[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets (Observer Newsletter Edition):

WWE’s firing of Thea Trinidad Budgen (Zelina Vega) over its new social media policy was something that was, given the circumstances, both inevitable and unavoidable. But what it leads to is an entirely different story, that could have significant ramifications. Budgen, 29, was fired for refusing to get rid of her Twitch platform, and, when WWE performers were directly told to get rid of money making social media platforms, doubled down so to speak and started an Only Fans account. As soon as WWE came down with the doctrine the issues were inevitable since some of the women, Budgen being one of them, was earning more money through those platforms than she was as a WWE performer. It made no sense for her to give up her platforms. And WWE had no choice but to fire her for doing so. There is the big question as to whether, without the exposure on WWE television, she can continue to make the level of money she has from those platforms. At the same time, when her 90 day non-compete is up on 2/11, she will no doubt have some, if not plenty of offers to return to wrestling to make up some if not all of that lost income and be back on television with exposure, although not WWE-level exposure. After being told on 11/13 that she was being let go, but about 15 minutes before it was announced, she tweeted that she was in favor of unionization. That made WWE’s announcement of her firing immediately after the worst possible timing for the company, particularly since the social media ban had already opened up the company’s independent contractor vs. employee status to major discussion. Andrew Yang, who talks to several WWE talents and is very aware of the situation, had vowed to use his political influence on that status once the Biden administration takes office on 1/20. Yang tweeted shortly after Budgen’s firing “I haven’t forgotten about Vince McMahon.” Her plight that night also drew the attention of Gabrielle Carteris, the President of SAG AFTRA, the union for actors in the U.S., which provides a tremendous benefits package. A number of pro wrestlers who have done acting gigs are members of that union. The ramifications are tricky, because some of their bylaws would be a positive for wrestling but not all would fit in well ... Budgen spoke to SAG-AFTRA personally on 11/19. In an official statement by the union, they wrote on Twitter, “Powerful conversation with Thea Trinidad (Zelina Vega) today. We support her and others as they work to protect and empower themselves" ... There was some talk of her willingness to take down her Twitch account, and she had even said on Twitch when the story first broke that her account may not be up longer. According to one person in the company with knowledge of the situation, she was told about it by Mark Carrano, asked to talk to Vince McMahon and Carrano told her that he doesn’t want to talk to you and he was escorted out of the building. Wrestlers and unionization has been a topic spoken of for decades. There had been places where there were unofficial unions. In Japan, union benefits are simply part of working for the company and wrestlers are considered employees. Mexico has had a wrestlers union for decades and has wielded power at times but for probably 30 years has not been considered significant. Like with fighters, there has always been talk of unions by U.S. wrestlers, and almost all, after their careers are over, come to the idea that there should have been. As compared to those who compete in real sports that drive similar revenue, wrestlers have no benefits, most notably no pension plan and no collective bargaining and non-union UFC performers are paid 40 cents to the dollar of what they generate as compared to those in other major sports, while in WWE, that figure is closer to 16 cents on the dollar if not less with the new TV deals. While salaries are the highest in history, as a percentage of gross revenue, WWE salary figures are the lowest since talent’s percentage was still based on house shows and PPV revenue long after those were no longer the two key revenue drivers, and talent didn’t share in these new television deals. The only reason the salary structure did increase in recent years was new contracts had larger downside based on the fact there is real competition now for top talent. As far as how this plays out, it will be interesting. Privately wrestlers are hoping for Yang to be able to pull something off, but there is a question is if they will stand with him in a fight, which ultimately they will probably need to do. That was the key in salary increases and benefits gained in other sports decades ago, the threat of a strike, but also having the interest of powerful organizers, which nobody has taken the interest in pro wrestlers to do, and nobody powerful enough has taken the interest in fighters either ... The difference is the mentality of the performers. Even 50 years ago, while talent in “real sports” could be and were guilt tripped into thinking that they shouldn’t complain and how much better they have than the Average Joe, there was still an ego of believing in worth because they were elite level athletes. With wrestling, even elite level performers have a weird loyalty to an industry that, except in rare cases, has no loyalty back ... The Saudi Arabia flight situation and the way talent backed down when put on the spot has given management the belief that from an internal standpoint, the talent will not band together. And they are likely correct. Even here, while many talents talked privately about the situation, few addressed it publicly and none said anything publicly against management ... The independent contractor vs. employee issue is very different, because there are questions regarding classification and WWE talent are very clearly employees treated as independent contractors. They are the only ones not allowed to work anywhere else on their off days, although AEW and ROH does limit its top talent in doing so, they can with approval or in the case of ROH, do so outside of the U.S. and Ontario. They are the only ones limited in ways to promote themselves, and as limited in making money on outside channels. Historically, pro wrestlers have been independent contractors, but since the era of exclusive contracts, that has not been the case. An investigation leading to either changes or a re-classification of status is very possible. The odds of talent banding together to join SAG AFTRA and using them for muscle in a united front has lower odds of happening. The background is that WWE has felt that its performers should not be able to make money using their character names outside WWE. There is a strong argument in their favor ... WWE months ago saw that talent had found a way to make significant money in social media. This led to the company wanting to make that money. From a company standpoint, the idea would be to have WWE negotiate with the social media channels for deals, and having individuals with their own deals would undercut WWE’s plans. So from that standpoint, it’s understandable. Where that falls apart is that as independent contractors, and not employees, WWE arguably has the right to limit talent working for other wrestling companies in their field, but they should not have the right to limit them earning money outside working as a pro wrestler. Independent contractor status is meant to be for someone like a plumber or a contractor to build a fence or a home. The person hiring them doesn’t have the right to not allow them to ply their trade elsewhere, let alone make money doing side gigs in other fields. WWE itself is looking for its own deal with Twitch. In fact, just this past week, they started listing for a Motion Graphics Designer to work in their Advanced Media Group, the department responsible for social media platforms, original short-for digital series and the WWE Network. The listing said that the job is specifically for Twitch, indicating the obvious, that the WWE’s move was that they wanted to make a deal and have company exclusivity. They are also looking for on-air hosts to be the faces of this new project. While there have been reports that the new policy regarding Twitch and Cameo and Only Fans is from new President Nick Khan, the idea dates back long before Khan was in the company. The guy people backing Vince on it were Bruce Prichard and Brad Blum, with Prichard being notable because not only is he an employee and not an independent contractor, but he is still doing outside stuff, his podcast with Conrad Thompson. He made it clear he wouldn’t give up the podcast when Vince hired him and that was agreed upon. But that makes talent even more unhappy because they are not employees and being forced to give up outside money-making opportunities. There have been few serious attempts at unionization over the years and most were quickly squashed.

