[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets (Observer Newsletter Edition):

Dr. Martha Hart, in promoting the Vice special with an interview with CBS Sports, brought up the question of Owen Hart in the WWE Hall of Fame, a position she’s held from the start and doesn’t look to change her mind on. She had steadfast been of the belief that she would stand in the way of any attempt to WWE to profit off the death of her husband ... I’ve brought up some hypothetical situations that will never happen, to her, extreme scenarios and she made it clear that she will never make a business deal with WWE under any circumstances. And as the Vice show made clear, her son is as resolute as she is on this subject ... Jerry McDevitt, who was the WWF and McMahon’s attorney in the case, contacted CBS Sports after the interview and said Dr. Hart’s version was not accurate ... “She talked about how $18 million settlement, she didn't really want to do that, she wanted justice. Again, that's just not true. There was court-ordered mediation. We went to the mediation, and her lawyers were demanding $35 million and some admission of punitive damages. Vince told her right there, 'Look, Martha, I feel so bad for what happened. I feel responsible because this happened on my watch. I want to take care of you and your family, I loved Owen.' He was almost crying. We offered $17 million to take care of her. How many times does a CEO walk in a room and say he feels responsible? 'I'm not going to argue, I just feel responsible for what happened.' They turned it down; they wanted to go to court for their $35 million. Fine, we'll go and litigate. The next day, I get a call from her Canadian lawyer, saying they didn't want to do it because they knew what they were facing with the other things I talked about. They said, 'If you could put a little more money in. If you can go to $18 million we'll settle right now.' That's how the settlement went down." ... While there is a common belief that the case cost WWF $18 million, in reality, the only costs to WWF directly when all was said and done were the legal bills. Much of the negotiated settlement was covered by company insurance as opposed to the company. The remainder the WWF was able to get when it sued Lewmar, Ltd., the company that manufactured the snap shackle. Lewmar Ltd. settled out of court with WWE for $9 million after WWE went to the Missouri Supreme Court to argue that Martha Hart should have never allowed Lewmar out of the lawsuit without pursuing a settlement from their insurance company. Hart said that she did not find them at fault because the snap shackle was made for sailboat’s, not people ... The $18 million settlement was compromised of $10 million to Martha Hart, which she used to form the Owen Hart Foundation, which helped get lower income families into homes in the Calgary area and was also used to help people in the city who did not have the financial means to do so to attend college. Oje and Athena received $3 million each and Stu and Helen Hart received $1 million each.

For the 5/13 show, for AEW, the show averaged 1.32 viewers per home, a lower number than usual. The high quarter among Men both 18-34 and 35-49 was the Kenny Omega & Matt Hardy vs. Ortiz & Santana. For Women both 18-34 and 35-49, the high quarter was the Cody-Lance Archer brawl and the beginning of Best Friends vs. Jurassic Express. For NXT, in Males 18-34 and 35-49, the high point was Finn Balor vs. Cameron Grimes and in Women 18-34 it was Matt Riddle & Timothy Thatcher vs. Imperium. In Women 35-49, it was Balor vs. Grimes.

