Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

The heavily promoted debut of Smackdown on FOX took place on 10/4 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, drawing the largest television audience for the product since the 25th anniversary of Raw ...

This time they pushed a higher level than ever before, having Dwayne Johnson, Steve Austin, Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Sting, Undertaker, Bill Goldberg, Kurt Angle, Mick Foley, and many more advertised. That turned into an issue because Johnson was the only one who even had a real role in the show and Undertaker, Austin and Sting were never on the show, while the others were limited to being shown at ringside ...

The show did a 2.36 rating and 3,888,000 viewers (we don’t know viewers per home because the rating point covers 120.6 million homes, every television home in the U.S., and FOX is in maybe 107 million home but this week that number was lower because of the Dish Network issue). The key stat for FOX is that it did a 1.4 in the key adults 18-49 demo. In that demo it was among the ten most-watched shows of the past week in all of television, both broadcast and cable ...

But on a positive standpoint, sometimes it takes a few weeks to bring your audience to a new time slot and this was promoted so well that they got them there on the first night. That key demo rating for a Friday night, when a lot of people in that age group go out, is particularly noteworthy for the show itself ...

The audience was six percent below what FOX did last year for the same Friday, with Last Man Standing (6.34 million viewers), The Cool Kids (4.78 million) and Hell’s Kitchen (2.75 million viewers). But these days, a six percent year-to-year drop is fine and the demo was stronger, although far from double, a key because Smackdown right now is only getting about half the advertising dollars per ratings point of a regular FOX television show ...

Sting was there in that setting, and even though he never appeared before the live crowd, which was a disappointment to many, he was in the building and spent the night in the company’s hospitality suite. Undertaker, who had pushed being there in his social media, after the show addressed it by saying that he was told before the show not to come as he was no longer needed. Austin and WWE have said nothing regarding him, but one of the reasons they likely maintained a strong audience throughout the show was people waiting for Austin ...

There were AEW and Austin chants as the show ended. When the show went off the air, the chants for Austin were loud and then they turned all the lights on, told the fans the show was over, and gave the date for the next show in December. There were some boos, some AEW chants, and mostly groans from people as they were leaving. While we got a lot of complaints about Undertaker and some about Sting, those live said that nobody leaving complained about either, but it seemed like everyone on the way out was complaining about Austin.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

WWE’s Hell in a Cell show started out strong, and ended with a bang. The wrong kind of a bang ...

There were two major problems with the show. The main event, obviously, was the biggest. It’ll go down as perhaps the worst misfire of a main event in company history. The Hell in a Cell match started out with problems, as they did a red tint for the match, making it hard for viewers either live or watching on television to focus on the action ... The story of the match led to Wyatt being cheered more and more. People expected a title change, since it was Hell in a Cell, there had to be winner, and beating Wyatt after all this monster build in his first match made no sense at all ...

Finally, Rollins grabbed a sledge hammer from under the ring. Ref Rod Zapata told Rollins he was better than this and not to use it. Keep in mind this was Hell in a Cell and weapons were being used throughout the match. Rollins hit Wyatt with it and Zapata called for the bell. While it appeared Rollins was disqualified in a no DQ rules match, WWE later clarified the finish as the match simply being stopped ...

“Cancel WWE Network” was trending on Twitter, for whatever that is worth, and really it’s means little. The last time that happened led to WWE having a big increase in WWE Network orders. Vince McMahon was reportedly, and this was confirmed by multiple people, that he was laughing about the crowd reaction and hardly taking it as a negative. But actions speak louder. It was very clear on Raw the next night that the subject of the match was not to be talked about during the show aside for one package that aired late ...

The finish of the match was from McMahon, obviously. His idea was always that he wasn’t beating Wyatt this early, but wanted Lesnar, Rollins, Lynch and Flair as the four champions going into the draft and the new beginnings ...

It’s hard to say if they hurt Wyatt long-term by not winning. The only prior example was when Ryback was really hot, and John Cena got hurt, he was put into a Hell in a Cell match with C.M. Punk. Since the long-term plan at the time was in place for Punk to have a long title reign before losing to The Rock, Ryback had to be sacrificed. Ryback never recovered from the wrong loss at the wrong time. And what made it worse was Ryback was so hot that the buy rate for that show was shockingly high, as people figured it was Ryback’s time to win. It was, but they had bigger fans than Ryback, so it went down like it did.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

Week two of the Wednesday Night Wars saw both AEW and NXT suffer significant declines. It’s hard to exactly evaluate AEW because it aired on both TNT and Tru TV in a simulcast. Realistically TNT vs. TNT would be the proper comparison which saw a significant 27.8 percent drop from week one. Even adding in Tru numbers, the decline from week one was 19.2 percent. Even though week one saw major increases throughout the show with teenagers, the teenage demo dropped 36 percent from the first week. The key seems to be that teenagers liked week one, but as far as changing their lives to make it a regular weekly part of viewing, that didn’t happen.

Some of the decline could be attributed to the Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Washington Nationals game doing 5,856,000 viewers on TBS, but that would not lead to a decline of that magnitude. For TNT over the past few years, the average weekly decline of a new series is 20 percent, but this fell above that figure, and even adding in Tru numbers with the simulcast the decline was nearly 20 percent.

AEW did 1,018,000 viewers on TNT and another 122,000 on Tru, for 1,140,000 viewers. The TNT replay at 10 p.m. drew another 360,000 viewers, down 14.9 percent from 423,000 the week before. NXT fell 11.3 percent from last week to 790,000 viewers ...

It is still well above the original projections for the show and those at AEW were happy as it more than doubled NXT in the key demo ...

But in the ad demo, AEW fell from a 0.68 to 0.46 (or 0.51 including Tru–32.4 percent for the station and 25.0 percent overall ), compared to NXT at 0.22 (a 31.3 percent drop from the big show the prior week). AEW went from No. 2 on cable for the night to No. 8. Still, in its time slot, it was in third place in the key demo, behind only baseball on TBS and Basketball Wives and Black Ink Crew 8 on VH-1. It beat an NBA preseason game on ESPN that did 1,000,000 and a 0.43 in the demo. NXT on USA in the key demo fell behind TBS, VH-1, TNT, MSNBC, Fox News and The History Channel.

Because of the bigger decline in younger viewers, the median age for an AEW viewer grew to 42, still the youngest of any wrestling show. Worse, NXT was 55, six years higher than the week before ...

AEW on TNT opened with 1,138,000 viewers and ended with 1,036,000. Overall, the end of the Young Bucks vs. Private Party and the Jericho interview, a segment that was the peak in a number of major markets, actually lost 44,000 viewers overall. Darby Allin vs. Jimmy Havoc lost 196,000 viewers. The women’s tag match gained 58,000 viewers. Jon Moxley vs. Shawn Spears gained 27,000 viewers. And the main event and post-match angle gained 53,000 viewers ...

NXT opened with 836,000 viewers and the last quarter did 728,000 but after AEW ended, they did grow to 792,000, so they only got 64,000 viewers after AEW ended. Rhea Ripley vs. Aliyah lost 45,000 viewers. Tyler Breeze & Fandango vs. The Forgotten Sons gained 17,000 viewers. Cameron Grimes vs. Boa and Killian Dain post-match lost 29,000 viewers. Roderick Strong vs. Isaiah Scott and the post-match stuff the Undisputed Era and Velveteen Dream gained 47,000 viewers. Bianca Belair vs. Dakota Kai lost 25,000 viewers. Walter vs. Kushida lost 73,000 at the same time AEW gained 53,000, and then Walter vs. Kushida picked up 64,000 for its finish once AEW was off the air ...

While the AEW drop is not good, for NXT it’s worse because this is not week one of lots of hype to week two, but week three to four, with all four weeks dropping significantly, and now being well below the USA Network prime time average for a show that will deliver much lower per viewer ad rates. If AEW in week four has those level of drops from week three in the key demos, that would be very bad.

Originally Posted by WrestlingInc

In other news on this week's AEW viewership, the Dynamite replay that airs at 10pm ET on TNT drew 363,000 viewers, according to PWTorch. Last week's 10pm replay on TNT drew 423,000 viewers, so it dropped 14%.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

New Japan announced the annual junior heavyweight tag team tournament lineup this past week, and the biggest news was that Dragon Lee was out.

Lee & Titan were scheduled, but not announced, but posters in some cities listed them on the tour. CMLL has this past week forced promotions in Mexico to choose between either using Rush or Dragon Lee, or their own talent, even going to so far as to pull four wrestlers off sold out Crash show on 10/5 in Tijuana because the promotion wouldn’t pull Rush and Lee off the card. Other promotions have pulled Rush & Lee off shows ... New Japan said that they wanted Lee and CMLL to sort out their differences.

For Lee, things become interesting. ROH also has a strong affiliation with CMLL. However, what was key here is Lee teaming with a CMLL wrestler. Perhaps if CMLL wrestlers weren’t in the same ring the situation would be different, although CMLL has pushed promoters with the idea that they would not send any talent to a show that Lee or Rush are on ...

Losing New Japan would change Lee’s mentality, where before he had no interest in going anywhere that would preclude him from working with New Japan. This could open the door to MLW, which is working with Crash and Lee will be working regularly with Crash ...

With no New Japan, Lee would also be open to individual deals with either AEW or WWE. Paul Levesque is said to be high on Lee, and who wouldn’t be, as he’s a very special talent. Still, as Gran Metalik shows, a Luchador of Lee’s level does not have great career prospects in WWE at his size. Rey Mysterio was already a huge name before he went to WWE, and Andrade was bigger and even he’s struggled on the main roster when you consider his push vs. his talent level and how well his act with Zelina Vega got over in NXT. Lee would probably do better in AEW, and Lee would be a gift-wrapped present that they never expected. And with AEW, it would not close the door to New Japan forever, where WWE likely would.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

The look and feel of NWA Power was to bring you back to the early 80s ... One of the throwbacks was no music, and lots of interview time between matches. But the interviews were completely different from WWE. They were clearly unscripted past bullet points, and free flowing. The personalities came through and you didn’t have wording that felt insincere.

About 15,000 people between YouTube and Facebook watched the show “live,” as in first run as it was going on. The number was impressive when you consider AEW Dark the same night did 25,000, Impact has been doing about 3,500 and when WWE did Mixed Match Challenge, immediately after Smackdown and heavily promoted, an average week might peak around 60,000.

For total viewers, which is a horribly misleading stat because of how they compile them, the show at press time had 168,000; as compared to 419,000 for AEW Dark the same night, 31,000 for MLW on Friday, 60,000 for CMLL on Friday (anniversary show did 294,000) and the last four minutes of the first AEW show did 2,048,732 and Scarlett Bordeaux’s debut in AAA is at 32.7 million. With the average viewer watching 13.9 minutes of the NWA show, the 168,000 viewers, if it was a television rating, translates not to 168,000 viewers but to 39,000 viewers.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

Tyler Bateman, who debuted on 9/28 in Las Vegas by beating Jake Atlas, will be a regular for ROH. Jake Atlas is also expected to be working more dates in ROH. Atlas had already turned down deals from Impact and MLW

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

MLW taped TV on 10/5 at The Crash show in Tijuana with their biggest crowd in their history, a sellout of more than 4,500 fans at the Auditorio. They noted that WWE was in San Diego, which is the next city over, head-to-head, and they outdrew WWE.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

There is a lot of talk regarding taking NXT on the road every Wednesday and looking at 5,000-seat buildings, similar to AEW. The target seems to be January, because WWE has inquired about buildings of that size to shoot television on Wednesday nights. Even before the first week ratings came out, there was talk that Full Sail was only running weekly because they had no time to set things up and that a move to different arenas would take place in early 2020. As noted, once week one ratings came out, with NXT having such a strong show on 10/4 and having spent two weeks building it, the location was more likely to get the blame

Originally Posted by PWI

AEW Dynamite will have replays this weekend on the following cable stations and times:
* Sunday 10/13 on TNT at 1 AM.
* Sunday 10/13 on TruTV at 2 AM.
* Sunday 10/13 on TruTV at 10 AM.
* Sunday 10/13 on TBS at 11 PM.
* Tuesday 10/15 on TNT at 2 AM.
* Tuesday 10/15 on TruTV at 8 PM.

Originally Posted by PWI

The majority of CM Punk shirts have been removed from ProWrestlingTees.com, replaced by a "CM Punk Sucks" t-shirt. I am sure someone will find a conspiracy theory in all that!

Originally Posted by PWI

We've had some emails asking about WWE touting that FOX and the USA Network were involved with tonight's Draft and what it means. We are told that WWE consulted with the Networks to make sure each side was happy with what talents they ended up with as the plan is to keep the rosters separate as much as possible after the Draft is completed. So, execs from the networks were involved but WWE made the final determinations. The company is keeping the Draft plans heavily under wraps

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Former wrestler Nick Mondo is working with All Elite Wrestling and is listed as a director. Mondo got into film after his pro wrestling career ended and directed the spots involving Jon Moxley escaping prison earlier this year that were released after Moxley left WWE.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Fight Network in Canada will be moving Impact Wrestling to Tuesdays at 8 pm eastern to coincide with the move to AXS TV on Tuesday, October 29th. The move will also include Fight Network’s international feeds, including in Greece and Portugal. Impact will continue to air on Game TV in Canada each Saturday at 7 pm eastern, which is also a property of Anthem Sports and Entertainment.

Originally Posted by Fightful

Ronda Rousey will be back in WWE, at least according to Triple H.

Rousey, a decorated MMA star-turned-pro wrestler had an impressive showing in the WWE over her year-long run from WrestleMania 34 to WrestleMania 35. However, since headlining the latter, she's been completely absent from the ring.

On Friday, WWE hosted a press event to announce matches for the upcoming Crown Jewel show. Afterwards, Triple H participated in a media scrum, where he reportedly stated "she's coming back," per Ryan McKinnell, who was in attendance.

Originally Posted by Observer

After the weak draft special on Friday night, combined with a monster NFL game, Raw fell to 2.28 million viewers for the second part of the draft

This compares 2.67 million viewers the last time Raw had a draft-type special in April, and 3.62 million viewers for the 2018 version of the shake-up. One can clearly say that Friday ruined whatever drawing power the draft gimmick had left.

On the flip side, if the draft meant nothing and SmackDown can maintain next week the number it got on Friday, that would be a great sign going forward ...

As far as where the audience fell off, women 18-49 fell 21 percent from the first to third hour, men 18-49 fell 24 percent, which is almost unheard of, teenage girls fell 35 percent and teenage boys fell 34 percent. The teenage boy drop is also pretty much unheard of. Over 50 dropped 11 percent, which is a normal figure, so the turnoff of this show was with the 49 and under crowd.

The three hours were:

8 p.m. 2.52 million viewers
9 p.m. 2.32 million viewers
10 p.m. 2.00 million viewers

Originally Posted by Observer

The firing of Eric Bischoff, which was not a shock to those close to the situation, happened this morning.

Both Bruce Prichard and brand head writer Ed Koskey will be the main people in charge of the show going forward. What was interesting is that Bischoff was brought in partially on the recommendation of Prichard and the two had been working together on the show.

Originally Posted by PWI

We are also told that since he was an executive, not a talent, Bischoff likely does not have the usual 90 day no compete and could pop up somewhere else if he desired. It should be interesting to see if someone decides to tap him for an on-air talent role as he's always been excellent in that regard.

Originally Posted by Observer

In other WWE news, regarding the Crown Jewel show, Seth Rollins at this point is only scheduled to work one match on the event, his falls count anywhere Universal Championship match with Bray Wyatt. Rollins was originally set to be the captain of Team Hogan in the five vs. five Team Hogan vs. Team Flair match. As of right now, he is no longer scheduled for the match and his removal will likely be addressed on television over the next week.

Originally Posted by Observer

Regarding The Usos, after Jimmy's most recent arrest for a DUI in late July, The Usos and Naomi were all taken off the road. While they were at a recent television taping backstage, there is right now no creative for them nor return date, nor a decision regarding which brand they will be with. Because of that, they weren't involved in the draft.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

There was a screw-up with the list of talent available for Friday’s draft. It was told to us at POST Wrestling that the WWE.com side was supposed to list the available talent in alphabetical order but instead, the list went according to the actual picks for the first half of the draft. It was also said to us that the WWE.com site didn’t use the final version.

Originally Posted by Observer

The reason Jon Moxley wasn't on the New Japan show and travel issues was legit. Zack Sabre Jr. also missed the show, and Kevin Kelly barely made it in time for the show. We'd heard some concern about the guys coming from Australia, Will Ospreay, Robbie Eagles and Gino Gambino, but they all made it. The worst of the typhoon is over although it did a lot of damage to the bottom floor of the New Japan Tokyo dojo.

Originally Posted by Observer

Coming out of King of Pro Wrestling, the main event of Wrestle Kingdom 14 night one is set.

IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada will defend his title against G1 Climax winner Kota Ibushi at the Tokyo Dome on January 4, 2020. Night two of Wrestle Kingdom 14 will then take place at the Tokyo Dome on January 5.

Originally Posted by Fightful

Also announced for Wrestle Kingdom 14 is Jushin Liger's retirement bout. Liger will team with Tatsumi Fujinami, The Great Sasuke & Tiger Mask to take on Naoki Sano, Shinjiro Ootani, Tatsuhito Takaiwa & Ryusuke Taguchi in eight-man tag team action. El Samurai will corner Team Liger while Kuniaki Kobayashi will be in the corner of Team Sano. Norio Honaga will be the special guest referee for the match.

Liger will compete in a second retirement match on Jan. 5 at night two of Wrestle Kingdom 14. His opponent has not been announced. A retirement ceremony for Liger will be held on Jan. 6 at New Year Dash.

Originally Posted by Fightful

If there's one thing Eric Bischoff understands it's how to sell a wrestling product in the best way possible with the assistance of the TNT Network.

On the latest episode of the 83 Weeks podcast, see above, Eric Bischoff talks about AEW on TNT and The major positive they have working in their favor, their passionate audience.

"I think the takeaway for me the biggest thing that I saw that I liked was the crowd," said the former WCW President after admitting he watched the weekly program twice. "I've always believed that the crowd, you know, if there's two women or two guys in a match with a referee as the third person in the ring, the fourth person in the ring is the audience. They're as much a part of the show as anything in my opinion. And I think what I saw Wednesday night from AEW was a crowd that was just intensely engaged in the product in the ring and in the show. And from a production value point of view, you could see it the lighting made the audience a part of the show and that to me was that was my biggest positive of that show."

Originally Posted by Observer

Cain Velasquez on Ariel Helwani’s show mentioned that WWE is allowing him to work one more AAA date.

Originally Posted by Observer

Roman Reigns spoke to Forbes about how fans reacted to the finish of Seth Rollins vs. The Fiend at Hell in a Cell: “I think you should express your opinions, but it doesn’t hurt anybody if you have a shred of respect. Have a little respect for the performers who were out there killing themselves for you. I didn’t like the Hell in a Cell finish either, but I wasn’t about to cuss some guys out who got hit in the head over and over. Bray Wyatt put his health on the line to entertain some fans to the best of his ability. I didn’t like it, but I respect Bray’s effort and willingness to go out there and do what you have to do. So, if you can, just a little bit of respect.

Originally Posted by PWI

California-centric pro wrestling website SoCalUncensored are reporting Tyler Bateman has signed an exclusive deal with Ring of Honor and will officially start there next month.

Bateman debuted at last month's TV Taping in Las Vegas, being put over strong with wins and an angle where he attacked and laid out Lifeblood's Tracy Williams.

Bateman, who has been wrestling since 2001, has been a long-time California mainstay, holding the Championship Wrestling from Hollywood TV title several times as well as the AWS title. Bateman had WWE and Impact Wrestling tryouts last year.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

MLW has released producer Alex Greenfield, who was notified of their decision on Monday. There was no comment from MLW regarding the decision, but it was confirmed that he was let go on Monday. Greenfield had been associated with MLW prior to the re-launch of the wrestling promotion being a figure within their podcast space and then brought on as a producer for the weekly Fusion series. Greenfield had recently traveled to Tijuana for the MLW show with The Crash earlier this month. The departure comes several weeks before MLW’s first pay-per-view on November 2nd at Cicero Stadium in Illinois.

Originally Posted by Observer

Jim Crockett will be appearing at Starrcast IV this November.

Originally Posted by PWI

Q - Does WWE have same contract as other shows on fox? Can they be cancelled or not brought back due to low ratings or are they guaranteed 5 yrs on fox regardless of ratings?

A - Their deal is like when sports leagues sign with networks, in that they sell rights fees. They are not like entertainment programs.

Originally Posted by Fightful

On Tuesday's episode of NWA Powerrr, the promotion announced they will return to pay-per-view on Dec. 14 with an event entitled Into The Fire. The event, named after the NWA Powerrr theme song performed by Dokken, will emanate from Atlanta, GA. No venue was announced ...

The last NWA pay-per-view was held on Apr. 27. On that night, the promotion brought back The Crockett Cup and crowned new NWA Tag Team Champions. The event, held in Concord, NC, was headlined by Nick Aldis defending the NWA World Heavyweight Title against Marty Scurll.

Originally Posted by Observer

According to PW Insider's Mike Johnson, Luchasaurus has an injured hamstring and is out of Wednesday's tag team championship tournament match on AEW Dynamite.

Filling in to team with Jungle Boy is fellow Jurassic Express member Marko Stunt. The duo will face the Lucha Bros (Pentagon Jr and Fenix) in a first round bout.

Originally Posted by Observer

Maria Manic, who was most recently a part of Ring of Honor, is at the WWE Performance Center this week for a tryout.

Fightful was the first to report the news. According to a report from PWInsider, she signed a six-month contract with ROH earlier this year that had recently expired. As recently as two weeks ago, there had been pitches for her to become involved in a storyline that would eventually lead to an intergender bout.

Originally Posted by Observer

On the day after it was confirmed that he's no longer with WWE, Eric Bischoff was announced for the next Starrcast convention.

Bischoff will be appearing at Starrcast IV, which is being held in Baltimore, Maryland from November 7-10. Bischoff previously appeared at Starrcasts I and II.

Originally Posted by PWI

With Major League Baseball postponing games due to the inclement weather in the Northeast tonight, the natural question from wrestling fans is whether Friday Night Smackdown's third episode on FOX would be preempted or moved.

The answer to that is no. MLB coverage will take place this Friday on FOX Sports 1, so Smackdown will air as scheduled this Friday on FOX itself.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

The November 4th edition of RAW is emanating from Long Island at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum and the arena is advertising Seth Rollins versus “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt for the Universal Title in a Steel Cage match.

Originally Posted by PWI

WWE Network News is reporting the October 2019 Classic Content Drop will be more Midsouth television. Those episodes will make it to the service this Monday 10/21.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Dave Meltzer stated on the latest edition of Wrestling Observer Radio that WWE wanted to purchase Pro Wrestling NOAH but the deal fell through. Meltzer added that WWE has talked to several companies in Japan and has attempted to purchase those companies as well.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

ScreenGeek chatted with Jon Moxley recently and asked Moxley if he has ever thought about how different his career would be had he left WWE in 2015 which was the last time he signed a contract with the sports-entertainment company.

“That’s an interesting question. I’ve often thought, and wondered, what would have happened if I left in September of 2015, which was when I signed my last contract with WWE. But, at that point, I was still kinda like, still trying to do things their way and I just kinda like… It never occurred to me to leave really back then. It felt like I wasn’t, like I hadn’t completely… I never really bought into their bullsh*t kind of thing, but I was trying to be optimistic. Like, be grateful for the opportunity and try to make the most of it and, you know, save money and so forth. But, I often wonder what would have happened if I had the foresight to just leave back then. I don’t know,” he said. “It could have been worse, it could have been better, but, ultimately, everything’s supposed to work out how it’s supposed to be. The timing of, like, leaving at just the moment that AEW came into existence and just merging at the same time, that feels like a historical thing that I’m very grateful that it happened. Hopefully, it’s historical. We look back in five years and maybe it didn’t matter at all. But, you know, we’ll find out.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

NJPW1972.com published an open letter from Shota Umino who is set to embark on excursion soon. Here’s a portion of the letter in-which Shota talks about working with Jon Moxley:

“I want to start again. Put myself in a new environment, in new circumstances. Nobody to help me, nobody to show me what to do. Square one, from scratch. That’s why I never once thought to follow Jon Moxley. I want to do this by and for myself, to study and search for that ‘something’. When I was with Moxley during the G1, he didn’t give me any advice. If I asked for some he would just give some vague praise. ‘Good job, like that’. If I asked him for anything more concrete, he’d tell me to be more confident. What makes him who he is isn’t moves, style, technique. It isn’t ‘heart’. It’s… ‘something’. That something is a stance toward professional wrestling. Teaming with Moxley, I don’t know if I can say I learned any new moves, or that I showed any more heart than normal. What I learned was something important about attitude and stance toward a match. I did nothing but grow underneath him.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

WrestleZone’s Bill Pritchard chatted with AEW co-Executive Vice President Cody Rhodes ahead of AEW’s show in Philadelphia. Cody revealed that on the Friday before Full Gear, AEW will release their top five W/L records for singles competitors and tag teams.

“So not to scoop it, but I don’t think anyone will mind this bit of news: On Friday before Full Gear, the Friday before Full Gear, I think we’re going to put out our first ever top fives, and the top five should become a weekly thing, and this isn’t just broadcast, this is also social,” Rhodes revealed. “Just like with college football and the AP poll. You get your top 20, and sometimes a guy who’s 5-0 is not ranked in the top three because of the quality of the wins, the softness of the schedule and it’s fun because in college football, people argue, especially when we get near the playoffs, should they, should they not. PAC right now, has these great wins over Hangman Page and Kenny Omega. He’s essentially Ohio State for us at this point. There’s got to be a title shot in his future, and there is if he keeps winning and keeps going. But I believe before Full Gear, we’ll have our top five for women, for tags and for singles and now that we have more and more — every week this helps us so much from data. I’ve expanded… to be fair, Kevin Sullivan’s expanded the lower thirds on talents so you can see their records. We want their records to be more present because Jim Ross is talking about them, Tony Schiavone is talking about them but once we get a few more wins, a few more losses, a few more draws, whatever they may be, it really helps create that tapestry for us, which is something we promised and it wasn’t just a campaign promise. Sports-centric, the guys winning the matches are the guys in the title matches.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

talkSPORT interviewed Matchroom Sport founder and chairman Barry Hearn and asked him about Tyson Fury’s current run in WWE. Hearn stated that what Fury is doing is “a bit cringey” but Tyson needs the profile. Hearn added that on the publicity front, Fury needs people to buy the pay-per-views that he’s on.

“Tyson Fury has a big problem in terms of – not enough people know him in America. He’s looking for the big payday obviously against Deontay Wilder. He needs a higher profile to make that attractive and he’s doing what he does best. It is a bit of a circus, of course it is, it’s a rehearsed nonsense, but this is the world we’re in. Today’s world commercially, I hate to say this because I love sports, it’s probably more important to be famous than good,” Hearn expressed. “That’s the social media world we’re living in. What Tyson Fury’s doing in a funny old way is making himself famous. It is a big cringey I know, but bless him, he needs the profile. He’s not the most exciting boxer but he’s very, very good. In other words, he’s not attractive in his style, but he’s difficult to beat. That’s ticking the box on the boxing front. On the publicity front, he needs people to buy pay-per-views, he needs people to recognize him in the street. If you dress up like he’s dressing up or go on WWE or whatever and slap a few people around, it’s hilarious to start with, then it’s a bit cringey. But in the American market more people probably know him from that than any of the fights he’s had so far in America.”

Originally Posted by WWE Network News

As we exclusively revealed yesterday, more Mid-South Wrestling is coming to the WWE Network this Monday. Normally, WWE waits for the bulk content to land before spotlighting it with Hidden Gems. On this occasion, however, it appears that our treasure-hunting archivists were too excited to wait. With that in mind, we have a full card from New Orleans. If that isn’t enough, WWE has sprinkled in some Houston and Central States action. Let’s take a look:

Dated 04/02/1977, we have a little over 6 minutes of highlights of an NWA World Heavyweight Championship bout between Dick Murdoch vs Champion Harley Race. WWE’s description refers to this as footage from Mid-South’s predecessor, NWA Tri-State ...

Next up, we make our way to Houston as Kerry von Erich battles Gino Hernandez for the Texas Heavyweight Championship. While Houston Wrestling was a separate entity, Cowboy Bill Watts and Mid-South had such a close working relationship with Paul Boesch that Watts received a copy of any shows featuring Mid-South talent. Thus this was part of WWE’s purchase of the library and WWE often lumps both together.

