[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets (Observer Newsletter Edition):

Vince McMahon expressed a sense of optimism with his two most recent hires, President and Chief Revenue Officer Nick Khan and Chief Financial Officer Kristina Salen, when opening an earnings call on 10/29 talking about the most complex time in the company’s history. The entire media landscape is filled with uncertainty. The biggest challenge is the changing role of television and the move to streaming content. While McMahon pushed the idea that more people than ever before are watching WWE, actual product popularity is still based on getting people interested in the product, whether that be from a big show perspective or regular viewing perspective. Television ratings are down. In a sense, they are down less than many sports that returned to play of late, and more than others. They are down more than television in general. There are more ways to watch the content than ever before, but WWE’s revenue is more based on television, in decline both in priorities to the large conglomerates and in viewing. At the same time, new streaming services are opening up. WWE can manipulate numbers, as all companies do, using essentially worthless stats that have proven over the years to not make a difference in popularity. Social media numbers always increase, but when it’s not related to an increase in consumer spending, it’s pretty much proven the value is limited. WWE has had bright spots in a COVID world. Merchandise spending is roughly the same as before, even with no live events. Licensing is up, such as gaming. The Thunderdome has led to a six percent gain from where Raw bottomed out at and a 12 percent gain from where Smackdown bottomed out at, even with much tougher competition ... In particular, Khan noted that talks are back on to sell network content to streaming providers, similar to what UFC did with ESPN+ ... Khan said that everything on the network is for sale, aside from the network itself. He said both domestic and worldwide streaming services are looking for new subscribers and he said that they have content than can do it ... For the third quarter of 2020, the company had $221,595,000 in revenue and $48,485,000 in profits. Last year’s third quarter, prior to the new domestic television deals going into place, had $186,383,000 in revenue and $5,862,000 in profits. Virtually all due to television, revenues were up 18.9 percent and profits were up 727.1 percent. The new TV deals pretty much saved the company from what would have otherwise been a disastrous financial period due to COVID, that has been the case for every sports and entertainment property that isn’t carried by television rights ... They also said that almost all the employees furloughed, which were about 25 percent of the company’s head count, will be brought back by the end of the year ... Revenues, which are not hard to figure due to most being fixed costs from television rights, and network numbers that only have a slight variation, were almost identical to expectations. But analysts were predicting profits generally from $30.7 million to $34.9 million for the quarter. Total expenses for the quarter went from $179.9 million last year to $158.2 million this year. Much of the decline would have been not doing house shows and from the furloughs and talent cuts. Salen did note that the fourth quarter would not look as good, because television production expenses will be up $22 million to $27 million which is partially from the move to the Thunderdome technology and people returning to work. She said quarter four would be less profitable than quarter four last year due to no second Saudi Arabian show this year ... When analyst Curry Baker asked about the ratings still being well below last year and what that means for the next negotiations, Vince McMahon and Khan pushed that the total audience that watches WWE is larger than ever before. There are ways to manipulate numbers with all the YouTube views and say that, but the fan base that cares simply isn’t close to as large. Anyone who lives in the real world can tell you that just from friends, kids, or whatever. Pro wrestling has its fan base, but it is not mainstream not in the social conscience. It’s huge with its fans but in the real world, it is not even close to water cooler talk. That said, in a fragmented TV and streaming world, it is a very valuable property that has a consistent fan base. The reality is that with a free tier, only 2.4 million people in the world logged into the WWE network over the three months of July, August and September, two-thirds or more pay for the service, that tells you it has its fans but few casual fans who care enough to check out anything for free on a product heavily advertised on television. Vince said that they were doing everything they can to bring back television viewers, noting the Thunderdome has brought back fans, and