[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets (Observer Newsletter Edition):

WWE moves into a new location for television on 8/21, with the new schedule going live every Monday and Friday night from the Amway Center in Orlando, which will be renamed the Thunderdome, after the Mad Max movie and not the laughing stock of a WCW television show two decades back. WWE will basically be the building’s only client through 10/30, doing shows with no fans, but following the NBA technology in using simulated fans to enhance the presentation. This will be key because WWE externally has largely blamed its ratings declines, largely under the age of 50 and extensively under 35, on the setting. And no doubt some of that is true, but the declines of Raw and Smackdown, by percentage, are greater than those of NXT, in a similar setting, and far greater than AEW ... One person with the company familiar with the situation said that from the moment they started doing shows from the Performance Center, the feeling was that they had to get out of the Performance Center, and this was before ratings took a hit which did lag a few weeks ... “The NBA has shown the way,” said one person on the inside. “The moment the NBA pulled the Disney deal, and then the moment they went on TV with the concept, I’m sure Vince McMahon and Kevin Dunn said, `that’s the answer" ... The company is billing this as that all the television shows with the new screens that will show fans in the stands reacting and the special effects in the arena will make all the television shows have a WrestleMania feel. There are those who have said the belief is that the ratings will readjust to February levels within a month, although Raw is generally hit hard by the NFL. Smackdown actually should increase in theory during football season because FOX will promote the shows on its highest rated programming period of the year. But it’s all theoretical because without getting new characters over and better storylines, the gains will be short-lived. WWE did tremendous promotion for its move to HD as a game changer, yet that ended up with virtually no ratings increase at the time. But with the ability to do better entrances with more special effects, the wrestlers they choose to be top guys will be enhanced and look more like top guys. Having fans on screens and real crowd noise should also be beneficial in getting talent over. It’s not perfect, but nothing will be and, at worst, this will be a significant improvement in atmosphere and hopefully at least stymie the ratings decline if not lead to a reverse. Fans will be shown , but the nature of this will be people there more to get attention on themselves than truly reacting. By doing so, they will be attempting to do what they perceive the company wants as a way to get more screen time. The positive from WWE is they will react, and they’ll likely react the way the company wants as opposed to the mob mentality which takes the show where they want to take it, and is dead during matches they don’t care about ... While WWE has had endless excuses in the last few years for declining numbers, it has really not become a major issue outside the TV partners until recent weeks when it was clear stock analysts were telling the company that they need action, and pointed to AEW & NXT’s performances during the pandemic with the belief it can’t be all blamed on that. So they are under the gun for movement in a positive direction ... WWE is paying the Amway Center approximately $450,000 to use the building for more than two months for 23 televised shows. That’s a great deal for WWE, even though it’s obviously going to be a far more expensive production per show both between all the changes and also being live every Monday and Friday. The building would be unused because the NBA is playing in a bubble and no other arena sports leagues and concerts are running buildings that large right now. WWE will likely do three PPV shows from the location, with confirmed dates of SummerSlam on 8/23, Backlash on 8/30, and a 9/27 Clash of Champions PPV show. The rest of the PPV schedule comes after the end of the Amway contract on 10/30. The contract can also be renewed based on the state or the world and the ability of touring acts and sports teams to run arena events with fans.

SummerSlam at press time is listed as an eight-match show. There will likely be matches added in the final few days, perhaps off the go-home Smackdown show as well as added pre-show bouts. The show is scheduled to start with the pre-show at 5 p.m. Eastern, so we’re talking five to six hours most likely. The line-up has Drew McIntyre vs. Randy Orton for the WWE title in a significantly huge match as far as the future direction goes. Orton winning, leading to a title defense against Edge at WrestleMania was an idea on the board. But others have been behind McIntyre with the idea the company needs a different star rather than someone who has been around a long time in the top spot, and McIntyre has been protected strongly. But this is one result that will tell a lot about the currently planned future direction. Orton vs. Edge could easily take place without the title at stake, and there is a draft coming that will shake up potential challengers since McIntyre has run through most of the Raw heels aside from Orton, although the company has been very careful to protect both Seth Rollins and Bobby Lashley in booking.