Originally Posted by Pro Wrestling Sheet

WarnerMedia has confirmed an official All Elite Wrestling podcast hosted by Brandi Rhodes is currently in the works.

The media company made a slew of podcast related announcements today at an upfront for advertisers and one of the things mentioned was an official AEW podcast.

According to WarnerMedia, who we reached out to for more information, the podcast is currently in development with the wrestling promotion’s Chief Brand Officer as host and targeted to launch by the end of the year.

Originally Posted by Observer Radio via r/SquaredCircle

Dave: "We knew this was going to happen the day it started". They hired him to be a scapegoat. He wasn't involved in creative, they just needed someone to take the fall when Fox became unhappy.

Vince was writing the scripts and running Smackdown as usual, nothing changed

Hasn't heard of Bischoff having ever had any creative input or influences on the show

Bischoff obviously didn't, but Dave says that even Heyman didn't have anything to do with how the draft was booked or presented on TV (even if he did get some input as to who he wanted to end up on Raw).

Nobody they bring in will be in control. They're just scapegoats for Vince's fuckups. The ones that do get a bit of input are basically just there to give advice to Vince, not actually run the show or have control.

Bischoff is completely gone, knew it was temporary going in. Dave thinks Bischoff probably thought it was going to be a bit longer, but knew it was only a temporary stage in his life.

Prichard was the one who brought Bischoff in. Dave & Garrett speculate it was a bit strange, and that he probably did it because he likely was offered it first, but didn't want to be the fall guy.

Originally Posted by Observer

Despite the lack of baseball competition due to a rainout of the Yankees/Astros ALCS game that was scheduled to air opposite both shows, AEW and NXT each saw their audiences fall for the second straight week.

AEW Dynamite averaged 1,014,000 viewers last night, nearly identical to last Wednesday's 1,018,000 average on TNT, but it was down four percent in the 18-49 demo with a 0.44 rating. Dynamite was also simulcast on truTV last week, drawing 122,000 viewers on that channel.

NXT averaged 712,000 viewers last night, which was down 10 percent from the previous week. The rating in the 18-49 demo was a 0.20, down nine percent from last Wednesday.

With no major sports competition, AEW was up to fifth place for the night on cable in 18-49. In their strongest demo, males 18-49, AEW finished second on cable with a 0.65 rating, trailing only a preseason NBA game.

NXT came in at 30th for the night in 18-49 and trailed AEW in every demo once again except for people over 50, where they had a 0.35 rating to a 0.33 for AEW.

Originally Posted by PWI

On this week's edition of NXT UK, it was officially announced that Spain's A-Kid has signed with World Wrestling Entertainment:

.@AKidWrestler is coming... #NXTUK pic.twitter.com/R6VRv0Xsai
— NXT UK (@NXTUK) October 17, 2019

Although only 22 years old, A-Kid has been wrestling since 2012 and received several WWE tryouts earlier this year.

Originally Posted by PWI

The Camden New Journal in England published an article today noting that an investigation into the passing of lucha libre legend Silver King, real name, César Cuauhtémoc González Barrón, 51 years old this past May while performing for a promotion named Lucha Libre World at the Roundhouse Theatre in Camden in North London blamed "multiple faillures" in the minutes after Barron suffered a heart attack in the ring.

The St. Pancras Coroner's Court's Senior Coroner Mary Hassell stated that an ambulance not being called for five minutes after Barrón suffered cardiac arrest as well as "ineffective" CPR being performed on him before EMTs arrived meant the lucha star "lost the opportunity to have the best treatment possible and lost the opportunity of survival that otherwise would have been afforded to him" ...

Hassell stated, "When I'm talking about failure in first aid, I'm talking about a whole raft, the whole context of the first aid that was offered. In every way, there was a failure properly to plan that everybody knew what they were doing, that procedures were in place so that first and foremost a person who would became unwell would be identified in the ring immediately" ...

The inquest's Dr. Alan Bates also determined that Barron had likely suffered a previous heart attack in the months or even years before his passing, but noted that there would have been a greater likelihood of Barron surviving if he had been given mouth to mouth resuscitation immediately, but would not state it would have been probably that he would have survived.

Another factor that delayed EMTs getting to Barrón by several minutes was that after the ambulance arrived at the front of the building, a security guard brought EMTs around and had them enter from the back of the venue, which delayed them in getting to and providing aid for Barrón. Paramedic Cara Mitchell stated that she would have liked to have gotten to Barrón quicker and that when they arrived at the ring, the person provided CPR was doing it in a "fast" and "ineffective" manner.

There was also confusion in the moment as the first responder who was on hand at the event, Katharine Locke, was not made aware of what the issue was when she was asked to come to the ring and initially believed it was for an issue in the crowd. She did not bring a defibrillator with her initially and did not provide CPR as someone who had claimed they were a Doctor was already in the ring doing it. That person was not identified in the report. Locke did not see Barrón's collapse and was initially worried there was a spinal injury.

Promoter Ruben Cordero admitted there were no pre-show medicals and that Barrón had not volunteered any information regarding any health issues. Cordero also stated that in hindsight, the procedures they had in place were not adequate and that there was a question of whether he or the venue were in charge of the medical aspect of the show - and that he wishes he had pushed to be in charge and oversee that aspect.

Originally Posted by PWI

Last night's AEW Philadelphia taping ended with Cody cutting a promo putting over the fan with the giant cut-out Ted Turner head before putting over a young fan dressed as Orange Cassidy ...

Cody worked the show last night despite being sick with a 102 degree fever the night before. He was given the option of not performing but refused to stay out of the ring ...

There's no word yet how long Luchasaurus will be out of action. The word backstage at the taping was he had torn it, which if that is confirmed to be the case, could mean he's out for several months ...

Backstage at the taping in Philadelphia were CHIKARA founder Mike Quackenbush, JT Dunn, Austin Gunn, former WWE NXT star Bull James (fka Dempsey), David Starr and Mike Verna.

MLW Middleweight Champion Teddy Hart, accompanied by two cats, was also at the taping.

Former ECW World Champion Mikey Whipwreck was in the house. With Tommy Dreamer and Jerry Lynn working as Producers and Taz commentating for AEW Dark, there were four former ECW World Champions at the taping.

Former CZW star Nick Mondo was also at the taping as he was the talented director and producer behind all of Jon Moxley's post-WWE videos. The pair visited the 2300 Arena on Tuesday as well. Speaking of the Arena, its owner Roger Artigiani was in attendance with his family.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Ruby Riott was the latest guest on Vickie Guerrero’s podcast and Ruby provided an update on when she could be back after undergoing double shoulder surgery:

“I’m not 100% sure yet, honestly. They said that I’m on a good track for recovery, sometime, hopefully in early 2020. But they haven’t given me an exact date. I’m just hoping the sooner the better honestly, because like you said, it’s just been such a hard road and physically, I lost a lot of muscle in my shoulders and in my arms and everything. I guess I never realized how much I used my arms until I was without one and then both of them, but just mentally, it’s such a shift and when you’re so used to the adrenaline — go, go, go, go, go, and I had a full-time job when I was on the independents and I was wrestling as much as I possibly could for quite some time and I never really had the want or the desire to stop, because I just loved it so much.”

“I loved what I did and the people I grinded by, and then all of a sudden, it’s such a screeching halt so suddenly… it was such a mental difficulty where it was just like, ‘I don’t know what to do with myself’ so I’ve been trying things to occupy my time as of recent[ly]. Its been hard but I’m getting there.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Cody Rhodes took to Twitter and noted that AEW now refers to the Gorilla Position as “The Dusty Position”.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Creative Director for Visual Concepts, Lynell Jinks was interviewed by ‘Hardcore Gamer’ and talked about some of the hurdles that came with creating WWE 2K20:

“Creation is the most important part to me in the game. It was a struggle to make sure that everything that fans have grown to love was in the game and working as intended. That alone, we spent so much time on that. It’s so complex and deep and we have so much content year after year that we basically have to rip everything apart and put it back together to make sure it worked as is and then see if we could make it better. Certain things we tried to but at the end of the day, we’re running out of time so the decision to postpone Create a Championship and Create a Superstar was such a huge undertaking to get working again. We had to pull resources off of Create a Championship and put them on Create a Superstar to get rid of all the issues and then update it in a patch to have it. Knowing that, our focus early on and how deep that code base was for the content that we had to focus on more content through MyPlayer and Road to Glory and with Originals, you’ll actually get a ton of new content for Create A Arena and parts that are geared towards 2K Originals. Like Bump in the Night, you’ll see weapons. The thing that we saw early on at the event last year with the Wyatt Compound was that there was nothing else to do. There’s some weapons in the MyCareer version of it that was patched in later. There has to be things in these environments for people to play with that affects gameplay and the match type. That kind of spawned into this whole other thing. Let’s add different categories of weapons like one handed and two-handed objects. Let’s build on that and what can we do and if you look at the Originals, the weapon wheel allows for customization and you can have the bat that has a pumpkin skull on it. I want to use a bone instead of a bat or use a tombstone instead of a chair. On the surface you might think we didn’t add that much to create, but what we added to customize your match or character with our new content, there is a ton of content. The head of Bray Wyatt will also be in the game.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Alicia Fox has been moved to the ‘Alumni’ section of WWE.com.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Ohio Valley Wrestling alumni Stephon Smith has signed with WWE to be a full-time referee in NXT.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

WrestleCon announced the return of the Joey Ryan ‘Penis Party’ show for WrestleMania 36 weekend in Tampa, Florida.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling & WrestlingInc

Bleacher Report chatted with Britt Baker ...

Baker also shared praise for AEW E.V.P. Kenny Omega. She told the site that Omega is very involved in the women’s division and agents most of the matches. One of the major selling points for Britt from Cody and Brandi Rhodes was being able to work closely with the former IWGP Heavyweight Champion:

“Kenny Omega has a huge role in the women’s division. He agents a lot of the matches and he’s brought his passion for the Japanese joshi wrestling to our world and it’s amazing. I don’t have a ton of experience with joshi wrestling, but I love it. I’m learning from Kenny by watching how he puts matches together. How lucky can I be? That was one of the selling points for AEW to me when Brandi and Cody told me he’d have a major role with the women’s division. I was a huge fan. I was the girl staying up all night to watch Wrestle Kingdom even though I had class the next day. Now I work with Kenny Omega, one of the best wrestlers in the world and a creative genius. Some of his ideas just amaze me. There seems to be no end to his creative insanity" ...

Baker also revealed that Cole is best friends with AEW Executive Vice Presidents The Young Bucks, so he's very supportive of AEW.

"But we sit at home and watch each other's matches," she continued. "We actually watch each other's whole show. We support each other's company. My boyfriend is basically best friends with The Young Bucks, so he's very supportive of All Elite Wrestling."

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

CM Punk appeared on WGN News to promote the ‘Girl On The Third Floor’ film and stated that he hopes both AEW and WWE push one another to make wrestling better for the viewers:

“I think it’s great. I wish those guys [AEW] nothing but success. If they’re successful, it will force WWE to be more creative and it’s always better when there’s not just one place to work. It’s better for the wrestlers, it’s better for the fans. I think competition drives industry so if there’s only one place in town to work, I think the creatives will be lazy, so hopefully, both companies will push each other and make the product better for the fans.”

Originally Posted by r/SquaredCircle

Fumi Saito on the Pacific Rim podcast he did with Dave Meltzer said that WWE had no plan for after they bought the company. Fumi said that WWE's offer was to buy STARDOM and then figure out what they would do regarding NXT Japan. Also, WWE offered Rossy, the head of STARDOM and close friend of Fumi, a spot in the WWE Hall of Fame if he sold the company to them.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

The WWE’s latest reset, the second draft in a six-month period ended up as kind of a nothing ...

The idea was to present this like a sports draft, such as the NFL and NBA drafts, which are now major television events on ESPN. But from the start it didn’t work ...

The idea was once again three picks for Raw for every two for Smackdown. Stephanie McMahon announced the picks. She was good in the sense of presenting the right emphasis on them, but it was bad with the idea she, and nobody else, was reading off names. The idea that the first pick would be determined by matches, but with alternating picks in rounds, Raw had to go 1-3-5. So in both first pick determining matches, Raw won ...

In another snafu of sorts, when the WWE web site listed the wrestlers that would be drafted on the Smackdown show the day before the draft, with maybe one minor change, it was the exact order that they were drafted. What happened is that the day before the draft, the web site was sent the list of who would be drafted on Smackdown and then on Raw, and it was the order it was planned. They weren’t told that this was the order. And they were told to alphabetize each list. Somehow that got lost in the communications and they printed it in the order. The decision was made not to change the Smackdown order for whatever reason, and then people noticed and called attention to it like crazy. So for Raw, they at least changed the order of the picks somewhat.

The only real take is that Raw seemed to get the stronger roster. Heyman picked up some of his key people that were on Smackdown, Flair, Black, Buddy Murphy (who he is said to be super high on) but did lose Lesnar, which had to happen since FOX wanted Lesnar or Rousey on the show as their big sports star. Lesnar’s winning of the WWE title was a key. Flair going to Raw seemed likely when she dropped her title after only five days, clean, to Bayley. But on the other hand, Flair had done extensive promotional work for FOX for the past six months, and the original crew FOX had been advertising around, led by Reigns, featured Flair prominently as well as Rey Mysterio, who is staying on Raw ...

Nobody from NXT was drafted, past Humberto Carrillo, who was really more a 205 Live guy. So it appears they want to stick with the key stars on that show rather than bring guys up which gives the impression that NXT is a feeder brand and not a third brand ...

The only major acts broken up were Erick Rowan & Luke Harper and R-Truth and Carmella ... With R-Truth and Carmella, it’s the thing of not breaking up couples. With Corey Graves on Smackdown, Carmella ends up on Smackdown. But since the whole 24/7 title idea came from the USA Network and they’ve decided that R-Truth is the focal point of that title, they put him on Raw, ending the unit.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

Even though Flair worked as a heel against Lynch, the plan is for her to be a babyface. There is a clear imbalance and heel weakness, although won’t be if Asuka and Sane work singles, and there has been a clear set up for both to work with Lynch. There’s also the possibility of Natalya as a heel, which was the plan last year to lead to a major program with Ronda Rousey, until Vince McMahon nixed it when Jim Neidhart died and he felt Natalya shouldn’t be turned ...

Flair only worked heel on Raw this past week because they needed a name opponent to lose to Lynch in the match for the draft choice and the decision was made not to use Bayley in that spot, likely not wanting the Raw champion at that point to beat the Smackdown champion.

With Asuka and Kairi Sane on Raw, while tag champions, expect both at times to be featured as singles. Lynch vs. Asuka is a planned direction at some point, and Sane pinned Lynch in a tag match on television as well.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsetter

According to Levesque, Fury approached WWE years ago about doing something. Levesque said Fury was a big fan, and his approach to boxing promotion does feel inspired by pro wrestling and Muhammad Ali, with his charisma and promos. At the time, the two sides didn’t make a deal. With the Saudi Arabia show coming, and Saudi Arabia wanting to bring athletic celebrities into the country, WWE reached out to Fury and with the Saudi money, they could make a economically justifiable big money offer to him.

Fury said that with him not fighting until February, against Wilder, he had free time, plus doing this would help keep him in shape. He’s training extensively at the Performance Center in Orlando until fight time. But this is a single event deal, and as far as going forward, both sides seem up for it if the timing aligns and it makes sense economically. Aside from the Saudi Arabia shows, WWE really doesn’t have an event that generates the revenue to justify the type of money one would think a heavyweight champion would want, although with their huge TV revenue, you could do it for a WrestleMania, but the added revenue for a Mania that Fury would generate is unlikely to be enough to match the kind of money he’d want.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

Even though Undertaker was used in the first announcement for the show [Crown Jewel] and he’s been a key part of the previous shows, neither he nor Bill Goldberg at this point are slated to be on the show, likely with the idea it makes no sense to have other outside attractions when you already have Velasquez and Fury.

Kevin Owens and Daniel Bryan refused to work the last Saudi Arabia show and at this point neither are scheduled for this show either. Sami Zayn, who was not allowed to work any of the shows since this series began due to his ethnicity, is also not scheduled for the show at this point even though Shinsuke Nakamura is.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

Kushida suffered a hairline fracture of the wrist on 9/18 in doing the angle with Imperium, but continued to work on it to do the planned program with Walter, and is now taking time off with the storyline that he was hurt in their 10/11 television match. He’s expected out for about a month.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

The Wednesday night Wars on 10/16 saw AEW hold steady, although skew older in doing so, while NXT continued its decline.

AEW did almost the exact same audience as the week before on TNT, doing 1,014,000 viewers as compared to 1,018,000. However, last week’s actual live number was 1,140,000 because of Tru, and they also had tougher competition with a Major League Baseball game that did 5,856,000 viewers ...

On the positive side for a new entity, they were fifth on cable for the night, and second in their time slot behind only VH-1 programming in 18-49 overall, and second for the night, and first in their time slot, in males 18-49 ... They once again doubled NXT in 18-49, but even with no baseball, AEW dropped from 0.46 to 0.44 in 18-49 and NXT from 0.22 to 0.20 ...

AEW did a 0.20 in 12-17 (down 13.0 percent from the prior week), 0.29 in 18-34 (down 12.1 percent), 0.59 in 35-49 (identical to last week) and 0.33 in 50+ (up 10.0 percent). So basically it was growth over 50 that made up for losses under 35. The huge teenage and 18-34 audience they opened with has whittled and the older audience has stayed more steady ...

We didn’t get an AEW replay number but based on selected markets, it looks to have declined from the 360,000 the prior week ...

NXT fell another 10.0 percent this week to 711,000 viewers.

The show did a 0.14 in 12-17 (up 40.0 percent from the prior week, which was a good sign), 0.14 in 18-34 (down 6.7 percent), 0.26 in 35-49 (down 10.3 percent) and 0.35 in 50+ (up 29.6 percent).

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

In the segment-by-segment numbers, Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte Flair gained 265,000 viewers. Andrade vs. Ali and the draft picks lost 259,000 viewers. Viking Raiders vs. Robert Roode & Dolph Ziggler quarter first loss 176,000 viewers but the finish of the match and Aleister Black vs. Eric Young gained 144,000 viewers. Draft picks and the angle with the Street Profits vs. The OC lost 182,000 viewers. Ricochet vs. Shelton Benjamin and the Lana/Bobby Lashley segment gained 69,000 viewers. Asuka & Kairi Sane vs. Natalya & Lacey Evans in the main event segment plus the burning of the Firefly Fun house lost 132,000 viewers. The overall peak quarter was 2,699,000 viewers for Flair vs. Lynch. The low point was the main event and Fun House segment with 1,826,000 viewers.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

Regarding NXT Japan, here are a few notes that we know of. WWE was in talks in recent months to attempt to buy both Pro Wrestling NOAH and Stardom, which would have been the base of talent to start things out. However, neither group wanted to sell to an outside company which has a lot to do with a difference in mentality in Japan about selling businesses to foreigners. WWE was also involved in talks with a number of other promotions but we don’t know how serious they were. There were stories going around that WWE has hired or is in the process of hiring two major stars to be head trainers for a Japanese performance center. We have confirmed through WWE that Meiko Satomura, who may be the best woman wrestler in the world (most have either she or Io Shirai as the best) has been working for the company for some time, who was one of the names listed for that role, but that is the only name confirmed. At this moment, the other name going around, Daisuke Sekimoto, is not working for WWE. Jiro Kuroshio is slated to be one of the top stars for this group, which is notable because he’s been saying that he’s moving to the U.S. Another name going around is Sari Fujimura, 23, who is the current world champion of the Pro Wrestling Diana promotion under the name Saree.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

In addition, the belief is that Chris Jericho and Jon Moxley will be on at least one of the shows [NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 14]. Jericho would likely have a singles match with Tanahashi. Moxley could face Lance Archer, who captured the U.S. title at KOPW, which was vacated when Moxley couldn’t get to Japan in time for the show due to travel complications caused by the Typhoon Hagibis.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

World Wonder Ring Stardom, the Japanese women's pro wrestling company best known as Stardom, has been sold to Kix Road, a subsidiary of Bushiroad, in a deal announced 10/17 in Japan ...

Ogawa had been approached in recent months by both Bushiroad and WWE, both of which wanted to buy the promotion. The WWE plans were to merge Stardom with a men’s promotion as NXT Japan and run it themselves. The Bushiroad idea was to keep Stardom as its own entity, allowing Ogawa to stay on and run the business ...

Ogawa wasn’t looking at selling when first approached in February by Bushiroad. This past summer, both WWE and Bushiroad were, independently, and not with knowledge of the other, looking to buy the group. Ogawa never strongly considered selling to WWE. Part of the situation was that Bushiroad had a battle plan for what they wanted to do, while WWE really didn’t, past the point they wanted to use the women to start NXT Japan. But they really didn’t seem to have a battle plan past the point they wanted to do it. There was no plan on who would run it, how it would be run, and it was likely to be merged with a men’s group or the women would be put on shows with men as WWE does things. There were no decisions on house shows, as NXT U.K. was supposed to have house show and now only does TV tapings and one or two big shows a year ...

However, WWE did offer to sign the entire roster to contracts and bring them in for WrestleMania week, and also to induct Ogawa into the Hall of Fame in 2020 if the deal went through. Bushiroad wanted to keep the Stardom structure as it was, with the same house show schedule, but build the stars and run occasional shows in larger arenas ...

What this means, with all the Japanese talent under contract, is that it would likely become the premier place for Japanese women talent, and it would become more difficult for WWE to sign their top talent, like they did with Io Shirai and Kairi Sane ...

With the company being backed by Bushiroad, it would enable them to pay more if necessary, if that is an issue, although WWE did not pay big money for Shirai and Sane, believed to be in the range of $60,000 per year for each to start, which is less than both were earning in Stardom. Sane likely makes more now working on the main roster than she did in Japan.

Bushiroad believes they can also enhance the product by making the characters more interesting. They have looked at hiring a coach/producer to help the women with new characters. One former New Japan wrestler was offered that position but turned it down last month.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

Alex Greenfield, who has been one of the producers with MLW since its relaunch, is no longer with the promotion. He was an agent who would coordinate the crews and shoot stuff for the company at shows and coordinate some post production stuff. The company believed he was pitching himself hard to AEW but felt there were issues in how that was done, even though they consider themselves allies of AEW. Those internally said they felt they had no choice but to let him go.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

PCO’s contract expires on 12/1, but he is expected to stay and ROH has been working hard to keep him and he was very happy how he was treated in the last year

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

Jake Hager had an agreement that he wouldn’t wrestle until after his fight for Bellator at the Mohegan Sun Casino on 10/25 on a show that will air on Paramount ... Hager noted with his gimmick in AEW as a badass MMA fighter, he really can’t afford a loss. His agreement was that he’s doing TV every week and taking Tuesday and Wednesdays as his days off training while training the other five days, but wouldn’t wrestle matches until after the fight to avoid the injury risk

Originally Posted by Observer

The full lineup for this year's British J-Cup is now set.

Revolution Pro Wrestling has announced that PAC will be taking part in the eight-man tournament. It's being held at York Hall in London, England on Sunday, November 24.

Robbie Eagles, Amazing Red, El Phantasmo, Barbaro Cavernario, Michael Oku, Rocky Romero, Senza Volto, and PAC are the eight wrestlers in the tournament.

Originally Posted by Observer

NJPW has set a date for Jushin Thunder Liger's final match in the United States.

It was announced tonight that Liger's last US match will take place at New Japan Showdown in San Jose on Saturday, November 9. Who Liger will be facing in the match has yet to be revealed.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

The NWA placed tickets on sale Friday for their December 14th “Into the Fire” pay-per-view at the GPB Studios in Atlanta, Georgia. The 255 seat studio sold out on the first day without any match announcements. The company will run the pay-per-view on Saturday, December 14th on Fite TV followed by two nights of television tapings on December 15th and 16th.

Originally Posted by Fightful

Tribute to the Troops has been a WWE holiday tradition for 15 years now.

A report from PWInsider has revealed the details for this year’s taping of the special event. It will take place on Friday 12/6 in Fayetteville, North Carolina at the Crown Coliseum. This will be a special dual event. That week's SmackDown will be held on the same day in the same venue. Tickets will be available next Friday, October 25, 2019.

Originally Posted by Observer

Raw, with both a lower rated NFL game and no baseball playoff competition, grew three percent from last week averaging 2.34 million viewers. It also didn't have the bad first-to-third hour drop at the level of last week.

The first-to-third hour drop of 12 percent is in the normal range as compared to the 21 percent drop last week, which was the eighth largest in history ...

What was notable is that women grew big in hour two, up 22 percent in hour two in 18-49, and more than 40 percent among teenage girls on a show with no women. Men 18-49 declined every hour with a first-to-third hour drop being nine percent, which is usual levels.

However, with teenagers, boys grew throughout the show and girls had a huge second hour increase and not nearly as big of a third hour drop ...

Raw was down eight percent from the 2.54 million viewers the show did last year on the same Monday, going against comparable television competition.

The three hours were:

8 p.m. 2.48 million viewers
9 p.m. 2.37 million viewers
10 p.m. 2;18 million viewers

Originally Posted by Observer

Sami Zayn has partnered with Pro Wrestling Tees to create a Sami vs. El Generico T-shirt. All of the profits will go toward Zayn’s Sami for Syria campaign.

Originally Posted by Observer

Dave Meltzer notes that Alex Shelley is guest coaching at the WWE Performance Center for a week

Originally Posted by Observer

Cody responded to someone on Twitter about AEW Dynamite ratings: “We are happy and our partner is happy. We overshot projections and set a record for a [WarnerMedia] debut. This is the era of cord cutting, simulcast and dvr bumps. We are proud of how incredible the numbers have been and know we need to work hard now more than ever.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

There was a scary scene at Arena Coliseo in Monterrey, Mexico on Sunday. La Parka (the second version, not LA Park) hit a suicide dive onto Rush and miscalculated the distance and smashed into the guardrail knocking himself out. La Parka was taken to hospital and was thought to be in bad shape. On Wrestling Observer Radio, it was reported that he had begun to get feeling back in his lower body and legs. Luchablog added that La Parka was set to go into surgery on Monday morning. Super Luchas is reporting that La Parka was diagnosed with a neck and cervical fracture.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Dorian Roldan of AAA spoke to the Caliente outlet regarding the status of La Parka. Roldan noted that he came out of surgery on Monday in stable condition. but the following 48 hours would be vital. He was treated for an injury to his fourth vertebrae following a dive to the floor on a KAOZ event at Arena Coliseo. La Parka’s feet clipped the middle rope and he crashed to the floor and hit the guardrail. He lost feeling in his hands and legs but was said to have regained the feeling prior to his operation on Monday morning.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Scott Fishman of TV Insider spoke with Matt & Nick Jackson on the early success of AEW Dynamite as well as the challenges of their scheduled and balancing their home life, the injury to Luchasaurus last week and how that affected the show, and also discussed the viewership figures over the first three weeks with Matt Jackson stating:

"I heard the expectations were possibly in the 400 or 500,000 range. The fact we crossed a million was great. I think opening we expected a big number. I don’t know if we expected the number, we got in 1.4. Of course, a week or two after there will always be a drop. We expected that.

If we can keep around a million, we’d be thrilled. That would be amazing. We’re such a brand-new thing for them. The next week is tough with Major League Baseball, NBA coming up. We understand that. This whole thing is a whirlwind. We are thrilled right now. And of course, you think about the other wrestling playing that night. And you want to best them, and the fact we are is great. We are also not taking that for granted because they have a great show too. Right now, we have one step foot forward and think about our brand, our television show and making it the best we can make it."

Originally Posted by Fightful

WWE on Fox Twitter account posted tweet asking fans to stop the "What?" chant that has since been deleted.

Originally Posted by Fightful

Since its inception earlier this year, All Elite Wrestling has trumpeted the fact that they take care of the wrestlers. Tony Khan revealed that he's created office positions for wrestlers as a way to ensure they get the benefits afforded to office members in other professions. Awesome Kong not only serves as a wrestler for AEW, but is also a coach for the women's division. Speaking to Collider Live, Awesome Kong discussed the differences in health care provided by AEW compared to WWE.

