was offended by my choice of words tonight.”

Originally Posted by PWI

The Shad Gaspard and Jayson Paul General Partnership have applied to trademark 'Cryme Tyme' for "Entertainment services, namely, wrestling exhibits and performances by a professional wrestler and entertainer." WWE trademarked the name back in 2009 but cancelled their registration in 2015.

The 'AEW', 'All Elite Wrestling', 'Tuesday Night Dynamite' and 'Fight for the Fallen' trademarks will be published for opposition on 5/28.

This may not mean much now but the 'Dead Man Talking' trademark by Starrcast will be published for opposition on 5/21.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

The biggest thing was the about-face of breaking up the relationship between Ashley Fliehr (Charlotte Flair) and Manny Andrade by putting them on different brands. The relationship wasn’t a secret and the decision was made with knowledge of this. But it didn’t play out well in real life so it was reversed with Andrade moving back to Smackdown the next week. Because they didn’t want to break up the Andrade/Zelina Vega act, they moved Thea Trinidad (Vega) back to Smackdown as well. Unfortunately, then they were breaking up a married couple, so her husband, Tom Budgen (Aleister Black) also had to be moved to Smackdown. That broke up the Ricochet & Aleister Black tag team, and based on Ricochet losing to a repackaged Bobby Roode, now back to doing the Robert Roode character with a Don Frye mustache, the orders from above to protect the second run of NXT call-ups ended.

Regarding reports that Andrade and Vega were moved to Smackdown at the request of FOX, wanting a Latino act on the show, that’s not the reason, or at least the prime reason, but it’s not untrue either. The prime reason regarded breaking up the couple, whether it be because they were unhappy or because it made the company look bad regarding the original decision. The company is trying to listen to the audience and not look like bad guy, although that’s within reason, as it’s not like they’re going to give up the Saudi Arabia deal. The company is doing more focus group work than ever before to try and identify why ratings and arena business are down and what will keep fans engaged. In addition, they are fully aware that there is a wrestling war, and don’t want to come across as the bad guy promotion, giving the opposition the role of having fans rallying behind them as the protest vote.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

The Sasha Banks situation also remains unchanged. She isn’t happy and the company isn’t reacting much to her. The attitude right now from the company side is that she can go sit out the rest of her contract if she wants to. The bad part of that is that if she doesn’t wrestle and tries to sit out, they can freeze the contract as well.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

Another change, based on fan reaction, is that the former War Raiders, then changed to Viking Experience, had their names changed again after one week to the Viking Raiders. There was also a questionnaire sent to fans after TV that listed their names as Viking Warriors, so it may change again next week, or at least at some point that name has also been considered.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

As was expected by many and reported in some places including Pro Wrestling Sheet a few weeks ago, Dustin Runnels’ (Dustin Rhodes/Goldust) is headed here and will face brother Cody on Double or Nothing on 5/25 in Las Vegas. Runnels asked for his notice from WWE on 1/19, and they gave it to him, but he was given a 90-day non-compete which ended on 4/19. From the WWE side, Vince McMahon was said to be against it but Paul Levesque talked him into allowing Runnels to leave. The reality is WWE hadn’t done anything with Runnels in years, and he’s 50, and coming off double knee surgery. It’s hard to figure the decisions on who they let go, since with Runnels, it was a lock if he was let out of his contract, he was coming here (and his contract was expiring fairly soon, but WWE could have frozen it and continued it for another eight months due to his time off after the most recent surgeries).

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

A few notes on ratings. While USA Network bills itself as No. 1 on cable, they use the term in entertainment. For 2018, the top ten stations, in order, were Fox News Channel, ESPN, MSNBC, HGTV, USA, TBS, TNT, Hallmark, History and The Discovery Channel. USA averaged 1,291,000 in prime time but would fall to around 950,000 without WWE, or out of the top ten, which is why the rights to Raw were so valuable. If nothing changes next year with USA and the other channels, with the loss of Smackdown would fall only below TBS and still beat TNT. But with the loss of Raw, they’d fight for the ninth spot, and that explains the value of Raw t that network even with the declining ratings. USA dropped nine percent for the year, so the wrestling shows are declining faster than the network.

Since, with AEW rumors, TNT’s prime time average in 2018 was 1,171,000 viewers. That’s going to be a very difficult number for a new show with only an Internet fan base to hit. It should also be noted that TNA did beat station averages, albeit far weaker stations, on Spike, Destination America and Pop, even if all three canceled it for various reasons, and New Japan has consistently been one of the best rated shows on AXS, as has MLW on Bein, but the standards are obviously far lower on those stations. FOX this past Friday averaged 3,043,000 viewers in the time slot Smackdown is getting

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

Kota Ibushi said that he’s made a lifetime deal to stay with New Japan. He signed an extended contract and said that he would be with New Japan for the rest of his career, using the term “until the day I die.” I guess we should hope for Kenny Omega to be back because The Golden Lovers really need to do matches from time-to-time and there needs to be an Omega vs. Ibushi match in MSG or the a Dome

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

The 7/13 show in Jacksonville had about 1,000 tickets left (set up for 5,180) after the first day of ticket sales to the general public. It wasn’t the instant sellout, but I don’t know that anyone expected a local market show in Jacksonville to have that kind of a ticket run. Daytona Beach on 6/29, the over/under would be the 2,350 that the similar CEO show did in the market last year with Omega, Kota Ibushi and Tetsuya Naito as the top stars and now it’s Omega, Young Bucks and Cody. Jacksonville usually draws 250 to 400 for NXT and the AEW crowd will beat most WWE shows in the market.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

The Saudi Arabian government once again made WWE look sleazy by going. One would have thought they wanted to make the announcement of going at the investors call on 4/25 because the expectation is the company will either make a very small profit or actually have lost money this past quarter due to major added expenses. So announcing a $40 million plus show would be a good thing, especially when the negativity the company got about going last time has quelled down. But on 4/23, the Saudi government beheaded 37 people.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

Obviously with the Becky 2 belts chant and catch phrase, the ban on the word belts has come to a close. WWE even sent out a promotional e-mail using the term “title belts,” a term that had been banned for years because Vince associated it with old school rasslin

Originally Posted by Sports Illustrated

WWE road agent Dean Malenko has quit his role with the company, multiple sources have told Sports Illustrated.

Malenko (real name Dean Simon, 58) had been employed by WWE as a backstage agent for the past eight years, booking matches .

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

The WWE released their results for the first quarter with the company hit with declines in several key areas ...

For the WWE Network, they did release the total number of subscribers on the day after WrestleMania 35 earlier this month. On April 8, there were 2 million total subscribers, which is down 6% from the day after WrestleMania 2018, which hit an all-time high of 2,124,000 subs.

Of the 2 million subscribers worldwide this year, 1,767,000 were paid and 233,000 were on a free trial. The paid number is down 2% year-over-year, but the free number dropped 26% when it had 316,000 free subs last year. The free number being down isn’t inherently a negative if free subscribers were converting over but in this case, the paid number was also down and would indicate there are less interest in this year’s show.

For the entire quarter, they averaged 1,584,000 paid subscribers, which is up slightly from 1,558,000 in the first quarter last year.

They are projecting an average of 1.7 paid subs for the second quarter, which includes WrestleMania ...

Television ratings were down 14% for Raw and 13% for SmackDown this quarter with the USA Network down 12% and the top 25 cable outlets down 5% ...

The explanation the company kept going back to what the number of performers that missed time and citing this as reasons for television viewership and live events being down. That reason only holds so much water because this decline came at their peak time of the year leading into WrestleMania and it’s not like we don’t write about the enormous declines each week, which have continued, specifically for Raw.

When assessing viewership being down due to cord cutting, the USA Network was in 91 million homes in 2018 and this year they are in 90 million homes.

Originally Posted by Fignuts (Post 5247144)

37 people getting beheaded is not a "controversy". It's a fucking massacre.

Originally Posted by Mr. Nerfect (Post 5247281)

I don't know if the WWE should really consider the timing of the "controversy" unlucky, or if that's just the inevitability of doing business with an evil fucking regime.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Coming off the disappointing quarterly report, the WWE stock dropped another 2% on Friday and closed at $83.52.

Originally Posted by Observer

The day after it was revealed that he quit WWE, Dean Malenko was confirmed for Starrcast II.

Starrcast announced today that Malenko will be appearing at their convention next month: "This Superstarr is known as The Man of a 1000 holds!! He’s held championships all over the world... #Starrcast II is proud to welcome DEAN MALENKO to Las Vegas, Memorial Day Weekend! Appearing Friday 1-4pm at Caesars Palace Meet & Greets on sale now."

Originally Posted by Observer

Stacey Ervin Jr. is officially no longer with WWE.

In an Instagram post today, Ervin confirmed his departure from the company ...

Ervin is a gymnast who joined the Performance Center in July 2018 after signing with WWE. He received strong reviews for his performances and high flying at NXT house shows and also wrestled one match on NXT television during his time with the company.

The last time Ervin wrestled was on March 8. Squared Circle Sirens reported that Ervin quit WWE after going through a concussion scare.

Originally Posted by Observer

Forty athletes are at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida for a tryout this week.

WWE.com posted an article today revealing the list of names attending the tryout. Among those in attendance are Lucha Underground wrestler Ivelisse Velez and Lance Anoa'i, who is Samu's son and a member of the Anoa'i dynasty.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

NXT referee Tom Castor suffered a broken leg during Thursday’s main event in Omaha, Nebraska. Castor was the referee for Velveteen Dream vs. Tyler Breeze and suffered the break but finished the match and made the three count.

Originally Posted by PWI

Dave Schilling, who had been hired for WWE Creative a few weeks back, is already gone from the company.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Progress Wrestling is holding their Super Strong Style 16 tournament next weekend from Alexandra Palace in London. The 16-man tournament features several performers being sent by NXT with the following opening round matches revealed by the promotion:
*Chris Brookes vs. Ilja Dragunov
*Aerostar vs. Trevor Lee
*Travis Banks vs. DJ Z
*David Starr vs. Artemis Spencer
*Kyle O’Reilly vs. Chris Ridgeway
*Darby Allin (the lone AEW talent) vs. Paul Robinson
*Lucky Kid vs. Jordan Devlin
*Kyle Fletcher vs Daga

Originally Posted by Fightful

Daniel Bryan is no longer the WWE Champion, but lest we not forget the greatest gift he gave us during his title reign.

Not happy with the leather strap on the current WWE Title, Daniel Bryan trashed the belt on the Jan. 29 episode of SmackDown Live. He went on to reveal a more eco-friendly title made of natural wood and hemp. Unfortunately, a replica of the belt was not for sale. Until now.

WWE announced that fans can finally purchase replicas of Bryan's eco-friendly title, even though it will no longer be seen on WWE television. Supplies are limited, but more will be available in May.

Originally Posted by Fightful

The National Wrestling Alliance announced the teams for the Wild Card Battle Royal for this Saturday's Crockett Cup. The winning team will occupy the final spot in the NWA Crockett Cup, facing Jax Dane & Crimson in the first round.

The teams are as followed:
- Jocephus & A Mystery Partner
- The Boys
- Zane & Dave Dawson

Originally Posted by Mr. Nerfect (Post 5247295)

There's another rumor going around that SmackDown is going to be expanded to 3 hours when they move to FOX. George Barrios said something about WWE monetizing 6 hours of content a week. Some have speculated that the 6th hour is just going to be the studio show.

Personally, I hope they do add a 3rd hour to SmackDown. Anything to make them even more unwatchable when AEW shows up.

Originally Posted by Observer

Raw set yet another all-time modern low outside of football season last night with 2.16 million viewers.

The show only beat episodes this past New Year's Eve and Christmas Eve for the record-low mark. What's really scary is this was a nine percent drop from the record non-football season low of 2.37 million viewers that was set last week ...

For a year-to-year comparison, the NBA playoffs were down 18.3 percent from the same week last year, while Raw was down 29.4 percent, the biggest drop from the previous year when you compare two shows that weren't specials (such as a year after a very highly rated nostalgia show).

The audience under the age of 35 was almost identical to last year, and over 50 was down, but not an unusual amount. It was the 35-49 audience that collapsed from last week, although even based on not including that demo it would have done a record low number.

The three hours were:
8 p.m. 2.34 million viewers
9 p.m. 2.24 million viewers
10 p.m. 1.90 million viewers

Originally Posted by Observer

Michael James Nelson (NBC’s Off Their Rockers) and Andrea Kail (TruTV’s Comedy Knockouts) have been added to WWE’s creative team, PWInsider reports.

Originally Posted by Observer

Rey Mysterio made his debut 30 years ago today. He wrote on Twitter: On this day at the age of 14 I made my debut and it’s a very special day in Mexico “ Día del niño” “Day of the Kid” if I had the opportunity to [relive] these 30 yrs I would do it all over again. Thank you to all my fans!! Much love and respect!”.

Originally Posted by PWI

Do you know where the NXT Takeover will be taking place? I noticed they haven't announced the June card yet.

It will take place in San Jose, CA. We covered it when Triple H announced it on the conference call. They have plenty of time to get the card out there.

Originally Posted by PWI

4/29 THIS DAY IN HISTORY:
* 1995 - Collision in Korea. The largest crowd to attend a professional wrestling event ever assembles in Pyongyang, North Korea for the second New Japan Pro Wrestling event held in Pyongyang Stadium as part of the World Peace Festival. The show drew a crowd of 190,000, shattering the record of 150,000 from the previous day.

* 1999 - UPN broadcast a special titled WWE Smackdown!, which doubled as a pilot for a second weekly two hour series for WWF. Scoring a 5.8 rating, the show would go to series in August 1999 and Smackdown has run consecutively since, eventually moving to the CW Network, MyNetworkTV and finally onto cable television on SyFy.