Coming back seven days later with Backlash is only the second time in company history they’ve done two PPV shows with such a rapid turnaround. This was tried in 1991 as an experiment and the experiment at the time was deemed unsuccessful and never done again. The atmosphere today as far as streaming vs. individually purchased PPV makes it completely different. One would think, as they did in 1991, there will be major controversy surrounding the finish of one of the main events and thus it will be brought back right away. The only thing announced thus far is Bayley & Banks defending the women’s tag titles. Asuka & Shayna Baszler beat Bayley & Banks in a non-title match on the 8/17 Raw show, which would seem to make them the favorites for that spot, especially if it’s a main event level match as other challenging teams would be lower on the card. They are also doing an angle where Baszler wants Asuka to beat Banks and then she challenges Asuka. Baszler vs. Asuka was a direction headed for title matches when Becky Lynch left due to pregnancy, but things changed in creative.

WWE on-air personality Renee Young (Renee Paquette Good, 34), gave notice last week that she was leaving the company. Good had two deals, an employee deal with WWE that allowed her to give notice when she wanted, and a second contract with FOX for WWE Backstage, which was canceled when the show was canceled. With the latter contract being canceled she was able to leave without any obligations. She will be finishing up with the company this coming week as she agreed to work through SummerSlam weekend. There aren’t a lot of details but Good did contract COVID-19 during the recent WWE outbreak. It was known at the time that she went public with it without the company’s knowledge. It was also noted to us that none of the company’s top officials talked to her after they had knowledge she had it until several days had passed. Another WWE source noted that others who got it at the same time had similar stories, but Good was the only one who went public without the company’s knowledge. Exactly what she does next is anyone’s guess. We had known years ago that ESPN had interest in her, and some in WWE had thought at the time she might leave the company for ESPN, but that didn’t happen. FOX is also high on her, and she may do some things for them here and there. From an AEW standpoint, even though Jonathan Good (Jon Moxley), her husband, is AEW champion, we were told AEW was unaware she was leaving WWE until after the news broke. This is not to say that is or isn’t an option and what her legal limitations and time frames would be. Of late she’s been working on a cookbook. One person close to the situation said it’s inevitable she hosts something or does something for AEW but there is not deal at the present time for anything. Everyone in the company knows her. But it probably won’t be soon since her WWE announcing deal does have a serious non compete clause. Outside of wrestling she already has some cool stuff that has been presented to her. Her interest would include anything sports, talk shows, comedy shows or podcast shows among likely other things. Before she got into broadcasting she had moved to California from Toronto for acting so that is part of her background that isn’t as well publicized, and did some minor acting roles.

On the new Rey Mysterio deal, it is believed to be for three years

Regarding the current creative situation, Bruce Prichard’s role isn’t really driving creative. Ed Koskey drives creative. Prichard oversees the team, implements and executes Vince McMahon’s orders and makes sure other departments are notified about plans so merchandising and network partners and promotional people are in the loop. Such as ideas like this is the date a guy is returning and we need new merchandise for him ready. He also deals with USA and FOX, although Kevin Dunn has stepped in a lot on that and Nick Khan may end up doing that as well

Joe Belcastro, who had been the head writer of NXT and considered by some the No. 2 guy in creative behind Paul Levesque, has left the company. Only a few people knew about but for Levesque it didn’t come out of nowhere and he wasn’t caught off guard. Johnny Russo and Gabe Sapolsky are believed to have more influence now. Levesque on the conference call this week said that he, Brian James and Shawn Michaels were the key guys when it came to NXT creative decisions and didn’t address anything about a new head writer. Another person noted to us that Belcastro was talented, but that this isn’t a world changer and things are pretty much the same with Russo picking up match of the slack