the key is better writing, better execution and more talent that registers with the fans ... Regarding moving out of the Amway Center, Khan said they expect usage of the Thunderdome well into 2021, but said there are many arenas that they can move into when they have to move out of Orlando which looks to be sometime in December. When asked about the value of NXT on television and how it has affected the network, Khan noted that network subscribers are up from the same period last year when NXT was a network exclusive. So more people than ever are watching due to television and it hasn’t seemed to hurt subscriber numbers at all. Regarding the WWE Network, Khan noted 2.4 million viewers in total for the quarter. That number would include the free tier. It’s had to ascertain how many people actually watch the free tier. There were 1,690,000 worldwide subscribers on 6/30 and 1,549,000 on 9/30. But there are people who signed up and far more than 141,000 who canceled during the quarter. If we take a rough guess that 1.85 million different people subscribed, that would indicate about 550,000 non-subscribers use the free tier. The addition of the free tier in quarter two led to a huge increase in subscribers. That number is still up over last year because of the big second quarter increase, when it had been declining before adding the free tier and with them allowing people the free month. But that gain was less and the declines were slightly higher than expected, with the 141,000 decline during the quarter slightly ahead of 131,000 for the same period last year ... During quarter four the prior two years, the subscriber numbers dropped 87,000 in 2018 and 77,000 in 2019, so that would indicate about 1,462,000 to 1,472,000 at the end of this year, when it should start the ascent for the Royal Rumble through WrestleMania. In quarter three, and this was mostly pre-Thunderdome, Raw declined from an average of 2,489,000 viewers per show to 1,766,000, a drop of 29.0 percent. WWE listed a decline of 32 percent during that period of the USA Network, from 1,069,000 in prime time to 725,000. But that needs to be clarified because that includes the loss of Smackdown. If you factor out both Raw and Smackdown last year, the non-wrestling USA Network averaged 678,000 viewers in prime time last year in quarter three. This year that dropped to 552,000, although if you take out NXT you are down to 543,000, so the non-wrestling drop at USA was 19.9 percent, or less than Raw. But this shows just how much USA is reliant on Raw to be anything but an also-ran station when for years they were No. 1 and would have stayed No. 1 even if they had lost Raw. Overall cable viewership was up four percent during the year, even with sports gone, because of the huge growth in news channels. Smackdown last year averaged 2,069,000 viewers on USA and this year averaged 2,022,000 on FOX during the third quarter. That’s a disaster since most programming comes close to doubling in moving from cable to network. FOX was down 33 percent and the networks in general were down 24 percent, but that’s a combination of no sports and very little in the way of first run shows due to lack of filming during the pandemic ... The combined WWE Network and traditional PPV revenue increased from $44,199,000 to $47,767,000, or an 8.1 percent increase. Actual subscribers were up from 1,511,000 to 1,604,000 for an average day during the month, but with price changes in different places the 6.2 percent increase led to an eight percent revenue increase. Last year on 9/30, the WWE Network had 1,062,100 U.S. subscribers and 403,300 outside the U.S. On 6/30, the numbers were 1,229,000 in the U.S. and 461,000 outside the U.S. This year on 9/30 the number was 1,136,400 in the U.S. and 412,200 outside the U.S. Last year’s third quarter decline was 105,000 in the U.S. and 26,000 outside the U.S. This year’s decline was 92,600 in the U.S. and 48,800 outside the U.S. so the number of cancellations being up was from outside the U.S. and in the U.S. it was actually less ... The remarkable stat is that last year in the quarter, the company sold $5,624,000 in merchandise on-line and $3,487,000 at arenas for $9,111,000. This year they sold no merchandise at arenas but $9,114,000 on-line, so essentially we’ve learned that people who want to buy merchandise at arenas instead simply bought on-line as the numbers were identical. So the argument for doing house shows to sell merchandise is, almost astonishingly, it really leads to little increase and you save costs of transportation, because the fan base that was buying at arenas spent the money online rather than didn’t spend. A major part of this year’s merchandise numbers were the release of expensive replica title belts. Last year in the quarter the company averaged 1,269 orders per day at a $46.09 average price per sale. This year it was 1,684 orders per sale at a $59.10 average price per sale