4/30 THIS DAY IN HISTORY:
* 1977 - Superstar Billy Graham defeats Bruno Sammartino for the WWWF World Heavyweight Title in Baltimore, Maryland, ending Bruno's second run with the title.

* 2006 - WWE held their Backlash PPV.
Vince & Shane McMahon vs. Shawn Michaels & God.
Winner: Vince & Shane McMahon

Originally Posted by Observer

The story going around about an NXT Money in the Bank match at the next PPV was a fake.

The story from Fightful.com going around that The Revival turned down five-year contracts for $500,000 apiece per year is accurate.

Originally Posted by PWI

The 4/27 Crockett Cup event had 1,100-1,200 paid and 1,400 in the building total.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Superstar Billy Graham has a Go Fund Me campaign set up for assistance with upcoming hip surgery. Graham says he needs a total hip revision, which is a $100,000 surgery, which Medicaid only covers ¾ of. Graham is hopeful of raising the extra $25,000. He has been on crutches for the last 18 months to keep his body weight off the left hip and has prevented him from traveling.

Originally Posted by Observer

Lilian Garcia has joined the Professional Fighters League as an in-cage announcer.

Garcia signing with the mixed martial arts promotion was announced during her appearance on Ariel Helwani's MMA Show today. Garcia noted that she'll still be able to make special appearances for WWE as long as they don't conflict with the 10 shows that the PFL has this season.

Originally Posted by Fightful

During the most recent edition of Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer stated that Lance Archer has a position in New Japan Pro Wrestling to push ticket sales for the company's shows in North America.

Originally Posted by WrestlingInc

Brock Lesnar has decided not to return to MMA, according to ESPN's Ariel Helwani. The Beast is now retired from the sport.

UFC President Dana White told Helwani today that Lesnar has informed the company that he does not plan on fighting in the Octagon again.

Lesnar had been rumored for a summer 2019 fight against UFC Heavyweight Champion Daniel Cormier. That fight will not happen as Lesnar told White last week that he is retired from the sport.

"He told me he's done, he's retired," White told ESPN. "We're going to move in another direction with Cormier."

Originally Posted by Observer

Last night's SmackDown on the USA Network averaged 1.833 million viewers, the lowest number for the show since the 2016 brand split and its move to airing live on Tuesday nights.

The show was down 12 percent from last week and almost 25 percent from the same week in 2018 ...

SmackDown usually finishes in the middle of the top 10 in terms of total cable viewers for the night, but it fell all the way to 15th yesterday. Perhaps more importantly, in the key 18-49 demo, where SmackDown is usually first or second, the show fell to seventh on the night with a 0.54 rating.

SmackDown did air opposite an NBA playoff game between the Milwaukee Bucks and Boston Celtics that did a big audience of 4.404 million. A later game featuring the Golden State Warriors and Houston Rockets did an even bigger audience of 6.073 million, starting at 10:30 p.m. Even an NHL playoff game finished close to SmackDown in viewers with 1.664 million, and it beat SmackDown in the demo ...

As bad as these numbers are, they could get even lower with the NBA playoffs getting into the deeper rounds and network TV shows soon airing their season finales, which are often the highest rated episodes of the year.

Originally Posted by Observer

Beth Phoenix is the latest addition to the NXT commentary team.

She came out during tonight’s NXT tapings at Full Sail University and was announced as the newest member of the commentary team. Percy Watson, who usually joins Mauro Ranallo and Nigel McGuinness on commentary, was not there and his status on NXT is currently unknown.

Originally Posted by Observer

David Otunga was part of the commentary team for this week's 205 Live and called the show with Vic Joseph, Nigel McGuinness, and Aiden English.

Originally Posted by Observer

WWE Network News reported that a one-hour Pro Wrestling USA video will be tomorrow’s addition to the WWE Network’s Hidden Gems section. Here’s the description for it: “Ric Flair battles Sgt. Slaughter while The Fabulous Freebirds face The Road Warriors and Paul Ellering from Pro Wrestling USA.”

Originally Posted by Observer

Lucha Central reported that an agreement has been reached for Jeff Cobb to receive his release from Lucha Underground.

Originally Posted by PWI

Tickets for the 9/15 AAA debut at Madison Square Garden are slated to go on sale this Sunday 5/5.

Originally Posted by Fightful

Don't count on Tony Khan being the "Mr. McMahon" of All Elite Wrestling.

The authority character has been a staple in pro wrestling for decades, with the role sometimes being portrayed by real-life bosses. While that head honcho spot may be something utilized in the upcoming All Elite Wrestling promotion, don't expect Tony Khan to be the one cutting promos.

"I have thought about it and I'm not going to do it. We have some of the greatest on-air performers in the world and look, I am who I am in the promotion. I am the president and the CEO and the founder of this company but it's not going to be me all over TV and I'm not going to be doing a lot of interviews or backstage segments on television," Khan told WSVN-TV's Chris Van Vliet in a new interview.

Originally Posted by Fightful

Dash Wilder will be sticking around a bit longer.

Cassidy Haynes of Bodyslam.net is reporting that WWE is adding an extra two months to the contract of Dash Wilder due to time he missed in 2017 with a jaw injury. Wilder's contract was reportedly set to expire in April 2020, but the extra two months will see his contract run until June 2020.

Scott Dawson's contract is still set to expire in April 2020.

Originally Posted by Mr. Nerfect (Post 5248791)

I have no clue why 205 Live needs a four-person booth, lol.

Originally Posted by KIRA (Post 5248944)

Apparently Vince just doesn't get Luke Harper and he's pissed that Harper can't do a Southern accent he denied Harper's request for release in writing but at the same time after seeing him in a dark match with EC3 ( which he reportedly hated) decided not to put Harper on either brand

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

The fourth installment of Viceland’s Dark Side of the Ring series on “The Last of the Von Erichs” produced another season-high with Wednesday’s episode averaging 234,000 viewers. This week’s episode was up 9% from last week’s episode on Bruiser Brody. Next week’s episode covers the 1986 death of Gino Hernandez and includes interviews with his mother and sister. The season finale is in two weeks on the Fabulous Moolah.

Originally Posted by Observer

The Viceland Dark Side of the Ring series will air in Australia on SBS Viceland On Demand starting on 5/8 and will air on TV on SBS Viceland starting on 6/3.

Originally Posted by PWI

The announced WWE NXT Takeover for San Jose, CA on 6/8 has been canceled.

It has been announced the next Takeover will take instead take place on 6/1. No location has been announced. More details will be made via Triple H's social media this Monday.

WWE NXT does has a Live Event in Fort Pierce, FL on that date, but they can easily cancel the date if necessary.

Originally Posted by Observer

PWInsider reported that Rich Swann has signed a new two-year deal with Impact.

Originally Posted by PWI

n the interview with Sapp, Rush responded to our report that he had heat during the November 2018 European tour for not wanting to handle menial tasks assigned to junior members of the tour, including bringing water to veteran talents at the gorilla position following their matches and carrying coolers into hotels in advance of talents having a common, private area to congregate after shows, stating, "It’s not about race and it has never been, but public perception is important to me and when we have fans that travel all over the globe and watch us get off of buses and into hotels, the LOOK of a black kid carrying waters and bags for other wrestlers is just not a good look, especially when I’m trying to portray myself as a superstar as well,"

One WWE talent who was on that tour, however, contacted PWInsider.com this morning to point out that while Rush blew off the responsibilities, The Authors of Pain and Drake Maverick, who were also on their first European tours did not. The source questioned why those three talents, especially one already as well established as Maverick was in the industry, had zero issue with paying respect, but Rush did, wondering if it was because Rush had brought his wife with him on the tour. That same source noted that there would be no way a fan would know if Rush brought water backstage to a veteran wrestler and would have been seen carrying coolers alongside other WWE stars who were junior members of the tour ...

During the interview with Fightful, Rush also implied that he was not able to make a livable wage working for WWE, which signed him to a developmental deal in 2017, stating, "My issue isn’t with my on-screen role. My issue is the fact that I haven’t been on meet & greets with Bobby, haven’t been getting paid for merchandise for us that has my catchphrases on them. (I) have been sent to live shows and TVs and forced to pay for my own rental for 5 days as well as hotel while not making enough money to do so. Walking around broke in the biggest sports entertainment industry that there is while having two kids and a wife to support."

Rush's claims are interesting, especially since WWE sources have claimed today that Rush was offered a new, five-year contract that was said to be in the $300 thousand per year range, but turned it down, instead, according to multiple sources, asking for double that number.

Originally Posted by PWI

You wrote about several recent creative hirings, but I was wondering about podcaster and writer Dave Schilling, who announced he was going to work for WWE Creative on Twitter but is back writing about WWE on websites. What happened?

We are told Schilling was let go after an extremely short time with the company. One source told me that Schilling publicly announcing he was hired by the company may have put him in a bad light before he started. That's unfortunate, if true.

I read somewhere that late comedian Patrice O'Neal worked for WWE? Is this true?

Yes, he was on the creative team for a short time. He was let go when he had a stand up gig and chose that over his WWE commitments. He once told the story on Opie & Anthony about Stephanie McMahon firing him over the phone and he shrugged at it, as comedians and writers do when its time to move onto the next gig, leading to Stephanie calling him back and firing him again on the phone, trying to convey the seriousness of the situation, which O'Neil found hilarious.

Why is Sam Roberts now on commentary?

I was told they really liked the heel reaction he got when he buried Bianca Belair and now they are exploring that when he's used,

Originally Posted by Fightful

Becky 2 Belts is facing a familar foe at Money in the Bank, but current plans don't call for her to run it back yet again at WrestleMania 36.

Wrestling Observer Newsletter's Dave Meltzer reports that plans for Becky Lynch's WrestleMania 36 opponent have changed. While originally WWE had pegged Lynch to build for a match against Charlotte Flair, Meltzer states that there is a new plan in order for Lynch, but hasn't specified who. However, Lynch figures to be a top booked woman on the event, according to the report. Ronda Rousey is not the planned match either, though Meltzer stated that it isn't out of the question if she chose to return.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

The update on Harper is that Vince McMahon, in writing, told him he wouldn’t release him. He was earmarked to work a program with Zayn after Mania, but the decision was made not to do it. One person close to the situation told us that he needs to get out because they made a call that they weren’t going to use him after Vince saw him in his return. Vince said that he didn’t “get him” and complained that he couldn’t even do a Southern accent (that was from them wanting him to do a Southern accent four years ago). He was regularly pitching ideas when he was out with an injury and they turned down every pitch. He wasn’t booked anywhere after being cleared but Fan Axxess, and then Vince McMahon out of the blue wanted to know why he wasn’t in the Battle Royal, so that’s why he was put in at the last minute. Apparently the end was a mess as Strowman forgot his spots, which is one of the reasons Strowman hasn’t done much since winning.

He was booked to start the Zayn program the day after Mania, but was then told after Mania he wasn’t needed for TV. So he went home, but then was called to comeback on Tuesday for a match with EC 3. He was basically used as the opponent to test out the EC 3 and Maverick pairing as wrestler/manager. The agents set up a bunch of manager spots in the match. Vince then watched it and said he hated the manager spots. The creative meeting the day of the draft when it was asked about which brand Harper would be on, Vince said how the guy can’t even do a Southern accent, said the match with EC 3 was bad, so they didn’t put him with either brand and that’s when he asked for his release.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

For the first three months of 2019, WWE generated $182,448,000 in revenue, and ended up with $8,396,000 in losses. The same three month period last year generated $187,721,000 in revenue, but posted a $14,835,000 profit. There are a few things notable in these numbers. The first is that taxes make the gap between the two years seem closer than they really are in profit/loss. The company’s net, before taxes, this year was a loss of $11,349,000, but the company received $2,953,000 from the government due to the losses when it came to taxes. And the losses were actually due to $12,828,000 in senior management compensation due to bonuses paid this quarter based on meeting performance levels in 2018. Last year the executive bonuses were $7,073,000. There’s something totally legal but amazingly unsettling when you think about the tax implications in this first quarter, a company that paid nearly $13 million in bonuses and got a $3 million tax break to cover a percentage of losses both in the same quarter. But due to increased spending, even factoring that out, profits were way down.

Originally Posted by Fightful

Brock Lesnar went to WWE because UFC wouldn't pay him nothing.

According to Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer, Brock Lesnar decided to retire from MMA because Dana White and the UFC did not meet his price point for a fight with Daniel Cormier. With UFC signing a deal with ESPN, their pay-per-view money is now guaranteed, meaning they are less reliant on buyrates and top stars selling more pay-per-views in order to boost revenue.
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Lesnar, being a top draw every time he steps into the Octagon, wanted a higher flat fee to make up for potentially losing out on pay-per-view buys. White did not reach Lesnar's price, leading to the fight with Cormier falling through and White saying Lesnar has retired.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

WWE officially announced its third show in Saudi Arabia on 6/7 in Jeddah, the same city the second show was held at. The show, the company’s biggest of the year as far as dollar value goes, will feature the highest paid talent, in this case returns of Bill Goldberg, The Undertaker and Brock Lesnar ...

Those in WWE say the company approached Goldberg, figuring he was the one guy left who could go to AEW and perhaps bring back lapsed fans, similar to how Vince McMahon, without the benefit of hindsight, left the door open to WCW for Hulk Hogan, Roddy Piper and Randy Savage in the 90s.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

The big news was that Brian Cage won the championship but also suffered a serious back injury. Michael Elgin showed up after the championship match to lay out Cage. Elgin also won a top contenders match the next day at television so it looks to be Cage vs. Elgin as the title direction. Elgin, who looked in tremendous cosmetic shape, quit New Japan recently after just being a guy on the card in recent months. Elgin was never even used by New Japan in the U.S., likely because at an AAW show the crowd reacted terribly bad for him in the wake of a story that claimed he somehow covered up a sexual assault, even though he clearly encouraged the alleged victim to go to the police, and it led to him suing the accuser.

