Sheetz from this week's Wrestling Observer

[Lord Scion]

Ripped from the 420chan boards

The news from this week's Wrestling Observer Newsletter and much more. Bear with me as I post the sheets.

> The original booking of WWE Roadblock was to be HHH vs. Ambrose vs. Lesnar, with HHH pinning Ambrose to win. The main event booking is interesting. The kneejerk reaction is HHH has to retain for his title defense at WrestleMania against Roman Reigns. They believe that they are going to get Ambrose over as a never quits babyface by constantly beating him down and beating him but he keeps coming back. After HHH beat him down with the pedigree and left the ring, and Ambrose, still lying on his back, said “Thanks,” HHH came back and gave him another beating, throwing him over the announcers table and pounding on him on the table until officials tried to break it up. While Ambrose will likely always get a reaction because the crowd likes him and he’s got a great promo delivery, at some point, unless he scores a big win that this is building toward, people may lose faith in him since he constantly gets beaten up in fights he starts and always loses to the top guys.

> Right now there are no plans on the table for Ambrose to turn heel, but they badly need contenders ready for Reigns with personal issues over the summer. If they run with Sheamus and Wyatt as his post-Mania foes, or turn Show or Kane, it’ll be a bad start to a tough reign for him. Reigns as a heel makes all the sense in the world, but that would undo years of work in planning on him for being the face of the company. But all of his “money” contenders or best personal issues would come on the face side, most notably Lesnar, Ambrose, Undertaker and John Cena.

> With four weeks of television left, we’re told there is a complete WrestleMania card, although at this point only three matches are announced. The three, which are expected to be the show’s top three bouts, are HHH vs. Roman Reigns for the WWE title, Undertaker vs. Shane McMahon in a Hell in a Cell match for the control of Monday Night Raw, and Brock Lesnar vs. Dean Ambrose in a street fight. Raw this week was built more around setting up HHH vs. Ambrose for 3/12 in Toronto, and the 3/7 show in Chicago will have the dual purpose of building both Toronto and WrestleMania.

> At this point, there has been no mention of celebrities on the show. They haven’t even mentioned The Rock, although he is in a promotional videotape commercial for the show. But his being there has not been brought up in commentary since his last appearance on Raw in Miami. As noted, Rock, Steve Austin, Shawn Michaels and at least as of a week ago, Mick Foley, are all scheduled to have parts in the show at this point. The roles of all but Rock have been defined but whether all or some of the others will be announced ahead of time or do a cameo role similar to DX and the NWO last year is unknown.

> Charlotte defending the Divas title against Becky Lynch and Sasha Banks in a three-way is currently scheduled, after two straight non-endings in Lynch vs. Banks matches to get the title shot. There will be a New Day vs. League of Nations match in some form, either a tag team or a six-man match. The hints we’ve had indicate more likely the latter. The New Day vs. A.J. Styles & Chris Jericho program is not scheduled to be part of WrestleMania. They have been pushing Sheamus & Rusev as a tag team of late. King Barrett is fully cleared and Alberto Del Rio is still being linked with Kalisto, which could lead to a blow-off match over the U.S. title but we haven’t been told of that yet.

> There will also be a multiple person match of sorts. That is likely for Kevin Owens’ IC title although that hasn’t been confirmed. The idea is similar to last year’s IC title ladder match to load up on good workers (and The Miz). Also on the show include another singles match with top guys with an angle expected to be shot over the next two weeks, a second women’s match as well as the Andre the Giant Battle Royal for everyone else not slotted in. Aside from Shane McMahon, no surprise wrestlers are scheduled for the show, as all the legends will be in cameo roles, interview roles or as seconds or referees.


> Vince McMahon’s 2016 salary is listed as $1,325,000 and he is listed as being able to be bonused an equal amount this year if the year-end financials reach certain levels. The salaries of some of the top executives were released by WWE this past week. The bulk of McMahon’s income for the year will come in the form of company dividends, which would have been $18,850,867 this past year. Unless he sells stock, it would be the same amount this year. The value of his company stock at press time is approximately $792 million. In 2015, McMahon actually earned $3,308,998 between salary and bonuses, based on a salary of $1,239,923, incentive plan compensation of $2,050,000 and $19,075 in life insurance and 401 K payments. He was not paid as a performer after having a performers deal for many years.

