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Originally Posted by Observer Ring of Honor's return to television production will include the debut of a wrestler who was part of April's WWE releases. PWInsider reported today that former TNA World Heavyweight Champion EC3 is in Baltimore and will make his ROH debut at this week's TV tapings. Their report has been confirmed by our Dave Meltzer.

Originally Posted by PWI Paul Levesque met with reporters in a conference call this morning in advance of Saturday’s Takeover XXX super show on the WWE Network ... The first caller was Brian Fritz. He asked something I wanted to know, why is NXT not going to be in Thunderdome. HHH said with moving Smackdown, Raw and SummerSlam to Amway, he said as awesome as the Dome will be, it’s important for him to stay at Full Sail due to their great relationship. Never say never, but he’s happy right now. He said Friday will be debut Thunderdome and he misses the fans, they are the secret sauce. He can’t wait to get them back. They are everything to WWE. He said for the immediate future they are at Full Sail and they are still figuring everything out. Jason Powell asked about Velveteen Dream’s investigation, which I was also curious about. He said there is an online accuser who has not been contacted by WWE. He mentioned Nia Jax not being happy with how this has gone. HHH said they take it seriously, have looked into it and found nothing there. He said that they will always listen when new evidence is brought up but he already talked about it and he wanted to move on to other topics ... Comicbook.com asked about Renee Young and what she has meant to NXT and the company for 8 years. He said he won’t comment on her status but having her in WWE has been awesome. She has been a large part of what they do and he has loved working with her. The Wrap asked if running SummerSlam on a boat was an option. H said every option was looked into. He said most options didn’t have much of a chance. It’s all about doing it safely and things on a boat aren’t easy. He said when you see Thunderdome, you will get why they went that way. Nick Houseman asked about Lars Sullivan’s status. He said he didn’t even know that Lars was putting workout videos online. He said he has no update on Lars ... Dave Meltzer asked what the biggest lesson they have learned about producing shows in the pandemic and will there be a new head writer for NXT. He said they shift things around writing the show. He said it’s a group that include Shawn Michaels, Brian James and himself. He said everything goes through them. He said that there are lessons to be learned everywhere. He said that the biggest difficulty has been in the shifting of everything. COVID has made it all exponentially harder. He said you could have great stuff written and then you wait to see if it can be used ... Shawn Sap asked about haven’t talent being poached now that they have a USA slot too. He said that due to USA, they have made changes to the process of the talent being poached and you will see that in the draft when it returns later this year. He added that people can go brand to brand now and try different things. He said when he came into WWE and he would talk to Taker about people being in the company for 5 or 6 years, it was unreal to him that they could stay in one place that long. Now you have people in the company 10 years or more. He said with that, people now can go to other places in the company and change things up. All brands need to be supported now. Jim Varsallone asked what Karrion Kross brings to the table ... H said he has had his eye on Kross for a long time and he could see serious talent there. He could sense the X Factor in him, and that is king for any talent. He said that the learning curve is steep when one comes to the company, including the TV aspect. He said Kross is a sponge for the business. He is always learning. His improvement and growth rate has been huge since walking through the door, just like Keith Lee ... Justin Labar asked about the ratings for the Wednesday shows. What is important, demos, viewers, etc. What does he focus on? He said he’s focused on NXT. He said thank God people care about that stuff to the degree they do. At the end of the day it’s about his product and his fans. You put out the best product you can, hope fans want to watch and that’s it. He looks at numbers but not the way people do online. He said people can argue all they want, he doesn’t worry about that. He worries about NXT. He said he can’t wait for the fans to come back because they are the true barometer of what the fans love. The digital stuff has a lot of factors and negativity, so he likes the true reactions in the arenas. He can’t wait to get fans back to tell them what they want ... A British caller asked if this match could lead to more matches for Pat McAfee. He said we will see. He said Pat is an amazing athlete. He said he was an all around athlete but could monetize being a kicker so he did. He said Pat was always a WWE fan and HHH didn’t realize that when he first met him. He gets it now. He said Pat was not looking for a niche role, he wants to be a wrestler. H said he has watched Pat train and he is a natural and very gifted. H said that the reason that he is putting him in an NXT match, where it will be scrutinized, is that he has the ability to do it. He is also working with one of the most gifted guys on their roster in Adam Cole. He thinks it will be spectacular on both of their ends. Where that goes, it depends on Pat because he has a lot of irons in the fire.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling He was asked about a new head writer on NXT and wouldn’t address any specific people but noted it is “business as usual” and would appear to confirm that head writer Joe Belcastro is moving on, which had been out there and we had heard about. It is not known if Belcastro has already left or is leaving soon. Ringside News had reported on the story on Wednesday.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Paul Levesque was a guest on the Bill Simmons Podcast to discuss WWE navigating through the pandemic and promoting the launch of their shows at the Amway Center this Friday. *He said the internet makes their jobs more difficult and it’s all opinions that are out there, it’s a subjective business and talent can selectively find an opinion that benefits them ... *He said the most important thing is having a wealth of talent coming into the company and are as much a content company as they are a wrestling one *On AEW, he said the strength of WWE is their ability to pivot and Vince McMahon will put the right people around him. He didn’t directly speak about AEW and more so used the question to discuss Vince McMahon’s history and ability to adapt *Levesque noted when it comes to new stars it helps when the old one leaves citing Hulk Hogan leaving the company in 1993 – this is a point we have discussed where talent gets on top and can be there for years without other options. It was helpful for Hogan that Bruno Sammartino was largely retired by his run, that Hogan left for Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels, and then they left to usher in Steve Austin’s ascent with The Rock. *He completed agreed with Simmons that Raw should be two hours and that it’s obvious adding it is so hard to write that third hour of Raw *Regarding their on-screen product reflecting the world and its problems, he said if you go too far today you alienate people and can’t push the boundaries as they once did and cited films from ten years ago you couldn’t make and jokes that wouldn’t fly today *They had a discussion about the dynamic of working for Vince McMahon while he’s also family and a grandfather to his children. He said if there was ever an issue so significant and he had to choose, he would walk away from working with McMahon if it would affect the family dynamic ... *He will see if the right scenario presents itself but didn’t completely close the door on wrestling again but prefers helping the younger talent than doing it himself, he said he will be fine if he doesn’t wrestle again