The 150 fans allowed in at the 8/12 AEW tapings at Daily’s Place was part of a long-term project to ease into having fans. They are now upping crowds to 500, with the goal of if that goes well, upping them later to 750, and for the first time since the pandemic, one of the major U.S. promotions is selling tickets for a show. The idea is to keep the fans a deck away from the talent that is stationed at ringside and they will be kept in groups with friends and family that are socially distant from each other. Basically, there will be the wrestlers on the floor, the 100 section of the stadium will be left empty and fans will be allowed in the 200 section and above. They announced the 8/27 tapings, which will be the Thursday live show, the company’s next event, that they would be selling 500 tickets. Tickets will be put on sale on 8/21. This would be the first time the company has put tickets on sale for a show to the public since early March. If all goes well, the idea would be to up that to 750 tickets but right now the idea isn’t to top 750 any time soon although there are NFL teams looking at 15,000 to 25,000 when the season starts in a few weeks. And if 750 goes safely than they may increase down the line. Even with 1,500, or just under 30 percent capacity, it would become difficult to keep groups far apart from each other ... At this stage, there is always risk involved, but being outdoors with social distancing and if the mask wearing is enforced (from reports from those at the last tapings it was), and with the low capacity you are mitigating risks to a degree, but it’s not a no-risk situation . If it was indoors, you couldn’t pull it off as safely, nor could you do so if you were doing a 25 percent capacity. At some point there are going to be decisions made regarding the nature of touring. The one thing that has helped the bottom line a lot is doing two weeks at a time as opposed to live weekly. Of course, with that many paying fans, the nature of the results getting out for the taped shows is inevitable, and probably immediate. The plan right now is to continue taping two weeks at a time most of the time, limiting production costs as well as travel and its risks since a large percentage of the roster is on the West Coast. It’s the decision right now that makes the most economic sense ... Tony Khan had studied the Warrior Wrestling and Game Changer shows with fans in recent weeks. Warrior Wrestling put more than 500 people in a high school football stadium that was significantly smaller than Daily’s Place. He felt in a 5,500-seat building they had the space to do it safely and in particular really liked what he saw of how Warrior Wrestling handled things at their show in Chicago

New Japan announced that the Jingu Stadium show on 8/29 would have live English language commentary with Kevin Kelly and Chris Charlton. This will be unique because Charlton will be there, but Kelly will be broadcasting from the U.S. WWE has been doing something similar with NXT since the start of the pandemic with Mauro Ranallo and Beth Phoenix each calling the matches from home with a third person live in the building, formerly Tom Phillips and now Vic Joseph. Most of those shows have been taped and not live which gives some leeway, but they have done live Takeover shows, and will once again this coming week.

John Bedoya, who was the second Ring of Honor champion under the name “Xavier, The All-around best,” passed away on 8/16 at the age of 42. Details of his death remain a mystery, past he had been in contact with family members the night before and that this came out of nowhere. Bedoya, who had wrestled very little since 2011, was looking at coming back this year with ROH. He had been booked on a then vs. now show in March in Las Vegas that was canceled due to the pandemic. While not announced, plans were for him to wrestle some with ROH going forward.

NEW JAPAN: We’ve heard nothing new in some time regarding U.S. television. One person outside of New Japan but with knowledge of the current landscape of broadcasting and streaming and interest in pro wrestling said that linear TV networks right now are freaking out due to declining ad dollars, plus cable and the dish carriers are trying to lower the carriage fees on channels that specialize in sports since they are so high and so much of sports going forward is so iffy, and it was noted almost all programming and development executives are scared to lose their jobs over a failure and are less apt not to take risks than any time, and a product unproven on U.S. television would be considered a big risk, especially when the declines of WWE are so well known and people don’t see this as people wanting a different form of pro wrestling, they see it as wrestling, whether AEW has had success or not, is a declining television product

The state of Mexico, which surrounds the Distrito Federal (Mexico City itself is part of the Distrito Federal) is allowing a number of places, listed as gyms, auditoriums and places where sports of cultural activity are practiced, to open at 30 percent capacity. Everyone is going with the idea that auditoriums means Lucha Libre events, although the commission has not made a statement on this.