It’s been long enough that, at least in the building in Toronto, there was no backlash. Impact had wanted to use Elgin probably since Don Callis started in a power position, since he knew him from New Japan, but also knew at the time it was a risk of a social media backlash if they were to use him. Later, Callis did want to use Elgin, Davey Boy Smith Jr., and perhaps others from New Japan, but New Japan told its contracted talent that they didn’t want them working for anyone that they saw as competition to ROH. Since Elgin was going to be brought in for a top spot, he decided to leave New Japan. New Japan has said that if things don’t work out, that Elgin can return.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

The announcement regarding PPV, streaming, or both of Double or Nothing will be announced soon, likely the next week or two.

Since they are going through with the Tuesday Night Dynamite trademark. As of a month or two ago, the idea of a Tuesday night show was dead based on the stations being talked with having other programming, but it is back alive now.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

Regarding the 2021 WrestleMania, this is the update. Los Angeles is the likely destination. The city has put in a bid for it for the new Los Angeles Stadium at Hollywood Park. The stadium will be the new home for the Rams and the Chargers, and will have a capacity of 80,240, but will be expanded to 100,000 for the 2022 Super Bowl, World Cup games, Olympic events and other major events. WWE wanted to go in 2022, after the Super Bowl, with the idea they would announce a number bigger than whatever the Super Bowl does and probably also announce a new attendance record for the company. But the city put in a bid for 2021, wanting to use WrestleMania, with so many out-of-town tourists, to kind of test everything out and remove the kinks before the Super Bowl comes the next February.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

There was a poster going around which listed an NXT Money in the Bank match for the PPV. According to those in the know, not only is the poster a fake, but such a match has never been discussed.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

For those keeping score, FOX on 4/26 averaged 2,103,000 viewers in prime time. That sounds bad, but that’s also with rerun programming. In fact their first hour with reruns beat what Smackdown did live on a Tuesday.

Originally Posted by Observer

At February's ticket announcement party, it was announced that CIMA would be teaming with two partners from Oriental Wrestling Entertainment in a six-man tag match against SoCal Uncensored at AEW Double or Nothing.

That was followed up on today, with it being revealed that CIMA, T-Hawk & El Lindaman will be facing SCU (Christopher Daniels, Frankie Kazarian & Scorpio Sky) at Double or Nothing. The show is taking place at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on Saturday, May 25.

Originally Posted by Observer

New Japan teased a newcomer in a video today, with the idea he'll be a future opponent of Juice Robinson for the U.S. title. The guy had a Union Jack on his outfit if that's supposed to be a part of it.

Originally Posted by Observer

Dixie Carter was in Stamford being taped for future network or DVD documentaries.

Originally Posted by PWI

Willie Mack has signed a new deal with Impact Wrestling, according to WrestlingInc.com. This comes on the heels of Rich Swann signing a new deal with the company.

Originally Posted by PWI

Ring of Honor parent company Sinclair Broadcast Group issued the following:

SINCLAIR BROADCAST GROUP TO ACQUIRE 21 REGIONAL SPORTS NETWORKS FROM DISNEY AT A VALUATION OF $10.6 BILLION

BALTIMORE, MD and BURBANK, CA (May 3, 2019) -- Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: SBGI) (“Sinclair” or the “Company”) and The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS) (“Disney”) today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Sinclair will acquire the equity interests in 21 Regional Sports Networks (the “RSNs”) and Fox College Sports, which were acquired by Disney in its acquisition of Twenty-First Century Fox, Inc. (“21st Century Fox”).

Originally Posted by PWI

Where has Big Show been? I know they announced he signed a new deal but then he was with the Bar and then he disappeared! What's up with this guy?

Big Show is still under contract to the company and has been doing some community outreach appearances for them. He had taken some time off to film a recurring role for the Syfy series Happy in New York City and will likely pop up when creative has something for him.

Any chance of CM Punk working AEW Double or Nothing as a surprise?

Punk is currently booked to do commentary on an MMA show that night. If he's there, he won't be in Vegas.

Rich Swann announced yesterday he was going to sign a new Impact deal. Are their deals guaranteed money like WWE at this point?

It's possible some of them are, but most of the deals we have heard of only provide a certain pay scale per booking with no guarantee of dates. Some of the main event talents might get guarantees, but the vast majority of the roster gets paid by the booking and the contract locked in their exclusivity with Impact to prevent them from going to WWE.

Originally Posted by PWI

MLW's return to Philadelphia has been pushed back again and will not take place until 2020.

Rich Swann's new Impact Wrestling deal will not likely impact (pun intended) his MLW appearances.

Originally Posted by Fightful

WWE Hall of Famer Booker T weighed in on Sasha's frustrations on a recent episode of his Hall of Fame podcast.

"There are those ones like Sasha Banks, who has all that talent and rises up to that top level and gets there and then realizes that it is not what she thought it was going to be because the reason is that it is not all about you. It is never going to be about you," said Booker. "One of the reasons why I am still here today is I never really cared about what the script was. Give it to me and let me go out and get it done. If it was something that I didn’t disagree with, I was going to go out there and get it done. If I had disagreed with it, I would have said, 'Hey, I don’t agree with this. Let’s change this because I am not doing it this way.' Then they would change it, and that is the way business was always been done with me. I can’t say that with everybody, but with me, that was how it was done. I never looked at (wrestling) as anything but entertainment. I never looked at it like it was anything but storylines. Sasha Banks has had a lot of success. How many women get in the business that never win?"

Booker went on to compare Sasha to Ember Moon, who works hard, isn't in a top spot, yet doesn't complain about her position.

Booker continued, "Sasha Banks has had more life-changing moments than so many that have walked into this business. She is made. She can do anything she wants as far as this business goes from what she has gotten from this business. So, I don’t understand it. I don’t understand a lot of this stuff that goes on these days. We are in a totally different world right now as far as the wrestling business goes. Hey man, for me, it was all about the money and taking care of my family. Create moments and memories along the way be able to touch people to change their lives."

Originally Posted by WrestlingInc

WWE has posted a teaser for the feud between The Revival and The Usos continuing on Monday's RAW from the US Bank Arena in Cincinnati, Ohio.

The interesting part of the teaser is a line about a potential change for the team of Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder. WWE wrote, "In other words, this could be the beginning of a whole new Revival or the first humiliation of many. The choice is up to them."

Going into this week's RAW, it was reported that The Revival had turned down new 5 year contracts, worth $500,000 per year. We've noted how Dawson and Wilder requested their releases back in January after being unhappy with how they were used

Originally Posted by WrestlingInc

Sasha Banks was set to compete in the upcoming women's Money In the Bank Ladder Match, but she was pulled from the show due to her ongoing issues with WWE.

Banks was replaced in the match by Dana Brooke, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. The match at the May 19 WWE Money In the Bank pay-per-view will feature Brooke, Natalya, Alexa Bliss, Naomi, Mandy Rose, Bayley, Carmella and Ember Moon.

Banks was originally earmarked for the match but she has not agreed to return to work for the company after recently requesting her release.

Originally Posted by Observer

The one good thing that can be said about the Raw rating last night is that against tougher competition than last week, the show was up four percent.

The 2.24 million viewers was still the second lowest non-holiday episode, but appearances by Vince McMahon, Roman Reigns, Daniel Bryan, and Kofi Kingston from SmackDown, including two WrestleMania rematches, kept the show from doing the record low it would have done without the changes ...

In the declines during the show, women 18-49 dropped 15 percent from the first to third hour, men 18-49 dropped 21 percent, Teenage girls, which started remarkably low, dropped seven percent, teenage boys dropped a record setting 41 percent during the show, which has to be the basketball game since the Warriors game was up 85 percent with teenage boys and men 18-49 were up 97 percent from the first game to the second game.

Still, given the competition the success of the show only depended on not setting a record low or not dipping below 1.8 million viewers in hour three.

The three hours were:

8 p.m. 2.47 million viewers
9 p.m. 2.24 million viewers
10 p.m. 2.02 million viewers

Originally Posted by Observer

Viceland announced that they will be premiering The Wrestlers documentary series starting on May 22 at 10 p.m. ET. Extended cuts of the Dark Side of the Ring series featuring new footage will air an hour before The Wrestlers at 9 p.m. ET.

Originally Posted by Observer

Former WWE/Impact star Matt Morgan has been named the new mayor of Longwood, Florida after a vote by Longwood City commissioners.

Originally Posted by Fightful

With WWE gaining much negative press for their association and deal in Saudi Arabia that sees them go there twice a year, a former Women's Champion in Natalya is hoping to change that perception. When speaking to ESPN 1530's No Holds Barred, Natalya says she wants to wrestle in Saudi Arabia.

"I would really love a chance, one day, to go to Saudi Arabia. I think that would be such an incredible thing for women to make some history over there. So one day I hope, in a way that Sasha Banks and Alexa Bliss were able to wrestle in Abu Dhabi, one day hopefully that would be a place (Saudi Arabia) I would like to go to and be able to do something historical for women over there," said Natalya.

Originally Posted by WrestlingInc

Vince McMahon's new WWE Wild Card Rule could end up leading to issues for the company, as described on Wrestling Observer Radio today ...

The gimmick was created as a response to ratings pressure from NBCUniversal (USA Network) and Fox. Vince did not want to give up the idea of separate brands, but the networks want star power on both shows and there has been a feeling that the brands don't have enough star power individually. Furthermore, it was also reported that Fox wants RAW and SmackDown storylines on the blue brand show when it goes to their network on Friday nights in October. There has been pressure from both networks to have the top WWE Superstars work both shows.

The Wild Card Rule will potentially cause issues for WWE live events, such as false advertising. Due to the way WWE creative operates these days, WWE likely won't plan out these weekly Wild Card Rule appearances in advance, which could lead to incidents where Superstars have been advertised for live events, for weeks or even months, but they're pulled from those live events to appear on TV at the last minute.

While WWE likely won't plan out the Wild Card Rule appearances in advance, it was noted that Roman Reigns is expected to appear on both RAW and SmackDown often. We noted before how NBCU recently asked questions about why WWE gave up a star like Reigns to SmackDown in the 2019 Superstar Shakeup.

We've reported on how WWE has made recent hires to help bring live event business back up, and they noted during the Q1 2019 earnings call that they are focused on bringing that part of the business back to where it should be. The WWE Wild Card Rule could create more of a decline in live event business, at a time where they're focused on getting it back up.

Originally Posted by Observer

Sasha Banks has said she wants to do a match with Tessa Blanchard. That will take some work and it's not likely. I have a feeling WWE will freeze Banks' contract so long she'll think she's in Antarctica.

Originally Posted by PWI

Lio Rush was not backstage at Raw last night and is not slated for the European tour.

Originally Posted by WrestlingInc

Triple H had fans talking on social media this afternoon when he "liked" a fan tweet that was sent to Vince McMahon on why the WWE ratings might be down, and about how talents should have health insurance.

The fan wrote, "@VinceMcMahon maybe the problem with the Raw and SmackDown ratings isn't due to wrestlers injured, it's that you put confusing and pointless storylines. Although it wouldn't hurt if you gave your wrestlers insurance. Just a thought @StephMcMahon @TripleH @WWE"

Triple H un-liked the tweet within 3 hours of liking it, and it no longer appears under the tab on his account. You can see a screenshot of the "like" on Triple H's page before he un-liked it below.

Originally Posted by PWI

D'Lo Brown, Gail Kim, Petey Williams and Pat Buck (who just finished a run as Guest Coach at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando) worked as producers over the weekend [Impact] TV tapings. Brown got really good reviews as a producer again.

Originally Posted by Fightful

Eli Drake was abruptly fired by Impact Wrestling, and now we know why.

The outspoken Eli Drake's release from the company has been linked to his refusal to wrestle Tessa Blanchard, a situation in which many figured to be a work. As it turns out, it wasn't, and Impact fired Drake via e-mail as a result -- along with a couple of other reasons.

According to a source, there was also a situation cited where Impact's writers felt Drake had disparaged them on the Wrestling Perspective Podcast, when he said that they "booked him into oblivion" after not being figured in to many plans. That, added to the Tessa Blanchard situation, and Drake mentioning in a tweet that Killer Kross would destroy Jordynne Grace in a real fight, led to Impact Wrestling severing ties with Drake.

Originally Posted by Observer

Week one of the "Wild Card rules" era proved to be a small ratings success for SmackDown. This week's episode was up five percent from last week's record low number ...

The show finished 11th for the night on cable in terms of total viewers. That's a better performance from last week but still worse than it would normally do, as SmackDown is usually in the top 10. The rating in the 18-49 demo was back up to fourth on cable with a 0.58 rating, trailing only sports competition in the form of two NBA games on TNT and an NHL game on NBC Sports Network.

Year-over-year, SmackDown also did a little better than it had been doing, dropping "only" 16 percent after having been down around 20 percent in recent weeks.

Originally Posted by PWI

Nikki and Brie Bella will be at the NBC Upfronts this Monday afternoon, representing the company at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.

John Cena, Ronda Rousey, Stephanie McMahon, Triple H and Big Show are slated to appear at the FOX Upfronts at the Beacon Theater later that day.

There had been talk a week ago that Hulk Hogan would also represent the company next week, but we have not heard that is actually happening.

Originally Posted by Fightful

WWE isn't spying on their talent -- at least on social media.

Much has been made lately of WWE talent being required to turn over their social media login information upon coming to the company. It was recently reported by Mike Johnson of PWInsider that was the case, as he mentioned on a recent PWInsider audio.

"I do believe that WWE has the right to control Twitter accounts. When you sign there, you're told to give your password over to the digital media department and you're told not to give your password to anyone else. It's possible that anything that pops up there in terms of pushing storylines those have been pushed by digital media," said Johnson ...

