> WWE is paying an annual fee for ICW, the story going around wrestling is the number is $50,000 per year on a three-year deal which would end in early 2020. The ICW deal with the WWE Network is a tiny fraction of what Flo Sports is paying for Evolve content on its current deal, is believed to be around half of the annual fee WWE is paying for a far better drawing promotion for a weekend of shows. Multiple UK sources believe a deal with Progress is also completed and OTT has been mentioned as well.
> Both Flo Slam and the WWE have approached Revolution Pro about putting their shows on their respective networks. Revolution Pro turned down Flo Slam based on the idea their offer wasn’t financially worthwhile to them based on where they are at now. WWE was more of a feeling out process and no offer was made.
> The updated New Japan World subscription numbers are roughly 60,000 subscribers with 15,000 outside Japan and 45,000 from Japan. What’s notable is that there are tons more outside Japan subscribers than ever bought iPPVs in the day of iPPVs, as the outside of Japan numbers for the Tokyo Dome show in 2014 was closer to 1,000. Granted, that was before AXS aired New Japan and the popularity of the promotion was a lot smaller. But there are far less Japanese subscribers to the network than those who spent more money on iPPVs when that was first starting out in Japan. The WWE Network never hit it big at all in Japan either.
> It is confirmed that the 7/1 and 7/2 NJPW shows will be at the Long Beach, CA Convention Center.
> While not officially green lit, the ITV World of Sport is very much alive and the rating was considered good enough to continue by network officials. It’s just getting the final call made and then working on the dates of the first set of tapings since the studio they use is heavily booked for all kinds of programming. The belief is that the deal is all but officially done and the official announcement and details of the next set of tapings will be made within a few weeks. They will be taping on a similar schedule as TNA and are starting talks with the wrestlers to work out the dates. It would probably be a multi-day shoot. The tricky thing is Jim Ross, because he’s under contract to AXS, although they can probably work the New Japan tapings around his scheduled. But he also works for CBS Sports doing boxing, and the boxing events aren’t going to be worked around his schedule. Ross has said that if the ITV thing goes through, he wouldn’t be looking for any other projects as between the three he’d be kept quite busy at 65 years old, really a lot busier than he ever expected to be.
> Fred Ottman, 60, best known as Big Bubba, Tugboat, Typhoon, Shockmaster and Uncle Fred among his different aliases, was hospitalized this past week and in really rough condition. His wife told Bill Apter that at first she thought he had a stroke because he couldn’t talk, but when they got to the hospital he had four different infections, the worst one to the kidneys. His fever at one point hit 104 degrees.
> Ivelisse is pregnant. She came to the Shine show on 1/13 in Ybor City, where she was their champion. Her situation wasn’t announced to the fans, but they did announce that she wasn’t medically cleared and was stripped of her championship. How that affects Lucha Underground is unknown, but likely not at all since they aren’t taping until the end of this year.
> It appears that Anthem Sports & Entertainment will be dropping the TNA initials and just calling the product Impact Wrestling. Those kind of cosmetic changes and new logo aren’t going to make any difference. Granted, the TNA name does have a negative connotation, but Impact has close to the same connotation and the setting and style being the same will mean the results will be the same. They still have the problem that Lucha Underground also has, which is how can they make any money on this venture and the costs are higher than the television rights fees, and there’s not enough revenue generated elsewhere to make up the difference.
> As far as the three key contracts that were coming due, neither Matt Hardy, Jeff Hardy nor Drew Galloway have signed new deals with TNA. The Galloway situation is notable because of how the U.K. situation has greatly changed in a short period of time. Still, for the Five Star group, he was their spokesperson at a press conference this past week in Dundee, Scotland.
> While the Hardys haven’t signed, things look good for them to stay. There are two options on the table, a guaranteed deal where they would have full control of their bookings outside the promotion, or a higher guaranteed deal where TNA would at least have to approve of their outside bookings. TNA likely wouldn’t nix anything unless it was maybe ROH (and maybe not since ROH is on The Fight Network so it makes no sense with Fight Network owning for those political issues to still exist) and of course WWE. Matt right now is leaning toward staying, since he has full control of his creative in TNA, which it’s highly unlikely he’d have in WWE. Jeff still hasn’t come to an agreement regarding number of dates per year, since the plan is to go back to running a regular house show schedule.