Regarding Jericho and the Sturgis concert, there were a few measures put in place in that Jericho took four different COVID tests in the days leading up to the show. It wasn’t optimum playing several shows, especially since Minot, ND, when it was booked, looked like the safest place in the U.S., but by the time the show came, it was no longer the case. And Sturgis could have been scary and we still don’t know the ramifications of the bike rally and won’t for a few more weeks, but just having the rally with so many people at this point seemed like a terrible idea. The residents of the city made it clear they didn’t want the rally held, the city council felt people were coming either way and they had no choice but to accept the reality and prepare for it. About 462,000 vehicles came to Sturgis that weekend. At this point there is only one confirmed case coming from a bar many frequented at the Sturgis rally and the city claims less than 25 new cases came from the biker rally, but it’s also very early in the game to know the real repercussions and most of the people at the rally weren’t from Sturgis so those are far from any kind of real figures on spread

Tony Khan made a few points about his philosophy regarding tings he didn’t like, which are disqualifications and false advertising. He wanted people who view AEW to believe they were going to get real finishes, even if there will be outside interference aspects, but winners and losers (occasional draws). He said they may at some point do a DQ but that it would be extremely rare. Regarding false advertising, he said that when Jon Moxley missed the TV’s over staying home with his wife and also his own fear of possibly being infected, there were people who suggested Khan not saying anything, because that’s how many wrestling companies would have handled it, perhaps most until the modern era as the St. Louis and Houston’s were very much the exception, not the rule. In hindsight, it probably did hurt ratings slightly for two shows but he’s wanting to play fair with his audience with the hope that plays out better for the company in the long game. This likely comes from his own experience as a fan of multiple promotions, seeing companies that rarely if ever do DQs (ECW, All Japan, New Japan and many other Japanese groups) and also play fair with their audience regarding no-shows (tons of companies fit into that category, probably most nowadays but in the older days, and today in WWE, that wouldn’t be the case)

In a YouTube live stream the company [AEW] asked people for names of five women you want to see added and the responses were Diamante, Ivelisse, Conti, Chelsea Green, Tessa Blanchard and Jordynne Grace. The response was they are in talks with two of them. Since Green is in WWE and Grace in Impact, that would seem to cut the list down to Diamante, Ivelisse, Conti and Blanchard.

The most watched shows of the past week on the WWE Network were: 1. WWE Timeline: Bret Hart vs. Owen Hart; 2. SummerSlam 2019; 3. Best of Drew McIntyre in Evolve; 4. ICW Shug’s House Party 5 Dave 2; 5. The Horror Show at Extreme Rules; 6. Raw Talk for 8/17; 7. NXT from 8/12; 8. SummerSlam 1988; 9. SummerSlam 2018; 10. Smackdown from 7/17; 11. Top Ten Most Humiliating Taunts; 12. Royal Rumble 2020; 13. Raw 7/13; 14. Progress Chapter 92; 15. SummerSlam 2016. Notable no 205 Live or NXT U.K. even cracked the top 25. Best of Keith Lee in Evolve was No. 16. Some wXw stuff made the top 25

WWE Ratings, AEW vs. NXT Ratings, NXT Ratings:

SPOILER: show

Raw on 8/17 averaged 1,643,000 viewers and 0.48 in 18-49, which sounds bad, but given the competition from both the NBA playoffs and the Democratic convention, it wasn’t that bad. It was the fourth lowest overall number in the history of the show, and tied for the fourth lowest in 18-49. The third hour drop, against the Michelle Obama speech that did monster numbers, to 1,502,000 viewers was the second lowest hour in the history of the show, beating only hour three from 7/27. Raw was down 4.6 percent in viewers and up 2.1 percent in 18-49 ... The first hour did 1,730,000 viewers. The second hour did 1,697,000 viewers. The third hour did 1,502,000 viewers. The biggest take was that among teenagers, which grew greatly two weeks ago for the first week of Raw Underground, the third hour drops were scary bad. The drop also included a segment built around Shawn Michaels confronting Randy Orton. The first to third hour drops were 17.1 percent with women 18-49, 13.2 percent with men 18-49, 55.5 percent with girls 12-17 and 19.2 percent with boys 12-17 and 11.9 percent with those over 50. As compared with the same week last year, the show was down 35.2 percent overall, 40.7 percent in 18-49 and 50.9 percent in 18-34.