Fightful reached out to wrestlers across Raw, Smackdown, NXT and NXT UK and in each case were told that WWE has never requested that they turn over social media logins ...

WWE does send out memos and updates to talent that outline basic social media behavior and things that they need to know, but at least these days, they aren't asking for login information.

In one instance, there were wrestlers who were asked to make social media posts in order to promote a coordinated sponsor, and a wrestler requested that a social media manager take care of it, and even offered up the passcode to their phone. However, the social media manager informed them that the department isn't even supposed to do that.

We're told that Mike Johnson stated this week that "this policy is not active" when updating the situation.

Originally Posted by Fightful

According to Ryan Satin of Pro Wrestling Sheet, All Elite Wrestling has signed former Lucha Underground star Angelico.

Originally Posted by PWI

Todd Pettengill, who worked for World Wrestling Entertainment as an announcer in the mid-1990s, officially announced today the radio station that has been his home for decades of NYC morning radio, WPLJ, has been sold and will officially cease broadcasting on 5/31.

"The rumors you've been hearing are true," said Pettengill this morning on Todd and Jayde in the morning.. "As hard as it is to believe, WPLJ will be going away on Friday, May 31st. The format and personalities that you've come to love over the years, will no longer broadcast on 95.5."

WPLJ 95.5 has been Todd Pettengill's home for decades as he's hosted the morning show there for 27 years, originally co-hosting with the legendary Scott Shannon and now as the lead host of Todd and Jayde in the morning. During his time with WWE, Pettengill would cross-promote the company on WPLJ, with PLJ personalities getting involved in a number of WWE charitable events in NYC to raise money for the Salvation Army and other organizations.

Originally Posted by PWI

Major League Wrestling has restructured their deal with Salina de la Renta, locking her in with the company for several more years. As part of the new deal, she will be working more in the front office. She had already been serving as a liason for MLW in Mexico with talent negotiations and will be learning the production end of the company. At only 22 years old, she's quickly propelled herself into one of the most important talents in the entire company.

Major League Wrestling has also signed Tristen Thai, a Johnny Rodz trainee who has worked for Beyond Wrestling, among other independent groups in the Northeast. There had been interest in him for some time after Court Bauer came across his work on social media platforms.

Another new MLW signing is slated to be revealed as soon as this Saturday's episode of MLW Fusion on BeIN Sports.

The Salina de la Renta-centic episode of MLW Fusion has done incredible numbers for the promotion on YouTube and may be on the way to being the top viewed MLW episode to date on that platform.

Originally Posted by Fightful

On Tuesday night, Stardom announced on their social media that an upcoming bout between NXT UK Champion Toni Storm and AEW signee Bea Priestley had been pulled from their May 16 event. The reason given was "circumstances beyond our control."

It was reported in late 2018 that NXT UK talent had restrictions in their contracts that precluded them from wrestling talent signed to major organizations. It has not been confirmed that this is the reason as to why the match between Storm and Priestley is not happening.

Originally Posted by Observer

On the latest episode of the Road to Double or Nothing, it was officially confirmed that Double or Nothing will air as a live pay-per-view.

Originally Posted by Observer

Dark Side of the Ring uploaded a bonus clip from tonight’s Gino Hernandez episode, with Hernandez’s mother denying rumors that Paul Boesch was Hernandez’s father.

Originally Posted by PWI

All Elite Wrestling announced today that the company has hired former ECW and Ring of Honor Champion Jerry Lynn, who will be working for the company as a Producer. That is a great pickup.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

Regarding the Lynch 2020 WrestleMania plan, the one thing we’ve been told is that the opponent planned right now is not Stephanie McMahon, and as noted not Rousey (although if Rousey wants that spot she would almost certainly get it) or Flair

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

Harper has been given no future bookings, but also won’t be let out of his contract. He asked Vince McMahon if he wasn’t going to be used if he could get out in November as is the contract expiration date, before WWE extended it six months based on his being out with an injury. McMahon told him to take it up with Paul Levesque, who then didn’t respond to him.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

Vince’s decision was basically one of believing the issue was that they don’t have enough stars, even after shuffling the deck to create new matchups, to keep the ratings strong. So the idea is that the biggest stars will work both shows so there is more star depth. That also means less time for the unhappy middle that want out (some publicly, many others privately) and less time to create stars. The strength of the brand split is the idea that more talent gets opportunities. But the new format cuts that way back ...

The idea was not to drop the brand split, for one, because it makes touring more complicated (not impossible, but harder) and also because it’s seen as a failure decision since they just went back to it. So the idea was to put top people on both shows, but not always, and you don’t know who, creating the surprise feeling, and not the same people every week ...

There are a few issues with the wild card idea. The first is that this week with the European tour and a Smackdown show on Monday and Raw show on Tuesday, that they’ll have to strip down the house shows to add talent to the television shows. Going forward, having guys from Raw stay for Smackdown may add one day to their schedule, but if you revolve different guys, it won’t be too bad. But for Raw, if you take four top Smackdown guys off the Monday night house show, you will be heavily weakening that product. This week was unique. Because it was originally the Saudi Arabia week, there were no house shows booked until a Raw show on Sunday. So the Smackdown crew was only working Monday and Tuesday originally. So when Monday was canceled, the crew just had an extra day home.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

Angle is currently training to become a producer. He’s shadowing the producers right now and learning the different aspects of the job

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

A lot of the references on the Bray Wyatt Firefly Funhouse segments stem from PTSD therapy. One therapist noted that “Special place” is a standard coping skill used for trauma. The art work of the house in fire is also related to trauma therapy. Putting his hands over his heart is a reference to butterfly hugs, which are used for PTSD therapy involving bilateral stimulation. From a PTSD therapist point of view, the idea from all this is that he’s reformed but haunted by a traumatic past

Originally Posted by Fightful

World of Sport is coming to the United States. World of Sport took to social media to announce that they have signed a deal with digital network Stadium. WOS will air 10, one-hour episodes beginning this Sunday, May 12 at 7 p.m. ET. The show will air weekly with replays throughout the week.

Originally Posted by PWI

The fifth episode episode of Viceland's pro wrestling documentary series Dark Side of the Ring on 5/8 garnered 225,000 overnight viewers for their Gino Hernandez episode, down from last week's 234,000 overnight viewers14,000 overnight viewers.

Next Wednesday's season finale episode will focus on The Fabulous Moolah.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

The announcement is that Double or Nothing on 5/25 from the MGM Grand Garden Arena will be carried in the U.K. as a PPV from 1 to 5 a.m. early Sunday morning 5/26 on ITV Box Office for 14.95 pounds ($19.44 U.S.). The U.K. traditionally has far cheaper PPV prices than the U.S., Canada and Australia whether it be boxing or formerly with WWE ...

In addition, there will be a one-hour preshow called BUY-IN at midnight airing on ITV 4, featuring the Casino Battle Royale as well as a singles match with Sammy Guevara vs. Kip Sabian. The show will be a combination of the two matches as well as hyping people to purchase the PPV.

Announcements on other markets have not been made officially, but in the U.S., the PPV portion of the show will be on traditional television PPV, through inDemand on cable, as well as DirecTV and Dish Network is either finalized or finalized but pen may not be to paper yet, but should be imminently. There will be a streaming component in the U.S. that is expected to be announced within the next week. There is a strong chance that the streaming service that carries the show in the U.S. will be tied in with the television station that will carry the weekly television show in the fall.

When it comes to Canada, the cable companies affiliated with inDemand in the U.S. will carry the event on television. It is not clear regarding other PPV companies, but there will be streaming of the show as an iPPV on FITE TV that will be available everywhere except the U.S. because of the individual deal for that country, and the U.K. because ITV will have the exclusive rights. Australia at this point as well as the rest of Europe look to be exclusively streaming through FITE TV with no television PPV component.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

The U.K. deal was put together by Tony Khan, who lives much of the time in the U.K. in his role with the Fulham soccer team. Those connections enabled him to have the contacts to put this deal together and open the door for future deals with ITV. The sides started talking at first around December and negotiations got more serious over the last few months.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

We don’t have an updated number, but coming off Dontaku, New Japan World’s worldwide number is right at the highest level it’s ever been. The figure was estimated at around 120,000 by us, the figure they were at coming off the Tokyo Dome show, but that number wasn’t confirmed exactly. The usual pattern has been a high the week of WrestleKingdom, a decline, a pickup for G-1, then a decline, and then a new record at WrestleKingdom. The key this year is that there was no decline after WrestleKingdom set the new mark for the Omega-Tanahashi and Jericho-Naito double main.

Originally Posted by WWE Network News

This week, we weren’t able to tell you in advance what was set to hit the WWE Hidden Gems section on WWE Network today. As it turns out, we’ve been treated to several legitimate rarities from the Texas territory best known as World Class Championship Wrestling. First up, WWE has uploaded a portion of a Texas Death match between The Sheik and Fritz Von Erich (titled “To Tame a Madman“) from the pre-WCCW days when the territory was better known as Big Time Wrestling. The given date is 02/28/1977, which lines up with a match between the two at a Fort Worth taping ...

Next up, we amazingly have a full 40-minute TV episode dated 10/27/1980, a good 15 months earlier than any full weekly WCCW show previously uploaded to the WWE Network. It’s been given the fitting name of “Becoming WCCW“, as it takes place during the transition between Big Time Wrestling and the official transformation into World Class ...

Last but far from least, we have “The Battle With Brody“, dated 06/07/1981 which sees The Great Kabuki battle Bruiser Brody in a steel cage at one of WCCW’s major “Star Wars” events. This is actually the second match from this particular show to be made available in Hidden Gems, with the first being Ernie Ladd vs Kerry Von Erich.

Originally Posted by Observer

Bret Hart and Tom Magee's long-lost match is finally being made available to the public.

WWE has announced that Hart vs. Magee will air on the WWE Network after Monday's episode of Raw. It will be accompanied by a documentary explaining the relevance of the match, how the tape was discovered, and what happened to Magee.

The special is called "The Holy Grail: The Search for WWE’s Most Infamous Lost Match."

Originally Posted by PWI

An ad on WWE.com confirms that the Andre the Giant documentary that was advertised last week in an email blast as coming to WWE Network this Sunday will be on demand.

Originally Posted by Fightful

Kofi is returning home.

The current WWE Champion Kofi Kingston has a busy month of May ahead as he is set to defend his WWE Championship against Kevin Owens at Money In The Bank on the 19th and is currently on tour with WWE as a part of their post-WrestleMania European tour. At the end of the month, Kofi is also set to return to Ghana, West Africa. Kofi shared the press release on Instagram and it is noted within the press release that the visit will be for four days and a documentary is in the works that is being put together by WWE.

Originally Posted by Fightful

According to Rajah.com, WWE Hall Of Famer Goldberg's appearance for next month's Saudi Arabia show is a one-off appearance.

Originally Posted by Fightful

Tye Dillinger opens up about his decision to seek his WWE release ...

Appearing on Edge & Christian's Pod of Awesomeness, Dillinger went into detail about his decision to leave.

"The decision had been in my mind...it was a six-month process. I got injured in October but before that, I was going to ask for a couple weeks off to clear my head and figure out what I wanted to do. But then I got injured, so that gave me three months to think. I changed my look, I changed my gear, and I pitched half a dozen ideas," said Dillinger. "I (talked to Vince McMahon) and I might have put my foot in my mouth, but I needed to say what I needed to say and I stand by what I said. I did feel that when I came back, things were going to be different. They were not. I had a conversation and was told to wait and give it a few weeks. Weeks passed and it was it. It put me in a bad place because my performance was suffering. I was dreading it. I was praying that (the audience) would acknowledge that I still existed because it felt like I didn't at the time. When you're not giving it your all, they could see it and it wasn't fair to them. It was time to go. I was probably late in leaving, actually."

Dillinger continued, taking fans through the day he decided to ask for his release.

"A month before, I had made the decision that I was going to go into television and (ask for my release) on (my birthday). It was the hardest decision I've ever had to make. I didn't ask many peoples opinion about it because I didn't want to be influenced. It needed to be on me. My family had no idea. My mother had no idea. My wife [Peyton Royce] knew," recalled Dillinger. "As you guys know, right now is a good time for wrestling overall. I walked in and I said to talent relations, 'I need to go.' They said, 'we're about to offer you a substantial raise.' I put my hands up. I'm not close to a millionaire but for me, it wasn't about the money. I didn't let him get the offer out of his mouth. I found out what it was a couple of weeks later but it wasn't going to change anything. I was still going to feel the same way. They said they would run it up the ladder and I gave them the day to do so. I messaged Hunter and said, 'Please talk to talent relations when you can.' To Hunter's credit, every time I've asked to talk to him, he's always given me the time of day. I didn't hear anything by the end of the day and I couldn't let them fire me twice. That's why I put out that statement."

Originally Posted by Fightful

Flip Gordon explains what happened with his visa that has forced him to withdraw from NJPW Best of Super Juniors.

Earlier today, NJPW announced that Flip Gordon is out of the upcoming Best of Super Juniors tournament due to visa issues. Fightful reached out to Flip to get his side of what happened and why he won't be in Japan for this year's tournament.

Flip explained that "the second certificate of eligibility, in order to apply for a new visa, got lost in the mail. They sent it back on April 12. I should have had it in enough time to apply for a new visa. It was a miscommunication with the consulate. I drove to the consulate to see if we could get an extension on the current visa, which was the wrong via, but we didn't know the current visa had expired until yesterday."

Gordon clarified that he applied for, and received, a visa in January to work the NJPW Honor Rising tour in February. However, instead of getting a re-entry visa, which would have allowed him to work BOSJ despite missing Honor Rising, he received a shorter term visa, which expired in four months.