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter The one major issue right now with Smackdown is the lack of top babyfaces to challenge Roman Reigns. They were fortunate that even though Jey Uso had never been pushed as a top face, the family storyline with Roman Reigns was a unique story and they were able to get two PPV shows out of it. But from there, where do they go? It’s early for Big E. We’re told there are no immediate plans a hotshot John Cena or Bill Goldberg match right now, which can always be used as a Reigns opponent. With Goldberg, there is even a storyline since it was to be at WrestleMania before Reigns went home, and was to be a major win in Reigns’ career that hasn’t happened yet. But aside from that, Bryan is the best bit in the sense he’s someone Reigns can have a great match with, has the star tenure and can cut the promos to tell a story to build it. But with such a nothing return, Bryan was brought back seemingly as a midcard face in the crowd on the No. 2 babyface tag team on the brand. Who else does Reigns have? Owens can work and talk and there’s Rey Mysterio, but Bryan if he was correctly pushed right now should be more effective as a title challenger than they are. Lars Sullivan is getting the monster push and you can do a heel vs. heel program at some point, but that shouldn’t be for months. The point being is they need to create two or three key babyfaces that are groomed for Reigns, and Bryan is the strongest potentially of all of them for right now, and his return was handled in a way to make him come across the least special.

This was in regards to the section about Daniel Bryan's return and him talking after SD about his current run being his last as an active wrestler.

The 10/25 Hell in a Cell show was built around three Cell matches with two title changes, as Randy Orton beat Drew McIntyre to win the WWE title and Sasha Banks beat Bayley to win the Smackdown women’s title ... Roman Reigns’ Universal title win over Jey Uso was a very slow paced storytelling I Quit match with lots of talking. The nature of the storyline meant there wouldn’t be a clean finish, so they did a deal where Jimmy Uso was in the cage and Reigns put him in a guillotine and was going to choke him out, so Jey said “I Quit” to save him. After the match ended, Afa & Sika came out and declared Reigns the tribal chief. Reigns pushing himself as the head of the family and the guy who takes care of the family leads to a natural storyline with Dwayne Johnson. There is no word that is official but it would make sense if the cards fell into place, regarding Johnson’s schedule, fans being back at shows and Johnson wanting a memorable true final match.

It [Hell in a Cell] is the next to last PPV from this run at the Amway Center in Orlando. The final show, at least as of right now, is Survivor Series on 11/22. It is billed as the only night of the year when wrestlers from Raw and Smackdown face off against each other. Well, except they’ve done that on most of the television shows in recent weeks. If there is significant news, it is that there will be no NXT involvement in the show, with NXT instead building to a 12/6 Takeover show. Given that the NXT involvement both made the show last year, and also led to increased ratings on all three shows in November with the buildup, the decision on paper looks hard to understand. There are really only two explanations. One is Vince McMahon’s wanting to keep the brands separate as much as possible to prevent the potential of COVID spreading. That is the reason they stopped taping 205 Live on Friday night’s, to keep NXT talent away from the Smackdown talent and risk a two brand infection. WWE PPV shows can always risk that, but every WWE breakout to date has started at the Performance Center. The other is simply a mentality to not portray NXT as a major brand on the level of Raw and Smackdown. That coincides with no NXT talent involved in the recent draft. It’s one thing if a minor WWE product loses weekly to a competitor, and a very different story if a major WWE brand does. Survivor Series will be built around non-title matches featuring the respective champions against each other and brand vs. brand traditional Survivor Series matches, one with men and the other with women.

Orton’s title win, clean with an RKO, was really the big story of the show. It’s been known for some time that the WrestleMania plan is Orton vs. Edge, originally an I Quit match although with an I Quit match on this show, perhaps the stipulation will change. Having it be for the title was always discussed and at one point was the plan. But others felt McIntyre should be campion and an Orton-Edge match doesn’t need the title. McIntyre has also been discussed for a major match with boxing world heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, which both have pushed in social media. We were told this week that Fury has not committed to a date for that. With Saudi Arabia not announced for later this year yet, due to COVID, that would have been the most likely place for such a bout.