"From my time in WWE, what I understood was, if you got hurt in the ring then that is something they would take care of," recalled Kong. "However, your everyday exams and check-ups, that was something that you had to be responsible for. As an individual, it's hard and expensive to acquire such medical care with the profession we are in. When you have a company like [AEW] that's behind you and providing [medical care], that really makes it a lot easier on the pocketbook. Just to have that support of, 'these people don't see me as this product in a box. They see me as an actual person.' We had a meeting about concussions and their approach to it was full of humanity and putting yourself and your health first. For old school people, it's hard to comprehend because we'll literally break our neck and try to keep going. To have that attitude of care and putting talent before the bottom line is new for us and surprising, but appreciated."

Originally Posted by Fightful

Fightful was able to speak with a couple of people close to the WWE-Fox deal about the relationship between the two, which seems to still be doing swell.

One source at Fox said that the company is happy with WWE and how things have gone so far.

As far as the rest of the partnership, CM Punk did try out for WWE Backstage last month, but was not offered a deal by Fox. As mentioned before, Punk's tryout went well and he impressed the Backstage team, but it was left in the hands of higher ups at Fox that seemed like they'd "moved on" as recently as this week. Nothing is concrete in that regard, though.

The show is run through them, as opposed to UFC Tonight, which would see names get a check from the UFC instead of Fox. We're also told that WWE doesn't have much input on the WWE Backstage show, and it was originally set to feature more inside terminology and references than it does now, even.

Originally Posted by Fightful

In an update on the Maria Manic-ROH situation, Casey of Squared Circle Sirens indicated to Fightful that she's back with the company. Fightful was able to confirm the news, and heard that she got a good deal to return to ROH. We're told that Manic is back on a one year deal, salaried, and "non exclusive," but weren't given any indication on how expansive the latter part of the deal was.

Originally Posted by PWI

FOX has a one-hour WWE Special scheduled to air this Sunday at 5 PM EST.

The title of the special has not been officially announced, but the description reads, "A profile of some of the greatest stars in wrestling and the sport itself."

Originally Posted by PWI

Major League Wrestling's Court Bauer is slated for a series of TV meetings this week in Los Angeles, looking to lock in plans to add MLW's television and streaming footprint in 2020.

While the promotion is in the midst of a multi-year deal with BeIN Sport, an agreement that each side has been happy with, and are holding their first PPV on 11/9, their existing deals allow them the opportunity to create additional content for other outlets.

We are told the meetings are planned to explore what MLW can add beyond their BeIN Sport commitments and with AEW, WWE and Impact Wrestling all locked into existing deals, the belief is now is the time to strike to expand the company's footprint.

Originally Posted by Fightful

On Oct. 31, heavyweight boxing champion Tyson Fury will make his professional wrestling debut when he goes one-on-one with Braun Strowman. Reports have circulated that Fury will make $15 million for the bout, though those numbers have not been confirmed. ESPN's Ariel Helwani spoke with Fury and WWE Executive Vice President Triple H about the deal, and asked whether the $15 million number was true.

Fury replied, "That's what I've read. I don't know where that information has come from. But I'm not gonna confirm or deny. I don't want to breach my contract."

Triple H added, "It's amazing how much people count other people's money. You can make an argument right now that, if you said, what are the four big sports in America, you can make an argument that we're right there. I'm not gonna confirm or deny, but the positioning of what we are, it's no different than any other sport. We're not the size of the NFL or anything like that, but what we do is up there."

Originally Posted by Observer

EVIL will miss the remainder of NJPW's Road to Power Struggle tour due to injury.

NJPW announced today that EVIL has suffered a left ankle injury and won't be wrestling on the rest of the Road to Power Struggle tour. EVIL's Los Ingobernables de Japon stablemate BUSHI will replace him in the matches that he was scheduled for.

Originally Posted by PWI

WWE officially announced on today's edition of "The Bump" that a "WWE 24" documentary on R-Truth is coming soon to WWE Network.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Lynell Jinks, creative director of Visual Concepts spoke to GameSpot about how it felt to create a WWE video game without the involvement of Yuke’s:

“I think freeing is the first feeling that you get. When you realize that now that all the ideas that you had and wanted to pursue are now at your fingertips, that’s the first feeling you have, and the second one you have is the reality, where that sets in where you’re like, ‘Oh, now that it’s all ours, that means that we have to write tools and write systems, and actually understand how these things were really put together.’ Every system in the game, every piece of code, and every art asset had to go through our pipeline — had to go through us, and it was our responsibility to make sure that we understood everything that we’re putting in the game from front to back, right? And this is 20 years of just Yuke’s code, Yuke’s art, Yuke’s pipelines that we had to take apart and understand. Not only understand, but make it ours and try to make it better at the same time, or make it as good as it was.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Savio Vega sat down with Hannibal TV for an exclusive interview and revealed that former WWE United States Champion Carlito received a new contract offer from WWE:

“Carlito, they [WWE] tried to get Carlito back. I talked to him last week. I was with him, and I said, ‘Brother, just go there, get a contract, get whatever [amount of] money, higher every year, whatever, because you’re not gonna make that kind of money in the street. Make some money, leave OK. It’s good.’ If I had the opportunity, I’d do it.”

Savio then began talking about Primo and Epico Colon. The last time that Primo and Epico wrestled on WWE TV was in August of 2018. Their last documented match for WWE was a dark match this past February following an episode of SmackDown Live:

“His brother and Primo, I believe they finished. I don’t know if they finished yet. They probably don’t say it or they’re gonna do it this year coming up… next year because they’re working Puerto Rico.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Pro Wrestling NOAH announced that current GHC Heavyweight Champion Kaito Kiyomiya is out of action for a week after injuring his cervical spine. It is noted in the article that there are no symptoms such as numbness or paralysis in the limbs. Kiyomiya is no longer competing at NOAH’s October 27th event but will be back in action on November 2nd.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

On the most recent edition of Sean “X-Pac” Waltman’s ‘X-Pac 12360’ podcast, Waltman talked about the criticism Marko Stunt received after his appearance on AEW: Dynamite and opened up about his own experiences as a smaller in-ring performer:

“The way I looked and how I was, you talk about Marko Stunt, oh f*** people laughed at me. The first time I got in the ring, I wrestled Ricky Rice, he’s built very well, I mean not huge but fn built well. And I was totally pale, skinny af, and so everyone laughed, they were all laughing at me as I come to the ring. So it took about a minute and then they were on their feet because I German-suplexed them, wrestled them, and then I dove out of the ring. No one had ever seen that kind of shit. So it didn’t take long, they took to me really quick, it was something different, everyone else were these big jacked up guys, and to be honest with you, a lot of them had this sense of entitlement. That they were from Minnesota and they were jacked up on the gas, and that they were gonna get a phone call.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Ryan Satin of Pro Wrestling Sheet welcomed Jungle Boy and Kia “Awesome Kong” Stevens in-studio for an exclusive interview. Jungle Boy spoke about the criticism that Marko Stunt received following he and Marko’s AEW TNT debut:

“Yeah, its kinda been wild. Its been a lot bigger than I expected it to be. That whole day was kind of crazy stressful — that is not how I would’ve imagined my TV debut to go. But I was super happy, personally, with the match. Most of the feedback I guess, about Marko, it’s kinda just the same stuff always. I think that was his first time being introduced to a lot of people — being on a platform that big — it was for all of us but, with him, the thing is, it’s just… you’re kind of open to it or you’re not. I think Marko being so small, I think it maybe makes a lot of people feel not great about themselves, and I say that because I think there’s this attitude that bigger is better, and I think for him to be his size, which in a way, will hold him back a lot, but he’s out there doing what so many people have dreamed of doing and they’ve never been able to do it. I think that kind of just adds a little bit of insult to injury in their minds I guess, and I get it, but at the same — it’s not anything he has control over. I’m super proud of him, and I think if you can get past that, I think everybody should be super proud of him because not only is he doing something for anybody, it’s a huge thing, it’s a scary thing. He’s doing it his way, with what he’s always had to deal with and I think he’s killing it.”

Originally Posted by Fightful

WrestleVotes reports WWE is planning on bringing back the Stone Cold Podcast to the WWE Network.

Originally Posted by Fightful

Deadline reports former WWE superstar Christian and former UFC Champions Chuck Liddell and Luke Rockhold have signed for the film "Cagefighter," which also stars AEW wrestler Jon Moxley.

The movie follows MMA knock-out specialist Reiss Gibson (UK MMA fighter Alex Montagnani) climbing the MMA ranks before promoter Max Black (Gina Gershon) sets up a cross-promotional bout against pro wrestler Randy Stone (Moxley).

Christian has previously starred in the films "Shoot 'Em Up" and "SuperGrid." Liddell has been in multiple films and TV series, including "Workaholics," "Entourage," "Kick-Ass 2," "A Violent Man," and "How High." Rockhold has no film or television credits.

Production is set to start on Nov. 1 in Saskatchewan, Canada. The film is scheduled to release in quarter two of 2020 and is being sold by UK outfit Kaleidoscope with Calgary’s Anamorphic Media financing the project.

Jesse Quinones (Calloused Hands) is writer-director on the movie. Producers include Shayne Putzlocher (Cold Brook) and Jessica Gaube of Trilight Entertainment, Sara Shaak (Girl) of Anamorphic Media, and Lorianne Hall (Shoplifters of the World).

Originally Posted by Fightful

Though Big Show hasn't been on WWE television since November 2018, the "World's Largest Athlete" has kept busy filming "The Big Show Show" for Netflix. Ahead of WWE Crown Jewel, TMZ caught up with Big Show to get his thoughts on the showdown between Cain Velasquez and Brock Lesnar ...

Finally, Big Show was asked about criticisms of WWE booking as Velasquez is getting a WWE Title shot in his first bout. Big Show replied, "You're never gonna make everyone happy. Some people say, 'you're rushing too much' or 'you're taking too long.' Everyone is gonna have an opinion. My advice is to sit back, watch the show, and enjoy it. Quit trying to direct it."

Show also mentioned that he didn't have much room to talk as he wrestled Hulk Hogan for the WCW World Title in his first match.

Originally Posted by Fightful

Reddit user WrestlignGamer posted a list of talent who did motion capture work for WWE 2K20.

Aerial Johnson - Aerial Monroe
Austin White - Austin Theory
Brian Button - Brian Cage
Brianna Sparrey - Kylie Rae
Deveon Everhart Aikens - Dezmond Xavier
Drew Everett Wenkel - Andrew Everett
Jason Seaton - ??????
Allysin Kay - Allysin Kay / Sienna
Jessica Cricks - Jessika Havok
Jeff Cobb - Jeff Cobb
Jonathan Cruz Rivera - Jay Cruz
Kenny Layne - Kenny King
Kristen Stadtlander - Kris Stadtlander
Marty Elias - Marty Elias
Matthew Capiccioni - Matt Cross
Nicole Matthias - Nicole Savoy
Olivia Hasler - Penelope Ford
Peter Hernandez - The Librarian Peter Avalon
Rachael Ellering - Rachel Evers
Ronald Arneill - Tye Dillinger/Shawn Spears
Santana Garrett - Santana Garrett
Schuyler Andrews - Scorpio Sky
Shaun Ricker - Eli Drake
Stephon Strickland - Isaiah "Swerve" Scott
Tanea Brooks - Rebel
TJ Perkins - TJP
Trevor Lee Caddell - Cameron Grimes

Originally Posted by Fightful

Along with being a wrestler and coach for All Elite Wrestling, Awesome Kong plays "The Welfare Queen" Tammé Dawson on Netflix's GLOW. AEW President Tony Khan has hinted at AEW and GLOW working together in some capacity in the future and Awesome Kong dropped some more hints in an interview with Collider Live.

"Collectively, [GLOW castmates] were very excited for my return (to wrestling). They celebrated that and thought it was absolutely awesome. I can't make any promises, but I believe we might see someone (from GLOW) visit (AEW) at least. Could be cool. Nice little moment. There have been discussions about the possibilities of what that would look like and what we would do. Right now, there is a plan. And once those plans are realized, then we can get 'loosey-goosey' and see what else we can go onto next. We would have to be careful and make sure things fit together nice and it's something the fans can appreciate and not ridicule. Ya'll, sometimes it's hard to please them," said Kong.

As of now, nothing has been announced for an AEW-GLOW crossover.

Originally Posted by Observer

CNN Business published a story on the declines WWE’s stock has seen this year.

Originally Posted by Observer

WWE 2K20 received a 4.3/10 rating from IGN.

Originally Posted by Observer

Jake Hager (formerly known as Jack Swagger) spoke to Sports Illustrated about the end of his time with WWE: “I was lost in the mix there [in WWE]. When I look now at guys like Cesaro, guys like Bobby Lashley, they’re just lost. When I look at them, that whole cloud of doom comes right back over me. I’m so glad I’m not in that. It’s something you deal with within big companies, but it’s also about how they treat their talent. They know exactly what they’re doing, and I hate to say it, but it’s on purpose.”

Originally Posted by Observer

Against competition from both the World Series and NBA, AEW viewership dropped for the third straight week, averaging 963,000 viewers last night.

That's down five percent from last week and is the first time Dynamite has fallen below a million viewers. In the key 18-49 demo, Dynamite averaged a 0.45, which was actually up two percent and good for fourth place on the night in all of cable.

NXT on USA also dropped for the fifth straight week, falling two percent to 698,000 viewers. Like AEW, the rating in the 18-49 demo was also up. It increased five percent to a 0.21 and finished 21st overall on cable for the night.

Aside from people over 50 -- where the WWE product had an advantage of 0.33 to 0.25 -- Dynamite beat NXT in every ratings demo.

The over 50 demo was obviously the strongest for NXT. AEW was strongest in the 25-54 demo, where they averaged a 0.46 rating. One demo where they completely dominated NXT was in young males (12-34), where they had an advantage of 0.43 to 0.12, almost four times as many viewers.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

If the Astros vs. Nationals goes to a seventh game, it would be played next Wednesday and go head-to-head with both programs.

Originally Posted by Observer

A special edition of WWE Backstage has been added to FS1's schedule for tomorrow.

WWE on FOX's Twitter account posted a video today where Renee Young announced that a new episode of the Backstage studio show will air live immediately after Friday Night SmackDown at 10 p.m. Eastern time tomorrow.

Due to game three of the World Series being on FOX, tomorrow's SmackDown will air live on FS1.

Paige and Christian will join Young and Booker T on the WWE Backstage episode. Young noted that they'll be speaking to Finn Balor, who turned heel by attacking Johnny Gargano on this week's NXT.

Originally Posted by Observer

Next week's episode of Dynamite will include a bit of collaboration between AEW and Adult Swim animated hit Rick & Morty.

After AEW teased the partnership for next week's show, Cody Rhodes posted a tweet with some more information: "SPOILER: fans attending this Wednesday in Charleston for the Halloween @AEWonTNT will receive @RickandMorty masks #AEW."

Season four of Rick & Morty will premiere on Adult Swim at 11:30 p.m. Eastern time on Sunday, November 10. TNT and the Cartoon Network/Adult Swim are both part of WarnerMedia.

Originally Posted by Observer

AEW is set to crown its inaugural Tag Team Champions next week, and a Hall of Fame team will be playing a part in the process.

It was announced today that The Rock 'n' Roll Express (Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson) will be appearing on next week's episode of Dynamite. They'll present the AEW Tag Team titles to the winners of the promotion's Tag Team Championship tournament.

Originally Posted by Observer

Impact Wrestling co-executive vice president Scott D'Amore, Impact World Champion Brian Cage, and Knockouts Champion Taya Valkyrie were part of an hour-long conference call Thursday, hitting up a variety of topics on the company's past and future ahead of their official weekly AXS TV debut this Tuesday.

The whole call can be heard below, but a few highlights:

• D'Amore addressed the rumor of the TNA brand returning for one night in April during WrestleMania weekend in Orlando. He said it's early in the process, but that "we don't run from our history, we embrace it."
• On Kylie Rae returning to the company, "the door is certainly open if she is interested."
• D'Amore and Valkyrie were asked a lot about intergender matches which D'Amore said they are proud to be at the forefront of. Valkyrie jokingly challenged Cage to a title match and Cage retorted with that it didn't go well for Valkyrie when they wrestled in another organization.
• D'Amore said their rebuilding process is over and that they have spent two years putting out a great product. He talked about restoring trust in the Impact name. He said they had to rebuild that when he and Callis took over two years ago. After a lot of negativity in '18, he feels they have reclaimed a lot of that trust in '19, but need to keep at it."
• D'Amore said that other wrestling organizations are competition, but in a good way. "While other companies are competition, they aren't enemies. For us to success, they don't have to fail. Competition breeds innovation. We need to answer the challenge," he said.

Originally Posted by PWI

Because of Crown Jewel, next week's episode of NXT UK will premiere at 11 AM Eastern (4 PM GMT).

Originally Posted by PWI

AEW NEWS AND NOTES
The plan for the end of last night's episode was for it to end as Kenny Omega hit the ring but he was a little late getting to the ring.

In another incident of AEW stepping in where NXT/NXT UK talent was originally scheduled, Private Party will be replacing Mustache Mountain on the International Wrestling Syndicate show in Montréal entitled One Night Only 11/8.

Tony Schiavone tweeted:
I am having more fun than I’ve ever had before calling wrestling. I hope everyone realizes that. Working with @JRsBBQ and @ShutUpExcalibur is a blast. And the @AEWrestling in ring works amazing
— Tony Schiavone (@tonyschiavone24) October 24, 2019

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Per TVAzteca, Karis la Momia Jr. who is the son of La Parka stated that his father is in stable condition after attempting to hit a suicide dive in a match this past Sunday. La Parka crashed into a barricade head first. It is noted in the article that doctors planned to reevaluate La Parka on 10/24 and Karis la Momia Jr. sent his thank you’s to all who wished La Parka well.

Originally Posted by Fightful

WWE Universal Champion Seth Rollins made headlines on Oct. 21 when he called AEW the "minor leagues" in a response to a question about when he would face Kenny Omega. Rollins was speaking at Fandemic in Houston and you can view his full comments by clicking here.

The comment was viewed by many as another jab between WWE and AEW, which began seemingly the moment All Elite Wrestling became a reality at the start of the year. Kenny Omega and Chris Jericho have taken similar strikes at WWE and NXT talent in recent months. However, AEW announcer Jim Ross didn't dismiss the comment as a light jab or "workers working."

"I'm pissed off about it," Ross said on the latest episode of Grilling JR. "It doesn't do any favors for our business. Any promotion, is bigger than any individual. I'm not inferring that Seth thinks he's bigger than the business. But, by what he says sometimes, you can make that assessment, rightly or wrongly. It's not a classy thing to say for an athlete of his designation.

"I talked to two Hall of Fame guys, off the record, that were embarrassed by those remarks as well. It doesn't do the business any good and one of these cats even said to me, 'Maybe Rollins is breaking under pressure because he's getting a lot of criticism.' Here's the deal, the WWE is a whole different world today than it was when guys were earning above their downside based on live events and pay-per-view. A guy like Steve Austin might be making $1 million a year, downside guarantee. But he might have a year where he could make $10 million, $13 million, $9 million. It's always over that. Now guys in WWE, like Rollins, is on a salary. In broad terms. I don't know how many houses Seth has drawn that has sold out. As another Hall of Famer mentioned to me, it's not about the individuals being over or drawing the house. It's about the WWE brand selling out."

Ross didn't let up on Rollins, saying, "Rollins is in a great spot, he's blessed, maybe someday he'll be as over as his girlfriend [Becky Lynch]. I don't know. I've always liked his work. He's a solid guy. But saying things like that makes him look bad. I feel bad for him. I was upset at Seth because I thought his comments made him sound bad. Made him sound bush league, like he was born on third base, woke up, and thought he hit a triple. I don't know what's happened to some of these guys. I don't know if it's internal, what they're driven to say, what they're obligated to say. They think it'll gain favor of their bosses. I don't know what the answer is."

Despite his criticism of Rollins' comments, Ross did admit that he believes Rollins is a great worker and that a match between him and Omega would be great.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

New Japan Pro-Wrestling official Tiger Hattori will be refereeing CMLL’s November 15th show as a part of his retirement tour. Hattori’s last bout that he will officiate will be at the Tokyo Dome in January.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Josh Barnett announced the third installment of his Bloodsport event in conjunction with Game Changer Wrestling. The event is scheduled for WrestleMania 36 weekend in Tampa, Florida.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Sportskeeda has an interview published with Michael Nakazawa. Nakazawa shared that he is more involved in the backstage scene of All Elite Wrestling opposed to the in-ring portion. Nakazawa specifically mentioned assisting Kenny Omega and helping Japanese talent.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Deontay Wilder told SunSport he believes Tyson Fury is going to use a made-up injury after his match at Crown Jewel as an excuse to hold off he and Fury’s rematch:

“I’m not surprised he got into WWE. We’d been saying this a long time ago that he’s gonna try it, he’s been making excuses about the rematch. Now he’s got into the WWE, he’s gonna get ‘injured’, make up excuses and lo and behold, we’re already hearing about his sprained ankle. But yeah, he’s messing around with those big guys, but I do not want to hear no excuses, none, no excuses.”

Wilder also stated that he does not believe the reported number that WWE is paying Tyson Fury to be with the company. He questioned why WWE would even give that type of money to Tyson when he can’t sell out Las Vegas.

“I wish everyone well, especially fighters. We work so hard and put our lives on the line so whatever outside of boxing comes to us, I’m happy for everyone. I’m into acting, my thing is acting. I’ve been doing my thing, super busy, I got a lot of acting stuff, movies, a lot of sh*t presented to me. But I’ve been hearing some bits about the WWE. You know, some of the stuff I just don’t believe – like the $15 million. I just can’t see them giving Fury $15 million for what is a guest appearance, when the highest paid I believe is Brock Lesnar on $12 million. Why would they give that to a guy that can’t even sell out Vegas? In his first fight he sold 1,500 tickets, and the second he sold 3,500 tickets. The rest he gave away. Why would they give someone $15 million after that? It’s just like the ESPN deal, that was a lie. He was never getting $100 million. Even his promoter Bob Arum came out and said that’s not true. If everything goes perfect then maybe he got $100 million. A lot of it is smoking mirrors and clout chasing.”

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

For the ratings for last week in Canada, Smackdown on 10/11 for the draft dropped to 201,300 viewers, Raw on 10/14 was up to 294,000 viewers, NXT didn’t crack the sports top ten for its night while AEW fell to 108,000 viewers, which was a 29.4 percent drop, although those in Canada blamed this drop to the Toronto Maple Leafs playing head-to-head, which kills all competing sports

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

Orton got a lot of talk this past week with a tease on Twitter. He could just be having fun, but Orton’s ten-year WWE deal expires in 2020 and he’s in a great position to play both sides against each other, and that’s the smart thing to do. In the end, for someone like Orton, who is believed to be making in the $3 million per year range, and doesn’t work a full house show schedule, WWE is probably the better place. At 39, he may be able to get an even lesser schedule. Whether he’s the right mix for AEW is a question but next year you’d think they’d be looking for a big pick up and Orton would fit that bill, there’s the question if they want to spend at that level for a new guy.

There is a photo that shows Orton looking at a sign that says “Elite level” and had a caption that reads “tick tock tick tock.” He tagged Riddick Moss, Dawson, Wilder, Cody and Jericho. I’m not sure of the significance of Moss, who is a former college football player who is in NXT and is one of many there with potential kind of caught in the numbers game. The Revival, who Orton had teamed with on Smackdown until they were just separated, definitely had interest in AEW when their WWE deals expire since there’s a natural already made program with The Young Bucks ... Orton and Cody have a relationship as part of the old Legacy faction and Orton had inquired about AEW from the time of its launch, as a large number of WWE stars did ...

Orton once tweeted to Will Ospreay about wanting to face him and used the date June 2020, so the belief is that would be around the period when his deal expires. No matter what Orton wants to do, the smart thing is to, especially right now given his age, to use both sides to get the best offer, which at this stage is not just money, but schedule and perhaps putting a cap on professional legacy.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

Kacy Catanzaro has been removed quietly from the WWE roster page. Nobody has confirmed she’s gone, but that is usually an indication. She had taken time off and was considering retiring but the last we’d heard was that she hadn’t made a decision

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

Even though Cain Velasquez said that WWE had given him permission to do one last AAA match, WWE’s official response to that is to say that the event that he was going to work was canceled, meaning the 10/13 show at The Forum in Los Angeles. Those at AAA believe that they have one date left with him

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

We have complete rundowns on how every segment did with almost every demo for the 10/16 Wednesday night Wars. For AEW, the show ranged from 1,174,000 viewers for the SCU vs,. Best Friends match that opened the show to 999,000 for the Chris Jericho vs. Darby Allin title match that ended it. The actual low point was 912,000 viewers for the beginning of the Pentagon & Fenix vs. Marko Stunt & Jungle Boy match.

As far as the segments, the Ortiz & Santana vs. John Silver & Alex Reynolds match, the Jericho interview and the Cody video package lost 174,000 viewers ...

Riho vs. Britt Baker gained 3,000 viewers. Pentagon & Fenix vs. Stunt & Jungle Boy lost 17,000 viewers in total, which was a combination of losing 91,000 viewers early and gaining 74,000 late. Kenny Omega & Adam Page vs. Pac & Jon Moxley gained 71,000 viewers. Jericho vs. Allin lost 58,000 viewers ...

For NXT, the show opened at 732,000 viewers, the last quarter was 639,000, the overrun after AEW ended gained 127,000 viewers to 766,000 (so that would be a good estimate of the audience that NXT would gain without AEW) and it would be the first week where the overrun helped the final rating, as usually it either hurt it slightly or made no difference. The peak number was the overrun, followed by the Keith Lee vs. Dominik Dijakovic match that peaked at 740,000 viewers. Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch vs. Marcel Barthel & Fabian Aichner lost 38,000 viewers. Io Shirai vs. Kayden Carter and the post-match with Rhea Ripley and Shirai gained 35,000 viewers. Lee vs. Dijakovic gained 10,000 viewers. A combination of Matt Riddle vs. Bronson Reed and Tegan Nox vs. Taynara lost 41,000 viewers. Killian Dain vs. Boa and a Finn Balor segment lost 5,000 viewers. Pete Dunne vs. Damien Priest lost 54,000 viewers until AEW ended and then gained 127,000 at that point.

Keys are that while the overrun did show a crossover, if you look at comparisons, you don’t see a lot of crossover. Both shows dropped audience in the second quarter. Baker vs. Riho gained while Io Shirai vs. Cayden Carter also gained. Pentagon & Fenix match with Jungle Boy & Stunt lost while Lee vs. Dijakovic gained, but in the latter stages the Pentagon & Fenix match gained while Lee vs. Dijakovic held steady. Omega & Page vs. Moxley & Pac did gain strong at the same time NXT was falling with Riddle vs. Reed, Nox vs. Taynara and Boa vs. Dain, and one would think that would happen, but in some demos that was not the case. But AEW lost 58,000 in its final quarter at the same time NXT lost 54,000.

Key here is 18-34s appear to be interested in both as it picked up 44 percent when AEW ended, but in 35-49, the pick up was only seven percent (misleading because it was 49,000 to 52,000 among women, but 93,000 to 122,000 among men) and for teenagers it was only 2.5 percent while for over 50 it was 15.3 percent. So basically, the crossover is big in 18-34 across the board, and in 35-49 with men but not with women and noticeable but not nearly as large over 50

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

WWE also talked a few months ago with Dragon Gate, talking about buying it to become the transition for NXT Japan

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

One of the reasons for going with an all Japanese hierarchy for New Japan Pro Wrestling of America was an overreaction to vocal fans who had complained that under Meij, they had tried to Americanize New Japan and not give the U.S. the authentic product. The reality is that Americanizing drew better, and the complaints would come after shows where the Young Bucks & Kenny Omega would get the biggest reactions and the fans would complain they were catering too much to the American audience by featuring them ... The funny part of this is that Meij never had a hand in the booking, and all those decisions on the U.S. shows were made by Gedo ...

It is notable that Takaaki Kidani of Bushiroad had hired Harold Meij to head up these expansion plans, and neither Meij nor his lead hire, Michael Craven, who is from the Vancouver area, are part of the new company ... Ohbari was a Bushiroad business employee who was moved into the New Japan office in 2018. Ohbari was actually a Meij hiring in February, and while new to pro wrestling, he’s an experienced businessman ... Some believe he’s being groomed to be the backup for Harold Meij in the company ...

Ohbari called the creation of the new subsidiary company as stage three of their U.S. market strategy. Stage one was opening up the dojo in Carson, CA, and stage two was running occasional live events.