> The feeling at the tapings is that Jarrett seemed prime for a power position down the line. Anthem brought him in with his job to give them tips on how to make the company profitable.
> The expectation is that Anthem will be making changes in who runs the place probably before the next set of tapings. These tapings were done by the same people and most of the ideas were continuations of what had been done. Some thought there should have been more obvious changes as far as the look and feel as the shows did feel like the same old TNA (in one sense not bad, as the product is fine, but the product is losing viewership based on the sins of the past and the feeling it is irrelevant in the modern scene past clearly the Hardy gimmick is something people chant at shows all over the world).
> It was John Gaburick who made the deal to bring in Josh Barnett.
> Vince McMahon was on crutches this past week because he had minor hip surgery, apparently similar to the surgery Undertaker had. Undertaker at some point is likely to need a full hip replacement but has been trying to put that off until he retires and had his problems temporarily taken care of with his recent surgery.
> Brock Lesnar will be working most Raws from this point forward until Mania. This will be the most Lesnar has worked as far as dates are concerned since 2004. The only show he’s not booked on is Las Vegas on 2/13 and he’s on every March Raw.
> In an interview with the Wrestling Connection at Fox Sports, Paul Levesque said it would probably be this summer when the proposed women’s tournament takes place on the WWE Network. The idea is to do something similar to what they did with the cruiserweight tournament, with it being a ten week or so series and a single elimination tournament. He was also asked about intergender matches and said that while they may work with some smaller promotions as shock entertainment, he didn’t think the WWE fan base would be ready for males beating up females inside the ring.
> The 4/4 Smackdown show in Orlando at the Amway Arena is now sold out.
> Unlike in past years, when the final TV shot before Mania is Raw, and then everyone flies out after Raw to Mania and spends the week, this year the final go-home show will be a 3/28 Smackdown event in Richmond, VA.
> Steve Corino started up at the Performance Center as a coach this past week.
> Hideo Itami was finally cleared to wrestle after a neck injury from when he was dropped on his neck badly on a twisting powerslam by Riddick Moss.
> The ten most-watched programs on WWE Network this past week were: 1. UK tournament night 2: 2. UK tournament night 1; 3. Ride Along with Slater, Rhyno, Bryan and Ellsworth; 4. NXT on 11/14; 5. 2016 Royal Rumble; 6. 2016 Survivor Series; 7. 2016 WrestleMania; 8. 205 Live on 1/13; 9. Destruction of The Shield; 10. 2016 Roadblock End of the Line. The only note is what a bad showing 205 Live had falling behind all the old PPVs (and those numbers are usually not very big) and NXT being below Ride Along is also a surprise. Talking Smack was No. 19.
> There was some Internet controversy this week when it came out that a fan reaction they cut to showing disgust when Jericho had beaten Reigns for the IC title was actually cut in from earlier in the show and that fan was actually cheering that Reigns lost in real time.
WWE UK Championship Tournament Day 1 Star Ratings:
> Trent Seven beat H.C. Dyer in 5:27. **1/4
> Jordan Devlin beat Danny Burch in 8:53. **
> Sam Gradwell beat Saxon Huxley in 6:07. *1/2
> Pete Dunne beat Roy Johnson in 7:43. **
> Wolfgang beat Tyson T-Bone in 6:15. **1/2
> Joseph Conners pinned James Drake in 7:16. **
> Mark Andrews beat Dan Moloney in 5:42. **1/2
> Tyler Bate beat Tucker in 10:36. ***1/4
WWE UK Championship Tournament Day 2 Star Ratings:
> Pete Dunne pinned Sam Gradwell in 4:49. ***
> Mark Andrews pinned Joseph Conners in 8:09. ***
> Wolfgang pinned Trent Seven in 6:42. ***1/4
> Tyler Bate pinned Jordan Devlin in 6:06. **1/2
> Pete Dunne pinned Mark Andrews in 10:38. ****
> Tyler Bate pinned Wolfgang in 5:59. **1/2
> Neville pinned Tommy End in 8:42. **3/4
> Tyler Bate pinned Pete Dunne in 15:11. ****1/2
>Ivelisse is pregnant
Based anon
WWE officials have a deal in the works to air content from top UK indie promotion Insane Championship Wrestling on the WWE Network. The deal could be announced within the next week or so and similar deals with indie promotions are apparently set to be revealed soon. WWE is planning to dominate UK wrestling scene.