> Michelle Wilson, the Chief Revenue and Marketing Officer, earned $4,507,801, with the bulk of that, $3,099,994 coming in stock awards. George Barrios, the Chief Strategy and Financial Officer earned $4,494,878, with identical money coming from stock awards.

> Paul Levesque earned $3,112,654 which was broken down as a $573,269 salary as Executive Vice President of Live Events and Creative, $299,995 in stock awards, $26,000 in incentive plan compensation and $1,713,360 for his work as a performer. Levesque earned, through all sources, $2,775,186 in 2014, and $2,511,311 in 2013. Levesque has a $1 million downside guarantee, which is generally the top downside in the company, with a few notable exceptions. His payments for appearing on Raw and doing PPV matches in 2015 greatly exceeded his downside.

> Kevin Dunn, the Executive Producer, earned $4,758,170, earning the same $3,099,994 in stock awards as Wilson and Barrios. The stock awards of Dunn, Wilson and Barrios, based on the company’s financial performance this past year, saw all of the earnings multiply over 2014 levels. Dunn, for a comparison, earned $1,791,492 in 2014 and $1,744,184 in 2013.

> Vince McMahon is the company’s leading stockholder, owning 39,272,641 shares, or about 51 percent of the company. Lindsell Train Limited of London, with 5,572,681 shares (7.3 percent) would be the second leading shareholder. Linda McMahon would be third largest shareholder with 4,306,036 shares (5.7 percent). Stephanie McMahon owns 1,904,210 shares (2.5 percent), making her the eighth largest shareholder in the company, also behind The Vanguard Group (4.8 percent), Eminence Capital (4.5 percent), Morgan Stanley (3.5 percent) and BlackRock Inc. (2.7 percent). Levesque owns 53,636 shares. What’s notable is that Shane McMahon no longer has a significant amount of stock, so he must have sold all or almost all of his stock that he and Stephanie were granted years ago. Stephanie had sold a significant amount of her stock a few years back to fund building a house.

> Shane McMahon has not signed a contract with the company as a performer nor has he been hired for an executive position. The company noted that he is expected to be paid in excess of $120,000 for his role as a performer this year leading to WrestleMania. At this point, nobody seems to have been told anything but he’s returning short-term as a performer.

 

[Lord Scion]

>>5119829
> The story broken this past week by Mike Johnson regarding TNA looking for outside investors opens up a lot of questions. While they are categorizing it as looking for money to fund new growth, the move comes at a time when Panda Energy has pulled back on funding the company and the company seems more from the outside looking that it needs new capital. The company has made some big moves this year, including signing talent to guaranteed money contracts just months after trying to get everyone off guaranteed deals and onto per date deal which left morale really bad when the promise of regular house shows in the latter part of 2015 failed to materialize.

> The company had been looking for investors for some time, but it hadn’t been public. But apparently Dixie Carter has been at meetings in both New York and Los Angeles looking for funding. The public admission of looking for outside funding is a change, as all previous stories that would lead to uncertainty about the future were always denied to talent, even though historically in every case it left the company with no credibility when the stories ended up being true.

> The most recent set of tapings in the U.K. runs out with the show that airs on 3/8, featuring what is billed as Kurt Angle’s last match with the company, against Bobby Lashley, from Birmingham. However, the company at press time still has no future dates listed on its calendar. Talent had been told that they were booked for tapings back at Universal in Orlando from 3/12 to 3/15, to tape several weeks of TV starting with the Impact show on 3/15. Then the dates were changed to 3/15 to 3/20, with the first night being an almost live (tape delayed by about two hours) show. The taping would include doing both Impact as well as some One Night Only specials which the company is contracted to in its international television deals. Six days of tapings would enable them to tape nearly two months of television.

> But it’s strange that even at this late date the company hasn’t announced it, nor have any of the talent received their ticket itinerary, and there are rumblings about late payments again, which is hardly uncommon. Those used to be blamed on the outside forces in Panda, but now with all checks having to be cut from the Nashville offices with Panda not involved, the old excuses no longer hold water. Because Universal shows don’t involve ticket sales and the belief is they can get a few hundred people from the park and a local fan base from the past to show up for free, the advertising in advance wouldn’t be as imperative as for any other location, but that doesn’t make the dates not being listed feel any less strange. It’s also notable that nothing has been announced regarding a tour of India to make up for the canceled trip late last year, and touring India was a key part of their television contract with Sony Six, which is one of the company’s key revenue streams. Talent hasn’t been told of any house shows or PPV dates, nor future tapings after this month.