Smackdown on 8/14 did a 1.21 rating and 1,940,000 viewers (1.33 viewers per home) and 0.53 (687,000 viewers) in 18-49. It’s a little misleading for direct comparisons since there were markets were FOX aired sports and FOX did 2,002,000 viewers and 713,000 (0.55) in 18-49 in total, the best numbers for the network since June for the show and 18-49 even with the one market that carried sports was well up from the past month plus. But even with market preemptions, the rating was up 0.8 percent, viewers were down 1.1 percent and 18-49 was up 8.0 percent which is the key number. It would appear the difference is the Bray Wyatt/Alexa Bliss storyline and the Retribution storyline, as the show the prior week was awful and did nothing to build this ... The 0.55 (the network rating for FOX) in 18-49 and 0.3 in 18-34 both won the night among network telecasts and were both up from 0.49 and 0.2 the prior week. Smackdown and one show in CBS were the only shows not in reruns. Still, Smackdown did finish last in actual viewers, but it was close as a rerun of The Wall did 2,174,000 viewers ... The show did 1.89 million viewers in the first half hour with the Retribution attack on Big E vs. John Morrison, Bayley & Sasha Banks promo and the beginning of the Battle Royal. The second half hour also did 1.89 million viewers with the rest of the Battle Royal and Sheamus vs. Shorty G. The third half hour was the high point at 2.03 million viewers which was all the A.J. Styles, Jeff Hardy stuff with Joseph Park, Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Gran Metalik, Mandy Rose interview, the Matt Riddle/King Corbin angle and the Alexa Bliss interview. The final half hour fell to 1.94 million viewers for E vs. Morrison, another Retribution angle, and the Strowman/Wyatt/Bliss final segment. * Last year on the same Friday, FOX aired rerun programming that averaged 866,000 viewers in part of the country and local sports that did 499,000 viewers. So the total was 1,361,000 viewers and an 0.4 in 18-49, so it was up 47.1 percent in viewers and 37.1 percent in 18-49.

For 8/12 in the AEW vs. NXT comparisons, AEW won all eight quarters overall and easily won every quarter in 18-49, doubling NXT in three of eight quarters and overall. In the main event battle, AEW with Chris Jericho vs. Orange Cassidy did 783,000 viewers and 398,000 in 18-49, while NXT with Kushida vs. Cameron Grimes vs. Velveteen Dream did 621,000 viewers and 205,000 in 18-49. While the main event numbers for Jericho vs. Cassidy don’t look all that high when compared with the rest of the show, the actual minute-by-minute numbers showed that the Hikaru Shida vs. Heather Monroe match did not do well, and the audience plummeted during a commercial right before the match. The match gained, then lost during a commercial break, but actually skyrocketed after that break and ended up at right around 1 million viewers and 500,000 in 18-49 which is the level only AEW’s biggest matches with its top guys hit. The show opened with AEW having 775,000 viewers and 403,000 in 18-49 with Young Bucks vs. Stu Grayson & Evil Uno. NXT had 720,000 viewers and 230,000 in 18-49 with Karrion Kross vs Danny Burch plus the angle where Keith Lee and Kross signed their contracts and Lee got the fireball in the face. NXT’s high number has a lot to do with the big lead-in. It was also the NXT high point in both viewers and demo. The second quarter saw AEW stay at the same level with 776,000 viewers and 409,000 in 18-49 for Omega & Page talking about the Young Bucks, and the MJF promo/campaign speech and Jon Moxley attack and promo. NXT fell to 607,000 viewers and 213,000 in 18-49 for Drake Maverick vs. Killian Dain and the Undisputed Era out and Adam Cole interview. The third quarter saw AEW at 779,000 viewers and 408,000 in 18-49 for a Matt Hardy interview and Cody vs. Scorpio Sky for the TNT title. NXT had 604,000 viewers and 217,000 in 18-49 for Tyler Breeze vs. Santos Escobar and a Dakota Kai feature. The gap got big in quarter four. AEW had 809,000 viewers and 440,000 in 18-49 with Cody vs. Sky and the post-match with Brodie Lee challenging. NXT fell to 564,000 viewers and 174,000 in 18-49, both low points of the show, for Mia Yim vs. Indi Hartwell. In quarter five, AEW had Kenny Omega & Adam Page vs. Jungle Boy & Luchasaurus and did 817,000 viewers and 437,000 in 18-49. NXT did 591,000 and 195,000 in 18-49 for Damien Priest vs. Bronson Reed. In quarter six, AEW had its high points of the show with 862,000 viewers and 461,000 in 18-49 for the segment with the Young Bucks, FTR, Tully Blanchard & Arn Anderson and Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson. NXT did 609,000 viewers and 191,000 in 18-49 for Mercedes Martinez & Aliyah vs. Kacy Catanzaro & Kayden Carter. In quarter seven, AEW fell to 739,000 overall and 384,000 in 18-49 for Hikaru Shida vs. Heather Monroe, Shida promo, Jake Roberts & Lance Archer segment and plugging next week. NXT did 637,000 viewers and grew to 220,000 in 18-49 for main event intros. For the main event segment, AEW gained 44,000 viewers and 14,000 in 18-49. NXT lost 16,000 viewers and 15,000 in 18-49.

