[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets (Observer Newsletter Edition):

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter WWE produced one of the strongest in-ring shows in company history with the 2/14 NXT Takeover Portland show ...which drew 7,800 fans to the Moda Center in Portland, OR. Paul Levesque said the live gate was the largest for a pro wrestling event in the state of Oregon since 2008. It was October 5, 2008, to be specific, the No Mercy show at the Rose Garden in Portland which drew 9,527 fans for a show headlined by Shawn Michaels vs. Chris Jericho in a ladder match.

Riddle came across as the show’s biggest star. He got the best reaction coming out. He survived an idea that was funny at first on television, but in typical WWE fashion, was shoved down your throat to where it no longer was, trying to get the crowd to chant “How much fish could Bobby Fish fry if Bobby Fish could fry fish.” The reaction to the title change, as figured, was also the biggest of the show. The Riddle situation seems notable because unlike the other guy who gets over on charisma in NXT, Velveteen Dream, Riddle is tremendous in the ring. People like Gargano, Ciampa, Roderick Strong, Dunne, Kyle O’Reilly and others are great but are more likely than not to be ruined ont he main roster. Keith Lee, with his size and momentum also has a chance. But Riddle, even at 34, comes across as young, which can be a blessing and a curse. With a company lacking anyone who can really draw young viewers since John Cena left, Riddle makes sense, but at some point he won’t be able to play his current role ... That said, the current view at the top on Riddle is that there are some who think he’s got magic and others who don’t see it, but the key in his situation is his “lack of understanding of politics” which translated would seem to be trying to do programs with Bill Goldberg and Brock Lesnar without going to them first. One person compared him with Randy Orton when he first became a big star, and they don’t want someone like that now for harmony’s sake, or other talent that would say things that would get talent upset, noting Dave Bautista making very strong negative remarks about Smackdown when he was on Raw, which led to a lot of negative feelings in the locker room. It should be noted the disconnect, since WWE’s social media has put up his comments and he also made them at the Las Vegas house show, so it appears somebody wants this turned into an angle and they are playing both sides.

Davey Boy Smith joins Jushin Liger and the Bella Twins as far as names not yet announced but confirmed for the 2020 WWE Hall of Fame Class. They will join Batista and the NWO (in this case being Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall and Sean Waltman) for the ceremony that takes place on 4/2 in Tampa ... The Bella Twins are obvious as well. WWE rules seem to be one African-American and one woman every year. So that also means there should be more names coming up. The Bella Twins, given they were the stars of Total Divas, were far more influential than most of the women they’ve put in ... It would look like Vader, who Mick Foley has been heavily pushing for, won’t be put in. Vader is a no-brainer, but it’s the audience of one. And most likely he’d go in some day, but Vader is also the example of a guy who flourished as a top guy everywhere in the world but WWF.

Brandon Thurston compiled ratings records for Wednesday night, based on how much different characters grew or lost ratings based on the usual rating for that position in the show. The survey was dominated by women, particularly in NXT. There are different ways to look at ratings, including just the number of viewers watching on average, which benefits people in the first segment, or the gain or less during the segments, which often hurts people who are on later in the show. The NXT women dominating is also partially because we have a limited number of weeks, as this survey was covering the 10/30 AEW show through 2/12, and the 11/6 NXT show through 2/12. During that period there was the women’s Battle Royal on NXT which was a big hit. Based on these factors, the biggest draw as compared with what would be expected based on usual patterns was Bianca Belair, followed by The Inner Circle, Mia Yim, Rhea Ripley, MJF, Cody, Jungle Boy, Io Shirai, Matt Riddle and Dakota Kai. Such a survey also seems to favor people who were in some big segments, but not in a ton of segments, because the big segments would affect their specific averages more. Of the names on the list, the only ones in more than 15 segments during that period were Cody and Riddle, while Chris Jericho was in more, but not the Inner Circle as a group.

Link: https://twitter.com/wrestlenomics/st...74426945261568

WWE performers are working less dates than ever before and it’s notable in the 2019 stats, where the Iron Man award for the year goes to Ricochet, who worked 159 matches, to 156 for Baron Corbin. In years past, top stars would routinely top 200 matches and even in 2018, the top three were Finn Balor at 180 and Shinsuke Nakamura and Corbin at 175. It was also frequent that most of the people at the top in one year would have a major injury cutting down their dates the next year. Corbin and Seth Rollins were near the top the past two years, although Rollins did have a significant back injury in the early part of last year. MOST MATCHES: 1. Ricochet 159; 2. Corbin 156; 3. Kingston 152; 4. Dawson 151; 5. Wilder and Rollins 149 MOST WINS: 1. Kingston 123; 2. Rollins 115; 3. Ricochet 112; 4. Bayley 110; 5. Strowman 105. MOST LOSSES: 1. Corbin 122; 2 Cesaro 110; 3. Dawson 96; 4. Flair 95; 5. Wilder 94