While nothing was said about the relationship with ROH, the fact they’ve had access to no New Japan talent in a few months is telling, particularly with the recent Global Wars touring being only CMLL wrestlers, who have little U.S. drawing appeal. Aside from Jeff Cobb, there is nobody from ROH who has been working for New Japan and Cobb with New Japan predates his signing with ROH. It will be interesting if Cobb works New Japan U.S. shows, or if Cobb, who is a big fan of working for New Japan, even gets offered a full-time New Japan deal and leaves ROH ...

New Japan itself took a hit as far as its drawing potential in this market with the development of AEW. And New Japan running a full-time U.S. company probably means, at least for the time being, a relationship with AEW would be out the window ... I think the one thing that hurt attempts to combat WWF in every time period was when the top non-WWF talent was fragmented rather than united.

The plan is to run shows in arenas that hold 2,000 fans or less. With so many events, meaning having to draw from local markets rather than fly ins, that is the right size. But it also means you’re going to mostly cater to a very small fan base ... The idea is to run more events, and not bigger buildings. The idea is to grow from there, and build to running major arenas. New Japan has maybe 1,700 tickets out for the San Jose show in a 2,500-seat building, and has plenty of tickets remaining for a Monday night show at the Globe Theater, which PWG sells out routinely at barely 600 people.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

The NWA PPV show on 12/14 in Atlanta is sold out, although that’s in a 250-seat television studio, but it also sold out instantly. Right now the idea is to run weekly television on YouTube until a few weeks before the show, and then do “10 Pounds of Gold” shows weekly leading up to the PPV. Then they’ll tape maybe seven weeks of new TV after the PPV that will build for a live Clash of Champions like YouTube special which would start the next set of tapings, and those tapings would build to another PPV. Right now the plan is four PPVs per year, but like everything, the more they learn, the more things can change. The hope for now is that they can sell ads within their show because they reach a specialized 18 to 44 male audience, and with merch revenue, PPV revenue and other things, that it can be viable financially to continue with this model. It’s also a good place for talent to showcase themselves if they can get in, because you are given a direction and ideas, but you do your own promos and work your own style.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

In the U.K., the AEW Sunday morning show has been dropped, but the Friday night time slot has been moved up to 10 p.m. on ITV 4, which is a major upgrade from an 11:20 p.m. start ...

The Sunday morning show on ITV 4 at 8:20 a.m. averaged 24,000 viewers, which was down 34 percent. Really, the most impressive U.K. number for the past weeks may have been Impact, which did 77,000 viewers on 10/18, which was more than AEW did live the previous Friday. WWE numbers have been bad, as the 10/14 Raw did 38,000 viewers, down from 48,000 for the 10/7 show that featured Tyson Fury, who is a huge name in the U.K. Smackdown on 10/18 was down to 23,000 viewers. Raw on 10/21 did 3,000 viewers. It was so bad people thought it was a computer glitch but we’re told the data was sound

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

Regarding Kenny Omega and the AAA heavyweight title, this was not a long-term program worked out between AEW and AAA like the Young Bucks vs. Pentagon Jr. & Fenix program in AAA and AEW over the AAA tag titles, where both companies worked it all out ahead of time. This is more of a thing in progress. Omega’s title win was acknowledged by AEW, unlike Jon Moxley’s New Japan U.S. title. Each situation is different. Tony Khan said that obviously the relationship between AEW and AAA is very different from the non-relationship with AEW and NJPW, plus he noted it was their U.S. title, not the IWGP heavyweight title, which he’d have considered acknowledging if one of his guys wins it (which isn’t going t happen right now).

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

Unlike the last Saudi Arabia show, where the government gave WWE the impression they would allow women on the show, to the point the Natalya vs. Alexa Bliss match was quietly booked and both were flown over, and the rug was pulled out, we’ve heard nothing in that direction so far this time for Allahween Havoc.

WWE, which, due to controversy last year, would not mention Saudi Arabia in the promotion of the recent shows, has mentioned the country on television. Paul Levesque at the press conference opened up talking about how huge Riyadh season, as it’s being called in Saudi Arabia, with various forms of entertainment involved.

Originally Posted by PWI

In regard to questions we have received about the long-term status of Cain Velasquez and Tyson Fury, here is where things stand with them:

Tyson Fury - He has been working out at the WWE Performance Center with Jonny Moss in preparing for his bout with Braun Strowman this Thursday at Crown Jewel. As of this week, that is his only planned WWE appearance and he is not signed to anything with the company. We are told that he's absolutely loved his time with the company and is open to doing more down the line, however.

Cain Velasquez - The former UFC Heavyweight Champion has signed a multi-year deal (believed to be three years) with WWE and will be appearing regularly for the company going forward.

Originally Posted by PWI

TMZ.com released video footage of the 7/25 arrest of WWE star Jimmy Uso (Jonathan Solofa Fatu) in Pensacola, Florida th

In the video, Uso's car is seen swerving on the road and pulls over after the police turn their lights on. He is polite with the officers and admits that his swerving and speed (85 mph in a 45 zone) were both "stupid." Once he realizes he is being asked to take tests to measure his level of intoxication (Uso had admitted to having a glass of wine at dinner "two hours ago"), he begins to get more aggressive and asks to record the officers and for his lawyer to be present, consistently asking if he's being arrested or detained. He is finally placed under arrest and put into the police car.

The Usos have not been used regularly by WWE since the arrest. The case against Uso is still open.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

For those in Canada, AEW Dynamite will be airing on TSN 2 next Wednesday after originally being scheduled for TSN 3. The Wednesday night program will run on TSN 2 on October 30th, November 6th, November 13th, November 20th, and November 27th. TSN has not finalized its schedule beyond that but Dynamite will have a consistent channel destination at least through the end of November.

Originally Posted by PWI

This Sunday's FOX special at 5 PM Eastern (check your local listings and affiliates) is slated to be a one-hour version of this week's Smackdown.

Originally Posted by Fightful

Ryan Satin of Pro Wrestling Sheet reports that "a handful of wrestlers in the middle and lower parts of the card" in IMPACT Wrestling were told they would be given a raise prior to Friday's television tapings in Windsor. Other wrestlers were reportedly told on Sunday at Bound For Glory.

Wrestlers who were told they would receive a raise include IMPACT Tag Team Champions The North (Josh Alexander & Ethan Page), X-Division Champion Ace Austin, The Rascalz (Trey, Wentz, & Dez) and Knockouts wrestler Jessicka Havoc.

Satin reports "management wanted to give back to the men and women who’ve sacrificed their bodies to help the company as of late."

It is unclear how significant the raises are, but Satin reports everyone in the locker room was happy with the increase, with one wrestler reportedly "almost brought to tears."

Originally Posted by Observer

A Raw episode built around the Rusev and Lana marriage split angle last night ended up doing the third-worst non-holiday number in the modern history of the show.

The show did 2.13 million viewers on average, barely beating the September 9 episode this year and the June 10 episode against the NBA finals. The only other shows finishing lower were on this past Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve.

Football hurt, as it does all fall, but that's not the excuse since the Pittsburgh Steelers-Miami Dolphins game did 9.98 million viewers, the lowest Monday game so far this season.

It was a nine percent drop from last week with lesser competition, with significant losses in every hour ...

The three hours were:

8 p.m. 2.33 million viewers
9 p.m. 2.15 million viewers
10 p.m. 1.93 million viewers

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

The third drop experienced an additional drop of 10% with the show built around the Divorce Court segment involving Rusev, Lana, and Bobby Lashley. Despite the success the segment saw on YouTube, the viewing pattern of the show told a different story regarding people sticking around for the third hour. The final hour of Raw was the fourth-lowest third hour of 2019.

The major loss was seen among female viewership with women 12-34 down 21% from last week’s show and a tune-out of 19% from the first to the third hour. Among women 18-49, they were down 12.5% from last week and down 26% from the first hour of the show to the third hour.

The only key demographic that stayed steady was males 18-49 where they were up 1% from last week but dropped 13% from the first hour to the third.

Originally Posted by Observer

Steve Austin's new show on the WWE Network called Steve Austin's Broken Skull Sessions, which will be interview segments with different wrestlers, debuts Thursday on the WWE Network. Austin's prior interviews were the most-watched non-PPV programming on the network in the past.

Originally Posted by PWI

In regard to a question we have received about XFL Players' potential of playing for the NFL, we are told that the current contracts allow a player to leave for the NFL after the existing XFL season is completed. So, if someone goes on a tear in the inaugural season, they would be free to sign with an NFL team (if there was interest in them) after the XFL season has been completed.

Originally Posted by Fightful

Mike Johnson at PWInsider reports JoJo Offerman will be back on the road with WWE on Monday, Oct. 28. She is scheduled to be backstage at WWE Raw, though it is not known if she will appear on television or in social media segments.

JoJo has been off the road since January as she was pregnant with Bray Wyatt's child. She gave birth to Knash Sixx Rotunda in May.

Originally Posted by PWI

For those of you in Canada, AEW Dynamite this week will air on TSN 2.

We have heard the Friday 10/25 Dynamite replay on TNT, which featured an "extended" five minutes of content, brought in either 254,000 or 255,000 overnight viewers.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

TNT is not scheduled to air a replay of AEW Dynamite tomorrow night at 10 pm eastern. For the first three weeks, they ran a replay immediately after the live broadcast but didn’t air one last week. TNT will be running a one-hour version of Dynamite on Saturday morning at 9 am.

Originally Posted by Observer

John Cena announced yesterday that he is planning on donating $500,000 to a charity of Paramount Pictures’ choosing as long as it aids first responders. Paramount Pictures responded by saying they would be donating the money to the Los Angeles Fire Department and the California Fire Foundation. Fires have been raging in California in the last week, forcing evacuations.

Originally Posted by Observer

Seth Rollins did a promo after his match last night talking about his perceived lack of respect, saying “There's been a lot of disrespect lately, I feel like. The Fiend is cool, fresh, and new and has this cult following. And that just puts a chip on my shoulder. I feel like I'm out here every single week, busting my back, breaking my back, putting this whole company on my back sometimes. And I don't get the respect I deserve because there's this new flavor of ice cream.”

Originally Posted by Observer

Musician Poppy is advertised for tomorrow's episode of NXT.

Originally Posted by Observer

The Chicago Cubs jobber team from last night’s Raw were Mike Sydal (brother of Matt) and Kyle Roberts.

Originally Posted by Observer

A pre-Crown Jewel media event will stream live on the WWE Network and WWE's YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter accounts early Wednesday morning.

It was announced today that "WWE Superstars are set to meet the media in Saudi Arabia one day before they take center stage at WWE Crown Jewel." The media event will begin at 4 a.m. Eastern time tomorrow (October 30).

The Crown Jewel pre-show will begin at noon Eastern this Thursday, with the main card starting an hour later.

Originally Posted by Observer

Less than two weeks before they were supposed to take place, ROH has postponed their two November shows in Texas.

The ROH shows that were set for Gilley's Dallas in Dallas, Texas on November 9 and The Aztec Theatre in San Antonio on November 10 will no longer be taking place on those dates. They've been postponed to June 5 and June 6, 2020.

Originally Posted by Observer

Ahead of their first pay-per-view, MLW has confirmed a behind-the-scenes addition to the company.

It was announced via Sports Illustrated today that Chris DeJoseph has joined MLW as a co-executive producer. DeJoseph was formerly an executive producer for Lucha Underground and was also part of the WWE writing team for six years during his career.

Originally Posted by PWI

As PWInsider.com reported earlier, Hulk Hogan's plane landing in Iceland led to several burst tires, preventing Hogan and Jimmy Hart from continuing on to Saudi Arabia. While Hogan did not mention it on his videos, likely to prevent the current storyline, Ric Flair was also traveling with him. Hogan stated earlier that a "friend from Minnesota" offered them seats on his plane to allow them to continue on to Saudi Arabia on schedule.

PWInsider.com has learned that friend was actually Brock Lesnar as his plane to Saudi had stopped in Iceland as well, likely to refuel. So, Hogan, Flair and Hart jumped on Lesnar's flight.

Originally Posted by PWI

WWE announceed this afternoon that tomorrow at 7 PM EST, the USA Network will be airing a one-hour version of last week's WWE NXT episode, which ended with Finn Balor turning on and attacking Johnny Gargano.

One would think the strategy here is to get fans to watch NXT and continue watching, as opposed to switching over to AEW on TNT.

Originally Posted by PWI

In an interview with Marca.com, Rey Mysterio noted that his son Dominick is slated to begin training at the WWE Performance Center in 2020.

Originally Posted by PWI

Corey Graves was interviewed about the forthcoming WWE Podcast he will be hosting by Newsweek at this link. On getting involved with the project, Graves said, "WWE reached out to me. I heard mumblings of a podcast partnership for the last year or so, and this place is so big that you can't believe anything until you see it. So I got a call about a month, maybe two months ago, asking if I'd be interested in hosting the WWE flagship podcast. For me that's a great compliment because it's a big undertaking and the company is putting a lot of effort into this, so I was flattered to be the first one asked to do this and be entrusted with the keys to the castle. The first question I asked when they approached me about the podcast was, "is this going to be a WWE fluff piece?" And they assured me that it wouldn't because I said "if you want me to go on and talk about how great everything is and put my head in the sand and not talk about things that most podcasts cover then I wasn't interested." They assured me that I am allowed to rock the boat a little bit. That to me was very exciting."

Originally Posted by Fightful

The Jordan Myles situation boiling over has plenty of people talking, among those is WWE Hall of Famer Booker T.

A situation unfolded over the weekend where Myles went off on WWE brass for pushing through a WWE t-shirt featuring his name that appeared to utilize black face.

After being tagged in numerous tweets about the matter, Booker spoke of it on his Youtube channel Monday.

"I've been a part of WWE since 2001, and I've had several t-shirts. Every t-shirt all the way up to the hall of fame, they came up to me and gave me several designs. Even back to WCW, I was always a part of the process. I don't know how this t-shirt got out without him knowing about it first and foremost," said Booker.

Beyond Booker's feelings about the situation, he didn't think the shirt was created with malice, but that it was a garbage looking shirt. He also feels like racial controversies are cooked up out of nowhere.

"It's not our job to step up and defend Jordan Myles over his t-shirt. One thing I will say, it's not a good looking t-shirt. It's an ugly shirt. The t-shirt has a black background to it, 90 percent of the shirts have a black background to it. Did it look like black face? Maybe to some people on social media said that. There's a lot of negative people on social media who are looking for anything to make racial. It happens all the time. I can't think the guys went into it (looking) to make a racial shirt about Jordan Myles. To me, the firestorm is not worth going through this," Booker stated.

The WWE Hall of Famer continued to sound off on the controversy by taking the former ACH to task for voicing his grievances on social media. To Booker, unless he's getting paid by his social media following, the issues are meant for WWE and Myles to directly handle.

"Is it something that should have been talked about? Yes. This going to social media crap is the worst thing I've seen in my life. Your business and your job is your business, with that company. It's not for the world to come in. I don't know the last time someone on social media signed my check. Because they don't sign your check they shouldn't know what you're doing? You're damn right! It should be handled, and handled behind closed doors. I've had many racial issues I've dealt with in this business, and none of them have been on social media. There has never been a racial issue that has gone over my head or I've swept under the rug. Every time anyone has said anything racial to me, I've handled it. To hear this Uncle Tom crap -- I heard Jay Lethal's name. I've heard people call me an Uncle Tom, I wish they'd do it to my face, I'll show you what an Uncle Tom looks like, if you do it in public," said Booker T, before clarifying he wants social media complaints reduced.

Originally Posted by Observer

NXT and AEW will both face competition from game seven of the World Series tonight. The Washington Nationals defeated the Houston Astros last night to extend the series, with last night’s game drawing more than 16 million viewers on FOX.

Originally Posted by PWI

With the seventh game of the World Series tonight, AEW Dynamite and WWE NXT will face a massive distraction to their audiences tonight. This is how they and their respective cable networks plan to battle the threat:

AEW - TNT will air an immediate replay of Dynamite at 10 PM EST when it goes off the air live.

WWE NXT - The USA Network will air a one hour replay version of last week's NXT at 7 PM EST. They will air the live two hour broadcast at 8 PM. They will then, for the first time, air an immediate NXT replay at 10 PM EST.

So, each network is hoping that fans who are watching Major League Baseball live will check out their respective replays after the game ends.

Originally Posted by PWI

WWE trademarked "UUDD" on 10/22 for clothing purposes. That's the Xavier Woods YouTube gaming channel.

Originally Posted by PWI

Natalya tweeted the following:

The world will be watching. I am so incredibly proud to represent our women’s division tomorrow night at #WWECrownJewel. It’s time to bring your best, Lacey. pic.twitter.com/TeglMWzbZM
— NattieByNature (@NatbyNature) October 30, 2019

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

WWE Universal Champion Seth Rollins was one of the first guests on the After The Bell podcast with Corey Graves. Seth had the opportunity to further address the comment he made about Kenny Omega at a recent Q&A session during-which Rollins referred to All Elite Wrestling as the ‘minor leagues’ when asked about a potential match-up between himself and Omega:

“So, that was fun. We do Q&A sessions and so I had somebody ask me about a potential match-up between Kenny Omega and myself. Kenny and I worked together at Ring of Honor, nine, ten years ago or whatever it was. Maybe a little longer even, and we worked with each other and had some really good matches and I had a great rapport with Kenny. I actually considered him a pretty good friend and stuff and he told me about his time in developmental because he signed to WWE in Deep South [Wrestling] for a little while. He ended up getting sick of it and quitting and stuff like that and went on to have great success in his own right. But yeah, no ill will towards Kenny Omega and I’ve seen Kenny’s stuff since then and he’s an incredible performer but again, if I just sit there and say, ‘Oh, Kenny Omega, what a talent. I would love to wrestle him someday.’ Womp womp. That doesn’t make a headline man. That’s boring, then J.R. has nothing to talk about. God, just let us hate each other. Look, Kenny is great. Kenny’s gotta prove himself in the WWE. So, that’s what I was saying. It is what it is. WWE is the top of the mountain. I’m the guy sitting at the top of the top of the mountain and so if Kenny wants to come and like I said, play in the major leagues, get out of the minor leagues or whatever then that’s fine. The bottom line is, I [asked] Kenny to come to me because I’m not going to him anytime soon.”

Originally Posted by Fightful

Over the summer, Seth Rollins made some enemies online when he got into a back-and-forth with Will Ospreay over who the best wrestler in the world is, with both Rollins and Ospreay laying claim to the title. The discussion quickly went off-topic as Rollins brought up his bank account compared to Ospreay's. The comment didn't go over well with fans, but Rollins explains that he was just having some fun.

"To me, a big part of being one of the best is being able to draw money," Rollins told Corey Graves on After The Bell. "That's what our industry is at the end of the day and people don't like that for some reason when it came from my mouth. When other people talk about it, say Cody Rhodes or Sasha Banks, they're cool. But if I come right out and say, 'I've drawn more money than you over the last however many years' I'm the bad guy. Fine. I'll be that guy. I've got nothing but respect for Will Ospreay. It's cool that he stepped up and we got into a spat. If we're all buddies and friends, that's lame. I can be the most humble dude on the planet, but that's boring. Twitter is a place where you have fun."

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Keith Lee spoke with Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated prior to the 10/30/19 edition of NXT. Lee was asked about the Jordan Myles t-shirt situation and Lee had the following to say about the way black wrestlers and their characters are treated in WWE:

“My character isn’t a character. Keith Lee is Keith Lee. There’s not really a character involved here, so it’s hard for me to really answer that. I’m me, and the only thing that was ever given to me was ‘Bask In My Glory,’ which is thanks to Dusty Rhodes. So I can’t really have qualms about how I represent myself, because it’s by choice. In terms of story, its taken some time to get where I am. But with the work and buzz I’ve created, I’ve put myself in a position where I’m given opportunities that I feel like I deserve. My job is to continue to produce results, ones that continue my narrative—that Keith Lee is everything he says he is, and then some.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

According to the Orlando Business Journal, between 2022 and 2025 is a timeline that the city wants to host either a WrestleMania, SummerSlam and/or Survivor Series.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Nick Hausman welcomed IMPACT World Champion Sami Callihan onto the WINCLY podcast and Sami revealed that he is under contract with IMPACT Wrestling until December of 2020:

“I’m tied in with IMPACT Wrestling until next December. Not this one coming up. The one coming afterwards but right now, that’s not even on my mind. My mind right now, is being the full force behind saving IMPACT Wrestling and I think I’ve done exactly just that.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

AAA held a press conference today. It was announced during the presser that Kenny Omega will defend the AAA Mega Championship on December 1st.

Originally Posted by Observer

Stephanie McMahon told Bleacher Report about why Natalya and Lacey Evans were chosen for WWE’s first women’s match in Saudi Arabia: “Natalya is somewhat of a legend in the women's division. She is the veteran. She has been here for so long, been a part of so many of the changes that have happened. When you consider her legacy and family history, it's pretty remarkable. You take Lacey Evans, who is fairly new on the scene but who has not been shy about sharing her perspective on overcoming, especially in her life and the things she's been through. She has a young daughter and she wants to set an example and pave the way not only for her daughter but boys and girls all around the world. That's their personal stories. I can't think of better representatives for WWE. You can go on their social media. They've made some pretty awesome statements."

Stephanie noted that Natalya and Evans’ ring gear will be different than what it normally is: “I haven't seen the designs but I do know there are certain restrictions and we want to be respectful of the culture. Their costuming will be different than what you would see in a typical WWE show.”

Stephanie also confirmed that another Evolution PPV is most likely not going to happen this year: “We did consider it. A lot of our focus has been on having this particular match as a part of this PPV in Saudi Arabia. More to come on Evolution but it's most likely not going to happen in 2019.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Diamond Dallas Page joined Wrestling INC’s WINCLY podcast and talked about his recent appearance on AEW: Dynamite and made it clear that he has not signed a deal with the company and everything he does with AEW is for Cody Rhodes.

“I wasn’t supposed to be at the AEW show. Cody called me — he was like, ‘Hey, can you do this?’ And I go, ‘Yeah, okay’.” He continued, “I started with Cody on this. First of all, I don’t have a contract. I’m not employed by AEW. I’m doing this for Cody, and you have to understand that it’s a thing of… I’ll give you an example: Without Dusty Rhodes, there’s no Diamond Dallas Page. I don’t have… I probably don’t — I’m positive I don’t have everything that I’ve been able to accomplish, and a lot of it had to with The Dream giving me the opportunity. Well, being as close as we were, you know, I’ve known Cody since he was 12 years old and we just hit it off immediately.”

DDP went on to explain that the reason he hasn’t signed with AEW is that he wants to continue working with WWE:

“And I also wanted him to know as this was starting to grow, the reason I’m not gonna take a contract with AEW is because I still wanna work WWE, because my fitness and wellness plan is really important to me and I know how Tommaso [Ciampa] and [Johnny] Gargano and Lacey Evans and the people who are there I’ve done it with — Shayna [Baszler]. All the different artists that are there and I helped them by getting them in my program and helping them. So I wanted to help the boys and the girls, and of course AEW, but WWE, I’ve been doing for years. So I didn’t really want to take any kind of contract, but when I talked to Code about it, I also wanted him to know that if I was giving him any kind of advice, it wouldn’t be tainted.”

Originally Posted by Fightful

Scott Stanford, Charly Caruso and David Otunga will be part of the WWE Crown Jewel kick-off panel. The 20-man battle royal with the winner receiving a United States Title shot will be part of the kick-off show.

Originally Posted by Fightful

The WWE on Fox official Twitter account has earned high marks from other Twitter users for interacting with fans and making jokes at the expense of reports and reporters. But the person behind the account admitted to making a poor tweet on Monday.

The account posted a photo hyping Raw featuring Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Erick Rowan, Seth Rollins, Becky Lynch, and Kairi Sane. All six were advertised for big matches or segments at the show, but one user wondered where were the people of color. WWE on Fox replied, "What do you think Kairi Sane is?" The tweet was deleted after backlash from fans.

A "person of color" is defined as "a person who is not white or of European parentage."

In a post on Reddit, the WWE on Fox social media team admitted to making a mistake.

"It was a bad tweet our on end. We shouldn't have even replied, or we could've used other examples like The Street Profits, R-Truth etc. But we just should've stayed quiet. Mistakes happen, and this was on us."

A reply to the Reddit post said "While I can see why you'd think responding to that wasn't necessary, I personally thought it was quite enlightening to those who are ignorant of the fact that the Japanese are also PoC." The WWE on Fox account responded, "Imagine if they found out that I'm hispanic."

This isn't the first time the WWE on Fox account has deleted a tweet. A tweet asking fans to stop chanting "What?" was deleted on Oct. 21 during Raw. The team later admitted that the timing of the tweet was poor as it took away from WWE Raw. The social media team also deleted a tweet following WWE Hell in a Cell where they declared 'The Fiend' Bray Wyatt the winner over Seth Rollins by disqualification. The match was officially ruled a "match stoppage."

Originally Posted by Observer

Jordan Myles noted that all of the proceeds from his “F%#k Racism, Watch Wrestling” shirt on Pro Wrestling Tees will go to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America.

Originally Posted by Observer

MJF will join Excalibur on commentary for the episode of AEW Dark that’s being taped tonight.

Originally Posted by Observer

Going up against game seven of the World Series between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, AEW and NXT ratings were both significantly down from last week.

AEW did an average of 759,000 viewers, down 21 percent from last week. In the 18-49 demo, the show finished sixth overall on cable with a 0.33 rating, down 27 percent from the previous week, which aired against game one of the World Series.

NXT wasn't down quite as much in terms of either audience or the key demo. NXT averaged 580,000 viewers, which was down 14 percent from last week. In the 18-49 demo, the show did a 0.18, down 17 percent.

The strongest demo for AEW was men 18-49, where they averaged a 0.48 rating, more than double the 0.23 for NXT. They beat NXT in every category except for persons over 50 (where NXT has an advantage every week), as well as women 12-34 ...

Last night's World Series game averaged 20.8 million viewers on FOX for the two hours that aired opposite wrestling.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Where AEW got slaughtered was among younger viewers as people 18-34 were down 51%, females 12-34 were down 65%, and males 12-34 were down 44%. The audience AEW has struggled with most, adults 50+, was unchanged from the week prior with a 0.25 both weeks.

NXT topped AEW among females 12-34 and adults 50+. They saw fewer erratic drops among the key demos with the largest being females 18-49 that dropped 31.5%. They also displayed gains among males 12-34 that were up 27% and people 18-49 that increased 15%

Originally Posted by PWI

Joey Mercury 's run with Ring of Honor ended this week, PWInsider.com has confirmed.

Mercury had been overseeing the company's training dojo and was working on the creative team as well as a Producer behind the scenes.

We are told that Mercury was removed from his positions this week. We are told that it was a "mutually agreed upon decision" following this past weekend's in the UK.

Originally Posted by PWI

For those asking how AEW Tag Team Champion Frankie Kazarian is after smacking his head on the apron during a hurancarana off the top rope to the floor, we are told that while he got banged up, he is OK and isn't expected to miss any action. He did not suffer a concussion.

Originally Posted by PWI

In honor of Halloween, WWE Network News is reporting that we are getting two dark matches from a WWF Superstars taping which took place on October 31, 1989 as today's WWE Network "Hidden Gems" selection:

WWF Superstars Taping Dark Match 10/31/1989 – Rowdy and Ravishing [Duration: 00:11:48]
“Rowdy” Roddy Piper looks to show Rick Rude just how ravishing he can be when they face off in this rarely seen contest from Halloween 1989.

WWF Superstars Taping Dark Match 10/31/1989 – A Savage Halloween [Duration: 00:14:08]
On Halloween night 1989, “Macho King” Randy Savage, accompanied by Sensational Queen Sherri, battles “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan.

Originally Posted by PWI

Ring of Honor issued the following ...

Beginning Nov. 8, Fight Network UK will broadcast ROH’s TV show every Friday night at 9 p.m. This will mark the first time “Ring of Honor Wrestling” will air on British television. The program is currently available via the FITE TV app.

Originally Posted by Fightful

Continuing his recent run of having superhero-inspired gimmicks, Ricochet's ring gear was inspired by All Might from the "My Hero Academia" franchise.

Originally Posted by Fightful

On Wednesday's NXT, William Regal announced the first-ever women's War Games bout for NXT TakeOver: WarGames III. While the competitors have yet to be announced, it was confirmed that NXT Women's Champion Shayna Baszler and Rhea Ripley would serve as the respective captains.