The 5/20 head-to-head battle saw AEW do 701,000 viewers and a 0.26 in 18-49 (337,000 viewers) while NXT did 592,000 viewers and 0.13 (172,000 viewers) in 18-49. For AEW, it was No. 7 for the night in 18-49. It was up 7.8 percent overall and 14.6 percent in 18-49, which seems to confirm what was suspected that last week’s decline was due to going head-to-head with UFC. Still, some expected it to worsen or do the same since NASCAR from Darlington head-to-head did 2,087,000 viewers and 0.34 in 18-49. But all indications are even with those numbers, there is more AEW/UFC crossover than AEW/NASCAR crossover. NXT actually dropped 2.0 percent overall and 9.0 percent in 18-49, which may indicate the opposite in the sense maybe NASCAR hurt more than UFC. It was the lowest 18-49 number in the history of a regular NXT show, and second lowest overall number (the record low is 590,000 for a regular show) ... Besides NASCAR, both shows also went against Game 6: The Movie, built around the finals of the 1998 NBA championships and Michael Jordan. That show did 608,000 viewers on ESPN and a 0.29 in 18-49 ... So the key is both companies were way down in males 18-34 even though it went head-to-head with UFC last week. But AEW had huge gains in both male and female 35-49. Other notable points is that in 18-34, NXT had more males than females only by a 23,000 to 22,000 range, while AEW had 38,000 men and 48,000 women in that age group, a women’s edge completely unheard of for the promotion. AEW doubled NXT in women 18-34and women 35-49 ... In the quarters, AEW won every quarter, and huge in the key demo. The only thing close was the first quarter, where NXT has the benefit of the much-stronger lead-in. AEW opened with 706,000 viewers and 331,000 in 18-49 for a Brodie Lee promo and Jon Moxley vs. 10. NXT had 701,000 viewers and 198,000 in 18-49 for the Karrion Kross & Scarlett ring entrance and Kross vs. Liam Gray. In the second quarter, AEW lost 31,000 viewers and 20,000 in 18-49 for MJF vs. Marko Stunt. NXT lost 82,000 viewers but only 10,000 in 18-49 and El Hijo del Fantasma vs. Akira Tozawa. In the third quarrier, AEW gained 41,000 viewers and 37,000 in 18-49 for the Jake Roberts/Arn Anderson interview. This was also the second highest 18-49 number of the night with 348,000 viewers. NXT lost 9,000 viewers and 4,000 in 18-49 the a Shotzi Blackheart vignette, Mia Yim vs. Santana Garrett post-match with Johnny Gargano, Candice LeRae and Keith Lee and a Cameron Grimes promo. In the fourth quarter, AEW lost 37,000 viewers and 16,000 in 18-49 for a Darby Allin vignette, a Pac vignette and the start of Orange Cassidy vs. Rey Fenix. NXT lot 32,000 viewers and 16,000 in 18-49 for Roderick Strong vs Dexter Lumis. In the fifth quarter, AEW gained 13,000 viewers and 7,000 in 18-49 for the ending and post-match of Fenix vs. Cassidy and beginning of Kris Statlander & Hikaru Shida vs. Britt Baker & Nyla Rose. NXT gained 0 viewer and lost 1,000 in 18-49 for the ending and post-match of Strong vs. Lumis, and Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch vs. Ever Rise. This was the first quarter of the show where AEW doubled NXT in 18-49. In the sixth quarter, AEW gained 47,000 viewers but lost 1,000 in 18-49 for most of the Statlander & Shida vs. Baker & Rose match and a Moxley interview. NXT lost 55,000 viewers and 17,000 in 18-49 for Kushida vs. Drake Maverick. This was the highest total viewer number of the show, with 739,000, for AEW. It was the lowest, at 527,000, for NXT. AEW also won the demo battle 338,000 to 150,000. In the seventh quarter, AEW lost 57,000 viewers but only 4,000 in 18-49 for a Shawn Spears vignette, promoting next week’s show and the PPV and the beginning of Hardy vs. Guevara. NXT gained 34,000 viewers and 15,000 in 18-49 for the ending of Kushida vs. Maverick and a Damien Priest promo. AEW had another quarter more than doubling NXT in 18-49. In the final quarter, AEW gained 40,000 viewers and 30,000 in 18-49 for Hardy vs. Guevara and the post-match with the Inner Circle vs. Elite & Hardy. It also was the high point of the night for either group in 18-49. NT gained 15,000 overall but lost 10,000 in 18-49 for Shirai vs. Ripley and the post-match with Charlotte Flair.

The final episode of the second season of Dark Side of the Ring, on the death of Owen Hart, as was expected, did the all-time biggest audience in the history of the station with 349,000 viewers, breaking the record of 320,000 for the episode on Chris Benoit that started the season. It was the first show in the history of Vice to crack the top 50 for the day in 18-49, finishing No. 31 for the day and No. 9 in the time slot with a 0.18 rating in the demo. It beat NXT by a significant margin in 18-49. The audience was up 32.2 percent from last week’s show on the Road Warriors, and the demo number was up 50.0 percent. The show did its strongest numbers in 35-49 with it doing a 0.31 with males in that demo.

Smackdown on 5/15 did a 1.30 rating and 2,042,000 viewers (1.30 viewers per home), up 0.8 percent from the prior week, with the same 0.5 in the 18-49 demo the show has been doing the past several weeks, but 695,000 in that demo was up 2.2 percent from last week. The key to the difference seems to be the lack of competition, as CBS ran special shows on the Coronavirus that didn’t do well. FOX tied NBC for second in the demo with ABC first. Overall, Smackdown was the least-watched prime time show although one of the Coronavirus specials on CBS did only 2,369,000 viewers. FOX did win in 18-34, tied CBS for third among the four networks in Women 18-49 and tied ABC for first in Men 18-49 while finishing last in over 50. Last year at this time, FOX had rerun programming which averaged 1,460,000 viewers and 0.4 in the 18-49 demo, so the network was up 39.9 percent in viewers, one of the few times it beat the year before in that regard, and up 25.0 percent in 18-49.