> Signs aren’t good, as the audience for Impact has dropped. The 2/23 Impact show, pushed as the Lockdown card from London, did 210,000 viewers at 9 p.m., the lowest number to date by 45,000 viewers, and that’s more than a month after Pop TV added 8 million new homes. The 87,000 viewers for the replay were the second lowest since moving to the new station. They are in somewhere between 21 million and 23 million more homes than when they were on Destination America, and about 12 million to 14 million fewer homes than Spike, but their viewing audience is way down from Destination America numbers. Two years ago, when Toby Keith was in talks with Bob Carter about buying the promotion (which the promotion vehemently denied at the time), which in theory would have been run by Jeff Jarrett (Keith is also friends with Jim Ross), there was at least a solid base of fans and a very viable television platform. They had in excess of 1 million viewers and a prime time show on Spike. At that point the deal fell through because Bob insisted that Dixie be promised a place in the new company, which Keith wouldn’t agree to.

> Now the base has eroded. While the TV show has improved, they ran off so many customers and lost customers with network and night changes that never came back. The starting base is very low, although it is still prime time exposure. And there’s some question regarding longevity at Pop TV, given President Brad Schwartz was talking about the potential of 1.3 million viewers weekly on his station, citing numbers they were doing in good weeks in 2014, the numbers they’ve gotten have to be a huge disappointment, more so because they have been dropping of late. There are a number of problems, including just the nature of TNA as WWE-lite storylines with lesser stars. Instead of forging their own direction like a number of independent groups have done to grow interest, the TNA formula isn’t unique in a business where WWE has five hours of weekly prime time television with bigger names, better matches, and an NXT product on its network as a hot alternative with a more basic style. TNA does have less scripted feeling interviews and has tried to push new characters in recent weeks. The TV has gotten better in recent weeks. But the loss of so many big names and overall negative momentum and the bad feelings among fans from all the years of bad television has left the brand with significant damage.

> TNA’s U.K. tour was far worse than it looked like originally. The attendance figures we listed in the Observer were the numbers in the building but numbers of paid from the venue itself indicates most of the tickets were papered. It’s not known what the deal is regarding the splits between TNA and local promoters and if TNA got a guarantee to come in, or it was a revenue split. If it was a revenue split, then the lower than expected gates would lead to less cash right now. The 1/30 show at SSE Wembley in London only drew 2,591 paid, by far the smallest the company has ever done at Wembley, with a $191,804 gate. The 1/31 show in Birmingham drew 1,063 paid and $84,595. We don’t have the paid for the first night of the tour in Manchester.

> In addition, the relationship between TNA will and AO1 Productions looks to have fallen apart already. This stems from issues with production people for much of last year complaining about late payments. It was then said that TNA would no longer be in charge of paying production people, and that the company, billed as being run by former wrestlers Ron & Don Harris, who were part of the production team, would take over production and be responsible for paying the production people. Even though the finances don’t sound like they are doing so well with the recent moves, they are still aggressively seeking out ROH talent whose contracts are expiring soon and trying to sign them to guaranteed deals.


> AAA has announced its Rey de Reyes show, with a few twists. For one, just like in December, plans to bring a major show to Tampico have fallen through. The show was first scheduled for 3/18 in Tampico but was moved to 3/23 in San Luis Potosi, a show outdoors at the 7,000-seat El Paseo Monumental bullring, that was originally to be a television taping. If you recall, Tampico was to be the site of Guerra de Titanes in December, which ended up being canceled, and then as a make good, they gave them this show, which was then canceled, probably for the same reasons the first show was. Tampico is the site of some nasty drug cartel wars and it’s not exactly the safest place to run events.

> The main event has Mesias (Mil Muertes) vs. El Texano Jr. for the vacant Mega heavyweight title. This is the title that Alberto El Patron held when he left for WWE, and has been vacant since October. The card is pretty clear that they are no longer focusing on younger talent and more of older wrestlers with name value. Also announced is a non-stipulation singles match with Dr. Wagner Jr., who is 50, vs. Psycho Clown.