There were a few key changes in the 11/22 Survivor Series, based on injuries and a WWE title change. Drew McIntyre beat Randy Orton to win the WWE title on the 11/16 Raw show, and moved into the top singles spot on the show where he faces Roman Reigns, with neither title at stake. The change was seemingly telegraphed on 11/13 when McIntyre did a show-long angle with Reigns, including beating Jey Uso in the television main event. All the key players involved prior to McIntyre beating on Raw were of the impression it was Reigns vs. Orton for the show. It is possible Orton was tipped off, but the belief among many in the company is Orton likely figured it out when he found out McIntyre was on Smackdown doing an angle with Reigns. It’s more interesting, not just because you have a face vs. heel dynamic, but the belief was Reigns would beat Orton, while with McIntyre, you have the two most protected guys on the roster facing each other. Of course with no title at stake and a high chance of interference, the result isn’t all that important. Two other injuries over the last two weeks have changed the show, both in the women’s match. Mandy Rose suffered a shoulder injury when her leg got tangled in the ropes as she was being thrown out of the ring by Nia Jax on the 11/9 Raw show. The injury was kept quiet, although we did report it, but they found out she wouldn’t be able to do the show. On 11/16, they did a storyline cover in a trios match where Shayna Baszler, her scheduled teammate, stomped on her elbow to “injure” her. Then the decision was made to take out Dana Brooke and do a worked injury, leading to Peyton Royce & Lacey Evans as a new tag team replacing them. This came just days after Royce on Twitter claimed she was not going to be part of a tag team with Evans or anyone. When the team with Billie Kay was broken up, the idea from Vince McMahon was for Royce and Bianca Belair to both get singles pushes. A third change was made when Chelsea Green broke her wrist on the 11/13 Smackdown after being dropkicked off the apron by Liv Morgan. Green had not been announced for the match, but she was scheduled to win the four-way that night.

WWE officially announced its move to Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, FL for all Raw, Smackdown and PPV shows starting with the 12/11 Smackdown show. The company had to move from the Amway Center in Orlando due to the building being needed for other sports starting on 12/5, so the last show will be the 12/4 Smackdown show. It is believed the 12/7 Raw show will be from the Performance Center, where NXT runs. It would appear the domed baseball stadium would house WWE tapings until March, if needed. The first date for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays baseball team is 3/30. WWE officials told us that right now there are no plans for allowing spectators, even with the size of the facility, which holds 42,735 fans for baseball. We had reported Tropicana Field as the frontrunner for the new location for television two weeks ago. It will likely be the home of the Royal Rumble, while plans at this point are still for Raymond James Field in Tampa to host WrestleMania on 3/28, but any plans that far off depend on things completely out of everyone’s hands in relation to the virus.