With no AEW on 8/19, NXT’s numbers increased greatly even against competition from the Democratic Convention, NBA and NHL playoffs. The real key to the number was to see just how NXT would do if it was not in a Wednesday night war. While there were likely AEW fans who were looking to watch wrestling and may not follow NXT if it was on another night, NXT also would have easier competition most of the time. The show did 853,000 viewers and 0.24 in 18-49, good for the No 23 spot for the night. Considering last week, with tough competition, but not this tough, did 619,000, you are talking 234,000 viewers on a tough night up and maybe close to 300,000 on a normal night. NXT on its own is likely doing about 900,000 viewers and in the 0.26 range in 18-49, so that tells you what WWE, and USA, are costing themselves being in this Wednesday night war. With that knowledge, if they don’t move, it does explain the actual goal, which everyone has known from the start. Even with the tough competition, it shows AEW is NXT’s biggest competition, since this was the best NXT audience since November 20 and best in 18-49 since February 19. It was the best overall number of the year and second best in 18-49, but without AEW, it should have been ... NXT was up 37.8 percent overall and 50.0 percent in 18-49. Still, it also showed that of the 623,000 in 18-49 watching the two shows last week, only half watched television wrestling this week. And of the 1,411,000 total viewers, 60.5 percent watched this week. It showed that the older viewers of AEW were far more apt to watch NXT than those in the key demo. While this isn’t perfect because of the competition changing this night hard, roughly 102,000 of the 417,000 AEW 18-49 fans or 24.4 percent, watched NXT for two hours this week. When it comes to those over 50 and under 17, it would be 132,000 of 375,000, or 35.2 percent ... We don’t have demo comparisons from last week as far as age groups go, because NXT wasn’t in the top 50 last week. But we do have figures for a comparison from two weeks ago, but those are numbers against far easier competition. The key comparison is that the new viewers were heavily male, so the women viewers of AEW did not watch NXT hardly at all, noting the 0.05 in the Female 12-34 demo and 0.16 in 18-49. As compared to two weeks ago, even without AEW, NXT did a 0.10 in 12-17 (down 16.7 percent), 0.09 in 18-34 (down 18.2 percent), 0.39 in 35-49 (up 2.6 percent) and 0.42 in 50+ (up 7.7 percent). The audience was 66.7 percent male in 18-49 and 80.7 percent male in 12-17. With the male skew so much higher than usual, what it says is that the gains are mostly AEW male fans, but that the AEW female fan base did not watch NXT this week. And the AEW fan base under 35 didn’t so much either, but gains were made over 35. Basically it says the AEW 35+ fan base is interested in NXT to a decent degree, but the under 35 and women fan bases are not interested in even sampling it. The competition was very tough with CNN doing 4,880,000; MSNBC doing 6,187,000 and FOX News doing 3,794,000 viewers head-to-head. The NBA game against the first 75 minutes of the show did 1,705,000 viewers and 0.68, and against the last 45 minutes did 2,283,000 and 0.98. The NHL game on NBC Sports network did 748,000 and 0.27.