> The Rey de Reyes final features Blue Demon Jr. (49), Villano IV (50), La Parka (50) and the winner of the final qualifying match on 3/4 in Toluca (which has Fenix, El Hijo del Fantasma, Pentagon Jr. and a mystery fourth person). Chessman & Averno defend the AAA tag team titles in a three-way TLC match against Jack Evans & Australian Suicide and Joe Lider & Daga. It’s notable because Lider & Pentagon Jr. have been a regular tag team. Dark Cuervo & Dark Scoria & Zorro defend the AAA trios tiles against Aero Star & Fenix & Drago. The opener will be the usual big show opener with the man, woman, mini and exotico eight-man tag. In this case it’s Taurus & Taya & Mini Charly Manson & Mamba facing a surprise wrestler teaming with Fabi Apache & Mascarita Sagrada & Pimpinela Escarlata.

> It does appear WWE is getting the message across regarding fans not purchasing PPVs, at least in North America, as the Royal Rumble was down significantly from the prior year even though WWE had topped the 1 million mark for the network by that time. The Rumble is currently estimated at 32,000 domestic buys, a number less than SummerSlam and Night of Champions, as well as another 59,000 buys outside of North America. The 32,000 buys represent a 47 percent drop from the prior year’s 61,000 in North America. The international drop was 49 percent, going from 115,000 buys for the 2015 Rumble to 59,000 this year.

> There are plans for this year by NJPW for a greater expansion into the U.S. market taking advantage of the AXS show and the hope that the involvement of Jim Ross will give them more product visibility since Ross can be a good point person with his media connections

> Hiroshi Tanahashi’s shoulder injury is pretty much healed at this point as he was lifting hard on it while in Las Vegas over the weekend. Tomohiro Ishii was injured from a kick by Cedric Alexander on the 2/27 ROH tapings in Las Vegas, but knowing him, I doubt he’ll be missing any action.

> There are negotiations going on for a New Japan video game

 

[Lord Scion]

The Hogan-Gawker trial starts this week. According to a story in the Tampa Bay Times, when the judge read Gawker’s defense that the video was a matter of legitimate public concern, several jurors scoffed audibly. Hogan is expecting the biggest win of his career, and financially, it very well could be. Hogan Tweeted while in the court house, “Time for the real main event. I am going to slam another Giant! Hogan vs. Gawker! Watcha Gonna Do Gawker? Only Justice Brother.

> AXS TV is pushing the arrival of Jim Ross to their station pretty hard this week. On 3/4, there will be a one hour special at 8 p.m. called “The Voice vs. Jim Ross,” where Michael Schiavello interviews Ross about pro wrestling, followed at 9 p.m. by Ross’ debut as announcer for New Japan World Pro Wrestling, with matches from the 2015 Wrestling Dontaku show at the Fukuoka International Center Arena on 5/3. The Schiavello interviews on AXS are usually really good. Ross taped the interview on 2/23 in Las Vegas and said they covered a number of controversial topics

> Fite TV, which is the streaming service from the Flipps App people that Ross is going to be the face of, did make contact with PWG about streaming the shows live. PWG turned it down, preferring to remain with their business model with High Spots where it’s exclusively available on DVD with no streaming live. SoCal Val now works for that company as they were in Las Vegas for the streaming aspect of the ROH PPV show

> Lucha Underground has signed a deal with iTunes where all episodes of season one will be available for $34.99 in SD and $44.99 in HD. They also have the already aired episodes of season two for sale as well. We had been told about this deal several weeks ago. What we were told about the deal at that time is that it would be announced and was pretty much done. At the time we were told, and the deal hadn’t been completely finalized but was told to us that it was happening, is that Lucha Underground would not be getting any money up front, which they were hoping to get, but would be getting a share of the revenue from the purchases. But this enables people who have no access to El Rey to watch season two, and people who didn’t have access to El Rey or Unimas to watch season one.

> For the 3/15 show in Austin, while it is a free show, it’s only free for people who attend the SXSW event, and that has a $189 ticket price

> The lawsuit TNA filed against Scott Steiner several years ago claiming that he violated his contract by saying negative things about the promotion was thrown out of court last week. TNA had sued Steiner nearly four years ago claiming his contract specifically would not allow him to make any disparaging remarks about the company, but he said negative things about the company as well as the company’s top people, noting negative remarks he had said about Hulk Hogan, Bruce Prichard and Eric Bischoff. Steiner claimed that he was no longer bound by his contract which had expired when he started talking negatively about them.