AAA held a press conference on 10/26 to announce TripleMania. They announced the top matches but didn’t announce when. They said they would like to do a show in December at Arena Ciudad in Mexico City. AAA has also said that with the way it’s business is structured, it makes no economic sense to do TripleMania without a live gate. You can never predict the future, but with the current numbers, fans are not allowed at pro wrestling shows in Mexico City. While not announced, the hoped for date talent has been told is 12/5, but the show won’t happen until fans are cleared to attend. To have the show make sense, the feeling is they need to be able to run with at least 6,500 fans. Kenny Omega vs. Laredo Kid for the Mega heavyweight championship was announced. Also announced was Pagano vs. Chessman in a hair vs. hair match, and with a cross-promotion with Marvel, they are going to introduce young high flyers and put them under masks as Aracno (Spider-man) & Leyenda Americana (Captain America) vs. Terror Purpuro (Thanos) & Venemoide (Venum) ... The four Marvel characters as well as two others is part of a deal with AAA and the Latin American branch of Marvel. It is the first of what, if all goes well, will be a larger group of new masked wrestlers playing Marvel characters. This deal has been close to happening for months and the idea was to debut them this past summer, but the pandemic delayed everything. Marvel reps will be at the show. While the identity of the wrestlers playing the Marvel characters is being kept secret, they are all well-known talent. There will be AAA stars getting new names, and several others will be American stars, including four who either are of have recently been under contract to U.S. promotions. Marvel is even considering if this works at doing a Marvel Wrestling League. Also announced is La Parka going into the AAA Hall of Fame.

New Japan ended up profitable for the 2019-2010 fiscal year that ends on 7/31, with roughly $2 million in profits. The company was on verge of setting its record in January after the two successful Tokyo Dome shows. The company operated in the red from when it shut down events in February and likely still is given the huge declines in live attendance by playing at 30 to 40 percent capacity Takami Ohbari took over this week as President of New Japan. He did media and some say he made a misstep because he was critical of Harold Meij, who certainly had his detractors within wrestling and the office but was popular with the New Japan fan base. In an interview with Tokyo Sports, Ohbari said that Meij was very skilled in fan services (dealing with fans) and described himself as like a setter in volleyball (Ohbari when he was younger was a high-level volleyball player) said the job of the setter is to make the rest of the team look good. He said that he wanted to be seen like a stagehand, a guy that public doesn’t know about or talk about and that the spotlight should be on the in-ring talent

The participants in the Best of the Super Juniors tournament will be announced on 11/2, some 13 days before the tournament starts. The tag league and Super Juniors tour from 11/15 to 12/11 will have every show airing live on New Japan World. The shows will air in Japanese live. Power Struggle will air live from Osaka in English as well. Most likely the 12/11 tag tourney and super juniors finals will also air live in English but that’s not 100 percent

Dynamite will be live every week in November except 11/18, which will be taped on 11/12. All talent will be brought into Jacksonville from 11/4 to 11/12 to do two live Dynamites, one taped Dynamite and the PPV show

Serena Deeb’s win of the NWA women’s title from Thunder Rosa on the 10/27 UWN PPV show was notable for a number of reasons. People were raving about the match saying it was a **** bout. There is interest in both WWE and AEW in her, but she has a significant period of time left on her NWA deal. William Corgan said “into 2021" when commenting. With Deeb, who is under an AEW contract, the title will get national exposure on AEW television. Right now Rosa is still expected to work future AEW dates being booked through Corgan and the NWA. She wouldn’t have to lose the title to work for AEW due to the Corgan/Khan relationship and it’s notable Corgan would put the title on someone under contract to a different company. And he would not have to take it off Rosa, who had gotten over on AEW shows, and was pushed as one of his signature stars, for Rosa to work for AEW. There was also talk that she dropped the title because she is going into training for another fight with Combate Americas and that MMA would be her focus until her contract expires, even doing a couple of fights this next year, which is why the decision was made a ways back for her to drop the title