Originally Posted by Observer

The WWE Network will no longer be available on the following devices as of May 21: Amazon Fire Tablets, Apple TV 3rd Generation and earlier models, LG 2016 and earlier models, PlayStation 3, Samsung 2016 and earlier models, Samsung and Sony Blu-Ray Players, Sony non-Android TVs, Windows 10 Desktop, and Xbox 360.

Originally Posted by Observer

Paige talked to Comic Book about how she became the manager for the new tag team of Kairi Sane and Asuka. "I pitched to manage Ronda Rousey, kind of like the Paul Heyman-Brock Lesnar thing," she said. "And then also be with Asuka, because Asuka had trouble speaking on the mic sometimes. As much as she's an amazing athlete, an incredible wrestler, and I was like, 'I'll help her, give me the microphone, I'll talk for her.' And then Paul Heyman called me one day and said, 'We have a great role for you. You can be the next me with these two women.' I was like, 'Wow, what a crazy tag team, they're incredible.... Absolutely, I'll take it!'"

Originally Posted by Observer

The difference of live or taped in pro wrestling continues to be somewhat overblown, since last night's Raw show did 2.35 million viewers, the best in three weeks and up five percent from last week.

It wasn't that the show was better, or even a sign WWE is making a comeback. The increase is more indicative of not having the NBA playoffs against them, like the past two weeks ...

The only sports competition was the San Jose Sharks vs. St. Louis Blues NHL playoff game on NBC Sports Network that did 1.39 million viewers ...

This show in particular cratered with women. In the first-to-third hour drop, women 18-49 were down 32 percent, men 18-49 were down 17 percent, teenage girls dropped 33 percent, and teenage boys dropped 21 percent.

The reason the overall drop wasn't worse was because of the over 50 audience, the majority of the viewers, sticking with the show at a higher rate.

The three hours were:

8 p.m. 2.58 million viewers
9 p.m. 2.39 million viewers
10 p.m. 2.08 million viewers

Originally Posted by Observer

Vince McMahon, along with other key WWE executives, talked to Variety for a cover story about WWE’s move to FOX this fall, the Last Week Tonight segment on WWE, and their momentum. McMahon said wrestlers can get time off without repercussions: “Anybody who wants time off can get time off. That’s easy. In addition to that, it’s easy to weave a talent in and out of a storyline. If they get injured, you’re not expecting that. Or if they have a family matter. Our characters are real people with real problems. It’s a revolving situation where this talent will work these dates, that talent will work those dates.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Nothing about that subject is “easy”. Talent is rarely going to push for time off given the natural concern of losing their spot. While an extreme example, CM Punk outlined the pressure after having surgery to come back so soon and do a TLC match on television in January 2013. We have also seen examples of talent having their contracts frozen and time tacked onto the deals, which brings up the question of whether a talent taking two months off would be expected to make up for that time at the expiration of their deal. With the emergence of AEW and other viable options outside WWE, talent seems more willing to rock the boat in public and voice their unhappiness or make public their intentions to leave. However, the pushback is someone like Luke Harper, who appears to have had his requests rebuffed and is in professional purgatory.

Originally Posted by Observer

The WrestleMania main event between Ronda Rousey, Charlotte and Becky Lynch has been nominated for a MTV Movie/TV award for Best Fight. Roman Reigns is nominated for Best Real-Life Hero.

Originally Posted by Observer

NJPW will hold a ten bell ceremony on May 22 in remembrance of Silver King, who wrestled there as Black Tiger III.

Originally Posted by Observer

DJZ is officially the latest wrestler to join the WWE Performance Center.

WWE.com confirmed today that DJZ (real name Michael Paris) has signed with the company, noting that he reported to the Performance Center this week. In March, it was reported by PWInsider and confirmed by Dave Meltzer that DJZ signed with WWE and was headed to NXT.

Originally Posted by PWI

The lawsuit brought by cameraman Donald Anderson against World Wrestling Entertainment and WWE performer Thaddeus "Titus O'Neil" Bullard in the United States District Court, Middle Division, of Florida was officially dismissed yesterday after Anderson informed the court that all sides had come to a legal settlement. The terms of the settlement were not disclosed.

As PWInsider.com has previously covered, Anderson’s lawsuit against WWE and Bullard alleged Battery, Assault, Willful Misconduct, Negligence, Gross Negligence, Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress and Negligent Infliction of Emotional Distress. Anderson has alleged that WWE placed him in an unsafe working environment and that they had a duty to protect him from being placed in such a situation. Anderson had alleged that he was injured by Bullard after the WWE star became upset while being filmed for a segment on WWE Network prank series Swerved. Anderson (who had been hired through a third party, Uranus Productions/Gorilla Flicks) was backstage at a WWE TV taping filming a segment where Bullard was shocked by WWE performer Paige (Saraya-Jade Bevis). Bullard became, according to Anderson's lawsuit, "enraged", alleging charging and kicking the camera out of Anderson's hand, injuring him. Bullard has denied those allegations in his response to Anderson's lawsuit. Paige was not a party in the lawsuit.

Originally Posted by PWI

TheWrap has an article talking with the head of programming for ESPN, Burke Magnus, about why they passed on acquiring Smackdown.

"We did talk to WWE during their process some months ago. Took a hard look at it, we’re obviously big fans of them. We just went into business with them on the XFL indirectly,” Magnus, executive vice president of ESPN’s programming and scheduling department said, “But we couldn’t find a fit for it, primarily based on schedule. As you know, those properties are 52 weeks a year live,” he continued. “And I’m proud to say we have a pretty good problem, which is that we can’t clear anything 52 weeks a year live. We have a pretty full portfolio of content as it is" ...

According to the interview, ESPN's deal with UFC had no impact on the negotiations.

When asked about AEW coming to the table, it was made clear that the company did not come to ESPN at all.

Originally Posted by PWI

In regard to the Killer Kross situation, numerous sources within Impact Wrestling made it clear that Kross would not be getting a release from his current contract. The company stance is that they attempted to restructure the deal in good faith and that since Kross locked himself into a deal, they expect him to adhere to that contract. The feeling is that the company signed him during a time period where he didn't have any interest from WWE and now that he's used their platform to raise his profile, if there's interest from WWE or elsewhere, that doesn't mean Kross can just walk away from his existing deal. From a legal standpoint, they would be in the right, although it has to be completely frustrating for Kross to see the potential of what he could make elsewhere and not be able to capitalize on that, while making far, far less working for Impact.

Originally Posted by PWI

WrestlingDVDNetwork.com reported that a collection featuring unreleased matches of WWE Hall of Famer "Rowdy" Roddy Piper entitled "Getting Rowdy: the Unreleased Matches of Roddy Piper" will be released August 27 in the US and September 2 in the UK. The 2 disc set will feature an interview with Ronda Rousey discussing her interactions with the legend.

Originally Posted by Fightful

YUKE's, which has been behind the creation of many of WWE's video games throughout the years are planning on developing a new wrestling game I.P. to prevent stagnation and according to 'Video Game Chronicle', that begins with YUKE's development team creating a new I.P. that can compete with their current wrestling series being WWE 2K.

Originally Posted by Fightful

Luke Harper is caught in WWE purgatory, and has been for quite some time.

Several WWE sources spoke to Fightful recently, and confirmed several reports from Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, and gained some new information along the way.

We were told the match itself was a disaster to put together and execute, and that Luke Harper wasn't happy that Braun Strowman both forgot his spot and that Ali ended up hurt in the match. In addition to that, Braun hit Harper with a stiff kick just ahead of that. Harper, in an effort to protect Ali during his elimination, hurt his back and/or shoulder trying to keep him from flying out of control. Afterwards, we're told that Strowman didn't think he had done anything wrong, which caused a little more frustration.

A source close to the situation spoke of the Harper vs. EC3 match and said that Vince McMahon himself seemed to have a long-term issue with Luke Harper and that whatever happened wouldn't have mattered anyway, going as far as to say that McMahon "decided to hate anything he was involved in long ago."

Originally Posted by Fightful

Details regarding the creation of Bray Wyatt's new mask.

Last night on "Firefly Fun House," things took a dark turn as Bray Wyatt debuted a new mask as a way to reboot his character.

Earlier today, Kyle A. Scarborough, a tattoo artist in Washington, MO, took to Facebook to share the origin story behind the design of the mask.

As mentioned, the actual mask was put together by Tom Savini's FX studio.

Savini's team has been behind a lot of what you see on "Firefly Fun House," directing the episodes and designing the characters.

Originally Posted by Fightful

Over the weekend, luchador Silver King tragically passed away after collapsing in the ring during a Lucha Libre World show in London, England.

Silver King was best known by American fans for his four-year run in World Championship Wrestling where he helped bring the Lucha Libre style to a larger audience in the United States. Speaking to TMZ, former WCW President Eric Bischoff discussed Silver King's influence on WCW.

"From my perspective, the luchadors were such a vital part of WCW Nitro and they never really got the credit. Fans should know that Silver King and a lot of luchadors were way more responsible for the success of Nitro, and the ability to out-perform WWE, than they were given credit for, including by me," said Bischoff. "What I hope is that Silver King and other luchadors are recognized for breaking through and being the catalyst for a pop culture kind of phenomenon in the United States that everybody is familiar with. 25 years ago, outside of California, nobody knew what lucha libre was. I'd like Silver King to be recognized for that. He was one of those people that, when you saw him backstage, he always had a smile on his face. He was always happy being right where he was, around his peers and in wrestling."

Originally Posted by Observer

Coming into this week, it was expected that Raw's ratings might be up slightly due to the NBA having Monday night off -- and that SmackDown would be hurt going against game one of the Western Conference finals and the NBA Draft Lottery special.

This all held true as, after a night in which Raw was slightly up from the last couple of weeks, SmackDown had its lowest audience total since the 2016 brand split, coming in slightly less than the previous low-water mark from two weeks ago.

SmackDown averaged 1.827 million viewers for Tuesday night's taped episode from London. The show dropped all the way to 13th overall in terms of total viewers on cable and, perhaps more importantly to the network, down to sixth in the 18-49 demo with a 0.56 rating ...

Year-over-year, SmackDown was down 20.5 percent, which is right about where it is most weeks.

Originally Posted by Observer

It was announced on last night’s SmackDown that Asuka & Kairi Sane’s tag team name will be “The Kabuki Warriors.” Paige responded to someone on Twitter about the name and noted that it was Asuka & Sane who chose it, though they wanted it to be Kabuki Girls: “You know it was the girls who chose their name right? Well technically they wanted ‘kabuki girls’ but it was changed to kabuki warriors. Chill”

Originally Posted by Observer

WWE Network News reported that three matches featuring Andre the Giant will be added to the WWE Network’s Hidden Gems section tomorrow, which comes after HBO’s documentary on Andre was uploaded to the Network. The matches are Andre vs. Jerry Blackwell in a Bodyslam Challenge match (AWA, 1980), Andre & Hulk Hogan vs. Bobby Heenan, Nick Bockwinkel, Ken Patera & Bobby Duncum in a handicap match (AWA, 1982), and Andre vs. Big John Studd (WWF, 1984).

Originally Posted by PWI

WWE Network News is reporting that more WCW Thunder will be coming to the WWE Network this Monday, May 20 as a part of this month's Classic Content Drop. As of now the number of episodes were not specified, but one can guess it is probably going to be at least 20.

Originally Posted by PWI

WWE filed for trademarks on the names "WWE SuperShowdown" and "WWE Supershow" on 5/7.

Originally Posted by WrestlingInc

Andrade and WWE Intercontinental Champion Finn Balor will likely continue their feud after Sunday's WWE Money In the Bank pay-per-view, according to Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio. They are currently scheduled to work the men's MITB Ladder Match with Ricochet, Randy Orton, Ali, Sami Zayn, Drew McIntyre and Baron Corbin.

Andrade won a Fatal 4 Way over Balor, Orton and Ali on last night's SmackDown, getting the pin on Balor to win. Meltzer noted that there is a lot of backing for Andrade right now within WWE, as far as his character goes. WWE officials have been high on Andrade for some time now and it was reported in late 2018 that they had big push plans for him in 2019.

Originally Posted by PWI

WWE announced this afternoon that Alexa Bliss has not been medically cleared to compete in this Sunday's Women's Money in the Bank Ladder match and will be replaced in the match ...

Bliss last wrestled on the 4/29 edition of Raw, losing to Naomi.

PWInsider.com She has suffered several concussions over the course of her WWE run and has pulled from the ring in the past to be sure she had adequately recovered from them.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

Some notes regarding different things of late. Paul Levesque, while never saying anything publicly, those close to the situation say he’s very frustrated with how things are going on the main roster. One person noted that a big problem isn’t Vince not being open to suggestions, but that they believe he’s far too open these days to suggestions and that it ends up watering down all the original visions and storylines. We’re told that there has been too much input from too many people on the team who haven’t figured out that when you change something in a story, it has a ripple effect on every aspect of the story. He solicits input on so much from so many people that it leads to things being watered down.

There is a question of how Vince is going to cope with things early next year once the XFL starts. I can recall in 2001 when everyone doing both was just exhausted during football season. For better or worse, Vince’s workload is crazy now. He’s often in the office past midnight, close to 3 a.m. at least once a week and Friday’s his easy day, he’s working until 8 p.m. It’s mostly work and lifting weights, and occasionally watching some football on the weekend. The feeling is once the XFL starts, even though he says nothing will change, that it is simply impossible that’s the case unless he spends little time on the XFL. And since he’s got so much riding on the XFL, and is spending so much money on it, I can’t see him staying out of it. Regarding the family, Levesque picks his spots to talk with Vince, but never does it in front of anyone. Stephanie has nothing to do with creative. Shane does pitch ideas for himself but they rarely get used

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

An embarrassing story is that this past week, Alberto El Patron was using social media to build up a three-way match on 5/5 in Monterrey with Alberto & brother El Hijo de Cien Caras facing Pentagon & Fenix and El Hijo de Dr. Wagner & Galeno del Mal. In the buildup, Alberto said that Pentagon wasn’t really a star because a real star would never wrestle in front of 300 or 400 fans and he’d never lower himself to work those kind of shows because he’s a real star. He has claimed that because of the crowds he’s worked in front of that he is one of the biggest Mexican stars of all-time, and at one point had heat with his uncle claiming he was actually a bigger star than Mil Mascaras ever was.