With 19.7 million people watching the Democratic debate, it figured to hurt the 2/19 wrestling shows. But AEW had promoted a “destination” show for 2/19 in Atlanta with a loaded lineup paced by Cody vs. Wardlow in a cage, while NXT was coming off its Takeover show. Both shows were likely hurt significantly by the debate, as if you take the debate out of the picture, AEW was No. 3 in 18-49 (No.5 including news shows), trailing only Real Housewives of New Jersey. NXT, usually ranked in the high 20s or low30s, was only beaten in 18-49 by nine non-news shows, so a No. 10 ranking (No. 16 including news shows) isn’t a level they haven’t approached since competition began. AEW did 893,000 viewers and a 0.31 in 18-49, up 9.3 percent in total viewers and 3.3 percent in 18-49. NXT did 794,000 viewers and 0.25 in 18-49, up 4.9 percent in viewers and 4.2 percent in 18-49 ... There were some interesting demo notes, as NXT won with both teenagers and even 18-34, demos they almost never win with. However, AEW tied NXT in over 50, a demo they have never tied them in previously. The key difference is NXT drew far more women than usual, and hurt AEW with that audience. Without quarters it’s hard to pinpoint a reason, but NXT’s draws would be the Takeover follow-up and the promotion on the show was all about Velveteen Dream vs. Roderick Strong, an angle that was going to resonate more with women than men. AEW won by 26.6 percent in male teens, but NXT won by 133 percent, well over doubling AEW, with teenage girls. In 18-49, AEW won by 37.6 percent in males while the two sides were identical with women 18-49, with NXT having the edge in 18-34 women and AEW having the edge in 35-49 women.

Smackdown on 2/14 did a 1.53 rating and 2,464,000 viewers (1.34 viewers per home) and an 0.7 in the 18-49 demo. The show was down 2.5 percent in ratings, 2.9 percent in viewers and 12.5 percent in 18-49 ... Last year during the same week, FOX averaged 4,446,000 viewers but only an 0.8 in 18-49, so it was down 45 percent in viewers but only 13 percent in 18-49. It appears based on the top ten markets that the key ratings driver was the Hulk Hogan/Bray Wyatt confrontation and the main event.

At the [AAA] 2/13 show in Tlalnepantla, there was another tribute to La Parka, where his son, who currently wrestled as Karis La Momia Jr., officially announced that he would soon be wrestling as La Parka Jr. This has been known since his death but I think it’s the first time it was said in front of fans

New Japan has opened up talks to get back on U.S. television It’s also now planned for a major U.K. show held at the Copper Box Arena in London at some point this year. Originally the idea was to use 2020 to focus on the U.S. and no shows were scheduled for either Australia or the U.K. They would be working in conjunction with RevPro on the show. The idea of a Will Ospreay IWGP title challenge would make sense

AEW put tickets on sale for the 5/23 show in Las Vegas, as well as TV tapings on 4/15 in Boston and 4/22 in Philadelphia, on 2/14. These are all key shows since Las Vegas is a PPV show. Also, all three cities sold out instantly the first time AEW ran them. Las Vegas didn’t sell out first day but aside from eight sections at the top, many of which had a ton of tickets left, the rest was gone. It looked like 8,000 to 9,000 tickets were gone. Boston did a little over 3,300 tickets Philadelphia had only part of the building put on sale and there were plenty still available. Both are well below what a WWE TV shot would do in those markets while Las Vegas was well ahead of what WWE just did in their last time in the market which was the second FOX show. AEW also announced Dynamite on 5/27 would also be from the MGM Grand Garden Arena. That’s kind of risky running the same building four days later. Even taping Sunday or Monday (since it’s a holiday weekend) would be one thing because you could use that to convince people to come from out-of-town to see two shows, but four days later it’ll be tough and Las Vegas has rarely been a good wrestling market when it came to locals.

Jeff Cobb was offered a deal this past week. Tony Khan had never met him until this week. Cody had been trying to get him since the start of the year. Cobb had only agreed to a few dates. They protected him rather than just beat him clean (the cradle off superplex finish) which one would have thought would happen given Jon Moxley was in the PPV main event. They offered him a deal where he could still work New Japan and that’s where talks left

There will be a one-hour special on TNT on 2/26 after Dynamite as a PPV countdown show. For whatever reason, aside from a very quick mention in the middle of a hot match on TV, this hasn’t been promoted at all

Regarding this week’s TV, Tony Khan wrote the Battle Royal along with input from The Young Bucks, BJ Whitmer and QT Marshall. Khan wrote it with Marshall and Whitmer as the assistants and the Bucks ran the point position on it and they explained it to the other 18 guys in detail and we’re told nobody missed a planned spot. Chris Jericho and Dean Malenko laid out the post-match of Jericho-Moxley. It was Khan’s decision to turn the lights out before Darby Allin came out. Kenny Omega was in charge of both the Kris Statlander match and his own tag match while Cody was in charge of his match

Expect the announcement of a Japan performance center in the next few months, maybe around summer time if everything goes as expected. They already reached out to Sen. Hiroshi Hase and Antonio Inoki about the political situation. The original thought was working with Pro Wrestling NOAH, but NOAH was sold to Cyberagent