"It's crazy to think all the big moments in history I've been a part of," Baszler told CBS Sports. "I say this every single time. The first-ever Mae Young Classic and the first-ever all women's pay-per-view. Every time a historical moment happens, I think, 'What next?' This is what's next. I ask that every time.

"But the thing I have to look at for the future is retaining and defending the NXT women's championship, whatever that entails. Just the way NXT has been run and the importance placed on the women's division, as long as I concentrate on the NXT women's championship, that title has history behind it and historical importance. As long as I do my job in defending that, history will come my way. I don't need to seek it out."

On NXT, Baszler was aligned with her Horsewomen running mates Jessamyn Duke & Marina Shafir along with Io Shirai and Bianca Belair. On the other side, Ripley stood with Candice LeRae, Dakota Kai, and Tegan Nox. It is unknown how many competitors will be in the bout.

"I have a whole lot of mixed feelings, to be honest," Ripley said. "I just can't wait to get in there. To be able to make history time and time again, that's all that I've ever wanted to do since being a little girl. I always knew that I was destined for something big in this world. I've already made history becoming the first-ever NXT UK women's champion, and I've been in the first ever Mae Young Classic.

"Now, to be able to break history again and be in the first ever women's WarGames? It's insane. And not only just be in it, but to be the captain of my own team is just incredible. I have so many mixed feelings about it and I can't wait to step in there and give Shayna's team what they have coming, you know?"

Originally Posted by Fightful

During his feud with 'The Fiend' Bray Wyatt, fans have turned on Seth Rollins after getting behind him heading into WrestleMania and his clash with Brock Lesnar. Fans have become more vocal about their displeasure with Rollins, stating their opinion on Twitter. Rollins hasn't backed down from the criticism, often engaging in a war of words on social media that seems to do him more harm than good.

Speaking to Corey Graves on After The Bell, Rollins addressed the backlash.

"If they don't get what they want, they whine about it on Twitter. That's kinda what happens nowadays. It happens with everything, not just our industry. If you do something, and it strikes a chord, it's almost like you're doing the right thing. I don't even know anymore. It's a weird industry. It's 2019 and I don't know what wrestling looks like anymore. It's a weird place," he said. "A year ago, I was everybody's favorite. The same people panning Hell in a Cell are the same people who were clamoring for me to be the guy to face Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania. I don't know what changed, except for the fact that I became the person they wanted me to be. Then they hated me for it. It's a very fickle audience."

When asked about the crowd booing his WWE Hell in a Cell match with 'The Fiend Bray Wyatt, Rollins replied, "It's not a good feeling to put your body on the line, and you go out there and people don't like it. It hurts your feelings. You go out there, work hard, and you can have your opinion on it but it's a tough pill to swallow sometimes."

Fans not only boo'd the contest, but chanted for rival promotion "AEW" and "refund" as the show went off the air.

Originally Posted by Seph (Post 5297315)

Working in what regard though? He isn't exactly acting like a heel in the media. He's acting like a cry baby. Is he planning to make a bitch turn or something?

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

We’ll have a more detailed look next week, but the WWE financial numbers, while beating profit estimates, indicated far more core business declines ...

The decline in ratings since the FOX deal started and with NXT was not brought up, nor AEW’s success against NXT, either by the company or those asking questions, who were more concerned with overseas television contracts as opposed to consumer engagement in the product. The other key is that WWE lost $3.5 million during the quarter on their house show business. They have never lost $3.5 million on house shows over the course of a year, let alone a quarter. The losses were such even with canceling a number of shows, as well as doing a number of Supershows with stars from both brands, which in theory, although this didn’t happen, should have led to increased attendance.

House show business doesn’t look bad on the surface, falling from a 4,500 average to 4,400. But that’s misleading because they produced 86 shows in North America, which were 29 television shoots and 57 house shows. The house shows draw significantly lower so that will weigh more heavily downward on the average. This year they were down to 67 shows, again with 29 television shots but only 38 house shows. They did increase overseas shows from four to seven, but that average dropped from 5,600 to 4,500.

Ticket sales declined from $22.4 million in North America and $2.3 million outside North America to $18.3 million in North America and $2.3 million outside, but that’s also a misleading stat with 74 shows instead of 90. The gist is house shows are losing significant money for the first time, which doesn’t bode well for the industry as a whole. If the market leader can’t make money touring, what does that say for the prospects of doing so with the No. two, three or four group. Luckily house shows for WWE are a small part of their overall business, but they are still the constant to determine how many true customers the company is making and the strength of the brand to consumers. NXT averaged 817 paid and $32,287 per show in the third quarter of 2018. This past quarter attendance dropped to 693 paid on average and $26,467 gross per show.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

[Tyson] Fury said that the original idea talked with him about was a Crown Jewel match with Lesnar, but the idea changed when they were able to sign Velasquez. According to those internally, Lesnar vs. Fury was discussed but never got past early discussions, likely due to Velasquez having the storyline from the past and being the bigger star in the U.S. market, which is WWE’s primary market, and for Saudi Arabia, it wasn’t the matchups that were important as much as delivering matches with Fury and Velasquez

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

Balor is being advertised on Smackdown brand shows on the U.K. tour but we’re told the decision has changed and because of his being with NXT, he won’t be on the tour. Before they made the move to put him on NXT, the plan was for him to be on the Smackdown crew. When he lost to Wyatt badly, the idea was he’d go on his sabbatical and switch to Smackdown on his return, but then when the ratings ended up going the way they did, he was moved to NXT with the idea that his star power could make more of a difference there

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

The WWE Backstage show, which has had two introduction shows, one right after baseball playoffs and the other right after Smackdown this past week on FS 1, starts in its new regular Tuesday at 11 p.m. time slot on 11/5. Cena and Rob Gronkowski will be the guests. Ryan Satin of Pro Wrestling Sheet will have a regular role on the show, likely as the reporter to break news in the role Ariel Helwani had on the UFC version of the show. I didn’t hear of any other names up for that spot

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

In the segment-by-segment, the high point for AEW was 880,000 in the first segment. The low point was 701,000 for the Cody and Tony Schiavone car ride and Best Friends & Orange Cassidy vs. Alex Reynolds & John Silver & QT Marshall. Hikaru Shida vs. Shanna lost 85,000 viewers. The end of Shida vs. Shanna and the angle with Ortiz & Santana and the Rock & Roll Express lost 60,000 viewers. The Cody car ride and Best Friend s match lost 34,000 viewers,. The Cody/Chris Jericho contract signing and beating of Dustin Rhodes by Jake Hager gained 51,000 viewers. The Young Bucks & Kenny Omega vs. Jack Evans & Angelico & Kip Sabian lost 45,000 viewers. The end of that match plus the Jon Moxley/Peter Avalon angle and Moxley promo gained 9,000 viewers. And the Scorpio Sky & Frankie Kazarian tag title win over Pentagon Jr. & Fenix gained 55,000 viewers to 781,000.

NXT did very close to AEW from 9 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. with Asuka & Kairi Sane vs. Dakota Kai & Tegan Nox, going against the Jericho contract signing and Young Bucks & Omega match. The AEW edge was 730,000 to 679,000 during that half hour, the closest it has come. But NXT collapsed in the last half hour of the show with the Tyler Bate vs. Cameron Grimes match and tag title match, with the head-to-head tag title matches doing 781,000 to 467,000.

For NXT, the Finn Balor promo grew 30,000 viewers. I had expected Balor promo vs. Hikaru Shida to be close, but AEW had a 795,000 to 607,000 edge. Bronson Reed vs. Shane Thorne lost 62,000 viewers. The women’s tag title match gained 143,000 viewers, so they ended up meaning far more than Balor. The War Games angle after the match lost 39,000 viewers. Grimes vs. Bate lost 163,000 viewers. Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly vs. Matt Riddle & Keith Lee lost 27,000 viewers in the head-to-head, but when AEW ended, they gained 145,000 viewers in the overrun so that’s probably a lot of AEW viewers. It probably also kills them in the last quarter because fans watch the NXT main events in fewer numbers knowing they can watch the AEW closing angle and miss nothing on NXT and still see its closing angle.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

A video patterned after the character Sans has led to a lot of talk regarding a relationship between New Japan Pro Wrestling and AEW. The video, which played for Kenny Omega’s ring entrance on the 10/30 Dynamite show from Charleston, WV, had a message and gave a very cryptic message regarding Kota Ibushi and Omega. The video included a character of Ibushi holding his G-1 trophy.

The rule of thumb with these guys is never do a tease that isn’t going to pay off. But we’re told emphatically there is nothing going on in the direction of Ibushi in AEW or AEW working with New Japan from people on both sides who would know. In fact, the video was closer to Cody sledge hammering the throne in meaning than signaling a working relationship and the return of the Golden Lovers ...

The story behind the video does have its deep personal meaning and it plays off a similar video that Omega used at the 1/4 show at the Tokyo Dome. The story is that the universe of “Kenny’s Quest” is very similar to one featured in a hit, award winning video game, Undertale. Omega felt there were parallels in that game to his relationship right now with New Japan and he was behind it ...

The video on Dynamite was meant as the continuation of the Tokyo Dome story. The ominous, evil being could be seen as New Japan, or whatever ominous evil the viewer wants to see.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

Regarding La Parka and his condition, the only news of the past week is El Hijo del Santo said he talked with Parka’s daughter who said he underwent a second neck surgery. Parka’s son, who wrestles as Karis La Momia Jr. (Parka was Karis La Momia prior to becoming La Parka Jr., and then just La Parka after AAA had its falling out with the original La Parka, who is now L.A. Park), denied the story only saying his father is in stable condition and sedated

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

Rush did an interview with Solo Wrestling. He said he wanted to keep working in CMLL but he couldn’t come to an agreement with the new boss (this was after CMLL cut his guarantee, believed to be in half) ... He said he is open to returning to CMLL with on a per show basis like the other outsiders do, although aside from Gilbert El Boricua, CMLL hasn’t been using the others of late. Rush was critical of CMLL for not bringing in more bigger names from New Japan and ROH. He said he’s not interested in signing a contract with anyone in Mexico. He said he’s had talks with Konnan and Dorian Roldan, but they haven’t reached an agreement.

He said he’d working on a per-show deal with NLL (Alberto’s promotion) and would do the same with AAA ... He also complained about CMLL’s treatment of his brother, Dragon Lee, saying they didn’t treat him fairly saying he was fired because Rush left. That and because they told him not to work PWG and he did anyway. Rush said that three of the best promotions in the world (New Japan and WWE are two, I would presume AEW is the other one but he could mean ROH or AAA) want Dragon Lee but he’s not making any decisions until the new year

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

This week was the U.K. tour which did not do well. We didn’t get official numbers from the tour but 10/25 in London did about 400 at York Hall which is terrible, 10/26 in Newport, Wales, did about 150 and 10/27 in Bolton, UK looked to have done a little over 300

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

There are internal debates going regarding running Lakeland, FL over Mania week or not running in Florida that weekend at all, which would be the first time in many years they [ROH] wouldn’t run Mania week

Originally Posted by PWI

The WWE wrestlers and staff who ended up stuck in Saudi Arabia yesterday will finally be flying home in about three hours.

PWInsider.com has confirmed WWE will be bringing everyone home on one chartered flight together from Riyadh that will land tomorrow in New York City.

For Raw talents that were stuck in Saudi Arabia, they can either continue on home and then turn around and travel back to NYC Sunday for Monday's Raw at the Nassau Coliseum or opt to remain on the road in NYC and then go home after Raw.

Originally Posted by PWI

Atlas Air, the charter jet company that was traveling WWE talents from Saudi Arabia to The United States, issued the following statement:

“A chartered WWE passenger flight operated by Atlas Air is currently delayed in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia due to a mechanical issue. The flight was scheduled to depart at 0300 local time on November 1. Our top priority is always to ensure our passengers arrive safely and on time at their destination. The aircraft is being repaired and will be inspected and certified before returning to service to transport our passengers to their final destination. We regret that operational disruptions delayed the flight and apologize to our passengers who were inconvenienced.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

The Young Bucks appeared on 98 ROCK Baltimore to chat about AEW’s Full Gear pay-per-view. During the conversation, Nick Jackson was asked what talents have impressed him the most thus far in AEW and Nick shared high praise for Luchasaurus and added that AEW is going “full blast” on him when he returns from his hamstring injury:

“I’ll tell you right away, the first one who popped in my mind is Luchasuarus. He’s probably getting the strongest reaction live than anyone on the roster which blows my mind because man, maybe just a year ago, not many people knew who he was. So when he comes back from this injury, we’re gonna go full blast on him because he’s a star in the making and he already is a star.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

According to PWInsider, Joey Mercury is no longer working with Ring of Honor. Mercury had been working on the creative team, worked as producer and oversaw the ROH dojo. The site added that Joey Mercury was removed from his positions this week and it was a mutual decision. Mercury is still with Ring of Honor until the non-compete period in his contract expires.

Joey Mercury took to Twitter and opened up about his departure from Ring of Honor. He shared text messages between himself and ROH GM Greg Gilleland. Mercury noted that he doesn’t want Gilleland out of a job but wants him out of the role he’s in now. There were transportation issues that Gilleland was set to take care of but did not and Joey Mercury released that information. Greg confronted Joey through text message about him coming to shows high, skipping shows and Joey telling wrestlers he can get them work elsewhere. Joey Mercury also recalled the incident that occurred with a fan in Portland at an ROH show this past June. Mercury said there was no security on-site and was disappointed that a “respected veteran” being Bully Ray, had to make a judgement call in that situation. He revealed that Shane Taylor’s contract with the company is up on January 1st, Bandido’s contract is up January 2nd and PJ Black’s contract expires February 2nd. BJ Whitmer added that everything Joey Mercury noted on Twitter is true.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Stone Cold Steve Austin joined ‘The Taz Show’ and during the conversation, Taz and Steve Austin began to talk about All Elite Wrestling. Austin praised the AEW World Title match between Chris Jericho and Darby Allin and said the young talents of today are more polished than he was when he was their age.

“They [AEW] are pushing more athleticism and the business has changed. Its sped up and it’s a different landscape, and man… for that kid [Darby Allin] to be as young as he is — what is he? 22? 23 tops? Hell, when I started — I think I went to school when I was 23 and I had my first match when I was 24. But that kid, however long he’s been in the business, way more polished than I was at that time. Hell, half that roster is more polished than what I was at that age and so, hey man, they’re learning things at rapid fire fashion. It’s interesting to see just the creativity and what lengths — not lengths as far as risks, but just ways to push the creative envelope with respect to staying somewhat safe and you saw that kid get his hands taped up behind him and do all that stuff. It was great. I ain’t never seen nothing like that and I enjoyed seeing it. Wasn’t nothing like it.”

Austin shared high praise for MJF. He talked about MJF looking the part and having everything it takes to be successful in wrestling but feels MJF needs a few more years under his belt to further develop his talents.

“Oh absolutely. The whole way,” Austin said when asked if MJF stayed in character on the Steve Austin Show podcast. “You know, we shot an angle at the end of the thing. We shot a wrestling audio angle. It was tremendous. Nah, I like that kid. I like what I see in him. In his core, we say when we hit the mute button and go off air, hey man, he’s a good f*cking kid. Good looking kid, talk his ass off and you [Taz] love promo just as much as I do. Cutting them and listening to them so, this kid can talk a blue streak. He’s just full of sh*t. I mean that in a compliment, and full of himself and a hundred percent confident. He’s still young in the business and everybody would like to heap praise on him and say, ‘Hey man, he’s the next…’ Well, let’s see how the work keeps developing. So he’s a good worker right now. I’m not saying that he isn’t, but his promo — I think his appearance, everything, he looks the part, he talks the part and he works the part. But the work is gonna progress as he gets some more experience under his belt and I think that’ll be the telling factor, but as far as checking the boxes on being a star, he checks a lot of those boxes right now.”

Originally Posted by Fightful

The NWA has released a statement regarding Jim Cornette and his recent controversial remarks on Twitter regarding suicide.

In 2019, Jim Cornette is often regarded as a source of controversy and recently on Twitter, he made some off-color remarks about suicide on Twitter, that picked up a heavy negative response ...

The National Wrestling Alliance, through Vice President Dave Lagana, released the following statement regarding Cornette:
"STATEMENT BY NATIONAL WRESTLING ALLIANCE ON JIM CORNETTE

Over the last few days, a situation was brought to our attention in regard to comments made by Jim Cornette that have been taken as making light on the subject of suicide.

We’ve addressed the situation internally with Mr. Cornette and made it clear that any comments in regards to this subject, joking or serious, are not endorsed by Lightning One and the National Wrestling Alliance.

Mr. Cornette understands the seriousness of this situation and with that he will remain the color commentator for NWA Powerrr."

Originally Posted by Fightful

On Wednesday's episode of AEW Dynamite, fans were treated to the AEW debut of Shanna. Despite losing to Hikaru Shida, Shanna was able to win over the crowd with her performance. In an interview with the Portuguese media (translation via @ucancallme), Shanna confirmed she has signed a three-year deal with All Elite Wrestling.

Originally Posted by Fightful

Pro Wrestling Illustrated released its 2019 Top 100 Women list and perhaps to the surprise of no one, Becky Lynch took the top spot. Lynch has had a banner year, ascending to the top of the WWE mountain by headlining WrestleMania 35 and winning both the Raw and SmackDown Women's Championships at the event. "The Man" placed 11th on the 2018 list, which was topped by Ronda Rousey. Though Lynch didn't place in the top ten last year, she was named 2018 PWI Woman of the Year, which was based on fan voting.

Originally Posted by Jordan X (Post 5297687)

They should do an angle where STROWMAN cucks ROLLINS, BECKY just can't say no to BRAUN and it drives SETH cRaZy.

Originally Posted by Observer

Going against a strong New York Giants vs. Dallas Cowboys game last night, Raw did 2.14 million viewers on average, the fourth lowest non-holiday number in modern history.

The number was slightly up from the 2.13 million viewers last week. The NFL was up 40 percent from last week, doing 14.00 million viewers, so it actually would have been expected to do much worse ...

The bad news was the first-to-third hour drop of 22 percent was one of the biggest in the history of the show ...

The show built to an Adam Cole vs. Seth Rollins NXT title match in the main event position. The third hour was the third least watched hour Raw has had, beating only hour three this past Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve.

The three hours were:

8 p.m. 2.36 million viewers
9 p.m. 2.21 million viewers
10 pm. 1.85 million viewers

Originally Posted by Observer

Pro Wrestling Sheet’s Ryan Satin officially announced he will be joining the WWE Backstage show as a news correspondent.

Originally Posted by Observer

The Hampton Boys from last night’s episode of Raw were WrestlePro wrestlers Bobby Wayward and Nikos Rikos.

Originally Posted by PWI

The word making the rounds backstage at Monday Night Raw yesterday on Long Island, NY was that Randy Orton inked a new, multi-year deal with World Wrestling Entertainment. PWInsider.com has confirmed that is the case.

Locking Orton, 39, into a new deal was a big priority for WWE as he had been using social media to tease the idea of a jump to AEW, which would have been a major hit to WWE's prestige.

Originally Posted by PWI

Major League Wrestling's Saturday Night Super Fight PPV is now available for replay buys on all PPV providers and on FITE.TV. The early word on the PPV is that the numbers were in line with what MLW expected and they will move forward with another PPV next year. A date and venue for that has not been locked down yet. FITE was very happy with the numbers. There is a possibility of doing more than one PPV but that decision won't be made until the final Super Fight PPV numbers are in and the promotion decides its course of action.

During the PPV, MLW announced a partnership with Mexico's AAA. We are told that Court Bauer and Dorian Rodan have always been on good terms, which opened up the door to discussions. PWInsider.com can exclusively confirm so MLW has ended their working relationship with The CRASH.

Tom Lawlor's current MLW deal is coming towards its end. The two sides are in discussions for a new deal and we are told discussions are going well ...

We are told there were several TV executives in attendance at the PPV as MLW is seeking to add additional partnerships beyond BeIN Sports and are in discussions.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

The WWE has come out and addressed the Crown Jewel event being delayed on MBC Action in Saudi Arabia last Thursday. The company issued a statement to Forbes.com contributor Alfred Konuwa and denied the allegations stating that the feed issues had nothing to do with payments. The company added that there is a strong relationship with its partners in Saudi Arabia. We did reach out to WWE regarding why the feed was delayed but have not been given a response.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Natalya was a guest with Jim Norton and Sam Roberts on Monday promoting tonight’s Raw in Uniondale, New York and was asked about last week’s travel delays:

"I wasn’t stuck on a plane for too long because we were told to get off the plane. We boarded the plane after the show and the flight attendants said, ‘Hey, there is a mechanical issue’. So, when I’m told there is a mechanical issue on an airplane, I get off and I stay off until it’s fixed. It was a wild couple of days."

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

On his Mixer account, AJ Styles outlined his experience from the past few days getting out of Saudi Arabia in the wake of the news coverage of the travel delays. Styles reiterated the mechanical problems that the charter flight experienced coupled with issues among flight personnel that had clocked out leaving the WWE talent and staff waiting. Styles said he did not know what when down between Vince McMahon and those running the show but added it’s not his job to speak about that. Below is a transcript from the two videos:

"We got to the airport; they weren’t letting us board. What was the problem? Not really sure, I heard there was a fuel truck in the way and the guy that drove the fuel truck had left to go home. I know, this makes no sense. Why would the fuel guy leave when he knew he had a plane that was leaving, doesn’t make much sense?

Then, there were some paperwork issues and then finally, after at least four or five hours we get on the plane. Then, they found something going on with the fuel ‘something or other’. It was broken. Now, people can say what they want, ‘No, it wasn’t broken, I don’t know’, but I talked to the pilot on that fourteen-hour flight, the pilot, I guess they take naps, too. So, he came out and we were all chatting and sitting around, talking. I said ‘Oh, so what happened?’ and he said, ‘Listen, there was a problem, that’s a real thing’ and I said, ‘Okay’.

The problem was, is we spent all that time from 1 o’clock until 6 or 8 in the morning waiting to board this plane, then getting on the plane, then telling us we can’t go anywhere because the pilots and everybody had timed out. From the pilots, from the help, they can only go for so long before they’re not able to fly because they can’t go for 24 hours at a time. So, they had to go back to a hotel, we had to find a hotel.
* Were there guns, did they come out and go ‘Everybody off the plane? No. That didn’t happen’. My wife called me in a panic, and she’s scared to death and I go, ‘Babe, listen, we’re just not able to go anywhere. It’s not a big issue, nobody has threatened to kill us. There was none of that going on, nobody was going to get murdered, none of that ever happened. There was no threat."

"I had the best sleep of my life in this hotel because I hadn’t slept because of jetlag. So, I know it sounds worse, it’s almost blown up to as if, you know, we were on the verge of being killed. That wasn’t the case.

I have no idea what happened with Vince and the Prince or the King, or whoever was putting on the show. I have no idea what happened. That’s not my job to say anything. My job is to go to work. Was I pretty angry about not getting home because I missed my son’s wrestling match? You have no idea; you have no idea how angry I was. But, if this is out of our hands, if it’s out of the pilot’s hands then there is nothing we can do. There is no point of getting mad and angry about something I have no control of.

So, I’m home now and I’m happy to be here. We’ll find out as we go along why things happened, or we won’t. I don’t know what’s going to happen going forward, it’s just going to be what it’s going to be. And, I’ll deal with it when I need to but I’m not going to throw WWE under the bus either, that’s not how I work. I am a guy who is committed to making the best product that I can and it’s not going to do me any good to throw good people under the bus, there are a lot of good that people that work for WWE and I will not make them look bad. There are a lot of people that were on that plane with me.

Until I know more, I’m not going to say more, I’m not going to say anything negative that’s not who I am as a person and if I did find out and I was offended, I will go to the source, believe me on that one."

Originally Posted by Observer

Dave Meltzer was a guest on Sunday Night’s Main Event with Jason Agnew and discusses additional details that he has gathered from the circumstances behind the travel delay:

"There were people who were working on the plane without a doubt, wrestlers told me there were people working on the plane and they were told there was a mechanical delay but they didn’t believe it. Again, I don’t know the situation, I think it was a combination of the fact that there was the showdown between Vince and the Prince earlier in the day. One person told me there were military guards that were there and the whole situation didn’t add up. Aside from Vince McMahon and a couple of other people I don’t think anyone really knows what happened.

This is what we know, as of September 30th they were not paid for the last show and other money. They were owed about $66 million from the Saudis on September 30th, which may have been two shows it certainly included the last show. They also didn’t have a television deal that they thought they were going to have. Now, they did get $60 million of that money recently, exactly when we don’t know but it was sometime between September 30th and October 31st. Something happened with Vince, they pulled the feed in Saudi Arabia of the television show. It did air about forty minutes later, so it aired on tape delay rather than live and that had to do with something. People in the company, unofficially, were saying it was a money issue between the sides and then they did the show and when they tried to leave the plane had mechanical problems. They were sitting there waiting for six hours and then they were told that the pilot’s time was up and they couldn’t go until later, and then that flight ended up not happening. Later, they finally did go about 25 1/2 hours later."

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

After Natalya and Lacey Evans competed in the first-ever women’s wrestling match in Saudi Arabia, Yahoo! Finance chatted with Pascal Menoret who is a professor of modern Middle East studies at Brandeis University. Pascal stated that people should not look too much into the allowing of Natalya and Lacey to compete in Saudi Arabia. Menoret had the following to say about the subject:

"The Saudi government is operating a worldwide propaganda campaign to whitewash its repression of activists, including feminists, and that one should take seemingly good news coming from there with a heavy pinch of salt."

Originally Posted by Fightful

WrestleVotes is saying the vibe backstage at Raw is "weariness, with a majority of the Superstars still speaking about the events of the weekend."

Originally Posted by Observer

More matches have been announced for both Wrestle Kingdom cards, including the double championship match.

It was confirmed during tonight’s NJPW press conference that both titles will be on the line on the second night of Wrestle Kingdom 14 on January 5. This double champions match will be between the winners of two matches that take place on January 4: Jay White vs. Tetsuya Natio for the Intercontinental title and Kazuchika Okada vs. Kota Ibushi for the IWGP Heavyweight title.

The two non-champions after January 4 will compete the following day in a special singles match.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Casey Michael of Squared Circle Sirens is reporting that Brandon and Brent Tate, formerly known as “The Boys” in Ring of Honor will be receiving a WWE tryout in December.

Originally Posted by Fightful

Goldenboy" Alex Mendez tweeted that he'll be at AEW Full Gear to call the action.

Originally Posted by Mr. Nerfect (Post 5297801)

Wrestling could use some sex. Not the way they do it between Lashley/Lana/Rusev though.

Originally Posted by Observer

The ratings for the official debut of WWE Backstage on FS1 can only be described as disappointing.

ShowBuzzDaily reported that WWE Backstage averaged 49,000 viewers last night, with a 0.02 rating in the 18-49 demo. It did not crack the top 150 shows on cable for Tuesday ...

This was the first time that Backstage aired in its regular time slot at 11 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday. Two preview episodes aired last month and did significantly better in the ratings, though both of those shows had strong lead-ins.

The first preview episode on October 15, which aired following an MLB playoff game, drew 597,000 viewers. The second episode on October 25, which followed SmackDown airing on FS1 due to the World Series, scored 426,000 viewers.

WWE had promoted last night's show with appearances by Shawn Michaels, John Cena, and Rob Gronkowski. They also advertised an episode of Firefly Fun House featuring new WWE Universal Champion The Fiend Bray Wyatt.

Originally Posted by PWI

This Friday's episode of 205 Live will indeed be taped at tonight's WWE NXT taping at Full Sail University.

Originally Posted by PWI

Impact Wrestling officially announced their next PPV, Hard to Kill, will take place on 1/12/20 at Gilley's in Dallas, Texas, which was the site of Slammiversary 2019:

Hard to Kill - January 12th, 2020 - Dallas, Texas! pic.twitter.com/y9tgTjgHwq
— IMPACT (@IMPACTWRESTLING) November 6, 2019

Originally Posted by PWI

The XFL issued the following:

Two commentator teams from ESPN’s college football and NFL rosters will call ABC and ESPN’s 22-game schedule during the inaugural XFL 2020 season.

Play-by-play voice Steve Levy, analyst Greg McElroy, field analyst Tom Luginbill and reporter Dianna Russini will call the highly-anticipated XFL kickoff game – Seattle Dragons vs. DC Defenders (Feb. 8, 2 p.m. ET), the West Final (April 19, 3 p.m. ET), the XFL Championship (April 26, 3 p.m. ET) and weekly Saturday games on ABC in 2020 ...