Pentagon shot back saying that Alberto used to be a star, but he isn’t one anymore. There were people who thought they had legit heat, but evidently not enough, since the match drew 500 fans in a 5,000 seat building. A lot of people were making fun of Alberto after the show regarding his drawing power. He was definitely a huge star years ago but his drawing power has fallen. He rarely wrestles and the last time he was in Mexico City a few months ago, that didn’t draw either

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

Crowds were down for the recent War of the Worlds tour. It’s pretty clear things are flat right now. The actual crowd for 5/8 in Buffalo was 600. Toronto on 5/9 was 1,000, well down from the expected 1,500. Grand Rapids, MI on 5/11 was 700 and Chicago on 5/12 drew 900 for television, which is less than the 2,000 that MLW has been doing in the market

Originally Posted by Observer

ROH has announced a Summer Supercard for SummerSlam weekend in Toronto.

It was announced today that Summer Supercard will take place at the Mattamy Athletic Centre in Toronto on Friday, August 9. The show will include wrestlers from ROH, NJPW, CMLL, and the NWA.

NJPW's G1 Climax will still be going on when Summer Supercard takes place, so Summer Supercard won't feature wrestlers in the tournament.

Summer Supercard will air live on HonorClub. ROH hyped that it will "feature the greatest wrestlers from the US, Japan, and Mexico competing for championships and in dream matches."

Originally Posted by PWI

Gursinder Singh announced that he has received his Impact Wrestling release, a month after publicly announcing he had requested it.

Announcing to the world that I have officially been granted my release from Impact Wrestling. Looking forward to the future! #freeagent
— Gursinder Singh (@GursinderImpact) May 15, 2019

Originally Posted by Fightful

Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer reports that Road Dogg was "feeling so much pressure" during his time as SmackDown lead writer, which led to him stepping down. Meltzer notes that if/when he returns, he will likely work under/for Triple H.

Originally Posted by Fightful

The IIconics address the post-WrestleMania rumors about Sasha Banks and Bayley.

At WrestleMania 35 last month, Sasha Banks and Bayley walked into MetLife Stadium as the WWE Women's Tag Team Champions and they also dropped the titles to Peyton Royce and Billie Kay at the show. The IIconics are still holders of the titles coming out of WWE's European tour. Following WrestleMania, reports and rumors made the rounds that Sasha Banks and Bayley were upset and threw their respective "temper tantrums" about dropping the titles after winning them two months prior at Elimination Chamber.

Peyton Royce and Billie Kay recently chatted with Express Sport and shared that they did not see any of what was rumored and added that everyone was happy for them including Banks and Bayley.

“Immediately after the match we were all in tears, all crying." Peyton Royce shared. "Just filled with emotion, we got pictures together which we then posted on our Instagram. I mean, I know there’s all these rumors going around and we didn’t see anything."

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

All Elite Wrestling and WarnerMedia announced officially at the latters’ upfronts at the Hulu Theater a deal for weekly prime time wrestling on TNT ...

The deal also includes content on B/R Live, including PPV shows. The PPV content will be done more like UFC, where it will be a full price PPV at $49.95, and not undercutting the PPV providers’ price. That may have been something that they had little choice on, because in cutting recent deals with inDemand, Dish and DirecTV, the contract stipulations likely called for an inability to undercut the price on streaming. WWE was able to do that by basically just doing it, and the PPV providers had to either agree to continue airing the shows or not. But WWE had leverage due to its long history which AEW wouldn’t have had.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

The belief within the company is this deal will allow them to be profitable by 2020. But there are still very obvious challenges, such as being able to draw prime time ratings on a station like TNT. TNT averaged 1,171,000 viewers in prime time in 2018, putting it in seventh place on cable, behind Fox News, ESPN, MSNBC, HGTV, USA and TBS.

From the Turner side, because of the ability of wrestling to be a product on multi-platforms, with television as the main driver but not the only driver, that it doesn’t have to do the network average to be a big success. But the number is always important. Previously, because the role of wrestling was largely to bring up the network average, since wrestling performed poorly when it came to selling ads, a wrestling show was of no value if it didn’t beat the network average. TNT is available in slightly more homes, just under 90 million, than USA, which is in just under 89 million homes. USA only beats TNT in ratings due to Raw and Smackdown.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

Cesar Gonzalez, best known as Silver King in Mexico and Ramses in the movie “Nacho Libre,” passed away in the ring on 5/11 on a show in London due to a heart attack during a match with Juventud Guerrera ...

Guerrera said that while he didn’t know it at the time, Gonzalez had a pre-existing health condition. Others have stated the same thing, although he had passed tests to get licensed in several commissions in Mexico. The Torreon commission said he passed their medical testing last in February. Daniel Lopez (El Satanico), who heads the commission in Zapopan, outside Guadalajara, said that he doesn’t want to say what he really thinks about all this because it would get him in trouble, but said that he will insist on more stringent medical procedures as a necessity than what he saw on the video. Most commissions that regulate wrestling require a doctor, and some an ambulance. But in the U.K., where things aren’t regulated, like really most of the U.S. and Canada, there was no such requirement.

The incident had led to a movement, mandated in MLW, and talked about in other companies by referees, regarding referees taking CPR classes.

Still, in Mexico, the media has not come down hard on it for the most part. Gonzalez was working a series of shows for Lucha Libre World, a promotion headed by El Hijo del Santo ...

Silver King delivered a flying clothesline, and then went for a pin. Guerrera kicked out. Silver King then seemingly couldn’t get up. He struggled and moved and then couldn’t any longer and laid on the mat. Both Guerrera and Terry tried to stall for time for him to get up, rather than checking on him ... Guerrera then went to end the match and tried to turn Silver King over to his back, but had to struggle to do so since Silver King was dead weight. He went for the pin. Terry counted to two, but knowing this wasn’t the planned finish, actually held up the count very awkwardly for a few seconds, before counting three.

This was about 90 seconds after he collapsed. Guerrera celebrated. King laid there and there was another 90 seconds before anyone else got in the ring. A few people working at the show were in the ring, hovering over him but not treating him. Other wrestlers, including Santo and Guerrera were also in there. Fans in the arena were confused, with many thinking it was part of the show. The match was being streamed like on Santo’s Facebook page and those watching could see Silver King laying there with nobody tending to him for a long time. Finally, at about seven minutes in, a stretcher was brought in and they announced they were taking a break in the show. An ambulance arrived after ten minutes after he collapsed but it was too late. Due to his death, the show didn’t resume.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

We don’t know of what sponsors reacted past Mars Wrigley Confectionery was furious after receiving a letter from a circlejerk user who used the name “SnitchBoy.”

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

[AAA owner] Roldan’s goal is still U.S. expansion, noting there is so much more money to be made in the U.S. He also said that by targeting the Hispanic market, they are not competition for WWE and AEW. I think he doesn’t understand how WWE thinks. He said the success or lack of it for the MSG show will determine what happens next. He said they never expected to sell out in advance like the New Japan/ROH show, because the Hispanic market buys late. He felt they’ve done well. I do know that MSG is very concerned over the ticket sales, particularly coming off New Japan selling out in an instant and MSG’s belief that there are so many more Latinos than Japanese, not realizing Japanese aren’t the ones supporting New Japan, and again, it may have been a Young Bucks & Omega & Cody sellout in hindsight.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

Ranallo has signed a new multi-year contract to continue announcing NXT. The contract has the same stipulations as the previous deal in that he can announce for any other company except those within pro wrestling. He highest-profile gig is with Showtime boxing and he also works for Bellator, but not on every show

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

The stock was down this week, closing at press time at $81.22 per share giving the combat a market value of $6.339 billion. It’s actually lower now than when the earnings report came out so despite analysts being bullish on the future with the great TV deals and the expected big India deal, the market hasn’t come back

Originally Posted by PWI

A number of websites, including TheBlast.com, have published a statement purportedly from former WWE star Shelly Martinez about the cause of death of Ashley Massaro yesterday.

Martinez was one of Massaro's closest friends, but reached out to PWInsider.com shortly after we quoted the Blast report to inform us that she has not issued any public statement regarding Massaro's cause of death.

The quote being wrongly attributed to Martinez has been taken from a fake Facebook account claiming to be the former WWE star. Martinez does not maintain a public Facebook account.

Originally Posted by Observer

Alexa Bliss's injury is officially listed by WWE as undisclosed. Of late, undisclosed has usually meant concussion and that term has been used in some reports of the injury.

Originally Posted by Observer

A Television title match is set for ROH's Best in the World pay-per-view.

In this week's Eck's Files article on ROH's website, it was announced that Bandido will challenge for Shane Taylor's Television Championship at Best in the World. The PPV is taking place at the UMBC Event Center in Baltimore, Maryland on Friday, June 28.

Originally Posted by PWI

FITE TV sent us the following:

FITE TV Presents AEW’s Inaugural “DOUBLE OR NOTHING” PPV Event Live Globally on Saturday, May 25

UNIONDALE, NY (May 17, 2019) -- FITE TV, the largest digital combat sports platform, announced that All Elite Wrestling’s highly anticipated DOUBLE OR NOTHING pay-per-view event will be available live to non-United States viewers on Saturday, May 25.

AEW fans from all corners of the globe will be able to order the DOUBLE OR NOTHING PPV and watch it via FITE.TV. All of the action begins at 8 p.m. ET. Viewers can check their local listings and pricing on the FITE app or on www.FITE.tv.

Originally Posted by PWI

Following the passing of Silver King, MLW referees will be trained in CPR in order to assist in case of a medical emergency. I can't speak highly enough about this decision and sincerely hope all other promotions will follow suit, because they should.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Bleacher Report’s Kenny Herzog has a lengthy feature on All Elite Wrestling, including interviews with president Tony Khan, Cody Rhodes, The Young Bucks, and Jim Ross. Here are the highlights:
-The Young Bucks didn’t want to announce the formation of the company until closer to May, or even at Double or Nothing, but it was Tony Khan’s call to announce as soon as possible.
-Nick Jackson said that it was within ROH and New Japan’s power to keep them if they had offered the duo the deals they wanted. Nick felt New Japan never saw the value of the team and were not paid well. They were paid better in Ring of Honor and suggested that the two promotions get together to offer them a dual contract, but they didn’t do that.
-When asked about a union, there was a hesitancy to commit to it and rather go with an idea of raising pay for the talent, covering their in-ring injuries along with rehab and recovery, and some will have benefits and health care.
-Khan said outright he wouldn’t run on Monday or Friday nights against WWE, go against the NFL, or pay to get onto television
-There will be no offseason, but they won’t be running a full-time schedule like WWE with talent being given lots of time to recover and rest.
-It is brought up in the piece the question of how the dynamic will exist between Tony Khan and his EVPs. Cody has spoken at length about allowing wrestling people to handle wrestling and not micromanaging a product to death while Khan states in the piece he will be very hands-on and begs the question if both philosophies can co-exist.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Jim Ross was a guest on the Sports Media podcast this week with host Richard Deitsch. Ross speculated that AEW’s television show would be two-hours beginning in the fall and airing on Tuesday or Wednesday nights. Regarding differences, he would like to see from the WWE’s product is the elimination of commercial breaks during matches. He said the three-man team with Excalibur and Alex Marvez will feature each playing a specific role. He noted Excalibur would be the “wrestling guy” that knows the holds and has the perspective of a former wrestler, Marvez he compared to their version of Jay Glazer, who can introduce meaningful stats that help tell the story of the match.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

WrestleMania Weekend plans are already taking shape. Game Changer Wrestling has announced that The Collective group of events will return, and they have booked The Cuban Club in Ybor City, Florida for April 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. This past year’s umbrella event known as The Collective featured events promoted by IWS, AIW, Black Label Pro, CHIKARA, Black Craft Wrestling, and GCW’s in-house shows for Joey Janela’s Spring Break, Bloodsport, and an Orange Cassidy themed event. Joey Janela noted that the venue they are running in 2020 has a capacity of 4,500 people.

Originally Posted by Fightful

More details regarding WWE fining Lars Sullivan ...

According to Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer, a clause in WWE contracts allowed the company to issue the fine.

The clause states, "Wrestler shall act at all times with due regard to public morals and conventions during the term of this agreement. If wrestler shall have committed or shall commit any act or do anything that is or shall be an offense or violation involving moral turpitude under federal, state or local laws, or which brings wrestler into public disrepute, contempt, scandal or ridicule, or which insults or offends the community or any employee, agent or affiliate of promoter or which injures wrestlers’ reputation in promoter’s sole judgment, or diminishes the value of wrestler’s professional wrestling services to the public or promoter, then at the time of any such act, or any time after promoter learns of any such act, promoter shall have the right to fine wrestler in an amount to be determined by promoter; and promoter shall have the right to immediately suspend wrestler and/or terminate this agreement pursuant to Section 12.”

Originally Posted by WrestlingInc

As many remember Sasha and Bayley were reportedly so unhappy with losing the WWE Women's Tag Team Titles at WrestleMania 35 that they laying on the locker room floor. Now Cathy Kelley is confirming that Banks was at the WrestleMania 35 After Party.

WWE Now's Cathy Kelley shared a birthday wish to Dash Wilder along with a photo. One user noticed that in the photo was Sasha Banks's socks and shoes, which Kelley confirmed that was her.

She also confirmed that Sasha Banks was not only there, but it was the After Party of WrestleMania 35 and she was both happy and grateful.