Originally Posted by Observer After unsuccessfully challenging for Kenny Omega & Hangman Page's Tag Team titles on Dynamite last week, Jurassic Express have fallen out of the top five in AEW's tag team rankings ... The Young Bucks moved up to third after defeating The Dark Order last week, while Evil Uno & Stu Grayson have fallen to fifth after that loss. Rhodes & Marshall are back into the rankings at fourth. They defeated Jack Evans & Angelico on AEW Dark last week. The men's and women's singles division rankings are unchanged from last week ... This week's full rankings are listed below: Men's division -- Champions: AEW World Champion Jon Moxley (15-0 singles record in 2020, 21-2-1 overall record), TNT Champion Cody (18-1 singles record in 2020, 26-6-1 overall record) MJF (8-0 singles record in 2020, 13-2 overall record) Lance Archer (11-1 singles record in 2020, 11-1 overall record) Brian Cage (6-1 singles record in 2020, 6-2 overall record) Brodie Lee (5-1 singles record in 2020, 8-1 overall record) Scorpio Sky (7-2 singles record in 2020, 24-11 overall record) Women's division -- Champion: Hikaru Shida (16-1 singles record in 2020, 21-7 overall record) Nyla Rose (7-2 singles record in 2020, 14-6 overall record) Big Swole (6-3 singles record in 2020, 8-8 overall record) Penelope Ford (6-4 singles record in 2020, 8-7 overall record) Abadon (4-1 singles record in 2020, 4-1 overall record) Britt Baker (4-4 singles record in 2020, 13-8 overall record) Tag team division -- Champions: Kenny Omega & Hangman Page (12-0 tag team record in 2020, 29-9 overall record for Omega, 21-10 overall record for Page) FTR (5-0 tag team record in 2020, 5-2 overall record for Dax Harwood, 5-2 overall record for Cash Wheeler) Best Friends (13-4 tag team record in 2020, 21-15 overall record for Trent Barreta, 20-13 overall record for Chuck Taylor) The Young Bucks (6-2 tag team record in 2020, 19-11 overall record for Nick Jackson, 19-11 overall record for Matt Jackson) The Natural Nightmares (6-1 tag team record in 2020, 14-8 overall record for Dustin Rhodes, 9-11 overall record for QT Marshall) The Dark Order (8-2 tag team record in 2020, 13-5 overall record for Evil Uno, 14-6 overall record for Stu Grayson)