> Sami Zayn is scheduled to be wrestling at WrestleMania at this point so he should be appearing on the main roster and on the main television very shortly. He’s also booked for the European tour

> Roman Reigns nasal surgery may have been for a deviated septum on 2/23 in Tampa. That is not confirmed as far as what the surgery was for, just that the angle on 2/22 was done as a storyline to cover the surgery for a pre-existing issue, which is why they used the heavy blood in the angle. The reason WWE was so vague on the issue is because while it was nasal surgery and the angle is that he had a shattered nose, the surgery was for something different. We don’t know for certain what the nature of the surgery was, only that the photos he showed were consistent with the aftermath of surgery for a deviated septum. Right now he’s advertised for the 3/7 Raw in Chicago, 3/12 Roadblock show in Toronto, but not the 3/14 TV in Pittsburgh

> Lesnar is scheduled for 3/14, the 3/22 Smackdown in Boston and 3/28 Raw in Brooklyn

> Undertaker isn’t advertised for anything until WrestleMania at this point

> Shane McMahon is currently advertised for Raw on 3/7 and 3/14, but not 3/21 in Philadelphia, and back on 3/28

Sexxxy Eddy - Wed, 02 Mar 2016 19:23:27 EST ID:6xVMX6iD >>5119829
> Shane McMahon has been training with a number of different coaches to get in shape for his match, including strength and conditioning and Muay Thai. One of his coaches is Phil Nurse, a boxer and kickboxer from the U.K. best known as Georges St-Pierre’s striking coach. Nurse was the guy who rubbed all the Vaseline on GSP causing all the controversy in his second fight with B.J. Penn. Maybe they can copy that spot so Shane can escape from Undertaker’s gogoplata. Or maybe not

> Nakamura’s contract expires in February 2019

> In the fourth quarter, the WWE network had 389,000 new subscribers and had 405,000 subscribers cancel, which would be about one-third in the total subscriber base in theory. Of course, a lot of these are the same people, and in some cases they are people who was listed as domestic who used fake addresses and switched to international, since Germany, which was the No. 4 market for the network unofficially (officially there were no subscribers from Germany until January) didn’t have access until early January, and thus people in Germany and Japan (where the network has done shockingly poor as that culture doesn’t seem into that sort of thing as New Japan World was also a major disappointment) were listed as domestic

> There had been talk regarding whether to allow Styles to use the Styles Clash, because Vince McMahon had found out Yoshytatsu suffered a broken neck from the move and wanted to err on the side of caution. After Styles used it to beat Axel in his second singles match, they made the call to use the calf crusher as his finisher. Styles hadn’t used the Styles clash, nor even teased it because he was told it wasn’t going to be his finish, since that point. Jericho wanted it in their PPV match, as much as anything because the move was over and to get a reaction, and got it in, and with no issues coming from it, the move is now okay to be used. But I believe they still want the submission move to be his finisher

> Right now the rule in creative is if there is a major cultural event, such as the Super Bowl, Grammys or Emmys, that something related to it has to be written into the opening promo the next Monday on Raw

> The WWE Network launched on 3/1 in both Thailand and The Philippines

> The WWE received the Diamond Play Button from YouTube for surpassing 10 million subscribers to its YouTube channel, only the fourth company to reach that number after Taylor Swift, The Ellen Show and The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. They pushed this on Raw and said they were the leading sports programming on YouTube. That’s notable because they try to claim they aren’t sports when it comes to television, because the longest running show doesn’t work compared to sports that have been on television for decades, or in other comparisons like when they have pushed Raw as the leading entertainment show on cable some Mondays when it had far less viewers than football. But now when it’s behind entertainment properties, it’s sport

> At this point there is no end date for Jericho, in the sense he’s got no Fozzy touring dates going forward

> It’s notable that WWE’s plans for a 5/1 PPV show in Chicago (Payback, which hasn’t been announced yet) means they are booking the same market one week before the combined ROH/New Japan War of the Worlds PPV in the same city