Originally Posted by WrestlingInc

Brock Lesnar vs. WWE Universal Champion Seth Rollins is the current plan for WWE's Super ShowDown event from Saudi Arabia, according to Wrestlevotes.

Rollins won the title from Lesnar back at WrestleMania 35. This will be Lesnar's first match since the loss.

Originally Posted by Simple Fan (Post 5252922)

So how does Lars get fined for something he said while not with WWE when this is the first thing said? His lawyer is worthless.

Originally Posted by Observer

The combination of being the day after a major pay-per-view that ended with curiosity, and the show-long Brock Lesnar cash-in tease led to Raw doing 2.52 million viewers last night, up seven percent from the week before, even though last week had no NBA playoff competition.

It was the best the show has done since the start of the playoffs. Even with the push of the 24/7 title and the strong tease of a cash-in, the third hour still was down 14.2 percent from the first hour. That figure is much better than recent weeks, but still would have been considered a huge drop two years ago.

The same week last year, which also went against the NBA playoffs, but wasn't coming the day after a PPV, did 2.66 million viewers, so Raw held up far better than any show has done in a long time based on year-over-year comparisons ..

The three hours were:
8 p.m. 2.68 million viewers
9 p.m. 2.58 million viewers
10 p.m. 2.30 million viewers

Originally Posted by Observer

There was a WWE talent meeting earlier today [Sunday] headed by Stephanie McMahon. It was mostly the same rah-rah type speech they do from time-to-time. The only thing notable is that they directly addressed AEW as their competition. They were pushing the WWE brand hard, the same social media and YouTube stats they always talk about with the idea of having 1 billion followers (adding every form of social media for every performer related to the company), and then said that they are having to compete with video games, movies, other streaming services as well as now AEW. In giving this speech, at no time have they ever mentioned a competing wrestling company.

Originally Posted by Observer

Squared Circle Sirens reports that WWE is scouting the promotion Gatoh Move in Thailand and Singapore Pro Wrestling in South East Asia

Originally Posted by PWI

AJ Styles was interviewed by Newsweek and noted during the conversation that his current WWE contract is the last pro wrestling contract he will ever sign.

Styles commented, "I can tell you that this contract that I’ve signed is my last. This is the perfect place for me to be. It’s family-oriented, I have no problem taking my family to the shows. It’s a PG product, which Ienjoy. I’m in the best place I can be for my career."

Styles also commented on potential competition for WWE, commenting, "As far as the indies and whatnot, I don’t think they should ever be competitive with the WWE. They should compete with themselves to make sure they get better everyday because there’s no competition, if you want me to be honest. WWE is globally huge. It’s unbelievable to know how big the WWE is. People don’t understand it. If you want to succeed, don’t compete. Be something different, be the alternative. There’s a lot of people that have a good chance, but competition is always a great thing. I hope any company does well so they can be that competition. Competition will always make a better product."

Originally Posted by PWI

Impact Wrestling saw signing Jordynne Grace yesterday as a victory. The two sides officially came to terms yesterday for a multi-year deal. There was interest from both WWE and AEW, so Impact was really pleased that Grace, despite having strong interest elsewhere, made the decision to finally lock herself into a deal wtih them. There wasn't a clear answer as far as why Grace never signed the initial deal that she was supposed to sign last October. We are told that Grace provided Impact with data, including social media engagement, to showcase why she was worth more than the initial deal that was offered. One would think that in the end, she landed a better financial deal than she was probably originally offered. Her new contract will run through May 2021.

Originally Posted by PWI

Q - Is it legal for WWE to add time to wrestlers contracts when they are injured? They are still part if the company and still get paid even if they don’t wrestle. They aren’t released from their contracts when they are injured. Sounds like immature pettiness.

A - They get paid their downside and it’s part of the contract that they agreed to. If they didn’t agree, they wouldn’t sign the contract.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

While promoting the Super Showdown on Raw, Michael Cole stated they were “returning to Jeddah” for an international event. We were told that at least one other international department was instructed that they could identify the show as happening in Jeddah but would not be saying Saudi Arabia, although that could change as they get closer to the event.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Starrcast put out a statement confirming Ric Flair will not be in Las Vegas this week following his heart procedure on Monday. The Roast of Ric Flair has been postponed to a later date, which was scheduled to air on Fite TV as well on pay-per-view on at least one provider in Canada. We have confirmed that the panel with Jim Ross and Ricky Steamboat (which Flair was part of) is not going to take place Thursday night due to Flair’s absence. I was told that a replacement is going to be announced for that slot at Starrcast and Fite TV. Flair had also been scheduled for meet-and-greets with the Four Horseman.

Originally Posted by Observer

SCWPro tweeted that they’ve been told Flair’s appearance at their debut show in East Moline, Illinois on May 31 is still on: “We've been in constant contact w/ representatives for @RicFlairNatrBoy & we're happy to announce that we've been told his appearance at our debut event at the Rust Belt on May 31st is STILL ON!”

Originally Posted by Observer

Beth Phoenix, Bruno Sammartino, Thunderbolt Patterson, Sgt. Slaughter, Brian Shields and Daniel Cormier will be inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame, which will be held on July 25-27.

Originally Posted by PWI

The "Bash at the Beach" trademark by Cody Rhodes was given an initial refusal by The USPTO because likelihood of confusion with WWE's registered "The Bash" trademark.

His trademark for "Dusty Rhodes" has also been given an initial refusal because of likelihood of confusion to the "Dustin Rhodes" trademark registered to Dustin Runnels.

All his other trademarks - BattleBowl, Bunkhouse Stampede, The Prince of Wrestling, The American Nightmare, and The American Dream have been approved to publish for opposition at a later date.

Meanwhile, WWE's trademark for "Garza Jr." has been given an initial refusal because, according to The USPTO, they are just trademarking a last name/surname which is not a rare name. They supplied the WWE.com article of Garza's signing as evidence in which WWE made mention of his uncle Hector Garza.

Originally Posted by Fightful

The Usos, a Raw team, won a non-title match against the Smackdown tag team champions, who had previously beaten the Usos to win the Smackdown Tag Team Championships -- a title on a brand the Usos aren't on.

Charlotte Flair's reign as Smackdown Women's Champion was the shortest of all time. She now holds the longest and shortest reigns, and three of the five shortest reigns.

AJ Styles and Seth Rollins worked together 25 times over the last three years in WWE, but never had a singles match against one another in the company until Money in the Bank.

Combined, the three women's championship matches lasted 16:10 combined, which was less than the WWE Universal Championship match's 19:51 time.

Originally Posted by Fightful

The honeymoon between IMPACT and Pursuit is over.

According to Mike Johnson at PWInsider, the hope in IMPACT Wrestling is the company can find a new, better TV outlet in the fall. IMPACT is currently on the Pursuit channel, which is also owned by IMPACT's parent company, Anthem. The company has run into problems on the network, including this past Friday when Pursuit aired 24 minutes of commercials instead of the main event.

IMPACT had to issue an apology for the technical snafu.

Along with this past Friday's issue, Pursuit continues to list IMPACT as four 30-minute episodes instead of one two-hour episode. The channel has reportedly been "very slow in responding to IMPACT requests and dealing with reported issues."

Originally Posted by Fightful

Carmella takes down her tweet about Mandy.

At the Money In The Bank pay-per-view, there was a point during the women's Money In The Bank Ladder match when former SmackDown Live Women's Champion Carmella had her leg caught in between a ladder as she was attempting to lift it up and Mandy Rose came over and kicked the ladder into Carmella's leg. Mandy attempted to wrestle Carmella to the mat but Carmella shoved Rose off multiple times and told her to back off as she was hurt. The two competitors engaged in a social media feud after the pay-per-view and Rose expressed that the Money In The Bank contract was supposed to be her's which led to Carmella chiming in and eventually noting that Rose needs to go back to NXT and learn how to be safe in the ring. Carmella has since deleted that tweet.

Originally Posted by Fightful

On tonight's episode of WWE SmackDown, Big E made his first appearance since tearing his meniscus on the Apr. 10 episode of SmackDown Live. Xavier Woods and Kofi Kingston welcomed Big E back with a party to open SmackDown Live. Big E's appearance included smelling his comrades and still pining after Becky Lynch's mom.

However, there was a sour note on the return as Xavier confirmed that Big E has yet to be cleared to compete. It is unknown when Big E will return to in-ring competition.

Originally Posted by Fightful

Speaking at the JP Morgan Investors Conference, WWE Co-President George Barrios was asked about AEW being competition to WWE.

"If you're in the business of fighting for people's time....sleep is competition. Whether it's Fortnite, the NBA, kung fu novels, we are fighting for people's time. Everyone and everything is a competitor. AEW has announced (the deal with Turner). Welcome to the game. We'll see how it goes."

Originally Posted by Observer

Several days after Ashley Massaro's lawyer released an affadavit that included a claim she was sexually assaulted on a 2007 Kuwait tour and was told not to report it, WWE released a statement addressing the claim.

"WWE is saddened by the death of Ashley Massaro, and we reiterate our condolences to her family. However, we regret that her attorney Konstantine Kyros, who filed multiple cases against WWE, lost all of them, and was sanctioned multiple times by the Court for repeated misconduct and false allegations, is using Ashley’s death to further his malicious campaign against WWE by releasing an affidavit that she submitted to the Court and later apologized to WWE for being involved with, so we wish to make certain things crystal clear.

At no time was Vince McMahon or the management of WWE ever informed by Ashley Massaro or anybody else that she had been sexually assaulted, drugged, raped or sodomized by a military doctor with a nurse standing guard while on a goodwill tour in 2007 to U.S. military bases in Kuwait. In fact, if she ever articulated such a claim to WWE, we would have reported it immediately to the Base Commander.

At no time was there ever a meeting with Vince McMahon, Kevin Dunn, John Laurinaitis or other company executives in which she told them of such a claim and was instructed to keep it quiet."

The 39-year-old Massaro died of an apparent suicide last Thursday at her Long Island, NY, home.

Massaro was one of 60 wrestlers Kyros represented in a concussion-related lawsuit that was filed in 2016. After it was thrown out of court last fall, an appeal is set to be heard in July. WWE provided the New York Post with an email from Massaro sent last October in which she apologized for being part of the lawsuit and said Kyros "poached" her. He said he never saw the email and that she never withdrew from the case.

Originally Posted by PWI

A number of women in professional wrestling who worked alongside the late Ashley Massaro, who passed away last week, have banded together to launch a GoFundMe Campaign to assist in Massaro's daughter Alexa being able to continue her education.

Originally Posted by Observer

Gail Kim is going to auction off the gear she wore in her retirement match against Tessa Blanchard at Impact’s Rebellion PPV to raise money for Massaro’s daughter.

Maria Kanellis paid tribute to Massaro on last night’s 205 Live by having “Ashley” written on her hand.

Originally Posted by Fightful

WWE Co-President comments on recent backstage creative changes.

This past year has brought about many backstage changes to WWE. It started in February when WWE brought back Bruce Prichard to a full-time creative position. From there, Jeff Jarrett and Dana Warrior were added to the creative team while R.D. Evans, Kazeem Famuyide, and others left and Road Dogg stepped down as head writer of SmackDown. WWE has also cycled in and out producers with Abyss, Sonjay Dutt and Gregory Helms joining the team and Arn Anderson and Dean Malenko departing.

With all the changes behind the scenes, it's easy to wonder how that affects the creative process. WWE Co-President George Barrios wouldn't put much stock into the changes.

"What gives me confidence is that we've been creating stars and putting smiles on people's faces for a long time. You're always looking to get better in terms of your process and tools you're using. We've got a lot of great talent and we try to supplement that over time. I wouldn't put too big a spotlight on (creative hires)," Barrios said during a JP Morgan Investors Conference. "The most important asset we have is our talent. So, what should we be focused on, what's going to move the needle and what's the best way to engage in our fanbase?"

Originally Posted by PWI

Several readers sent word this morning that on his latest podcast, Chris Jericho stated that AEW's weekly series would be airing on ITV in Great Britain this Fall when it will also debut for TNT here in the United States.

Originally Posted by Observer

WWE stock closed the day at $77.46 per share, down two percent from yesterday.

Originally Posted by Observer

WWE congratulated Bayley on being their first women’s triple crown champion. She currently holds the SmackDown Women’s Championship and has previously held the Raw Women’s Championship and Women’s Tag Team titles. WWE also acknowledged Rey Mysterio being a grand slam champion after his first US title win.

Originally Posted by PWI

WE issued the following press release for their return to Australia later this year:

WWE RETURNS TO AUSTRALIA

MELBOURNE, Australia and STAMFORD, Conn., May 22, 2019 – WWE LIVE will return to Australia with three events, including Monday, October 21 at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney, Tuesday, October 22 at Brisbane Entertainment Centre in Brisbane and Wednesday, October 23 at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, presented in partnership with TEG Dainty.

Originally Posted by WrestlingInc

It's looking more and more like Brock Lesnar will cash in his Money In the Bank briefcase against WWE Universal Champion Seth Rollins at WWE Super ShowDown from Saudi Arabia on June 7.

Lesnar is currently scheduled to announce his cash-in decision on Monday's RAW and then may return for the final episode before Super ShowDown, which would be the June 3 episode, according to Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio. Meltzer noted that Lesnar will then work Super ShowDown, but after that we likely won't see him until around SummerSlam time in August, to set up his match for that pay-per-view.

The plan has been for Lesnar to face Rollins at Saudi Arabia, as far back as around WrestleMania 35 time. It is possible that WWE announces Lesnar vs. Rollins as a regular match, and have him keep the briefcase, but that seems unlikely.