> Coming off the WWE United Kingdom Title tournament, the company issued a survey to UK fans seeking feedback on the tournament. They mentioned WWE Superstars possibly challenging for the UK Title, a potential WWE Network UK show and asked fans about their interest in the following promotions:
PROGRESS Wrestling
TNA Impact Wrestling
International Pro Wrestling
Preston City Wrestling
Next Generation Wrestling
Revolution Pro
All Star Wrestling UK
What Culture Pro Wrestling
FutureShock Wrestling
Insane Championship Wrestling
>There are so many questions coming out of this. Promoters from Progress, ICW & OTT were at the event and shown on camera. This is Paul Levesque’s baby and not Vince McMahon’s. It’s been so long ago that people don’t remember this, but when Vince McMahon was about to make his move, it wasn’t just the bold move into others’ territories first. Before he made any moves into new territories, he worked with the other promoters that he later tried to put out of business. He asked them to send tapes of their top talent, and he put a show on the USA Network called All-American Wrestling. All-American Wrestling showcased all the top stars from the different top promotions. At the time the different promotions were sending McMahon tapes, they thought he was doing them a favor by putting their talent on his national platform. But in reality, he was putting their talent on that platform, and then signing most of that talent up and running against those who supplied the tapes with their own former stars.
>Whether that’s a historical lesson that has nothing, or everything to do with the present is something only history in the future can bear out.
Based Paul taking over UK wrasslin
>reposting wew threads
fuck off undercover wewtist
>>2170053
>wewtist
Hi Carter
>>2170055
>Hi Carter
Hi Carter
>>2170053
Fuck off carter.
>>2170000
>> Tyler Bate pinned Pete Dunne in 15:11. ****1/2
damn that's generous
>>2170009
No reason to live any longer...
>>2170142
Was the match that bad?
>>2170630
Nah it was a good match but 4.5? that's too spicy of a meatball for me
he gave #diy vs revival 2/3 4.5 as well
>>2169984
>Uncle Shockmaster hospitalized
Noooo, the fall of an icon
>clickbait news guy can't spam his shit threads on wooo anymore
>decides to just start posting wooo's own threads on /asp/ instead
there's so many layers to this gimmick
>>2170641
DIY Vs Revival was 5 stars by any sane persons measure. Bate Vs Dunne was 4.5 at best I'd say. Bear in mind, in Meltz' rating, it's basically an 8/10 in real person talk.
>>2169984
> Ivelisse is pregnant.
kinda fucked up that youre the one that broke that news, Dave
>>2170641
Dunne vs Mandrews should've been 4.5, easily enjoyed that match more than the finals
>>2170695
what if hes the father
>>2169988
>> Brock Lesnar will be working most Raws from this point forward until Mania. This will be the most Lesnar has worked as far as dates are concerned since 2004. The only show he’s not booked on is Las Vegas on 2/13 and he’s on every March Raw.
They should be doing his dates like this every year. Just have him for the Rumble and Mania and have him work every week.
>>2170705
he's on a x amount of dates contract right?
I'd agree then couple weeks for summer slam and then just the road to mania
>>2169981
>Le meltz xD
Back to woo
>>2170692
That DIY Vs Revival was an objective 5 Star, Metz just outed himself as having a way too limited idea of what a perfect match is. 4.5 was fair for B8 Vs Dunne though, it really was that fucking good. At least as good as the six star match imo.
So Brock is leaving after this year right? Why is he working so many dates?
>>2172404
Cause no one will care about him after Roman pins him at Wrestlemania