Play-by-play voice Tom Hart, analyst Joey Galloway and field analyst Pat McAfee will call weekly Sunday games on ESPN and ABC, beginning with the St. Louis BattleHawks vs. Dallas Renegades (Feb. 9, 5 p.m. ET, ESPN).

Originally Posted by PWI

In an interview with Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated to promote his appearance on ABC's The Goldberg's tonight, WWE Hall of Famer Hulk Hogan disclosed that he's undergoing yet another back surgery next week.

“I’m going in for another back surgery next Tuesday,” said Hogan. “They’re going to fuse six levels together, so we’ll see how I feel after that.”

Hogan has pushed for one final Wrestlemania match, and with Mania 36 in his hometown of Tampa, Florida, it makes sense he would be envision that as the environment for a final Hogan hurrah.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

On Monday evening, Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter had reported in his daily update some notes from the meeting. Meltzer included that ‘Seth Rollins attempted to do a rah-rah speech while telling people to keep things like this off social media in the future’.

On Tuesday, Rollins refuted the story in a pair of posts on his Twitter account. This included Rollins denying that he spoke: “before, during or after the meeting.”

In a statement to Fightful, Rollins elaborated on his involvement at the meeting:

"Vince and Triple H held an all talent meeting to explain the travel situation returning from Crown Jewel. They commended the talent for their conduct in a tough spot and fielded questions and allowed anyone to voice their feelings on the matter. Some talent spoke up and overall it was a productive forum. I said zero words. I made no speech. Pretty simple."

Following Rollins’ posts on Twitter, Dave Meltzer issued an apology and retraction on his website on Tuesday evening.

Originally Posted by Fightful

MJF says his "controversial" commentary needing to be edited out was the reason for the delay for the November 5 episode of AEW Dark.

Originally Posted by Fightful

On a recent episode of Prime Time with Sean Mooney, NWA Vice President David Lagana joined the podcast to discuss NWA Powerrr and his time in WWE.

You can listen to the full podcast at this link. Fightful was sent the following highlights which can be seen below.

On NWA's business model: "This is not a sustainable model. Meaning spending what we spend per episode, and putting it on YouTube.... I'll be transparent; the production is not being paid for right now on YouTube money alone. But what has happened since we launched was, the audience has grown so quickly, that we are a lot closer to being sustainable than when we started.

Paying for this is ticket sales, merch and YouTube ad money. Our breaks will evolve...as long as it fits the genre, and we produce the content so it fits inside of our world, this show can be a marketing tool to anyone who wants to sell to this kind of audience."

Originally Posted by Fightful

ROH World Champion RUSH's issues with CMLL have been well-documented, but he goes deeper on what the future of the CMLL/ROH relationship could be.

In an interview conducted in Spanish with Solo Wrestling, RUSH said things could get complicated with him standing at the top of ROH because of the working partnership the two promotions currently have. CMLL stars have gone to ROH, especially during the annual Global Wars tour.

But RUSH goes one step further and criticizes CMLL for not fully taking advantage of its partnerships with both ROH and NJPW. Like with ROH, CMLL sends stars to NJPW, especially every January for the Fantastica Mania tour. Yet, RUSH mentions the fact that top NJPW and ROH stars rarely, if ever, make the trip down to Mexico for their biggest shows.

"I think there is [going to be issues] because I'm the champion, I'm the face of the company now and with the partnerships [CMLL] has had, honestly, they don't know how to make the most of it. They have a tremendous alliance with NJPW, but you never see their top stars in Arena Mexico, you never see top ROH stars. When they sent us to Japan, they sent their stars, but didn't take advantage of it. Why? I don't know but those were factors that slowly wore me out. I asked for opportunities, I wanted to face new people. I was one of the strongest, if not the strongest out of CMLL, but there was nothing, no big challenge for me there," RUSH said.

Originally Posted by Fightful

The National Wrestling Alliance will be featured in the upcoming RetroMania Wrestling game. The deal was announced on Tuesday's episode of NWA Powerrr in a video package led by Nick Aldis. RetroMania Wrestling is a new take on the classic WWF WrestleFest arcade game. The game is set to release in 2020 and will be available on PC, Nintendo Switch, PS4, and Xbox One.

The addition of NWA means fans can play in 3 new arenas, including NWA Powerrr, NWA 70, and Austin Idol's Universal Wrestling College and go for the 10 Pounds of Gold in an all-new game mode

NWA Champion Nick Aldis and NWA National Champion Colt Cabana have been added to the game roster as well.

Originally Posted by Fightful

On the latest episode of his After The Bell podcast, Corey Graves gave his account of what happened in Saudi Arabia and addressed theories floating around online. For those unaware, WWE talent was stranded in Saudi Arabia following WWE Crown Jewel due to reported mechanical issues ...

While mechanical issues have been the given reason by WWE and Atlas Air, not everyone is buying it. Vince McMahon allegedly got into a dispute with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman over unpaid money, leading to the Crown Jewel feed in Saudi Arabia being delayed. After Crown Jewel, Vince immediately left the country, and some theorized that Vince perhaps knew there would be an issue and got out before anything happened, leaving the talent behind. However, Graves isn't buying this theory.

"What really got to me was when the rumors started coming out. The first one being, that Vince left everybody in Saudi Arabia. That's not true," he stated. "If you work here, you know that every week, no matter where we are, as soon as the final bell rings, Vince gets on his jet and goes home or to the next city because the guy is busy running WWE. It might be a sexy headline saying, 'Vince left before everybody. Everybody was stuck except for Vince and Brock.' When you're Brock Lesnar, Tyson Fury, Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair; you've earned that. It wasn't like [Vince] said 'to hell with the talent.' Vince did exactly what he has done every week, without fail. It wasn't some, 'Gotta get the hell out of the country, there's something crazy going on.' It was exactly how it works. That's how things operate every week, this is no different."

In fact, Graves is putting partial blame on WWE superstars for taking to social media and adding fuel to the fire that is was more than mechanical issues.

"All these conspiracy theories that have been drawn up...and half of it comes from some of the boys that were on the plane. If you are that insecure and you feel so strongly that you're gonna get on Twitter and complain that our flight got screwed up, what's Twitter gonna do? All it is is fuel for these 'journalists,' and then everyone puts their two cents in and starts coming up with their conspiracy theories. If you're mad that your flight got delayed and you weren't one of the Saudi 20, that's on you. Quit crying about it on Twitter. You know who wasn't complaining? Randy Freakin' Orton. If anyone has the cache and the right to speak his mind, it would be Randy Orton. He got it. It was about doing the damn show," he explained.

Originally Posted by Observer

The updated advertised lineup for WWE’s house show in Mexico City on November 30 lists that Rey Mysterio will now team with Humberto Carrillo against Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson. Mysterio teaming with Cain Velasquez had originally been announced for the show. Velasquez is still advertised to appear but doesn’t have a match listed.

Originally Posted by Observer

WWE noted that Alexa Bliss' injury is minor and she’s expected to return to the ring soon. PWInsider reported yesterday that Bliss is dealing with a shoulder injury.

Originally Posted by Observer

Shayna Baszler spoke to the Sporting News about NXT’s invasion of last Friday’s SmackDown: “It was very last minute. I'm sure people have heard but I got up that morning and went and did a workout. I actually wasn't booked for anything NXT-wise the rest of the week. I happened to have that Friday and Saturday off so I crushed it in the gym expecting, OK, I can kill myself in here right now because I can rest for a couple days finally. So, I was on my way home and got the call to pack up and be ready to leave on a word, be ready to leave right now. Got all ready, did that, and the timing worked out that, no exaggeration, that the shuttle to the arena... The plane landed and the show had started already. I left my bags on the shuttle and ran from the bus to the ring. That's not an exaggeration. It wasn't like we cut it close. I literally ran. There was someone waiting and I ran off the shuttle when we got to the venue to the ring. It was pretty wild.”

Originally Posted by Observer

NXT's invasions of Raw and SmackDown led to the show getting a boost in the ratings last night.

This week's NXT averaged 813,000 viewers, the best audience for the show since October 2. This was the smallest gap there's been between NXT and AEW Dynamite, though AEW still finished slightly ahead with 822,000 viewers last night.

In the 18-49 demo, AEW finished eighth for the night with a 0.35 rating. NXT came in 12th with a 0.30 rating ...

AJ Styles, Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson appeared on last night's NXT, but them being on the show wasn't announced in advance. They attacked The Undisputed Era in an angle right before the episode went on the air and faced Tommaso Ciampa, Keith Lee & Matt Riddle in the main event.

Last night's Dynamite was the go-home show for Saturday's Full Gear pay-per-view.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

AEW won all the key demographics except for females 12-34 and adults over 50, the latter being a demo that NXT has controlled since the head-to-head competition began.

NXT showed enormous swings among the 18-49 demo and people 25-54 with increases of 66%, 61.5%, and 54.5% among those categories. Between both shows, the only decline came among AEW’s male 18-49 audience that fell 4% from last week’s number.

Originally Posted by Forbes

According to Fightful Select (h/t Ringside News), WWE is actually decreasing its paydays for its Saudi Arabian shows for many of its superstars:

“While the Saudi Arabia payouts to WWE talent started off very high, they’ve decreased for some since the initial show.”

Originally Posted by PWI

For those who asked about pictures if pictures on social media that showed the hard camera side being completely empty at last night's [AEW Dynamite] show were legitimate, they were indeed. From what we heard the crowd was in the 5,000 range.

Originally Posted by PWI

Many of the great AEW packages that are being put together of late are a mixture of Kevin Sullivan's post-production crew and the Atlanta-based Comeback Studios, a division of DDPY (Yoga).

The Cody stipulation that was announced last night is meant to be that Cody will never challenge for the AEW title ever again, period, if he doesn't win the title on Saturday. Obviously, the idea is to tease that Cody is going to win the belt this weekend, just like the old days of Memphis where Jerry Lawler would have a big stip to put him up against the wall for a big Mid-South Coliseum main event. Interesting to note the timing here with Chris Jericho's band Fozzy having a new record coming out soon.

The Full Gear PPV theme is Fozzy's "Nowhere to Run", the first single from that album ...

ROH's Caprice Coleman was backstage visiting last night ...

The matches taped last night for AEW Dark will debut on a special episode that will debut this week, with the current plan being for it to debut sometime Friday, in order for the matches to be seen prior to the Full Gear PPV. Arn Anderson provided guest commentary on the episode.

Originally Posted by PWI

A new jury trial date of 6/1/20 at 9:00 AM in Benton Courthouse has now been scheduled in the civil lawsuit brought by tattoo artist Catherine Alexander against World Wrestling Entertainment, Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc., 2K Games, Inc., 2K Sports, Inc., Visual Concepts Entertainment, Yuke’s Co., Ltd. and Yuke’s LA Inc.

The lawsuitl, filed in April 2018 in the United States District Court of Southern District of Illinois, alleges that all of Alexander's tattoo work on WWE star Randy Orton are her original designs that she owns and that she has never given any of the defendants permission to recreate them in the WWE videogames, therefore they and other defendants have infringed on her copyrights ...

Attempts at settling the case have, thus far, gone nowhere.

The case was at one point scheduled to go to trial but was pushed back to after the original presiding Judge retired from the bench, requiring a new Judge, Judge Staci M. Yandle, to take over the proceedings. The trial was pushed back again to June 2020 at the request of 2K and several other plaintiffs. The court noted that barring "extraordinary circumstances" there would be no additional delays in going to trial on the scheduled date.

All motions disputing materials filed to the case must be filed by tomorrow, 11/8, so unless that happens, the trial date should stand.

Originally Posted by PWI

Current AEW Producer and former ECW and ROH Champion Jerry Lynn announced he would be missing this weekend's Starrcast and the AEW PPV due to some health issues that has come up, stemming from all the punishment he has put his body through over the three decades of his in-ring career. Lynn is slated for an MRI today and hopes to have results by Tuesday to pinpoint and treat the problem.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

WWE has confirmed to POST Wrestling that the recent changes for the upcoming live event in Mexico City this month are accurate ...

A WWE spokesman responded to POST Wrestling’s inquiry regarding the changes that list Cain Velasquez appearing but no longer wrestling on the show:

"Yes, that’s the correct match card right now. But as you know, the match card can and probably will change between now and the live event."

Initially, Velasquez was advertised to be teaming with Rey Mysterio on the show and now, Mysterio is listed for a tag match with Humberto Carrillo against Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows.

Originally Posted by Fightful

AEW Full Gear is going to have a bit of a different look compared to the typical AEW event.

Responding to a question someone asked on social media, Nick Jackson of The Young Bucks revealed that the upcoming AEW pay-per-view will be unique.

Different set for the PPV. https://t.co/6kXDRpCS4B

— The Young Bucks (@NickJacksonYB) November 7, 2019

Originally Posted by Fightful

WWE announced that Adam Cole will be a special guest on the November 12 episode of WWE Backstage

Originally Posted by Fightful

In an interview with Sports Illustrated, Cena explained why a return to WWE at this time is unlikely. Cena said he was very appreciative of what the wrestling industry has to offer, but it has its advantages and disadvantages. With Cena's current projects and past comments about his body not being able to handle a full-time WWE schedule, a lengthy return to the company isn't something in the cards for now.

“Professional wrestling is a wonderful industry, but it’s also extremely addictive. It’s addictive because it makes you feel relevant, it makes you feel important. It can fill the void of a lot of things that you may not be brave enough to face. It also pays really well, so you get attached to the financial security. It allows you to make irresponsible financial decisions because you think the money’s always going to be there," Cena said.

Originally Posted by Fightful

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson had some high praise for Cody Rhodes.

Perhaps the talk of social media coming out of the November 6 episode of AEW Dynamite was Cody's promo on Chris Jericho heading into their AEW World Championship match at Full Gear. Among the many people praising the promo was Johnson himself, who tweeted about it the following day.

Below is Johnson's tweet:

Originally Posted by Fightful

NWA Powerrr keeps impressive viewers in high places.

The NWA rebirth is on Youtube for now, and has gained the praise of wrestlers around the world. Among those, include Hollywood's biggest star in The Rock, who put over the hour-long program weeks ago. Now, Edge has joined the fold, touting the show heavily on Twitter and congratulating the creators of the program.

Originally Posted by Fightful

AAA's next major show will feature Mega Champion Kenny Omega and ROH World Champion RUSH.

At a press conference in Mexico, AAA announced the full card for the TripleMania Regia show taking place at Estadio de Béisbol Monterrey in Monterrey on December 1. The show will see Omega defending the Mega Champion against Dragon Lee in Omega's first title defense since winning the belt back at Heroes Inmortales XIII on October 19.

Also announced for the show is RUSH, who will face L.A. Park and Pagano in a three-way match, but RUSH's ROH title will not be on the line. The main event will be a multi-man steel cage match where the last man to stay in the cage will either have their hair shaved off or lose their mask.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

The Wednesday night wars had its closest week to date, as NXT, with the exposure on Smackdown and Raw, plus the appearance of A.J. Styles, Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson in the main event, took a big chunk out of the AEW audience and built its own, with AEW still winning 822,000 to 813,000.

AEW had a super strong show, but that means little coming off the angle and exposure that NXT had with the fresh new brand vs. brand angle. AEW still won in the 18-49 demo with 0.35 to NXT’s 0.30, but AEW had been doubling NXT in that age group ...

AEW was up 8.9 percent from last week, but it should have been up considerably more. NXT was up 39.8 percent ...

The key take in all this, is that while the NXT number has its reasons for rising, and we don’t know if this was a one-time thing or will change next week without main roster stars, AEW has not stabilized. The number it’s at is still a good number, but the continued drops among the under 35 audience that were so strong from week one is a major issue.

The key take on the show is AEW’s numbers opened well ahead and mostly declined, even with a hot show. NXT opened behind, and largely grew. By saying that, you’d think it was an audience switch as the two hours were going. Yet, an examination of the quarters tells you that wasn’t the case. While the AEW audience was tuning out, for the most part they were not switching to NXT.

In the overall, AEW started with a solid lead, 976,000 for Pac vs. Trent vs. 819,000 for the OC Invasion and TV main event build and the beginning of Pete Dunne vs. Damien Priest.

But NXT role and AEW fell as a general rule, with NXT winning the final 45 minutes.

In the second quarter, AEW with the Cody interview did 959,000 viewers, down 18,000. NXT with the ending of Dunne vs. Priest and the Killian Dain attack on both did 800,000 viewers, down 19,000.

In the third quarter, AEW with Private Party vs. Dark Order did 809,000 viewers, a loss of 150,000. NXT with Taynara vs. Santana Garrett did 813,000, winning slightly, with a gain of 13,000 viewers. So in both these quarters it’s not so much the same people switching.

In the fourth quarter, AEW had the ending of the Private Party vs. Dark Order match and the Chris Jericho video, doing 827,000 which was up 18,000. NXT had Shayna Baszler vs. Dakota Kai, which did 819,000, up 6,000. So again, not a switch.

In quarter five, AEW had Riho & Shanna vs. Emi Sakura & Jamie Hayter, which did 798,000 viewers a drop of 29,000. NXT had the post-Baszler-Kai wild women’s brawl and an interview segment with Tommaso Ciampa, Keith Lee and Matt Riddle, and did 793,000 viewers, a drop of 26,000. Once again, not a switch.

In quarter six, AEW did 698,000 viewers for the Brandi Rhodes video and Shawn Spears vs. Brandon Cutler, a loss of 99,000 viewers. NXT had Tony Nese vs. Angel Garza, and did 769,000 viewers, a loss of 24,000, so again, not a switch.

In quarter seven, AEW had the Jon Moxley/Kenny Omega video package and beginning of Jericho & Sammy Guevara vs. Omega & Adam Page, which did 739,000 viewers, up 40,000. AEW had Isaiah Scott vs. Dominik Dijakovic which did 784,000 viewers, up 15,000. That’s the issue with promotional videos, they are great for building characters and matches, but are not going to do the numbers of in-ring in most cases. This was not a quarter one would have expected AEW to lose. But again here, both groups rose at the same time.

In quarter eight, AEW had the end of Jericho & Guevara vs. Omega & Page match, and the big brawl at the end, which gained 29,000 viewers to 768,000. NXT had Lee & Riddle & Ciampa vs. Styles & Gallows & Anderson, which did 807,000 viewers, gaining 23,000, so again, not a switch.

What was a switch is that once AEW ended, NXT gained 190,000 viewers to 997,000 so the overrun, which had not helped the NXT rating in the past, did here. It’s not a major difference, as without the overrun, NXT would have averaged 802,000 viewers

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

At TV this week, Styles pitched the idea of the OC against the Undisputed Era for Survivor Series. However, it looks right now that if the match will take place on NXT television down the line, or on television somewhere since they shot the angle for it on NXT. It could be moved to Survivor Series but Styles is currently booked in the three secondary title match on that show. So that led to a change because the original booking of Raw had The Street Profits & Humberto Carrillo beating the OC with Carrillo getting a shocking pin on Styles to heat up a longer program with the two over the U.S. title. The decision was then made that if the OC was going into a feud with NXT then they couldn’t lose this week on Raw. Since the Street Profits are being protected, that meant Carrillo had to lose again, and with the loss to Rollins in week one and losses to Styles in singles matches on TV and in Saudi Arabia, Carrillo has now started out on Raw with four losses in a row

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

One of the craziest few days in WWE history included a problem with getting talent out of Saudi Arabia after the Crown Jewel show, the best episode of Smackdown which could change the trajectory of the Wednesday night wars, and the company announcing a new deal with Saudi Arabia ...

The story is very complicated and left very bitter feelings among much of the crew, many of whom are saying they will never go back, although others are very skeptical whether that will be the case. And some have expressed questions regarding with working for the company, although the nature of the contracts and their ability to be frozen means that you really can’t quit until your contract expires if you want to stay working in the industry. The company is releasing nobody these days. In addition, saying you would never go back this week and actually doing so next summer when the next show is likely to take place are two different things ...

Most, but not all, of the talent, as well as those in the company not in Saudi Arabia who were in constant contact with talent and every person but two in the company who contacted us claimed the story that there was a mechanical problem with the flight was a cover story even before the early reports of that being the reason came out. WWE remains insistent that the mechanical problems were the entire issue and noted that the statement made by Atlas Airlines should have ended all speculation ...

The story with talent, and with all those who believed the mechanical problems were a cover, were they were told by a WWE official during the show that the Saudis owed WWE a huge money figure and that Vince McMahon had delayed allowing the television broadcast of the show in Saudi Arabia until they got it. According to people in the country, the broadcast strangely was delayed 40 minutes. Others in WWE claim that while the broadcast was delayed, that it had nothing to do with money payments and was a technical issue that caused the delay ...

The recent WWE 10-Q earnings report showed a major accounts receivable figure that was far higher than usual in the second quarter, and then even higher in the third quarter. In the third quarter, the accounts receivables was listed at $143 million and that 46 percent, which would be $65.8 million, came from one unnamed account. George Barrios, in the earnings conference, which took place less than 90 minutes before the show started, said that since 9/30, the date the report covered, that the company had received $60 million from an outstanding debt. There was also a listing in the 10-Q, which covers the period up through 9/30, about WWE not having been paid yet for the Super Showdown show on 6/7 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. But that was as of 9/30 and Barrios at the investors call talked about that $60 million payment being received after the current books they were discussing were closed, without saying what it was ...

The story going around from the talent was that they were told, after several hours, which included the appearance of military police according to one wrestler waiting for the flight, that the plane they were supposed to leave on at 3 a.m. after the show had a mechanical issue. Then, about six hours later, while in the plane the entire time, they were told that the pilots had timed out and thus, even if fixed, the plane couldn’t take off and they needed to leave the plane. They were told to leave the airport and go to hotels ... They were first told they couldn’t get another flight out until 8 p.m., but then that story changed and then they were told they couldn’t get a flight out until 3 a.m. They did get on that flight, although it left about 90 minutes late.

Keep in mind this is talent that probably does anywhere from 90 to 120 flights a year, and every one of them has run into mechanical problems and delays as a matter of course, likely multiple times per year, and that those are for the most part of the job and taken in stride. Perhaps it was being in a foreign country, and perhaps it was just that foreign country

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

The story continued at Raw on 11/4. Vince McMahon called a meeting at 3 p.m. with the Raw locker room. Vince McMahon basically said the same story that the company has been saying. He said that there was no issue with Saudi Arabia and that the feed to the Saudi Arabian television network was cut at the request of Saudi Arabia, not himself. He opened up for questions and nobody asked any questions. Nobody said anything about the story given. It was noted that there was a feeling that saying anything negative wouldn’t do anyone any good and nobody spoke up.

There was a feeling that saying anything won’t do anyone any good and that was the correct call. Randy Orton said something but he was just trying to break tension by being funny and Vince said, “Anybody else want to just kiss my ass?” The meeting was about to wrap up when Paul Levesque called out Karl Anderson for making a remark on Twitter about who is going to be the locker room leader on Monday. Anderson didn’t say much of anything. The situation with Anderson was that besides that remark, he tried to be funny by teasing the idea he was mad and wouldn’t go back, only to joke about it, saying that he needed to pay for a new pool. His wife responded back saying that it’s actually a second house, but indicated not wanting him to go again for concerns about him being more important than the second house.

A.J. Styles spoke but didn’t say much. He was very unhappy that the delay caused him to miss one of his son’s wrestling matches. Rusev started and mostly thanked Mark Carrano of Talent Relations for his work in quickly booking hotel rooms for everyone while they were stranded. Nobody voiced anything negatively. There were some remarks about how at times during this ordeal they didn’t have access to Wifi and thus couldn’t contact their families.

Originally Posted by PWI

On today's "Jerry Lawler Show" Podcast, The King discusses Monday's talent meeting this past week at Raw.

Regarding the issues discussed at the talent meeting regarding Saudi Arabia travel this past Monday, Lawler states that Vince addressed the roster saying, they never saw so many issues happening with travel at one time. The King states he was not aware of any of the issues before the talent meeting. The Hall of Famer explains how many were frustrated that things were not explained to them regarding issues with fueling the plane and an onboard sensor. He discusses the language barrier that causes more problems.

According to Lawler, AJ Styles and Karl Anderson spoke up about talent concerns not knowing what the hell was going on. Lawler states everything was explained in detail, debunking rumors and talking about the new Saudi deal through 2027.

According to Lawler Vince said that they would not be using that charter company anymore. The King says that wrestlers are their own worst enemy when it comes to believing what they hear.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

Even with Cain Velasquez and Tyson Fury on the show, likely because the show took place on a Thursday afternoon and most people weren’t even aware, Crown Jewel became the first WWE PPV show not to crack the top 20 in Google trends, falling under 100,000. Even the Australia show in the middle of the night did so and previous Saudi shows. This indicates the least interest in such a show.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

The finish of the Flair & Natalya vs. Asuka & Sane match was also changed. The original finish was Asuka getting the fall on Natalya, since there is, or at least was, a direction in a few months of Asuka challenging for the title which is why the announcers had pushed that Asuka beat Lynch at the Rumble. Notably, that wasn’t touched this week. I don’t know the reason for the change, but the presumption, and this does make sense, is that with Natalya shining so big at the Crown Jewel show and mainstream media in the wake of it, that having her lose in her first television match back wouldn’t be the right thing. And I’d agree with that call. That doesn’t mean Asuka had to lose to her, because you could have taken the fall on Sane just as easily and Lynch has already beaten Sane. Really, this shouldn’t change anything because by the time they were going to get to Asuka challenging for the title, the fact she tapped out in a tag team match would be largely forgotten

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

NXT has booked January dates at Full Sail University. They had been talking with buildings for Wednesday night television dates in 2020. The last we’d heard was the idea they would run Full Sail some weeks and from arenas other weeks

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

[AEW Dynamite] Numbers for the U.K. were down this past week. ITV 4 moved the show from 10 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Friday night which led to a decline to 78,000 viewers, although it is better than the first week at 10 p.m. and they did move the slot again. The Monday at 11:45 p.m time slot on ITV did 148,000 viewers, down from 221,000 the prior week ...

For WWE, with less penetration on Sky, Raw on 11/5 did 49,000 viewers, and once again had a huge quarter hour for the segment with HHH, Seth Rollins and the debut of the NXT crew. However, the live Smackdown on 11/2 only did 11,000 viewers

In Canada this past week, Smackdown on 11/1 did 139,500 viewers, NXT on 11/1 didn’t crack the top ten (less than 82,000 viewers), Raw on 11/4 did 255,900 viewers and AEW did 109,100 viewers. The 10/30 AEW show didn’t make the top ten in the sports ratings in Canada which means it did less than 121,200 viewers. The World Series and all the sport news shows on the different sports stations covering the World Series is what knocked them off the listings

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

In an update on Jesus Huerta (La Parka), the doctors have said that his injuries could have been fatal had they not done immediate surgery to reduce pressure. There have been other surgeries to stabilize his spine as well as a tracheotomy. He has been unable to talk but can communicate. He was moved out of intensive care in the past few days and he has gotten feeling back and some movement back in his arms and legs

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

One idea talked about for 2020 is breaking Evil away from LIJ and Sanada and giving him a strong singles push

Originally Posted by Observer

Tessa Blanchard is getting a World Championship shot at Impact Wrestling's next pay-per-view.

Impact confirmed today that Sami Callihan will defend his World title against Blanchard in the main event of Hard to Kill. The PPV is taking place at The Bomb Factory in Dallas, Texas on Sunday, January 12, 2020.

The match is being promoted as "the first time in professional wrestling that a woman will challenge a man for the top title live on pay-per-view."

Originally Posted by PWI

During a media scrum at Starrcast, AEW star The Luchasaurus said he is targeting a January 2020 return from his hamstring inury.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Cody held a conference call with members of the media on Friday ahead of Full Gear. We have posted the entire call on the site and below are some of the highlights ...

* He doesn’t like the term ‘mid-card’, acknowledges it exists and he toiled there, but no one considers themselves ‘mid-card’ mentioning how the Intercontinental title when on last at SummerSlam 1992. He said in the next month or so, there would be a ‘prize’ for those on the rise. He added that all the titles need to be treated the same as the AEW title.
* They are releasing top five rankings for each division tonight and will hopefully be updated every Friday
* Cody debriefs every department after each week’s show. He mentioned the music is piped into the mix because they want to hear the crowd over top of it and Cody monitors the music each week. Mikey Rukus is the composer who has developed many of the theme songs in AEW.
* Christopher Daniels and Chris Harrington have been working hard on getting international talent into the country legally through visa work, etc.
* Kenny Omega is trying to do something different with the women’s division and praised the Joshi talent while the women’s division will grow after the pay-per-view this weekend ...
* Jim Ross has told him that they need to bring up what happens on AEW Dark on the Dynamite show. He doesn’t want to make all their shoulder programming ‘mandatory’ and Dynamite is the hub for everything. The shoulder program is there for you but as long as you see Dynamite, you aren’t missing anything.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Regarding the excellent video from the Inner Circle that aired on Dynamite this week, there were no writers involved in the making of the video. Those involved were instructed to put over Chris Jericho and do so in their own unique way. It was also edited tremendously and came off as one of the better-produced comedy bits in a wrestling show that I can recall.

