[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by the 1st ever WWE Supermarket brawl:

It is thought that once Triple H and Stephanie take over WWE, Dunn will be one of the first to go. It is thought that they are not fans of his, which would make a lot of sense. We may be seeing an issue with Kevin Owens being caught in the middle of a corporate battle. Triple H wants something, and Kevin Dunn does not. Therefore, one or the other happens. Vince is trapped between what his son-in-law wants versus what his long time confidante wants.

It was really promoted as a two match show. John Cena and Kevin Owens once again stole the show inside the ring, with each kicking out of the others' finishers until Cena made him submit to the STF. The submission was Owens' third straight major show loss, with his loss to Cena and his NXT title loss to Finn Balor. While he is clearly a main roster star, the idea he's something special and a protected headliner was out the window with that finish. The fact he wasn't protected from being a face in the crowd in the pull-apart brawl on Raw says the same thing.

ROH reportedly sold 1,100 tickets for their Field of Honor show that night, a number they were happy with. They were expecting 2,000 tickets sold but The Observer notes that ticket sales stalled once WWE announced Takeover. Ticket sales also reportedly stalled for Jim Ross' "Ringside" one-man show, which takes place in nearby Manhattan. It was noted that any talks there would have been about moving shows to the afternoon to avoid head-to-head competition were decided against, but it wasn't specified which company decided against making a move. WWE actually canceled a live event in White Plains, NY that night to avoid splitting their audience. We've noted how there are moves being made behind-the-scenes in WWE that relate to ROH. WWE has reportedly contacted at least one venue that ROH uses with the idea that WWE will run them if they no longer book ROH. WWE booking Liger could be the start of a relationship between NJPW and WWE, who hasn't officially worked with any groups in Japan for years. ROH was not aware of Liger being booked for Takeover until the news broke and The Observer notes that even by pro wrestling standards, the booking is a major double-cross. It should be noted that Liger is able to book himself anywhere but NJPW is promoting the NXT appearance.

New Japan, at a press conference on 7/18 to promote the G-1 Climax tournament, listed ROH along with the NWA, GWF, CMLL, Revolution Pro (in the U.K.) and wXw (in Germany) as its international business partners, and did not list WWE in that category. But those close to the situation note that the only business partner New Japan is loyal to is CMLL. It was noted that even when it came to being offered an international superstar like Rey Mysterio, New Japan nixed discussions because he appears for CMLL's rival promotion in Mexico.

The story last week regarding working with AO1 productions going forward was a lot bigger than it was made out to be. The new production people were brought in and while not all, but many of the former production people were let go. The people who were let go were the ones the most vocal about complaining about being paid late.

Back on February 19th of this year, WWE Doctor Chris Amann filed a Libel/Slander lawsuit against Phil “CM Punk” Brooks and Colt Cabana, stemming from comments Punk made during an appearance on Colt Cabana’s “Art of Wrestling” podcast. The Cook County Clerk of the Circuit Court has released court documents which provide updates on the current status of the case, and what will happen next. The last three entries of the document, which you can view below, are the keys. It looks like there were a few initial amendments to the Complaint and Punk’s initial Motion to strike the Complaint was continued, likely until Colt Cabana’s attorney entered his appearance. Then on July 20th, you see the two entries below where the Judge denied (DND) Punk’s Motion and Cabana’s Motion (Participant Brooks and Colton, as that is Punk and Cabana’s real names, respectively). The Judge then assigned the case to a category and allowed 28 months for Discovery. In layman’s terms, Amann’s lawsuit has survived initial procedural challenges to its sufficiency. The parties now have up to 28 months to exchange information, obtain medical documentation, depose witnesses, etc. That doesn’t mean that the case will go to trial or that the suit ultimately will be successful. But it does mean that this issue isn’t going away anytime soon.

An announcement will be made officially later today that TripleMania, AAA's biggest event of the year, will be airing live on PPV in the U.S. and Canada on Sunday, 8/9. The show will be airing from 7-10 p.m. Eastern time live on all the major PPV carriers, through inDemand, Dish, DirecTV, Bell Canada Satellite and Rogers in Canada, headlined by the first-time ever match with Rey Mysterio Jr. vs. Myzteziz. The show will be priced at $19.95 for SD and $29.95 for HD. Two other matches announced for the show are Alberto El Patron vs. Brian Cage in a hair vs. hair match, and a trios match with Los Villanos III & IV & V facing The Psycho Circus in what will be the retirement match for Villano III, one of Mexico's most enduring stars of the modern era. Most of the AAA-based stars of Lucha Underground are expected to perform on the show. The complete lineup is expected to be released on Friday.

The Daily Beast has a new article asking “if WWE is too scared to go LGBT.” The article talks about Darren Young coming out to TMZ back in 2013 but says WWE hasn’t let the character come out. They spoke to Stephanie McMahon at ESPN’s ESPY awards last week and she commented on the Darren Young character: “Darren Young was the first WWE superstar to really come out as being homosexual, but his character in the show is not. At least, we haven’t done anything with it either way—just yet.” Stephanie also suggested that a gay character could happen in WWE: “It could very well pop up in WWE because we are all about what’s relevant, and what’s pop culture, and what people want to see. So if there is an opportunity, we might just take it.”

Was Rico a gay character or just a very flamboyant stylist? Feels like the WWE has had a gay character before or maybe even WCW but don't remember if Kee Wee was meant to be a gay wrestler.

Originally Posted by Observer Kevin Eck wrote a story regarding banned words when he worked in WWE creative. He noted the term "The Big Guy" for Ryback was banned for some time, but said that Ryback was persistent about it and McMahon eventually let him use the term. He said the word "fake" was also banned. If there was a spot where a heel was faking an injury, you had to use the team "feigning" instead of "faking." Another term banned was "Feud," and announcers had to use the term "rivalry." When Teddy Long was General Manager, he would almost always use the phrase, "Tonight, it will be" (when announcing matches on the show). Vince got sick of it and banned usage of the words "it will be" when used in that order. The term "Major announcement" was banned, and that every announcement had to be called simply an "announcement." He also banned the term "non-title" match. He hated the term. At first he wanted to get over the phrase "title-free" match, but that sounded so bad that it was changed to "the title is not on the line." But he preferred just never calling attention to it. If it's a title match, you say it, if not, nothing is said. Until WrestleMania when Paul Heyman brought it up as part of the buildup, it was banned to mention that Roman Reigns was Samoan, or that he was a second generation wrestler, or related to the Usos or Dwayne Johnson. Another banned phrase was that the "title is held up." Instead, the term he wanted was the title was in a "state of abeyance." That was always so awkward because nobody talked like that.

Some other sheet news includes:

• AXS TV ended up extending their deal with NJPW to be a multi-year deal with season 3 starting this August and plans for 2016 to have weekly NJPW shows instead of doing them in seasonal chunks. Main goal is to get the replays on AXS be just a few weeks behind current storylines/shows at the time.
• Supposedly the crowd at Full Sail last week during the new set of NXT tapings were very vocal about losing out on the next Takerover event and possibly future ones. Booed all mentions of the upcoming Brooklyn show and might be edited out for this set of shows.