There was talk over the weekend of moving out of Orlando in December. The contract with the arena right now ends on 11/24, which would be the day after the Raw after Survivor Series. According to WWE officials, that date is fluid and it could be extended and there is no hard out date at the moment. The key issue is if the NBA starts running in home arenas they won’t be able to base there, or at any NBA arena. They are looking right now to have a base arena as opposed to touring as in the past. I think performing in front of live fans would be a priority but I can’t imagine it would be a good idea to do anything but a limited capacity show until there is a vaccine. WrestleVotes noted that WWE was looking at arenas in Illinois, North Carolina and Texas. Another source said they didn’t know anything more definitive than Vince McMahon and Kevin Dunn are looking at different plans. Really this is an issue with so many moving parts, but also decisions that have to be prioritized. They can always go to the Performance Center for a week or two if things don’t work out, but there are major arenas who don’t have teams who, like Amway, would probably offer WWE a sweetheart deal to have them as a full-time tenant. The key would be a major arena that can house all the equipment, but also can’t be an arena that has an NBA or NHL franchise unless the next season for both sports will not be playing in home arenas. WWE officials have said they are currently exploring their options when they leave the Amway Center. Right now the NBA is looking at a 12/22 start and that teams would play in their home arenas and no longer do the bubble, although maybe with no fans. If that’s the case than WWE would have to be out of the Amway Center before that date. The NHL is looking at a 1/1 start. But nothing in the world is certain

There was another COVID outbreak at the Performance Center this past week. The story appears to be that one of the coaches tested positive who was coaching on 10/23, and that everyone who was being coached and around him was told to quarantine for two weeks. There were apparently other positives but they were mostly people new to the system that were around him and nobody that appeared on NXT television. We were told the show was being rewritten but when watching the Halloween Havoc show, all matches went on as scheduled and the only change we know of was that Indi Hartwell was supposed to interfere in the Io Shirai vs. Candice LeRae match. Instead they had someone run in wearing a grim reaper/Scream mask and who never unmasked, who presumably will later be revealed as Hartwell but wasn’t her

Assuming the coach was the actual main source of the outbreak, that would be the second time in a row that has happened at the Performance Center since the last outbreak happened by a coach who was infected but told nobody and then it spread to AEW via a joint party held with NXT talent.

The most-watched shows on the WWE Network this past week were: 1. Hell in a Cell; 2. WWE Untold: The Phenom and the Legend Killer (Undertaker vs. Orton); 3. Uncool with Alexa Bliss interviews Drake Maverick; 4. WWE Chronicle: Bayley; 5. Best of Halloween Havoc; 6. Hell in a Cell kickoff show; 7. Undertaker’s Last Ride episode one; 8. Lilian Garcia’s Chasing Glory with Strowman; 9. Undertaker’s Last Ride Final Tales; 10. Clash of Champions. Raw Talk was No. 13. Talking Smack was on TV so didn’t chart. NXT from 10/21 was only No. 24 while NXT U.K. and 205 Live didn’t crack the top 25. No independent stuff made the top 25 either. There is a real shift in viewing to nostalgia and podcasts and away from current wrestling aside from the PPV shows being the biggest draw and driver

WWE Ratings, AEW vs. NXT Ratings:

SPOILER: show

Raw on 10/26 did 1,732,000 viewers and 0.51 (657,000 viewers) in 18-49, numbers down 2.5 percent and 1.9 percent from last week. The last two weeks were up because of the draft and the first week after the draft. This show was helped coming a day after a Hell in a Cell show where they switched the WWE title. It had a good first hour, but it had a big third hour decline due to not having a main event. The main event segment being pushed was A Touch of Bliss with Randy Orton as the guest, but they did tease the whole show that both Drew McIntyre and The Fiend would be coming out. The other items pushed saved for hour three were the announcement of the Raw women’s team at Survivor Series and Sheamus vs. Matt Riddle. The drops were mostly 50+ and 18-34, but the bright spot was teenage girls which were up 66 percent from last week, but that coincided with a 35 percent drop in teenage boys. Raw did 85,000 in men 18-34 (down 32.0 percent from last week), 81,000 in women 18-34 (down 8.0 percent), 329,000 in men 35-49 (up 20.1 percent) and 162,000 in women 35-49 (down 11.5 percent). Raw beat everything on cable except news shows and NFL-related programming in viewers and most key demos. In 18-49, hour three of Raw beat everything on television except the NFL game on ESPN and The Weakest Link on NBC (and would have beaten that in a fair comparison). The first hour did 1,859,000 viewers. The second hour did 1,752,000 viewers. The third hour did 1,585,000 viewers.