A correction from last week. Humberto Garza III (AAA’s Garza Jr.), who is attending a tryout camp in early March (this is the same very limited camp that Michael Elgin was invited to before he signed with New Japan), will be coming with his cousin, not his brother. His cousin wrestled as Ultimo Ninja out of Monterrey and is very good and is also about 6-feet tall or taller, and WWE has been looking for tall athletic Mexicans

> As of now, the plan isn’t to tape the Cruiserweight tournament with NXT. The plan would be to do tapings of each every few weeks, with the NXT show being taped on Thursdays and the cruiserweight show being taped the next night in Full Sail. This could change

> Matt Riddle recently met with HHH and is expected to be in NXT in some form very shortly. Right now he’s not scheduled for the cruiserweight tournament because he’s more than 205 pounds

> The 3/25 show in Madison Square Garden has changed again. It’s still Bryan Appreciation Night (they are doing this in a few cities later this month including the 3/27 Washington, DC show). They are also going to do a Bryan Appreciation Night every night on one of the April European tours. The new MSG main event is Reigns & Ambrose vs. HHH & Sheamus. Ambrose was pulled from a scheduled Iron Man match with Owens for the IC title. In its spot is an Owens vs. Styles IC title match. Also scheduled are Kalisto vs. Del Rio for the U.S. title and Show vs. Wyatt. This would be the first Owens vs. Styles match in about two years. They did an indie match together in upstate New York

> On the cities that Bryan isn’t appearing in Europe, the other tour, they are adding Undertaker working the shows. 4/16 in Birmingham is advertising Reigns vs. Wyatt as the main event, which at this point would be scheduled as a title match, plus New Day vs. Rusev & Sheamus which would be a tag title match, plus Kane, Strowman, Lynch, Banks, Charlotte, Ric Flair, Usos, Dudleys, Swagger, Rowan, Neville, Stardust, Sin Cara and Breeze. You can likely figure out the matches on that tour from the order of the names being listed. There’s only one show scheduled that night and also one show on 4/17 in Nottingham and 4/18 in London (which is Raw). Most of the other nights are split crews

 

[Lord Scion]

>>5119829
> Jericho had a really nasty looking busted up left eye from taking Kingston’s Trouble in Paradise kick on the 2/23 Smackdown tapings in the spot where Jericho shoved Styles out of the way to take it himself

> After about 20 months, Ric Flair settled his issues in North Carolina. Flair had been ordered by the court to pay $32,000 in support and legal fees to his fourth wife, Jacqueline Beems Fliehr in June 2014. He had refused to pay. He had claimed in newspapers interviews that he would, but when he hadn’t by July, an arrest warrant was put out against him in Mecklenburg County (Charlotte is in Mecklenburg Country, where he lived for decades) where he was to be arrested if he came to the state. He’s avoided going to North Carolina since that time, but the arrest warrant was rescinded last week on 2/25, which was his 67th birthday, so evidently he paid the fee. He had vowed at one point not to pay it because he had refused to pay any more money to Beems

> On the 2/25 Smackdown show, they piped in fake boos for the HHH promo at the start of the show where originally it was mostly cheers. So they are not looking for anyone to think he’s a face or planning a face turn, at least at this point. As of mid-week, nothing had changed and Reigns was scheduled to win the title at Mania and be the main event face at the 2017 and 2018 Mania

> The annual WWE tour of Japan will be shows on 7/1 and 7/2 from Sumo Hall in Tokyo. No doubt Nakamura will be pushed as the headliner on those shows. I can already sense a number of guys trying to push their way into putting him over on that show

> Styles did an interview with Rapzilla.com and said the main reason he decided to leave New Japan is that he was just too far away from his family. “I think the jump was due to timing. Being in Japan, being away from home, was pretty scary because if something happened, I would have to jump on a plane and go home, and that scared me.” He said he was disappointed to find out he wouldn’t be wrestling Bryan. “We had unbelievable matches and selfishly I was hoping I’d have the chance to wrestle Daniel Bryan and have one of those classic matches that we had years ago. I know we could definitely do that.”. . Barrett has been fully cleared as he was working good back-and-forth house show matches with Neville over the weekend