Originally Posted by PWI The WWE Network has quietly removed a number of older WWE documentaries from the streaming service, PWInsider.com has confirmed. The titles that have been removed are: 2005's Bret Hart - The Best There Is, the Best There Was, the Best There Ever Will Be 2010's Hart and Soul: Hart Family Anthology. 2010's WWE Top 50 Superstars. 2011's Greatest Rivalries: Bret vs. Shawn. 2013's Bret Hart: The Dungeon Collection. 2019's The Most Powerful Families in Wrestling. The documentaries that have been pulled all seem to have one common, obvious factor - WWE Hall of Famer Bret Hart. As previously reported on PWInsider.com, while WWE has ownership of the Stampede Wrestling library, Bret Hart owns the rights to his matches from that same library, which he purchased from his parents before their passing. This issue has led to the WWE Network pulling complete episodes of Stampede Wrestling TV in 2015 shortly after they were uploaded to the WWE Network. Since that time, WWE has only utilized matches from Stampede that do not feature Bret Hart appearing and the two sides have never come to an agreement on the usage of Hart's matches from that time period. There is no word what led to the documentaries pulled, but if those documentaries featured Bret Hart content from Stampede (which in the case of some of them, was certainly the case), they may have been yanked from WWE's streaming service for that reason. If those titles return with some slight re-editing, that would certainly prove the Stampede footage theory.

Originally Posted by PWI WWE sent out invitations to members of their mailing list, offering them a chance to take part in a live WWE Thunderdome test tomorrow. For fans who have signed up for the invite, WWE will present a match for them to test the Thunderdome experience, promising they will be the first to take part. It does not appear the match will be broadcast live and it will just be an in-house test for the company. The test is scheduled for 5:15 PM EST.

Originally Posted by PWI As noted last night, WWE made the first Virtual Fan opportunities available for this week's Friday Night Smackdown broadcast last night via WWEThunderDome.com. We are told by sources that they hit capacity within minutes. The virtual fan slots for Sunday's Summerslam PPV will be made available later this week, followed by Monday's Raw slots, and so on.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling For those in Canada, AEW Dynamite will now be available at 6 pm Eastern this Saturday on TSN.ca and on the TSN app. It will also air on TSN2 at 10 pm Eastern that night.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling NJPW Strong will now be available on Fite TV each Friday night at 10 pm Eastern in addition to airing on New Japan World. The Fite TV version is available for $5.99 U.S.

For the type of shows NJPW Strong and the Lion's Break Collision series have been so far, $6 per episode seems a bit high especially since that would be $24 for a typical month's worth of shows.

Originally Posted by Fightful Buff Bagwell, real name Marcus Bagwell, has been involved in an accident that resulted in serious injuries. The Cobb County Police Department Selective Traffic Enforcement Program (STEP) Unit is currently investigating a traffic collision that took place on the afternoon of August 16 in Georgia. According to the report from the STEP Unit, the 50-year-old Bagwell lost control of his Chevrolet Tahoe going through a curve. Bagwell then collided into a free-standing bathroom at the Cobb County Transit (CCT) bus station. He was transported to Wellstar Kennestone Hospital with serious injuries.

Originally Posted by EWrestling.com Fightful Select reports that Riddick Moss was on the verge of getting a big push in the WWE prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. As noted, he took a break from WWE TV due to the pandemic. The reason for that was due to him caring or a family member that is a higher risk for the virus due to cystic fibrosis. Former RAW executive director Paul Heyman made the decision to bench Moss, to avoid any possible heat of Moss making the decision himself. It was added that Heyman was very high on Moss at the time.

TPWW Frontpage:

• Video of the WWE ThunderDome Set Being Built
• Renee Young Leaving WWE
• Registration for ThunderDome on SmackDown Reaches Capacity + Info on Fan Guidelines