Originally Posted by PWI

5/23 THIS DAY IN HISTORY: OWEN HART PASSES AWAY

1999 - Owen Hart dies of cardiac arrest after falling from the ceiling in the Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Missouri during the WWF Over The Edge Pay-per-view. The fall was not seen on television, as a pre-taped interview was being shown at the time. Owen was to have made a "Blue Blazer" entrance on a cable when his harness malfunctioned, causing the fall. Hart was rushed to a hospital, where he was declared dead. Owen was 34 years old.

The show continued, with Jim Ross informing the home viewer later in the program that Owen had died, but the fans in the building were not told of his passing. The decision to continue running the show and not announcing Hart's death to the live crowd have been hotly debated since 1999. The Undertaker defeated Steve Austin in the main event to win the WWF Title in the main event. The show would be the only WWF PPV, to date, that was never released on home video after it was held.

Originally Posted by PWI

Q - Loved the Bret Hart-Tom Magee match and documentary, but for a match that was meant only for the crowd and was never going to be shown on television, how does it have commentary with Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan?

A - They may have later voiced it over to use on one of the syndicated shows but for whatever reason, never used the match. WWF used to voice over old content all the time and re-use it for Prime Time Wrestling, Home Videos, etc. so it wasn’t out of the ordinary.

Originally Posted by PWI

The Tacoma Dome is locally advertising the following matches for the 6/23 WWE Stomping Grounds PPV:
*Kofi Kingston vs. Kevin Owens for the WWE Championship
*Seth Rollins vs. Baron Corbin for the Universal Championship
*Roman Reigns vs. Drew McIntyre

Originally Posted by PWI

The updated lineup advertised locally for the 7/14 WWE Extreme Rules on 7/13 PPV in Philadelphia features:
*Kofi Kingston vs. Kevin Owens vs. Dolph Ziggler for the WWE Championship in a Triple Threat Match
*Seth Rollins vs. Baron Corbin for the Universal Championship in a Tables Match
*Roman Reigns vs. Shane McMahon and Drew McIntyre in a Handicap Match.
*AJ Styles vs. a mystery opponent
*Plus: Becky Lynch, Randy Orton, Elias.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

The move will come three months after what is expected to be AEW’s debut on ITV 4 in October with a regular live television show. The AEW deal is not official, but Cody strongly hinted at it on Being the Elite and Chris Jericho has talked about it on his podcast. ITV 4 will be airing both a Countdown like show for Double or Nothing on 5/24 and the one-hour Buy In show, as well as handle the PPV show in the U.K. market on ITV Box Office. The final deal is said to be not official until TNA decides whether to run the weekly two-hour live show on Tuesday or Wednesday nights. The hope is for ITV 4 to run the show live.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

New Japan World subscribers have hit 122,000 with good gains coming with the start of the Best of the Super Juniors tournament. An interesting note is that the two most-watched matches thus far have been Rocky Romero’s matches with Will Ospreay and Robbie Eagles. Some of that is because Australia and the U.K. are in more favorable time slots than the U.S., but still, you’d think the Japanese bouts would dominate since Japan has the most subscribers. This has helped Eagles in the eyes of management. The new people who have signed up in the last week are mostly from Europe, not the U.S., or Japan, so there’s a feeling Ospreay being in a key position has helped a lot. Eagles was said to be the most popular newcomer this year, with part of the reason believed that the fans are comfortable with him because he’s half-Asian. His new Bullet Club T-shirt is the best selling Bullet Club shirt in Japan since the Young Bucks were taken out of the group. It was noted he’s also getting over with women and children, similar to Juice Robinson, and women are a key demographic they are after

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

The company got some good news with the on-sale for the Bridgeport Takeover show. While not sold out, the advance for the 7,000 seat set up is strong and it look like it will either sell out or come very close. This would be the first Takeover in a major arena that wasn’t the day before a major WWE PPV show.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

The 7/6 Dallas show at last report had sold about 2,800 tickets. They are hoping for a big late buy, and they did get that in San Francisco once the card was announced, but late buys are going to be local and New Japan doesn’t have that many fans in Dallas. Lance Archer has been heavily promoting the show including going to indie cards in the area and selling tickets. Jushin Liger has been added to the show. London on 8/30 is at 6,100 tickets sold at this point, so it will sell out

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

In an interesting move, the Double or Nothing show is treating media like they are covering a sports event. They sent out a list of things that a real sport would send out to media with details, credentials, areas to file stories, backstage interviews for stories after the show and much more. WWE does do a media room in the suites for WrestleMania, and Takeovers do have a post-show press conference with Paul Levesque, but not with the talent, but this likely comes from the sports background of Tony Khan and with the guys involved learning from their days working New Japan major shows.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

Pac was scheduled to beat Page, which with the win, was to lead to bigger matches ...

The feeling here is that beating Page had to be a big deal and lead to a major main event, because they are positioning Page as a big star. If it’s not to set up a match with Omega, Jericho or Cody, nobody should be beating Page. You could do a DQ, and many would, or a draw. They made the decision that they wanted winners and losers when you pay for a PPV. To not adhere to that concept on the first show basically ruins the concept they are pushing right out of the gate. They were not going to sacrifice the entire concept of what they were building to get out of a match.

As far as the draw idea goes, that had problems as well ... First, Tony Khan was at the Revolution Pro show where Pac and Will Ospreay did a 30:00 draw in what was an easy ****3/4 match. But as great as the match was, the fans booed the draw. Khan didn’t want that reaction on his show, and also noted it wasn’t just that match, but other Pac draws in the U.K. had gotten similar reactions, noting another great match with Zack Sabre Jr. The fact that in the 70s, or in New Japan, a long classic match ending in a draw would be viewed one way didn’t matter, because it’s neither the 70s nor Japan. He didn’t want a negative reaction like that on the debut show.

Second, it didn’t work out. If they did a 20:00 draw, they’d have to cut time from other matches to make it work. Plus, if in the future, they wanted a non-main event to go more than 20:00, the precedent would be set that a third from the top match has that time limit. If they went 30:00, they’d have to cut more time out of perhaps multiple matches ...

As far as Pac goes, for right now he will not be working for the promotion. He won’t be at Fyter Fest, and likely angles or match announcements will be made coming off the show to make sense for however that main event is to be changed. He is not expected to be back until he loses the Dream Gate belt, because with the style of booking they are doing, they can’t do business with somebody who can’t ever lose.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

Regarding the most talked about mystery guys, Joey Ryan is booked on that night for AIW in Cleveland. C.M. Punk is doing play-by-play of an MMA show in Southern California. Jon Moxley (Dean Ambrose) is doing an MMA movie, although it is possible he could get a day off.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

The medical examiner’s office in London confirmed the early reports that the death of Cesar Gonzalez, better known as Silver King, on 5/11 in the ring in London, was due to a heart attack. It was noted that his father, the legendary Dr. Wagner, died the same way at the age of 68

One thing notable about his death is that, as noted last week, there has been a movement throughout wrestling for referees to get CPR training, which is only a good thing. Daniel Lopez, better known as El Satanico, who runs the commission out of Zapopan, which is the Guadalajara region, has now mandated that shows need two ambulances on site and one paramedic, who will be assigned by the commission, will be on every show along with a doctor and that at least one referee on every show will need to have had CPR training. Lopez said that he wants all referees to have that training

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

Even though Primo Colon has been working in Puerto Rico a lot as of late, he is still under contract here. Both Colons have it in their deal that because of the longstanding WWE relationship with Carlos Colon, that they are allowed to work shows for WWC. It’s not like they are missing WWE main event bookings by going there. Primo is one of those guys who was a good worker since he was a teenager and he’s made a living here with his downside and all, and Puerto Rico is so dead that it was the best thing for him in the big picture, but he’s also a guy who nobody realizes how good he is who has never been able to show it

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

The 5/17 television show was a mess for a number of reasons. The first and main thing is that in the much-lauded Michael Elgin vs. Rich Swann, in the television version on Pursuit, after Swann did three dives and a top rope move, they went to a commercial break. This was 96 minutes into a two-hour show. The next 24 minutes were nothing but commercials and they never came back. It wasn’t a problem with the tape, because they air the show at the same time on Twitch and they showed the complete match.

The worst part of all this is that so few people watch Impact now (the last rating we heard for the show on Pursuit was around 10,000 viewers) that there was almost no talk about the miscue anywhere.

Originally Posted by Observer

For the third time in four weeks, SmackDown's Monday night house show won't be taking place as scheduled.

WWE announced today that SmackDown's house show that was supposed to take place at the Tony's Pizza Event Center in Salina, Kansas on Monday (May 27) has been rescheduled to Saturday, October 26. Tickets that were purchased for Monday will be honored on that October 26 date, and WWE noted that fans who cannot attend should go to their point of purchase for refunds.

Originally Posted by PWI

For those who have asked about Lio Rush, we are told he is still WWE NXT bound.

Originally Posted by Fightful

Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer reports that Johnny Gargano is currently dealing with a knee injury. Gargano hasn't worked an NXT live event since Mar. 8 but did wrestle at TakeOver: New York against Adam Cole and has wrestled at recent NXT television tapings. His TakeOver: XXV match on June 1 with Cole is reportedly not in jeopardy but it is unclear how active he will be following that match ...

Meltzer also reports that Bobby Fish is dealing with an undisclosed injury but that it is not considered serious. Fish was kicked in the head during a tag team match at an NXT live event on May 17, which reportedly left him woozy. He showed up the next night with his arm in a sling, unable to wrestle.

Fish is being advertised for NXT TakeOver: XXV where he will team with Kyle O'Reilly in a fatal four-way tag team ladder match to crown new NXT Tag Team Champions.

Originally Posted by PWI

Raw star Drew McIntyre is being advertised for a number of upcoming Smackdown brand events, so it appears the Wild Card rule will be in effect for future live events presented by WWE. McIntyre is currently advertised by WWE for the following events:
Saturday 6/1 in Waco, Texas
Sunday 6/2 in College Station, Texas
Monday 6/3 in Corpus Christie, Texas (opposite that night's live Raw broadcast)
Sunday 6/9 in Stockton, CA
Monday 6/10 in Reno, Nevada (opposite that night's live Raw broadcast)

Originally Posted by PWI

Sasha Banks was in the NYC area this past Wednesday for WWE. One source we spoke to believed she was working on material for the next WWE video game release.

Originally Posted by PWI

Rey Mysterio provided an update on his shoulder injury from this past weekend at the Money in the Bank show. Mysterio stated that he suffered a separated AC joint and received PRP (platelet-rich plasma) treatment on his left shoulder

Originally Posted by Fightful

Jimmy's Famous Seafood held their annual golf tournament this week which hosted WWE Superstars Jimmy and Jey Uso as well as MLW's Lance Anoa'i.

While at the event, the wrestlers joined forces with "Team Famous" to present The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society with a $5 thousand donation. The money was presented on behalf of Roman Reigns and the entire Anoa'i family.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Don Callis noted that he will be returning to New Japan for the Dominion card on June 9th in Osaka. Earlier in the week, Impact will be taping television on June 6th and 7th at the Melrose Ballroom in New York City.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

One of the many questions I have that I haven’t seen poised elsewhere, is Kenny Omega’s effect, specifically to the Canadian market. We have seen through history the impact a strong personality can have on this market from Bret Hart maintaining the WWF’s business in Canada even when they were underneath WCW in the U.S, and of course, Georges St-Pierre’s rise with the UFC. Since “All In”, Omega had a widely distributed documentary in Canada, and did a media run that got him onto many mainstream outlets across the country where he came off tremendously. I’m not expecting Omega to take this pay-per-view and do a blockbuster number, but I do feel his profile has risen since September.

Originally Posted by Fightful

During Thursday's "An Evening With Cody & The Young Bucks" stage show at Starrcast II, Cody Rhodes casually announced that All Elite Wrestling will air on ITV in the UK beginning in the fall. Cody also stated that "WWE's TV deal in the UK sucks compared to ours." The weekly show will likely air on ITV 4, which will air the Buy-In pre-show ahead of AEW Double or Nothing on Saturday.

ITV 4 is available in nearly 27 million homes while BT Sport, which will be the new home of WWE in the UK, is in 2.19 million homes.

Originally Posted by Observer

WWE has announced that they’ll be holding a house show at the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Shanghai, China on September 21. NXT’s Xia Li and Boa, who are Chinese nationals, are advertised for the show. There will also be a four-day tryout in Shanghai from July 15-18.

Originally Posted by Observer

Vince McMahon’s XFL put in a bid for some of the defunct and bankrupt AAF’s assets, currently located in San Antonio, Texas.

Originally Posted by Observer

Lio Rush will be doing an autograph signing at MCW Pro Wrestling’s show in Joppa, Maryland on June 1. All proceeds from the event will benefit MCW’s “The Bruiser” RJ Meyer as he battles leukemia.

Originally Posted by Observer

With yesterday being the 20th anniversary of Owen Hart’s death, Chris Jericho and Dave Meltzer paid tribute to Owen and discussed his career on today’s episode of Talk is Jericho.

Originally Posted by PWI

During his [Starrcast] panel discussion today, Arn Anderson announced he will be teaming with Conrad Thompson to do a podcast later this year. Given Arn's history and his promo skills, that could be one for the ages.

Originally Posted by Ultra Mantis (Post 5255169)

There's an unconfirmed rumour going around that Fandango is currently in limbo, similar to Luke Harper.

He has been cleared to return since January but there has apparently been no interest from the office in putting him back on the road in any capacity, as a result he allegedly asked for his release but was flat out refused. Unlike Harper, who worked AXXESS, they didn't even want him for anything over Wrestlemania weekend.

Big if true.

Originally Posted by Fignuts (Post 5255276)

Made a thread on it a while ago. They have way too many people signed. And now it’s blowing up in their face even worse since they’ve been forced to have people on both shows.

Originally Posted by #1-wwf-fan (Post 5255654)

Fandango is quietly one of the biggest dropped balls in WWE history. Just having him on the payroll while not using him at all is the next logical step for the clueless excuse of a wrestling company.