The situation with SummerSlam in Boston continues to not look promising. As noted, Vince wants SummerSlam with fans this year, and there will likely be states that will open up for at least limited seating. Marty Walsh, the Mayor of Boston this past week said, “There will be no fans in Fenway Park in July; there will be no fans in Fenway Park in August–we won’t even be near a situation where there’s herd immunity and there certainly won’t be a vaccine” (by then). If they aren’t going to allow fans at outdoor events, they aren’t going to let large numbers at indoor events either

Michael Mansury, the Vice President of Global Television Production, who was believed to be the heir apparent of Kevin Dunn, has left the company. This happened back in April. Mansury directed a number of episodes of Raw and Smackdown if Dunn didn’t attend the show. One person close to the situation compared his plight with David Sahadi, who works for Impact now. Everyone that is seen as a potential successor to Dunn has their life made difficult and they get constantly criticized to Vince McMahon, who would then hear people talk negatively about the person in the spot. Mansury had also reportedly gotten impatient regarding upward mobility. Mansury had been in the company for 11 years and one person told us they were shocked because they thought he was a lifer. He got his current title four years ago and directed a ton of television shows and some PPV shows

Certain strategies have led to speculation that Vince McMahon will attempt to buy the intellectual property of the XFL in bankruptcy court and then resurrect the league. Daniel Kaplan of The Athletic first wrote the story on 5/19, based on the fact those involved with the bankruptcy are attempting to refund the $3.5 million in money owed fans for tickets for the remainder of this season and season tickets that were sold for next season ... Other creditors who are owed money want the $3.5 million as part of the debt with whatever money could be left by selling assets going to the creditors. Another aspect of the story is that McMahon himself is also listed as a creditor because he loaned the XFL money for the last few payrolls and is still paying XFL President Jeffrey Pollack and some office workers basically to facilitate the closing of the league. The idea being floated is that McMahon would purchase the assets of the league, the key being intellectual property and some contracts he would want to keep, at a fire sale price, while allowing him to get out of paying up to $50 million in bills still owed from the launch of the league. Axios had reported that the XFL itself was launching a Hail Mary to find a new financial backer after the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing with Houlihan Lokey managing the process and letters of intent being due on 6/12 and formal bidding among those interested for the assets taking place on 7/6. The league was owned 80 percent by McMahon and 20 percent by WWE, which came out at bankruptcy and also called into question many statements, including at conference calls, where McMahon claimed the WWE would not be involved with the XFL and it was his solo venture. The WWE was actually given the ownership rights and did not put money into the league, in a deal that McMahon essentially made with himself so he would own the league name and other intellectual property rights that WWE owned from the first version of the league. Unsecured debtors expressed concern in recent court filings that moves they had learned make them believe the bankruptcy could have been a “cutthroat finance ploy by McMahon to ride out the pandemic and resultant economic turmoil without paying the costs of operating the league...(and then acquiring the rights to the league again) at a fire-sale price.” The story noted that Pollack has contacted the stadiums in both Seattle and St. Louis, two cities where they drew well, about reinstating the league’s lease agreements. The XFL owed money all over both of those markets and one of the biggest debts listed in the bankruptcy was to the stadium in St. Louis. While some look at this like it was a plan, it was a bad plan because McMahon, while perhaps saving some money, pretty much ruined his name in football when stiffing Oliver Luck, and many of the coaches who were well respected in that world. There perhaps could have been the idea to get out of the huge salary he paid Luck and some of the higher-priced coaches on multi-year contracts and start up with a lower budget. The original marketing idea was to build teams around well-know coaches, who got big contracts, and star quarterbacks. Perhaps it was also a way to get out of his television deals which paid no money, with the idea that with the ratings the league did at first, there was value in those shows. But that’s tough right now because with the state of the television economy, nobody is looking at adding new costs and XFL ratings were declining significantly by the week ... The feeling is that getting players, even after so many were also stiffed, won’t be a problem because there are tons of players coming out of college every year who still want to play football and won’t make NFL teams. In addition, the Canadian Football League is also facing great economic hardships right now related to the pandemic and the economy. But getting quality people working in administrations, promotions, coaching and other facets of running a league will become far more difficult. Host cities and stadiums will almost surely want money up front or be ambivalent about working with the league. The league will be seen, rightly so, as something with no stability and being headed by someone who can’t be trusted given the stiffing of the coaches and the publicity around the Luck firing.