Originally Posted by Squared Circle Sirens

According to a report from bodyslam.net Big Swole impressed AEW officials so much in her match at AEW Dark, that she was offered on contract with the company as soon as she made her way to the back.

We have learned that she has in fact signed a contract and the announcement of her signing with the company is coming soon ...

She’s no stranger to AEW having been one of the partici[ants on the All Out – The Buy-In Casino Battle Royal and teaming with Mercedes Martinez on AEW Dark in a losing effort to Allie and Sadie Gibbs.

Originally Posted by Fightful

The standout performer has made a name for himself quickly within the ranks of All Elite Wrestling. As one of the top independent names in wrestling over the last several years, Allin had options, but points to one specific point of appeal as to why he ended up joining AEW instead of the likes of WWE.

"Creative freedom, hands down. A lot of people if they see me at first, they don't know how present me. AEW is like 'how do you want to be presented?' instead of 'this is how we're going to present you.' Give me that creative freedom. WWE would have probably made me a creepy figure in a boiler room jacking off or something. No, I'm fine. I want to skateboard and represent that culture," said Darby Allin at the Starrcast IV media scrum on Friday.

Allin joined EVOLVE and WWN very early in his career and worked dozens of matches there over the course of several years. However, it seems as if any good will between the two sides, as Allin said "Tell EVOLVE to go fuck itself" during the scrum.

Originally Posted by Mr. Nerfect (Post 5299513)

With the ratings being so close between AEW and NXT this week, it’s probably only a few boxes difference. Not really discernible as to which one was the more watched program. Especially when you figure in WWE Network numbers.

I was led to believe that AEW was slaughtering NXT with young people, but it’s only in the 18-49. In the 18-34 they are basically square (the week before this was like a 0.15 to a 0.14). Lots of spin to make AEW look hotter ticket than it really is.

Not horrible numbers compared to the rest of television, but some sneaky wording to try and make one look like it’s way ahead of the other.

Originally Posted by Seanny One Ball (Post 5299516)

If anyone saw that Cornette Twitter thing it's pretty funny. The people complaining seem to think wrestling is all about making friends.

Originally Posted by Emperor Smeat (Post 5299520)

It also took NXT needing to appear on main roster programming, being included in the Survivor Series build, and hype of main roster invading NXT to bring the numbers that close though.

AEW might push the gap wider next week due to them coming off from a PPV and NXT unlikely having a big notable main roster star showing up due to the European tour.

The week after is likely when NXT beats AEW for the first time since that is the Survivor Series go-home show for all three WWE brands, NXT's go-home show for their own War Games event, and very likely when the big main roster invasion of NXT happens.

Originally Posted by Observer

Going against what ended up as the biggest Monday Night Football game of the year, Raw set a record low for a non-major holiday show, doing 2.06 million viewers last night.

The show was on Veteran's Day, but that is not considered the type of a holiday that impacts ratings.

The episode was expected to do a weak number, with the combination of the San Francisco 49ers-Seattle Seahawks game, and that Raw was taped.

The only Raw episodes in modern history to fall under this number were this past Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve. However, the third hour last night was lower than the third hour either of those nights ...

The third hour was the least watched third hour in history, even behind Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve. That was likely due to the closeness and interest in the game, plus the six-man tag with Ricochet, Humberto Carrillo & Randy Orton vs. The OC wasn't going to keep viewers who had any interest in football. The main event segment itself did gain viewers from The Viking Raiders match with Flash Morgan Webster & Mark Andrews ...

The 26 percent drop in audience from hour one to hour three was the largest in history, but given the excitement of the game, which went into overtime, that isn't a shock either ...

The three hours were:

8 p.m. 2.36 million viewers
9 p.m. 2.06 million viewers
10 p.m. 1.75 million viewers

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

The demographics told an interesting story as Raw was hit most among 18-49 with men down 12.5% and women down 18%. They only fell 17.5% among people 25-54 from last week. Interestingly, men 12-34 was up 2% from last week while adults over 50 stayed even from the previous week, which is remarkable.

The actual tune-out numbers from hour one to hour three were gigantic. While males 12-34 were up from last week, throughout the show they fell 31%, which tied the largest decline during the episode along with men 18-49. People 18-49 fell 30% from the first to the third hour, 25-54 fell 28% and people 18-34 fell 27%. Adults over 50 only fell 18% during the show, which was the strongest retention among the key demographics.

Originally Posted by PWI

The John Cena narrated "Wrestlemania's Legendary Moments" documentary which aired on Fox last month is coming to WWE Network this Friday, 10 AM on demand

A new "Beyond the Ring" presentation will be added to WWE Network this Friday at 12 PM Eastern. It will be the 2017 "1997: Dawn of the Attitude" which features a roundtable hosted by Renée Young featuring Shawn Michaels, Mick Foley, Ron Simmons, Kane, and the Godfather talking about the pivotal year in WWE history.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

There is a new edition of Table for 3 airing tonight on the WWE Network featuring Shane McMahon, Bruce Prichard, and John Laurinaitis. The company released a clip previewing the show with McMahon recounting a ridiculous story regarding the sale of WCW in March 2001 and going to Panama City, Florida for the final Monday Nitro. According to McMahon’s story, he informed the locker room in WCW that the company had been bought out and everyone was stunned as he delivered the news. Laurinaitis then chimed in that only he and some of the lawyers were aware of the sale. The news broke the previous week and was the biggest story in the industry well in advance prior to the day of the final Nitro. This isn’t even one of those stories where there were reports out there, but the company had kept quiet, the WWE issued a press release on Friday announcing the purchase. So, this story was quite insane.

Originally Posted by Fightful

David Penzer doesn't believe Shane McMahon remembers things too well.

Originally Posted by Sportskeeda

During his promo on at the Oct. 9 episode of AEW Dynamite, Chris Jericho shut down a "We The People" chant by saying, "'We The People' sucks. It's dead and buried. It was a stupid idea from bad creative and all of that's gone." The "We The People" phrase was popularized by Jake Hager (Jack Swagger in WWE) and Cesaro during their time as a tag team.

Speaking to Sportskeeda, Cesaro revealed that "We The People" may not have been an idea from "bad creative."

“I was lucky to be in some very great tag teams with people I’ve gotten along with tremendously well: Jack Swagger, Tyson Kidd and Sheamus. ‘We The People’, by the way... That was our idea and it’s still over!"

Originally Posted by Fightful

At WWE SummerSlam 2019, Goldberg made short work of Dolph Ziggler, laying him out with a spear and jackhammer in less than two minutes. After the bout, Ziggler continued to egg on Goldberg and received a few more spears for his troubles.

Speaking to Alex McCarthy of TalkSport, Ziggler revealed that he did everything in his power to get more time for the match.

"As a kid, yeah. You know now, I’m a grown-up and I see these guys and I go ‘Ok, I’m here to do business and special things’ So I try not to be like ‘the fan’. I find out what the business is and I’m like ‘Cool, this will be a special moment’. But yeah, as a kid, big time [fan]," he said. "Then having that ‘You’re the guy to do this’ to set the record straight and give this guy and awesome match you go ‘Fantastic’. And they go ‘It’s going to be a bell, spear, pin’ and I go ‘come one’. I fought all day long, threatened to leave, threatened to quit, did everything I had to – ‘Give me two damn minutes!’ And I got a minute, whatever, what you going to do?"

Originally Posted by Observer

EVOLVE has revealed WALTER's matches for their December events.

WALTER will be in action at EVOLVE 141 in Livonia, Michigan on Friday, December 6 and EVOLVE 142 in Chicago, Illinois on Saturday, December 7. He'll face Timothy Thatcher at the Livonia show. The next night in Chicago, it will be WALTER vs. EVOLVE Champion Josh Briggs in a non-title match.

Originally Posted by Observer

Jerry Lynn on Twitter: “Went over the MRI with the doctor today. Getting surgery for a bulging disc on Nov 29th. Good news is 3 to 4 week recovery!”

Originally Posted by Observer

Retrosoft Studios announced today that RetroMania Wrestling is officially the sequel to the 1980s arcade game WrestleFest. They reached an agreement with Arc System Works Co. Ltd, who obtained the IP rights to WrestleFest and Mat Mania from defunct developer Technos of Japan. The developers noted in the press release that characters from the Mat Mania series will appear in the new game.

Originally Posted by PWI

Former WWE and ECW star Francine announced this [Monday] evening that she was being re-admitted back into a hospital in New Jersey from issues she did not disclose pending from a surgery last week for an abdominal reconstruction as well as a hernia repair. This had the third such surgery the "Queen of Extreme" has undergone with doctors placing mesh to secure her stitching, which came underdone prematurely after the first two surgeries.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Rusev spoke with The Sun in the U.K. earlier this week and discussed the storyline involving his Lana and Bobby Lashley:

There’s adjustments that we make, but that’s just life. We’re committed to our characters on TV, so we just have to make slight adjustments, but we’re professionals and we’re coping with it. It’s great, I think we are in the best storyline currently going on and the best storyline that’s been around for years. It’s getting a lot of views and a lot of eyes on it. Some people like it, some people love it, but at the end of the day, it’s the hottest storyline going on.

In the interview, he added that if he were to team with a female on the roster it would be Asuka and noted that he began taking lessons to speak Japanese earlier this year.

Originally Posted by WrestlingInc

From almost the beginning, All Elite Wrestling has made it well known that wins and losses will matter heavily in the company. When wrestlers head to the ring, the graphic that displays their name also includes their record (in singles competition and overall).

On Twitter, a fan asked AEW EVP Nick Jackson how AEW will handle things down the road to avoid booking problems in regards to wrestlers' records, "Do you have a way of booking around the possible problems down the road that you may encounter with the win-loss record?"

Jackson retweeted the question and confirmed, "It'll reset."

Rather than wins-losses just going on and on, it sounds like AEW will have something of a "season" where wrestlers will get an opportunity for a start fresh.

Originally Posted by Fightful

During their panel at Starrcast IV, a fan asked Brandi what her thoughts are on which women would she like to bring in to the division. Brandi, who had spent years working in WWE, said she'd bring in former Raw and Women's champion Alexa Bliss into AEW, adding that she is a big fan of her work.

"I would take Alexa Bliss in a heartbeat. I love Bliss, I love her. She's got something. She's multi-dimensional and talented," Brandi said.

Of course, Cody had to step in and show off his appreciation for Bliss by not only saying she has the best theme song in WWE, but also briefly playing her theme song on his phone.

"It's a good song! Literally at the top of my playlist," Cody said.

Brandi then asked Cody what his pick would be and Cody jokingly said if he mentioned anyone from WWE, then that person would get locked up under a brand new contract. So he decided to go in another direction and go for someone that is actually a member of IMPACT Wrestling.

"The tricky thing about it is if I say someone from WWE, then Vince [McMahon] will sign them for $18 million. They would appreciate it... I think Tessa Blanchard would be a good addition," Cody said.

Originally Posted by Fightful

Next IMPACT Plus special announced.

IMPACT Wrestling announced the promotion will return to IMPACT Plus for a special on Saturday, Dec. 7. IMPACT No Surrender will take place in Dayton, Ohio and will be headlined by an IMPACT World Championship match pitting Sami Callihan defending his title against Rich Swann.

Originally Posted by PWI

CM Punk's return on WWE Backstage tonight was kept a secret from everyone on camera with the exception of Renee Young as a way to prevent the return from leaking. Obviously, FOX was successful.

PWInsider.com has confirmed that Punk signed a deal with FOX but has not signed anything with World Wrestling Entertainment as of this writing.

The decision to bring Punk on was 100% a FOX call, but we are told that WWE gave the return their personal blessing. The two sides had circled on a deal but it was finally completed within the last few days.

Punk will be appearing regularly on WWE Backstage going forward, but will not be on every week we are told.

The return led to CM Punk's name and WWE Backstage trending on social media.

Originally Posted by PWI

When CM Punk returned on WWE Backstage last night, it was the first time since 2005 in Ring of Honor that he and Samoa Joe appeared on the same show for the same promotion.

Joe noted on WWE Backstage that he would be out of action for a few more weeks due to his broken thumb.

Originally Posted by Observer

On WWE Backstage last night, it was announced that Gargano will not be medically cleared to wrestle at NXT TakeOver: WarGames due to a neck injury. WWE is claiming that the injury happened when Finn Balor turned heel and attacked Gargano on NXT three weeks ago.

Bryan Alvarez said on today's Wrestling Observer Live that the injury to Gargano is legitimate, though he didn't know if that's when the injury happened.

Originally Posted by Observer

MLW has announced their first matchup for next month's Opera Cup tournament.

TJP vs. Brian Pillman Jr. is set for the first round of the tournament. It's being held at MLW's television tapings at the Melrose Ballroom in Queens, New York on Thursday, December 5.

There will be four opening round matches in the Opera Cup, with MLW hyping that they've "invited some of the best wrestlers from around the world to compete in this one-night single-elimination tournament."

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

In his piece for the New Japan Pro-Wrestling website, NJPW President Harold Meij commented on the report from the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Kenny Omega was stopped from entering Japan for his recent match for DDT Pro Wrestling. It was noted in the report that this incident was the third time Omega had trouble entering Japan since departing from NJPW in January of 2019. Here’s how Meij responded to the report:

“By the way, a few days ago, there were some unbelievable rumors that New Japan Pro-Wrestling tried to prevent Kenny Omega from entering Japan, but there was no reason why a company could not do that. I don’t want to do that. I thought it would be through because it was rumors spread from somebody’s speculation, but I mentioned that it was important to tell the fact by denying it once. Kenny Omega has made a great contribution to New Japan Pro Wrestling, and I wish him success.”

Originally Posted by PWI

Deadline reported that due to the cancellation of the computer-animated feature film adaptation of "Rugrats", the WWE Paramount Animation project "Rumble" has been moved back six months to January 21, 2021 to fill the void.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated interviewed Jim Ross and Ross talked about how proud he is of Jon Moxley and Kenny Omega for their match at AEW Full Gear. Ross said their match challenged him as a broadcaster:

“Its been years since I was this proud of two guys in a match like I am with Moxley and Kenny. I’ve never seen a main event like that. They should be congratulated. The effort they put forth was absolutely amazing. This match was a great indication of the in-ring spirit of AEW. We want to be about innovation and delivering a great effort. The match gave us stunts, it gave us wrestling, it gave us drama, it gave us uniqueness. This was about two guys that were given a chance to lay out their own game plan and execute their match, and that’s what they did. I loved that the Mox-Kenny match challenged me as a broadcaster. People kept telling me, ‘JR, this match isn’t for you.’ How do you know that? I wasn’t with ECW; that was Joey Styles’ gig. I never got to call a lot of the hardcore stuff. I don’t find it distasteful, I don’t find it bad. We’re supposed to have something for everybody, and AEW offers a variety of styles and presentations that fans are going to like. This is not a one-dimensional company.”

Originally Posted by Fightful

NWA Into The Fire PPV and subsequent television tapings in Atlanta have all sold out.

Originally Posted by Fightful

During the post-Full Gear media scrum, Chris Jericho was asked about AEW's unblemished record over WWE NXT in the Wednesday night TV ratings competition ...

Chris would go on to say NXT lost its uniqueness and is now just another WWE show. He would even go so far as to say he sees it in the same light of the ECW brand a decade ago. He also said the NXT Arena should prepare to feel the power of Hulkamania soon with the way the show is going.

"So, am I surprised that we're winning? Of course not. I knew we'd win," he continued. "Our star power crushes NXT's star power and exactly what I knew was going to happen. NXT, what made it cool before, it was a standalone thing. Now it's just another WWE show. It's like, you know, 2009 ECW, so good for them. God bless them. I'm sure at some point Roman Reigns will be on NXT now, and Hulk Hogan will return to a TV studio for the first time since 1981 in Memphis. That's fine. All we're going to do is continue to worry about ourselves, concentrate on our storylines, our matches, and our characters, building stars."

Originally Posted by WrestlingInc

Rusev recently spoke with Digital Spy and once again defended his current WWE RAW storyline with wife Lana and Bobby Lashley ...

"How can I not be happy?" he said. "It's the hottest storyline in the whole WWE, it's been the hottest storyline for years. So of course, I'm happy with it."

Rusev also addressed criticism on the storyline potentially doing damage to his marriage, saying this is no different than what any other actor would do.

"Not many people are willing to do something like this, but we're professionals so, of course, we're used to it," he said. "(Being professional) is what any other actor does, you know, when you're going to step on stage or whatever. This is no different than that."

Corey Graves recently called the storyline ridiculous on WWE's "After The Bell" podcast and called on the company to "let it end." Rusev responded and incorrectly claimed that they are drawing the highest views on YouTube ...

"Just because Corey Graves doesn't like it or somebody else it doesn't mean anything. Obviously, the numbers speak for itself, we're the highest viewed YouTube video in a long, long time. I'm stoked about it," Rusev said.

Rusev continued and said when he meets fans, he receives positive reactions, and that the naysayers are just "internet warriors" who like to complain about WWE.

"We have fans that are not even fans of WWE that tune in because they like the drama," Rusev said. "That's what I don't understand, when you watch Game of Thrones or any of your favourite shows there's always a scandal, there's always things like that. That's why I don't understand why some people are trying to reject that. It's just those super ultra fans in their basement that are trying to reject it, which it is what it is, you know, if you don't like it, you don't have to watch it."

Originally Posted by WWE Network News

With Survivor Series a little over a week away, it makes sense that the WWE Network’s Hidden Gems spotlight would finally begin to focus in on the last “big 4” pay-per-view of the year. And with that in mind, it makes sense for what is steadily becoming a modern tradition to continue as well; the release of corresponding TV hype specials to the streaming service. After being graced by a Sunday Night Slam special for SummerSlam 1994 earlier this year, we’re now set to receive the followup of the same name for Survivor Series 1994, which taped on November 8, 1994 at the Fernwood Resort & Country Club in Pennsylvania but didn’t air until the 20th, just 3 days before the PPV. While the August show was 2-hours long, the runtime was cut in November as the era of standalone TV “spectaculars” began to run its course ...

Also of note for the purists out there is that the video has a perfectly healthy runtime of 44:58 and zero significant edits have been made to the presentation. Meaning that both a Bob Backlund vs. Bret Hart recap and a Survivor Series Report segment with Todd Pettingill are completely intact ...

As always, we wrap up with WWE’s official description:

Originally Posted by PWI

The Boys, formerly of ROH and Dalton Castle proteges, are backstage at AEW Dynamite in Nashville.

Dustin Rhodes worked as a commentator for AEW Dark.

Originally Posted by Observer

After a week in which NXT came its closest to beating AEW since the beginning of the Wednesday Night Wars, AEW Dynamite ratings were up 16 percent from last week, averaging 957,000 viewers.

Dynamite finished fifth for the night on cable in the 18-49 demo, averaging a 0.43 rating in that important category. That number is up 22 percent from the previous week.

NXT on USA Network was down eight percent in total viewers, averaging 750,000 viewers. In the 18-49 rankings, they finished 22nd on the night with a .25 rating. That's down 17 percent from last week.

AEW beat NXT in every demo except for persons over 50, which is the case most weeks. NXT had an edge of 0.35 to 0.29 in that demo.

Dynamite was strongest in the males 18-49 category, with a 0.55 rating, almost doubling NXT's 0.32.

The AEW number was almost identical with where the show finished on October 23. The NXT audience has grown eight percent from that date, which is likely the effects of the current angle involving the NXT invasion of Raw and SmackDown leading into Survivor Series.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

AEW saw gains across the board led by females 12-34 that rose an incredible 91% from last week and up 200% from two weeks ago where the show went against Game 7 of the World Series.

The 18-34 demo was up 48% for AEW and women 18-49 grew 35% from last week’s among the biggest jumps.

For NXT, they were hit hardest among the female 12-34 demo that AEW benefited from with NXT down 23% in that category. A small positive for NXT was a rise among males 12-34 which was up 6% and the over 50 audience was up 3%.

Originally Posted by Observer

Two members of The Dynasty will face off in the opening round of MLW's Opera Cup tournament.

MLW has announced that MJF will face his Dynasty stablemate Alexander Hammerstone in the first round of the Opera Cup. The one-night single-elimination tournament is being held at MLW's television tapings at the Melrose Ballroom in Queens, New York on Thursday, December 5.

Originally Posted by PWI

The Ronda Rousey Story: Through My Father’s Eyes A Lionsgate documentary on UFC Hall of Famer and former WWE Raw Women's Champion Ronda Rousey will be released for digital streaming and on demand orders next Tuesday 11/9.

Written and directed by Gary Stretch (former WBC International Light Middleweight Boxing champion), the documentary follows Rousey from her difficult, humble beginnings through her rise to the top of the male-dominated mixed martial arts and sports entertainment worlds to become one of the most recognizable and iconic superstars in the entire world.

Originally Posted by PWI

Jordan Myles has deleted his Twitter account. In a move that can't make WWE happy, People Magazine picked up on the Myles story.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

On November 13th, Jordan Myles (ACH) made it clear on social media that he is quitting WWE. He stated during a Twitter Live video that he does not want to be a part of the company. Last week, Myles noted on Twitter that if WWE didn’t reach out to him following the offensive and racial t-shirt situation, he was going to continue speaking out. Myles’ Twitter account is not activated at the moment. WWE Hall Of Famer Booker T talked about the situation during the latest edition of his ‘Hall Of Fame’ podcast and shared his thoughts about the entire situation and where it is now:

“I don’t know if Jordan Myles has quit the company but on social media he says he quit the company. My thing is, I’m not gonna sit here and judge or anything like that. I’m not gonna sit here and say, ‘The guy should’ve did this’ or, ‘The guy should’ve did that’. I’m gonna lay out on that because I don’t want any backlash before someone’s saying, ‘Oh Booker said this’ and ‘Booker said that’. I’m just gonna say this: The situation to where… it all started with the t-shirt and now its gotten to this and I don’t know where it’s gonna go from here but I do know, some of the stuff he was saying as far as the company goes, I cannot… I’ve been on this earth for 54 years and if you think one person is something, call it that. If you think that person is something, call it that. But I cannot judge a group and say everybody is that and when you make a blanket statement like that, you do no justice for yourself or the culture… like I said, I say this because I’ve had a lot of years and a lot of experience and I do know I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for a white guy by the name of Bruce Gasarch who made this all happen for me as far as changing my life. That’s another story, and I easily could’ve judged everyone the same way after my situation — going to prison, being a kid who had never been in trouble before. First time being in the back of a police car, getting locked up and saying, ‘The system did me wrong. I hate everybody of that color.’ You know what I mean? And if I would’ve did that, I would’ve did myself an injustice more than anything and I think that’s the situation I wanna make clear here that the way he’s going about this, he’s doing himself an injustice and that’s my take on that and I’m gonna leave it at that.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Comicbook.com interviewed Jim Ross and asked him about CM Punk’s appearance at the conclusion of WWE Backstage. Ross said he was not surprised and shared that he was offered the co-hosting spot for Backstage along with Renee Young but had already committed to Tony Khan and All Elite Wrestling:

“[I wasn’t] big-time surprised. I thought [they’d get him when] they got the pay in line with what he’s looking for to work part-time. The other thing is that he doesn’t have to [be on WWE TV]. That’s my understanding, he won’t be going back to the WWE community at TV. He’ll be going to LA, very different deal. I was offered that opportunity. Not his opportunity, I was offered an opportunity to be on a show with Renee, but I already had already committed to Tony Khan and AEW. I’m not big on breaking my commitments or breaking my word… I’m glad to see him going back on TV. He’s got a lot to offer. He’s creative, he’s smart, he’s a great polarizing performer. He’s a great talent, one of the best talents I’ve ever been around. Would I have wanted him to work for us? Of course I would. We would love that too. But it wasn’t in the cards right now and it may never be in the cards.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

According to Squared Circle Sirens, independent wrestler Karissa Rivera will be backstage at Friday Night SmackDown in Philadelphia.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Adam Cole did a Q&A that the WWE on FOX Twitter account posted. During the Q&A, Adam Cole shared that Bobby Fish recently lost a tooth and Fish went to Britt Baker to get it fixed.

Originally Posted by Fightful

In an interview with Gary Cassidy of Sportskeeda, Page spoke about the current Raw superstar and believes McIntyre could succeed really well if WWE were to let him be himself. Page added that he doesn't believe that he has been portrayed as the "Scottish Psychopath" as he has been nicknamed as such.

"I think they just have to let him be himself, you know? With WWE, it's a lot of stories. Guys have different stories that they have to live out. Like, I never saw him as a psychopath. Do you know what I mean? A warrior? Okay, but psychopath? I never saw that. You know, so, I think that, in the big picture, they've just got to let him be himself, and sometimes it takes time," Page said.

Page shared examples of past wrestlers who have done tremendously well being themselves, namely "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and Ted DiBiase.

"Look at Stone Cold Steve Austin. When he came in, when he was the Ringmaster, and he was working with Ted DiBiase, he was the same wrestler. He just wasn't the same guy. They had to let Steve be Steve, and eventually they did. And we know what happened," Page said.

Originally Posted by Fightful

Raven is a fan of Pac, writing on Twitter, "Saw AEW last night & if you’re a young wrestler & u want to learn how to wrestle & do more than just high spots, @BASTARDPAC is who u should watch! He sells, he begs off.. he’s the most acrobatic guy there but he uses his acrobatics judiciously.
Plus, who doesn’t love a bastard?"

Originally Posted by Fightful

WWE Survivor Series is "the one time a year where brands collide over brand supremacy." And though the Wild Card Rule has led to plenty of inter-brand matches this year, brand supremacy remains at stake when Raw, SmackDown, and NXT battle at Survivor Series on Nov. 24.

But Corey Graves wishes there was something larger on the line.

"I understand the battle for brand supremacy. But, does anybody in the WWE Universe, really identify with a particular brand?" wondered Graves on his After The Bell podcast. "The whole brand supremacy thing doesn't seem to matter to anybody outside the doors of WWE. We need some stakes. It's becoming like the NFL Pro Bowl. How about, which ever brand wins the most matches at Survivor Series, you reward them with something. Maybe the 30th spot in the Royal Rumble matches. Maybe [the winning brand] gets the main event spot at WrestleMania. Give the WWE Universe a reason to be excited for the entire pay-per-view. That way, one brand walks away with 'bragging rights,' which is the only reason we can give for why these guys are trying to fight each other and form these weird alliances, but something tangible to look forward to in the future."

Graves continued, addressing the title situation at Survivor Series as well.

"I don't think I'm the only one who thinks there are too many freakin' titles in WWE. Why not consolidate all of them? How much bigger would Survivor Series be if all these champion vs. champion vs. champion matches were winner take all? Then let the champion float (between brands)."

As of now, no extra stakes have been attached to Survivor Series.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

The Wednesday night wars on 11/13 saw AEW up 16.4 percent coming off the PPV to 957,000 viewers (1.55 viewers per home), while NXT fell 7.5 percent to 750,000 viewers (1.29 viewers per home).

AEW was back to a 0.43 in the 18-49 demo to 0.25 for NXT. AEW was No. 2 in its time slot in 18-49, trailing only an NBA game on ESPN that did a 0.64 in the demo and 1,664,000 viewers. NXT was 12th in its time slot in the key demo ...

The pattern remains that AEW has won every week, and dominated under 50 every week but one (which is still won, but didn’t dominate), NXT has won every week with the over 50 audience) ...

In the segments, AEW opened with a Kenny Omega promo, Jon Moxley vs. Michael Nakazawa and a Moxley promo and did 1,080,000 viewers and 600,000 in 18-49. NXT opened with Lio Rush vs. Angel Garza in a title mach that drew 738,000 viewers and 312,000 in 18-49.