The one Smackdown a year against the World Series and airing on FS 1 on 10/23 did 881,000 viewers (1.37 viewers per home) and did a 0.25 (322,000 viewers) in 18-49. In a sense the numbers are good if you compare them for last year against the World Series, which did 888,000 viewers and a 0.27, because the weekly Smackdown show on FOX was down 12.2 percent in viewers and 20.0 percent in 18-49 as compared to a year ago, which was unusually low, while the week before was a more normal 24.3 percent overall and 32.2 percent in 18-49 drop. So you would figure a much larger drop as compared to one year ago, particularly with the higher political numbers. For a comparison, the World Series game last year on the same Friday did 12,220,000 viewers and a 2.8 in 18-49, while this year dropped to 8,156,000 viewers and 2.0 in 18-49. The World Series was down 33.3 percent in viewers, 28.6 percent in 18-49 and 21.1 percent in 18-34. Smackdown from a year ago was down 0.8 percent in viewers, 7.4 percent in 18-49 and 7.1 percent in 18-34. So the year-to-year-decline was far less than any Raw or Smackdown episode probably of the entire year. The viewers basically holding steady was because of a substantial year-to-year increase in over 50 viewing. Perhaps it’s because the World Series didn’t hurt as much, but the news channels are way up from a year ago ... In looking at the demos as compared to one year ago, the show did a .10 in 12-17 (down 20.0 percent), 0.13 in 18-34 (down 7.1 percent), 0.37 in 35-49 (down 7.5 percent) and 0.44 in 50+ (up 12.8 percent).

Talking Smack, which aired for the first time on FS 1 immediately following the show, did 343,000 viewers and a 0.10 in 18-49, which is likely far better than anything else would have done following Smackdown in that time slot.