> Even though the “Pawn Stars” show advertised Tammy Sytch this past week, the Hall of Fame ring was actually that of Bill Moody (Paul Bearer) whose family wanted to sell it. They offered $4,000 for the ring but the person who brought the ring in to be sold wanted more and turned it down. Where the story gets even stranger is that Daniel Moody, the son of Bill, claimed that it was not his father’s Hall of Fame ring on the show and he’s trying to straighten out the situation with “Pawn Stars.” Really weird how they mentioned Sytch in advertising the show yet it wasn’t her ring and she had claimed no involvement, and then it was Moody’s ring on the show, or at least they said it was, and then Moody’s family said it wasn’t

> Sytch had a blow-up regarding an episode of the Edge & Christian show where they did a comedy sketch on her. They did a graphic at the end, a spoof on a sponsorship saying the show was sponsored by “Sunny’s Drops,” like it was one of those drug commercials, and listed the side effects that it could cause erratic behavior, cake fancer (which I believe was a way of saying fake cancer without actually saying it) and multiple DUIs. It doesn’t take much to set her off anyway, so you can imagine her response. “Those who matter in the WWE offices called to check on me in the hospital a coupe weeks ago. Edge and Christian are just douchebags uglys. It’s fine. Those two f***ing ugly Canadians can say what they want. I will see them at a convention somewhere. You know I’m a ruthless bytch. When they were both first getting hired, they both had crushes on me. Carl DeMarco can verify. I guess because I didn’t f*** them, they’re bitter.” I guess Edge & Christian could have said no, but it’s not like they probably wrote that spot so at least be mad at the people who actually wrote the segment and put it through and the company as much as the talent

> NXT announced a 4/22 show in Kingston, RI, just a few days after ROH announced its first show in years in Rhode Island on 4/30 in West Warwick

> Adrienne Reese is out of action. She had a cast on her left hand at the NXT shows

 

[RammerJammer]

Yikes. HHH still getting babyface reactions

 

[mrken12]

Why is TNA still giving out guaranteed contracts?

 

[mrken12]

There will also be a multiple person match of sorts. That is likely for Kevin Owens’ IC title although that hasn’t been confirmed. The idea is similar to last year’s IC title ladder match to load up on good workers (and The Miz).

Miz still getting shytted on.

 

[Norrin Radd]

Sami possibly wrestling at WM

 

[jackswstd]

Lucha Underground has signed a deal with iTunes where all episodes of season one will be available for $34.99 in SD and $44.99 in HD. They also have the already aired episodes of season two for sale as well. We had been told about this deal several weeks ago. What we were told about the deal at that time is that it would be announced and was pretty much done. At the time we were told, and the deal hadn’t been completely finalized but was told to us that it was happening, is that Lucha Underground would not be getting any money up front, which they were hoping to get, but would be getting a share of the revenue from the purchases. But this enables people who have no access to El Rey to watch season two, and people who didn’t have access to El Rey or Unimas to watch season one

Meltz being Meltz

 

[R=G]

Poor Reigns

Bryan still helping ticket sales

Jericho sticking around for awhile

Ambrose getting some shaky booking at the expense of others...

 

[TBdaGhost]

Right now there are no plans on the table for Ambrose to turn heel, but they badly need contenders ready for Reigns with personal issues over the summer. If they run with Sheamus and Wyatt as his post-Mania foes, or turn Show or Kane, it’ll be a bad start to a tough reign for him



And smh at New Day vs. League of Nations. That don't even make no fukkin sense

 

[TBdaGhost]

Fite TV, which is the streaming service from the Flipps App people that Ross is going to be the face of, did make contact with PWG about streaming the shows live. PWG turned it down


I wish Pwg would do this. pwg is so dope. But I'd rather watch an ippv than wait for a dvd

 

[Brad Piff]

Reigns being the main event face for the next 3 wrestlemanias

 

[Lo-Co]

Reigns being the main event face for the next 3 wrestlemanias

Maybe they hope the fans get Stockholm syndrome

 

[PlayerNinety_Nine]

> The lawsuit TNA filed against Scott Steiner several years ago claiming that he violated his contract by saying negative things about the promotion was thrown out of court last week. TNA had sued Steiner nearly four years ago claiming his contract specifically would not allow him to make any disparaging remarks about the company, but he said negative things about the company as well as the company’s top people, noting negative remarks he had said about Hulk Hogan, Bruce Prichard and Eric Bischoff. Steiner claimed that he was no longer bound by his contract which had expired when he started talking negatively about them.

@Scott_Steiner