AEW’s first PPV show since the Pandemic, the 5/23 Double or Nothing II show that was originally scheduled for the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, will take place with no fans at Dailey’s Place in Jacksonville. Currently it is listed as a nine-match show, although at press time one would think the Britt Baker vs. Kris Statlander match is in question ... On television they were strongly pushing the idea that Tyson was going to deck somebody. Roberts cut a promo on it. This actually reminded me of something nearly 35 years ago when Mid South Wrestling brought Muhammad Ali to the Superdome as a manager for The Snowman (Eddie Lee Crawford) and the booked post-match included Ali decking Roberts. Ali threw the punch and Roberts didn’t go down with Roberts (who was someone who never got along well with owner Bill Watts and if anyone knows both of them it would be obvious why) complaining that he had to stay and work there while Ali wasn’t coming back.

The U.S. and Canadian borders will be closed for at least one more month for non-essential travel, so all wrestlers living in Canada who work for an American company will not be allowed to perform in this country for that period. I can’t answer why, but that rule does not seem to apply to Brock Lesnar, who performed for WWE on a few shows while the borders were shut

Court Bauer on Twitter said that, “The deal I’ve been hinting at is done! Cannot wait to share this one with our fans, locker room and crew. It fortifies our future.” The deal should be announced at any time and is believed to be a streaming deal with a major carrier

In what would be considered bad news, the AEW audience aged in the second quarter of 2020 (since 4/1). This is only for live and same day (until midnight on Wednesday) via DVR viewing. AEW is still the youngest audience watching wrestling but not by nearly as much, with it averaging 48 years old as the median viewer, with 69 percent male. Raw is the second youngest, averaging 51 with 64 percent male. Smackdown averages 54 with 60 percent male, while NXT averages 56 with 64 percent male. AEW averages more viewers watching together live than any of the other wrestling shows. We didn’t know if that was friends watching together or family, but when the pandemic started and people started isolating more aside from their families, the numbers for most shows didn’t change much (Smackdown on Friday did drop noticeably some weeks during the pandemic) so it’s mostly families watching together. The key to all these numbers is the pandemic was already in play, so all of these shows dropped their 20 percent or more but the younger audience, even though home more, dropped more, probably because they were watching more cable news when home. Raw is the one that kept its audience at a similar level as it was 49-50 last year, while Smackdown has aged from 50 to 54, NXT is slightly older and AEW aged the most as it was starting out at 39 and then stabilized at around 42 before the pandemic changed everything with shows in empty arenas Regarding DVR viewership, since the pandemic, it’s gone down significantly. The 5/6 AEW show, the last we have a listing for, did 204,000 additional viewers via DVR while NXT did 140,000. Both figures are way below pre-pandemic numbers

The travel ban leaving Mexico has been extended to 6/18. The people that affects is anyone from AAA, although AEW hasn’t brought in any AAA talent in a long time, as well as their own two guys living in Mexico, Pentagon Jr. and Jack Evans

UFC: There is no show this week but they will return on 5/30 and evidently there is the belief the show will be okay to take place. Dana White texted the Las Vegas Review Journal just after midnight on 5/19 to say the show is on at the Apex Arena, on the UFC’s headquarters in Las Vegas. The Nevada State Athletic Commission will meet on 5/27 regarding allowing live events with no fans in the state. If approved, that looks to be the home for U.S. shows at least until they can open up shows with fans in attendance. White had said that if they couldn’t run in Las Vegas they would base in Arizona, which had given them the word that they were open for business and was encouraging all professional sports ... There was a fourth COVID-19 positive over the last week in Jacksonville. Calvin Kattar in an interview with MMA Fighting said, “My coach, Carlos Neto, he actually tested positive for the antibody in the beginning. We didn’t know until weigh-in day that he was actually going to be able to corner with us. So that was a quick scare. We were nervous. And especially, if the fight was going to happen. The last time we got the plug pulled by ESPN. You never know when they’re going to pull the plug, and when you see one (positive test result), you don’t want it to multiply.” What we were told is that Neto tested positive in the antibodies test but negative in two swab tests and since the swab tests are considered more accurate, UFC didn’t send him home and he was able to work the corner. Kattar defeated Jeremy Stephens on the 5/9 show