NXT’s Halloween Havoc theme was a huge success, including being the most-watched non-news show on cable in Males 12-34. It beat AEW in total viewers and beat Smackdown in the 18-49 demo and nearly beat Smackdown overall, and Smackdown had no wrestling competition. AEW’s show ... did 781,000 viewers and a 0.32 (411,000) in 18-49. It was No. 12 overall for the night in 18-49 ... AEW did beat NXT in males 18-34, but NXT had a huge edge with male teenagers. Halloween Havoc did 876,000 viewers and a 0.25 (326,000 viewers) in 18-49 and No 21 on the charts. Without the overrun it would have been 870,000 and 324,000. It had huge increases across the board from normal NXT programming ... AEW was up 3.7 percent from last week, but this week wasn’t against major sports competition, but much tougher wrestling competition. In 18-49 it was up 5.7 percent from last week. NXT was up 34.6 percent from last week for the Halloween Havoc show ... It was up 53.2 percent in 18-49. A key is that in 18-49, both AEW and NXT with competition, beat Smackdown with no wrestling competition, although Smackdown did go against the World Series and was on an unfamiliar station. But it was also a cable-to-cable comparison. Raw clearly was the No. 1 show of the week, but Wednesday was wrestling night this week, with 128,000 in men 18-34 to 85,000 on Monday, 111,000 women 18-49 compared to 81,000 on Monday, 326,000 men 35-49 to 329,000 for Monday, and 192,000 women 35-49 to 162,000 on Monday. Aside from Raw, AEW was tops for the week in all four key demos. In men 18-34, AEW had 66,000 (up 37.5 percent from last week), NXT had 62,000 (up 158.3 percent from last week) and Smackdown had 55,000. In women 18-34, AEW had 71,000 (up 24.6 percent from last week), NXT had 40,000 (up 33.3 pecent) and Smackdown had 36,000. In men 35-49, AEW had 178,000 (down 12.3 percent), NXT had 148,000 (up 51.0 percent) and Smackdown had 174,000. In women 35-49, AEW had 116,000 (up 43.2 percent), NXT had 76,000 (up 43.4 percent) and Smackdown had 57,000. As compared to the same week last year, and keep in mind last year went against the World Series, AEW was up 2.9 percent in viewers, down 3.0 percent in 18-49 and up 5.3 percent in 18-34. NXT on the other hand was up 51.0 percent in viewers from last year, 38.9 percent in 18-49 and but was exactly the same in 18-34. So NXT’s big increase over last year was older viewers although also strong in 35-49. In the head-to-head main event, Io Shirai vs. Candice LeRae TLC match for the women’s title did 844,000 viewers and 321,000 in 18-49 to Kenny Omega vs. Penta’s 748,000 viewers and 411,000 in 18-49. When AEW went off the air USA Network for the last eight minutes grew to 967,000 viewers and 349,000 in 18-49. In all, AEW won all eight quarters in 18-49, with the second quarter close, and in fact, won every quarter in both 18-34 and 35-49. NXT won seven of the eight quarters with total viewers, losing only the fourth quarter. In the first quarter, AEW with Page vs. Wardlow did 818,000 viewers and 413,000 in 18-49. NXT with Johnny Gargano vs. Damien Priest for the North American title falls count anywhere did 922,000 viewers and 337,000 in 18-49. In the second quarter, AEW with a Jon Moxley interview, an Eddie Kingston interview and Kingston vs. Matt Sydal did 726,000 viewers and 374,000 in 18-49. NXT with the second half of Gargano vs. Priest did 957,000 viewers and 340,000 in 18-49. This was NXT’s 18-49 peak. In the third quarter, AEW with the Young Bucks/FTR segment and the beginning of the MJF/Inner Circle Town Hall did 753,000 viewers and 420,000 in 18-49. NXT had William Regal with Cameron Grimes, the Pat McAfee, Oney Lorcan, Danny Burch, Kyle O’Reilly and Pete Dunne segment and Grimes meeting Michael Hayes and did 892,000 viewers and 334,000 in 18-49. This was NXT’s 35-49 peak. In the fourth quarter, AEW had the bulk of the MJF/Inner Chicle segment that did 867,000 viewers and 466,000, with was the high point in every key demo. NXT had Santos Escobar vs. Jake Atlas for the cruiserweight title and did 780,000 viewers and 290,000 in 18-49. In the fifth quarter, AEW had Cody vs. Orange Cassidy in a lumberjack match for the TNT title and did 830,000 viewers and 437,000 in 18-49. This tied the Town Hall meeting for the peak in 18-34 of the night. NXT had the haunted house version of Dexter Lumis vs. Cameron Grimes and the beginning of Rhea Ripley vs. Raquel Gonzalez and did 850,000 viewers and 324,000 in 18-49. In the sixth quarter, AEW had the Best Friends angle with Miro & Kip Sabian along with Serena Deeb vs. Leyla Hirsch for the NWA women’s title and did 744,000 viewers and 378,000 in 18-49. NXT had the bulk of the Ripley vs. Gonzalez match which did 901,000 viewers and 337,000 in 18-49. This was NXT’s 18-34 peak. In the seventh quarter, AEW had Shawn Spears vs. VSK and the beginning of Omega vs. Penta and did 766,000 viewers and 393,000 in 18-49. NXT had the remainder of the Grimes-Lumis and a Tommaso Ciampa promo and did 812,000 viewers and 310,000 in 18-49. In the eighth quarter, Omega vs Penta lost 18,000 viewers and gained 18,000 in 18-49. Shirai vs. LeRae gained 32,000 viewers and 11,000 in 18-49. AEW did a 0.10 in 12-17 (same as last week), 0.20 in 18-34 (up 30.5 percent), 0.44 in 35-49 (up 3.5 percent) and 0.29 in 50+ (up 3.6 percent) ... NXT did a 0.16 in 12-17 (way ahead of AEW and Smackdown), 0.15 in 18-34 (up 88.9 percent), 0.35 in 35-49 (up 48.3 percent) and 0.43 in 50+ (last weeks’ number was not available.