AEW’s second quarter was Dark Order vs. Jungle Boy & Marko Stunt, plus a post-match angle to bring back Luchasaurus. It did 975,000 viewers overall and 542,000 in 18-49, or losses of 105,000 total and 58,000 in 18-49. NXT had the ending of Rush vs. Garza plus Xia Li vs. Aliyah. It did 774,000 viewers and 327,000 in 18-49, gains of 36,000 and 15,000 respectively.

The third quarter saw AEW have Shawn Spears vs. Darby Allin vs. Peter Avalon. It did 861,000 viewers and 489,000 in 18-49, losses of 114,000 and 53,000 in 18-49. NXT had a Finn Balor promo, Matt Riddle attack and angle for War Games with Undisputed Era, Tommaso Ciampa and Keith Lee. It did 755,000 viewers and 334,000 in 18-49, a loss of 19,000 viewers but a 7,000 gain in 18-49.

The fourth quarter saw AEW with a Nyla Rose squash, an Allie interview and attack by Awesome Kong and Brandi Rhodes, plus the beginning of the Chris Jericho interview. That did 916,000 viewers total and 527,000 in 18-49, a gain of 55,000 total and 38,000 in 18-49. NXT had Keith Lee vs. Roderick Strong. That did 709,000 viewers and 316,000 in 18-49, a loss of 46,000 and a loss of 8,000 in 18-49.

The fifth quarter was after MJF came out so it was the Jericho/MJF show, with the Cody run in and debut of Wardlow. That did 1,013,000 viewers and 585,000 in 18-49, increases of 101,000 and 55,000. NXT had the end of Lee vs. Strong and another post-match brawl with the War Games angle. That did 766,000 viewers and 339,000 in 18-49, gains of 57,000 overall and 23,000 in 18-49.

AEW followed with Adam Page vs. Pac, which did 940,000 viewers and 560,000 in 18-49, a loss of 77,000 overall and 25,000 in 18-49. NXT had Isaiah Scott vs. Bronson Reed. That did 723,000 viewers and 289,000 in 18-49, drops of 43,000 overall and 50,000 in 18-49.

AEW next had the big Young Bucks brawl with Santana & Ortiz and the SCU ring entrance. That did 899,000 viewers and 547,000 in 18-49, drops of 41,000 overall and 13,000 in 18-49. NXT had the Pete Dunne vs. Killian Dain non-match with Damien Priest running in, which did 672,000 viewers and 275,000 in 18-49, drops of 51,000 overall and 14,000 in 18-49.

The battle of main events saw AEW have Chris Jericho & Sammy Guevara vs. Frankie Kazarian & Scorpio Sky for the tag titles, which did 968,000 viewers and 584,000 in 18-49, gains of 64,000 overall and 37,000 in18-49. NXT had Io Shirai vs. Mia Yim in a ladder match which did 747,000 viewers and 308,000 in 18-49, gains of 75,000 overall and 33,000 in 18-49.

After AEW ended, the NXT overrun gained 215,000 viewers, the largest to date, with 422,000 in 18-49. These were clearly AEW fans because not only did they pick up viewers, but their median age dropped two years immediately. The overrun improved the overall show number from 735,500 to 750,000.

Originally Posted by Observer

The high point of the show was the Kabuki Warriors vs. Charlotte Flair & Becky Lynch title match that did 2,454,000 viewers. The low point, of 1,680,000 viewers was for the beginning of the OC vs. Ricochet & Randy Orton & Humberto Carrillo match, although the audience did grow during the match.

The Kabuki Warriors vs. Lynch & Flair grew 75,000 viewers from start-to-finish. R-Truth vs. Singh Brothers lost 280,000 viewers continuing the trend of the 24/7 belt doing poorly. The Seth Rollins interview leading to the Walter match gained 64,000 viewers. Rollins vs. Walter turning into Rollins & Kevin Owens & Street Profits vs. Imperium lost 59,000 viewers. Cedric Alexander vs. Andrade lost 319,000 viewers. The Lana/Rusev/Lashley segment gained 85,000 viewers, Erick Rowan’s squash lost 12,000 viewers, Viking Raiders vs. Flash Morgan Webster & Mark Andrews lost 245,000 viewers, Orton & Ricochet & Carrillo vs. OC in the main event spot gained 16,000 viewers.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

In the latest example of never say never, C.M. Punk showed up at the end of WWE Backstage on 11/12, and announced he would be starting on the show next week. The news was something of a surprise, even though it was known he had pushed for the spot and had taken a screen test, and at the time it was widely expected he’d be hired ...

The first episodes of the show were hardly the type of show those involved with the station had promised, with the idea they would surprise people with in-depth and real journalistic coverage ...

Even though there were definitely people within WWE negative of the idea of Punk, because of how he left, what he said on the Colt Cabana podcast that led to a lawsuit, the nature of the WWE business is such that if he wanted back, he’d be back. Now was the right timing because he was the last free agent AEW could have signed that may have been a game changer. Still, some expected him to be the exception to the rule with the idea he would be adamant about never going back ...

Times are competitive and Punk did get offers from AEW, which opened talks with him in 2018, long before anyone knew there was an AEW. When Tony Khan first decided to explore the idea of starting a wrestling company, Punk was one of the first people he contacted. According to those with knowledge of the deal, he was given a money offer and obviously he didn’t accept the offer. He had one personal meeting with Khan and the two had dialogue over time. But it went cold at the time AEW as a promotion became very serious and started having legitimate success, although there was contact as late as June based on what Punk has said ...

FOX at one point pushed for him to co-host the show. Those in WWE who were aware of it, noted negativity about it at first, because of the past bad blood. But later, when he got a tryout, we were told that the expectation was that an offer would be made to him. He had claimed to have not gotten an offer when asked. That could have been true, or it could have been to build for the surprise moment.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

Apparently one of the reasons little WWC content has shown up on WWE Network after they purchased the tape collection is that Hurricane Maria, which paralyzed Puerto Rico in September 2017 damaged some of the tapes. There is said to be a ton of tape and film reels that have been salvaged as well as some that can’t be restored

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

For Survivor Series, it appears that Bryan was originally earmarked for almost a dream match three-way with Roderick Strong and A.J. Styles in a non-title match of secondary title performers. We were never specifically told it was Bryan, but were told last week, before the match had been teased, that such a match would take place with Strong and Styles, and that Nakamura would lose the title. The Nakamura-Bryan program that started on Smackdown has been completely dropped, and Wyatt attacked Bryan in an interview segment to start their program. Nakamura at this point is not scheduled to drop the title and has been put into this match.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

As far as Full Gear goes, the show got a largely positive response, with most, but not all of the negativity regarding the polarizing Lights Out match. Chris Jericho beat Cody in the main event to retain the AEW title when MJF threw in the towel ...

As far as the stips go, Cody had said that if he didn’t win the title, he would never challenge for it again. Those in the company are insistent that is exactly what will happen, and that this is step one in trying to teach people stipulations matter. Most modern fans, who only know of stipulations never adhered to, are hardly going to buy it. That’s probably one of the reasons the stipulation probably didn’t increase buys, because it’s a generation taught not to believe anything and think of the loophole and not even consider that it’s real. Time will tell here but so much damage has been done to stipulations in wrestling that it may not be able to be undone. Nick Jackson sent out a tweet when people were coming up with their own loopholes and how Cody will get another shot, saying that they were going to 100 percent live up to stips.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

The big question regards talent whose deals are up within the next few months, most notably Marty Scurll, Brody King, Jeff Cobb, and Bandido. Scurll’s deal expires on 11/30 and people have believed he was AEW bound when his deal was up from the moment AEW was formed. ROH is said to have been making a strong offer to try and keep him and there’s always WWE, because he’d be a lock to be a top star in NXT with his ready-made name to that audience. Cobb’s big thing is still wanting to work as much New Japan as possible, and Bandido is the same, but one would think everyone wants Bandido. In the case of Bandido, another option those close to him have noted to us is that he signs nowhere, with the idea he could be the top guy who is a pure indie and could work for anyone, the way Pentagon & Fenix have been

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

It hasn’t been announced but the belief is Jon Moxley is working the Tokyo Dome. From those in AEW, they believe that to be the case but weren’t 100 percent on it. The logical match would be Lance Archer for the U.S. title since Moxley never lost the belt in the ring. They did a set-up for Archer vs. Juice Robinson in San Jose. They could do a three-way, although hopefully not, or they could do title matches both nights

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

Takaaki Kidani, the head of Bushiroad, did an interview for Tokyo Sports regarding their goals in building up Stardom. The first thing he said was that they are looking at bringing back Io Shirai and Kairi Sane after their current WWE deals expire. Whether this will happen or not really depends on things down the line when their deals are up, in some form with Shirai if she’s making main roster money. The key is whether or not they would like to return to living in Japan and in the end, the WWE main roster money is strong ...

Bushiroad takes over the company officially on 12/1 and have started marketing, setting up media and photo shoots for the top talent. The goal is to take the company from sales of $2 million per year to $6 million by 2022 or 2023. They are pushing media that hits young women in Japan, trying to change the audience base from almost exclusively young men to both men and women, in particular trying to get the teenage girls that made Japanese women’s wrestling such a hit on television and live in the 70s and 80s, or the mixed audience of male wrestling fans and women fans that attended in the 90s. At the press conference when they bought the promotion, they pushed attracting more women fans. He also brought up the idea of creating an IWGP women’s championship belt, with the idea that the IWGP name of the title has become big in Japan

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

The Austin Idol wrestling school commercials on NWA Powerrr, which were a spoof, is now a reality. Idol, 70, real name Mike McCord, has opened the Austin Idol Universal Wrestling College in Greenville, SC, where he’s lived since 2007.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

The NWA officially sold out the third night of their 12/14 to 12/16 tapings at the PBS Studios in Atlanta. The first night PPV and second night tapings were already sold out. It is 150 to 250 tickets

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

There was an altercation on 11/7 at Tony Schiavone’s birthday party at Jimmy’s Seafood in Baltimore. The gist of the story was that Jimmy Havoc had too much to drink, was being talked with, apparently took a swing at Excalibur, who then choked him out. From those who were there, they said it really wasn’t as dramatic as it reads nor was the swing as big a deal as it sounds, although Excalibur did choke him out. One person who was there was actually on the phone with me when it happened and I didn’t even know it until two days later as he said it was so nothing if you were there that he didn’t even think it was a big enough deal to stop the conversation or mention it and pretty much felt it was a nothing and was shocked it became this story afterwards. Tony Khan at the post-show press conference said it happened but categorized it as nothing big and called it a draw

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

IPW in the U.K. has decided to end its tenure as a live event promotion. The company, which has been in operation since 2004, issued the following statement on Friday:

"IPW can confirm that after several internal discussions, the company will cease being a live wrestling events promotion at the end of 2019.

The company has a rich history of over 15 years, however with many changes in the British wrestling climate in the last 2 years, it has been decided that this is an appropriate time to draw an end to live events.

Therefore, the IPW World Championship will be defended for the last time at Undisputed III, taking place at Mote Hall in Maidstone on December 15th, where we plan to celebrate IPW’s successful years of live events."

Originally Posted by Voices of Wrestling

Thanks to BritWres Roundtable's Robin Reid for compiling this list of companies that have died/scaled-down since NXT UK was announced. For the record, not all of these companies are dead BECAUSE of WWE or NXT UK but it's undeniable that the scene has seen a collapse:

Defiant
Southside
IPW:UK
Clash
Chaos
Breed (hiatus)
ICW (running a 1/4 of the shows they used to)
Lucha Forever
5 Star
Fight! Nation
Pro Wrestling Kingdom
Great Bear
Pro Wrestling Pride
Fight Forever (Haven't run a show since March)
World of Sport
PWU
CCW
Shropshire Wrestling Alliance (Haven't run a show since March)
OWE:UK
PROGRESS (drew 5k for biggest show last year, down to below 2.5k this year & far less shows)

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

During Friday’s NXT UK television tapings, they announced NXT UK TakeOver: Blackpool II for January 2020. Wrestling INC is reporting that the show is set for Saturday, January 11th.

Originally Posted by PWI

During this week's episode of Total Divas, it was revealed that the original Wrestlemania 35 plan was for Asuka to defend the Smackdown Women's title against Sonya Deville at Metlife Stadium, but creative plans changed, leading to the Smackdown title and the Raw title both being defended in the Ronda Rousey vs. Charlotte Flair vs. Becky Lynch bout that main evented the PPV.

Originally Posted by Fightful

Moxley, who wrestled as Dean Ambrose for years in WWE before signing with AEW, spoke about feeling unhappy during his final year with WWE on a panel at Starrcast IV. Moxley, who cited frustrations with the direction of his character as a key reason for leaving WWE, had hoped a heel turn done correctly would entice him to stay.

But even that ended up not being enough and Moxley explained his feelings in those final months with WWE. Moxley called WWE so incomeptent that it basically forced him to walk away from what was surely a lot of money if he had decided to re-sign with the company.

"The whole time from when I came back to about the beginning of the year, I knew I was leaving. But I was pissed about it. I wasn't excited to leave, I was bitter about it. I can't believe that they're going to make me leave. I can't believe they're going to make me walk away from all this money. Can [WWE] not write just one good storyline? Can they just give me one good promo? Does everything have to be f***ing stupid? Does everything have to make me look like an idiot? For f***'s sake, you're going to make me walk away from all this f***ing money because it's not like I wanted that money. Yeah, I want it, but I'm not doing that sh*t. So I was pissed. I can't believe they were so incompetent that they're going to make me walk away from all this money. Jesus Christ, now I have to go back to the indies, f*** it, let's go," Moxley said.

Moxley said he started to map out what his post-WWE career would be like during a hike with his wife Renee Young at the start of the year. Moxley said he figured he would wrestle in Japan, go to the indies and make his own schedule, which he sounded excited to do.

Originally Posted by Observer

Raw last night was up from last week, but still the second lowest non-holiday number in modern history.

The show did 2.13 million viewers, slightly below two other episodes that also did very close to that number. Only last week's episode, which did 2.06 million viewers against a monster football game, would have been lower.

The key points were that the audience started lower than even in bad weeks, but also declined less during the show ...

The number can't be considered good given all the brand invasion stuff that did help SmackDown ratings at first.

The three hours were:

8 p.m. 2.25 million viewers
9 p.m. 2.21 million viewers
10 p.m. 1.93 million viewers

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

The three-hour show leading into the Survivor Series averaged 2,127,000 viewers, which was up 3% from last week’s figure. It would still place this week’s episode as the third-lowest of the year behind last week’s episode and the June 10th show going against the NBA Finals ...

Raw opened with 2,245,000 viewers in the first hour, which was their lowest first hour of the year. That is a remarkable statistic given that last week’s show aired on a three-day delay and opened with 2.36 million viewers.

Originally Posted by Observer

After originally announcing that Pete Dunne vs. Damian Priest vs. Killian Dain would be on this week's NXT, WWE has noted that the match will instead take place at TakeOver: WarGames on Saturday night. The winner will challenge for Adam Cole's NXT Championship at Survivor Series.

Originally Posted by Observer

Kenny Omega's first defense of the AAA Mega Championship will take place on AEW Dark.

AEW has announced that Omega will defend the AAA Mega title against Jack Evans on the episode of Dark that's being taped in Indianapolis, Indiana tomorrow. It will air on YouTube at 7 p.m. Eastern time next Tuesday (November 26).

Originally Posted by Observer

Next month's Opera Cup event will see CIMA make his MLW debut.

MLW announced this morning that Strong Hearts (CIMA, El Lindaman & Shigehiro Irie) will face CONTRA Unit (MLW World Heavyweight Champion Jacob Fatu, Ikuro Kwon & Simon Gotch) in a six-man tag match at the Opera Cup television tapings. In storyline, the match was set up after an incident that CONTRA Unit got into in Japan.

CIMA is signed to AEW, where his Strong Hearts stable has also been featured. Lindaman & T-Hawk vs. The Young Bucks will air on this week's episode of AEW Dark.

Originally Posted by Observer

Bill Goldberg told Sports Illustrated that his match with Dolph Ziggler at SummerSlam was not his last: “It’s by no means my farewell performance, nor was it my best performance, but you have to be realistic and take all things into consideration. It’s a very good possibility I’ll be back, but you don’t know it until it’s done.”

Originally Posted by Observer

A WWE 24 episode on Trish Stratus and her match against Charlotte Flair from SummerSlam will premiere on the WWE Network after Starrcade on December 1.

Originally Posted by PWI

Funko announced a new line of WWE Pop Figures which include "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt, "Mean" Gene Okerlund, Diesel, The Miz Naomi, "Thuganonics" John Cena and Hulk Hogan.

Originally Posted by PWI

Cody Rhodes applied to trademark "The Match Beyond" for:
* G & S: Hats; Shirts; Golf shirts; Hooded sweat shirts; T-shirts
* G & S: Entertainment in the nature of wrestling contests; Entertainment services, namely, wrestling exhibits and performances by a professional wrestler and entertainer; Providing wrestling news and information via a global computer network

Originally Posted by Fightful

Since Kylie Rae left All Elite Wrestling, rumors have run rampant on why she left.

Kylie Rae became AEW's first release this summer, and has since returned to the independent wrestling circuit where she competed in the past. She hasn't spoken on what led to her departing the company as of yet, but that hasn't stopped fans and wrestlers from theorizing.

One fan sent AEW Chief Branding Officer Brandi Rhodes a tweet saying "Did you bully Kylie out of AEW because that’s What literally everyone seems to say in private?" Rhodes would reply with the first public, on the record comments from an AEW employee outside of Tony Khan.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">No. If that were true “literally everyone” would be saying it in public.</p>&mdash; Brandi Rhodes (@TheBrandiRhodes) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheBrandiRhodes/status/1196642853356736517?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 19, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

We feel it is important to disclose that we don't know specifically why Kylie Rae left All Elite Wrestling. As specified on our Fightful Select service, Fightful has spoken to no less than two dozen wrestlers on the matter, with various stories on the matter going around via multiple sources. It's reckless to speculate on the story, but with Rhodes going on the record publicly about a rumor, deemed it appropriate to publish.

Originally Posted by Observer

The NWA announced a new series called The Circle Squared, where talent will be given the opportunity to showcase their skills with the possibility of earning an NWA contract. The first episodes of the series will be recorded at the next NWA tapings, which take place December 14 -16 at the GPB Studios in Atlanta, Georgia.

Originally Posted by Observer

AEW announced that going forward, KultureCity will provide sensory bags for every taping of AEW Dynamite.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

The major show tonight is not one with any wrestling matches but rather, CM Punk’s first official episode of WWE Backstage where he will serve as an analyst ... Tonight’s show should see a gigantic leap in viewership from the paltry numbers the last two shows have generated with 49,000 and 100,000 respectively.

Tonight’s show will be an interesting look to see what is covered with Punk and more importantly, what is avoided. You would think this episode should be treated as their version of the Art of Wrestling interview from 2014 with Punk being interviewed and discussing his fallout with the company and why he agreed to join this show, which he has pointed out is a deal with Fox and not WWE. Punk’s tweet from Monday hinted that he’ll be giving his thoughts on what he’s missed over the past five-years.

Ember Moon and David Arquette will also be guests on WWE Backstage tonight.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

TSN has finalized their programming schedule for December and all episodes of AEW Dynamite will air on TSN 2 next month. There is no episode on Wednesday, December 25th due to Christmas.

Originally Posted by Fightful

The NWA has issued a statement on a controversial remark that was said during NWA Powerrr.

NWA Vice President David Lagana wrote a statement on Twitter apologizing to fans for comments "one of our talents made" that were offensive that took place during the November 19 episode of Powerrr.

Although Lagana never mentioned who the talent was or what specific comment was uttered during the episode of NWA Powerrr, a clip floating across social media, which can be seen below, showed Cornette saying the following in the middle of a match between Nick Aldis and Trevor Murdoch.

"Trevor Murdoch is the only man that I've ever known that can strap a bucket of fried chicken on his back and ride a motor scooter across Ethiopia," Cornette said on Powerrr.

Originally Posted by Fightful

We're told by those close to Orton and Khan that neither really sold the argument, outside of Khan wanting to clarify that the article Orton posted was baseless. Orton seemed to laugh off the situation after Raw.

WWE wrestlers that we reached out to weren't surprised that Orton spoke up, and we're told that in regards to his controversial game stream comments, he apologized privately to at least a few members of the roster back at the WWE Smackdown debut on Fox in LA. "Randy didn't mean it, and was sorry. Hulk meant it, and was sorry he got caught" is what one wrestler has indicated to us.

One wrestler noted to us that they were just glad it was someone besides Seth Rollins, because even if he made good points, certain divisions of Twitter "have it out for him."

Originally Posted by PWI

The 11/19 episode of WWE Backstage on FS1, featuring a CM Punk interview brought in 180,000 viewers, up from last week's 1000,000.

Originally Posted by Observer

On today’s NXT conference call, Triple H said people will find out the final member of Team Ciampa for TakeOver: WarGames on the day of the show. He called it epic and said people will be very excited. Tommaso Ciampa, Keith Lee, Dominik Dijakovic, and a partner will face The Undisputed Era (Adam Cole, Roderick Strong, Kyle O’Reilly & Bobby Fish) in the men’s WarGames match this Saturday.

Originally Posted by Observer

Randy Orton, Rhea Ripley, and Steve Austin were guests on today’s episode of After the Bell with Corey Graves.

During his appearance, Orton spoke about re-signing with WWE and the teases he did on social media before signing: “Yeah, I was just having fun man. I’ve been, more-so now than ever, I’m aware of other guys like Will Ospreay and other guys that work with Cody. I’m watching a little more wrestling. I’m not in the WWE bubble as much as I’ve been for almost the last two decades and I’m learning to appreciate other styles a little more instead of just quickly seeing something that isn’t how I would do it or isn’t how I would sell it and I’m realizing in its own way, it’s good. This might be upsetting for some people, but I never really saw myself leaving WWE. To me, it was about getting to a point where I’m happy and what I’m doing to my body, the amount of time I’m gone from my family. In the end, it’s all gonna be worth it and that’s where I’m at right now, so I’m definitely happy being a WWE superstar.”

Originally Posted by Observer

AEW's return to the Sears Centre Arena will include a rematch from their last trip to the venue.

AEW has announced that Kenny Omega will face PAC on next Wednesday's episode of Dynamite in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. It's a rematch from All Out, where PAC defeated Omega after replacing Jon Moxley due to Moxley's MRSA infection.

AEW noted that we'll also hear from Omega on tonight's Dynamite. He doesn't have a match on the show, but he'll be defending his AAA Mega Championship against Jack Evans on tonight's AEW Dark tapings. That match will air on YouTube next Tuesday.

Originally Posted by Observer

WWE COO Paul "Triple H" Levesque held his traditional pre-NXT TakeOver conference call Wednesday morning and answered several interesting questions including one about talents asking for releases.

When asked by Jason Powell about wrestlers going to social media, Levesque said he hoped talent would talk to management instead of going to the media and social media to air their issues. He said that people get frustrated in the moment and say things they later would like to take back. "It's a maturity issue and not how you handle it. You handle your business like a professional."

Originally Posted by PWI

For those who have asked, Dio Maddin is still, as of today, officially part of the Raw broadcast team.

He is currently off TV selling the Brock Lesnar attack.

Originally Posted by PWI

Championship Wrestling of Arkansas (CWA) is pleased to announce that legendary Memphis wrestling announcer, Dave Brown is scheduled to make a rare appearance at CWA’s “No Surrender” event on Saturday, January 18th, at the Maumelle Event Center in North Little Rock, Arkansas.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Rhino chatted with Mirror Sport ...

Rhino was asked about the possibility of a union forming in professional wrestling. He is not keen on the idea and feels that it could destroy the industry:

“It wouldn’t work, it would kill the industry. When you look at unions for things like movies, it works because movies are planned so far in advance and actors/actresses get the scripts and have to accept it or turn it down. But wrestling is so fast paced and changes, that it just wouldn’t work. I come from Detroit which is a union town, so I get having unions in certain industries, but it wouldn’t work in wrestling. It would kill the independent scene and a lot of start-up promotions. Lots of states in America have commissions and stuff that creates more hoops for them to jump through and we all know that most companies don’t make a lot of money as it is, so to have these extra hurdles would kill a lot of companies.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Sami Zayn’s ‘Sami vs. Generico’ t-shirt on Pro Wrestling Tees has brought in $12,000 which has been raised for a mobile clinic in Syria. Sami and Pro Wrestling Tees have extended the availability of the shirt.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

AEW President Tony Khan joined WrestlingINC’s WINCLY podcast and talked about CM Punk tagging him in a tweet along with Vince McMahon and members of WWE Backstage that eventually led to Khan’s back and forth with Randy Orton on Twitter:

“You know what’s funny? I never once brought him up. I’ve never once brought his name up to bring him into the conversation but whenever I get asked a question, I try to be good about answering questions. People, especially when people travel to go to the scrums and stuff, and I always made it really clear that I had conversations with him but, never tried to lead anybody on to think that he would be doing anything with us and whatever. I haven’t talked to him in a long time, but I wish him the best. I’m not sure why he tagged me, but he kept talking about wrestling. I think it would be hard to talk about all the great things happening without talking about what we’re doing in AEW. But yeah, I got the sense he felt like we would bring him up and it’s like, ‘If you actually watch…’ not that he’s gonna actually take the time to watch because he’s getting tagged in that stuff too. Not by me, but by all the people asking the questions.”

Originally Posted by WWE Network News

In the past, WWE has shied away from releasing any Survivor Series Showdown or SummerSlam Spectacular specials before 1993 via Hidden Gems. This was always presumed to be because they very openly used the Prime Time Wrestling branding and thus would be released as classic content within that series. Well, as stated above, the company has spiced this one up considerably so that it isn’t merely “as seen on TV”. Of course, we do initially have Survivor Series Showdown 1992, as it aired with the following card:

Repo Man vs. Tatanka
Marty Jannetty vs. The Brooklyn Brawler
Kamala (w/Harvey Wippleman & Kim Chee) vs. Red Tyler
Earthquake vs. Irwin R. Schyster (w/Jimmy Hart)
Barry Horowitz vs. The Big Boss Man
Red Fox & Royce Royal vs. The Headshrinkers (Fatu & Samu) (w/Afa)

But then, the fun truly begins after that ending copyright notice, with over an hour of the following “dark footage”:

Nailz vs. Big Boss Man
A Jimmy Garvin interview with Mean Gene
WWF Championship: The Mountie vs. Bret Hart ©
Virgil vs. Bam Bam Bigelow
Razor Ramon vs. “Macho Man” Randy Savage
WWF Championship: Papa Shango vs. Bret Hart ©
Nailz vs. Ultimate Warrior

Yes, both Nailz and Bret have 2 matches and yes, the raw footage timestamp confirms that all of this happened after the show. Speaking of raw footage, we can confirm that none of the post-TV footage has commentary.

Originally Posted by Fightful

Tickets for NXT at Full Sail through the end of January will be on sale soon, indicating the show will remain at Full Sail through at least January.

Originally Posted by Fightful

WWE Backstage might not be afraid to address the hot topic issues in wrestling. But even they want nothing to do with Jim Cornette. Cornette, who resigned from his position as NWA Powerrr commentator on Wednesday after making a racist comment on Tuesday's episode, promoted his upcoming podcast, hinting that he'll explain everything behind the decision. A fan suggested Cornette go on WWE Backstage to explain the situation, tagging host Renee Young, frequent panelist Paige and other members of the show.

Neither Young nor Paige were very receptive to the idea.

Originally Posted by Simple Fan (Post 5303148)

You'd have to do mental gymnastics to be offended by the comment.

Originally Posted by The Dastardly One (Post 5303140)

Seanny, why is this so hard for you to understand?

I love Jim... and I think he was being his usual cheeky self. It's a joke he's made a bunch of times and got away with. Unfortunately, when you break down the statement, there's no excusing it.

I mean, was it the worst thing ever? No. Do I want Jim Cornette on my TV? Yes. Is he actually racists? I'm guessing no. Did he put his company in a shitty spot by saying something that'd never fly in today's climate? Very much so.

Just be real with about what happened and quit with the mental gymnastics.

Originally Posted by Seanny One Ball (Post 5303201)

It's pretty fucked up that this type of silliness gets lumped in with actual racism nowadays.

Originally Posted by The Dastardly One (Post 5303173)

But it's similar to making a joke about jews burning in the oven on the boradcast.

Originally Posted by Simple Fan (Post 5303218)

Your reaching now. Plus black/fried chicken joke are probably the least offensive black jokes there are.

Originally Posted by Simple Fan (Post 5303221)

What does hat even mean? Probably more offensive than fried chicken.