A story by Sportico and John Wallstreet examined an issue that, in hindsight, could be a key going forward with either WWE or UFC, and perhaps even AEW. The story regarded the economics of a media company buying a major sports league and thus owning its broadcast rights. This was actually the mentality of when Bellator was purchased by Viacom in 2011. At the time Kevin Kay, who at the time was the head of Spike TV, spoke to us and noted that they were the station that built UFC, but that with every contract negotiation, the price went up, and FOX’s $100 million per year deal was something a station of their size couldn’t afford to match. The idea was that by owning Bellator, they would not have to pay rights fees, and if they made it popular, wouldn’t have to worry about losing it to a competitor. The Sportico story noted that for a major sports league that has individual owners, such a deal would be impossible, but it would make sense for UFC, noting that the $300 million per year ESPN paid for UFC television rights in 14 years would have made up the price they could have bought the entire company for. In actuality, because of the purchase of the PPV rights as well, ESPN pays UFC about $500 million per year. Of course in 2016, when UFC was put on sale, the economics were different. ESPN did have interest in buying it, but wasn’t willing to match the $4 billion purchase price Endeavor came through with. Today, ESPN would pay UFC that much money over eight years and end with no ownership rights ... ESPN, if it were to make an offer for UFC now, would be well above $4 billion since UFC is still incredibly profitable. But long-term it may be worth their while ... Had ESPN had the foresight to make this deal for $4 billion in 2016, they would have full ownership for life and be in far better shape on the deal. Of course at that point UFC was in the middle of a contract with FOX, which would have complicated things. Had FOX made the purchase at that time, they would have retained the rights for life and also earned the PPV revenue and international rights. In combat sports, we’ve already seen two examples of this, the Bellator deal which hasn’t been as positive given Bellator’s television ratings have declined greatly and Bellator just hasn’t taken off as a big sports property ... The other example is WCW, owned from late 1988 to early 2001, by Turner Broadcasting. The entire mentality is different now. With today’s economics, WCW may not, even likely would not have been a worthless organization at the end even with the giant losses of late 1999 to its expiration date ... You can also say that Impact and ROH fit into this as smaller groups, owned by Anthem Media as flagship programming for AXS, and Sinclair, for syndicated programming. Neither company would exist today under the old circumstances, nor would Bellator with outside ownership. Of all products from a business standpoint, the one that approximates UFC the most is WWE. They are similar sized businesses, both very profitable with the key to each being television rights fees carry the company and there is also a lot of money in streaming. The object of both is the creation of stars. It used to be in each case the goal was to create matchups that people want to see, although both have pivoted more to a model of being able to fill hundreds of hours per year of content for television and streaming platforms. While some believe the declining ratings will hurt WWE when their current deals expire in late 2024, most analysts still believe their rights fees numbers will increase significantly. The feeling is as television weakens and entertainment fragments, wrestling may and likely will decline, but there will be fewer things that can guarantee decent weekly television numbers twice a week. Even if WWE gets a 40 percent increase across the board, if you include NXT, you’re talking $693 million just on U.S. rights in 2025. And the numbers I’ve seen for expectations are a lot better than a 40 percent increase. In ten years, that’s $7 billion, a price one could buy it for today easily, and that wouldn’t include never having to bid for the content again, and the ability to sell rights in other countries, and all the merchandising and network revenue. Of course it is a gamble. Tastes change and who knows if WWE will be around at this level of viable entity in the 2030s ... The other thing is that with AEW being so much more popular than Bellator, it could have value as well to a network. I think it would need at least another year or two at this level because they aren’t a name brand ... There is also the idea of partial ownership, which is a completely different issue. The problem with that is the key for ownership is to not have to worry about escalating rights fees and bidding wars, but with partial ownership that wouldn’t be the case. But more-and-more, the economics of FOX or NBCU owning WWE make more sense than they ever have in the past.

AAA: With COVID cases on the rise in Mexico City, the odds of TripleMania with fans happening this year continues to decrease. The original date for the show was 12/5, and they were considering 12/19 as a backup date, but Canelo Alvarez, who is Mexico’s biggest boxing star, may fight that night although with attendance a non-issue perhaps that means it’s contingent on getting a television deal. From what we understand, they will be running a show soon and given the conditions in Mexico, it will likely be with no fans.

New Japan and Rizin were the key companies in a multi-partisan meeting with governmental officials regarding running shows under the current conditions. The meeting was held on 11/19 headed by pro wrestling Hall of famer Hiroshi Hase of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, Akihiro Oota of Komeito, Kazuya Shinba of the Democratic Party for the People, and Yoshihiko Noda of the Constitutional Democratic Party. Also present were Seiko Noda of the LDP, independent member of the House of Councilors and former fighter Genki Sudo, as well as Eriko Imai of the LDP, who has a son training to be a pro wrestler ... Hase said the Japanese government has several fans who are proud supporters of professional wrestling and martial arts, that are happy to support in any way they can ... Nothing was confirmed but one of the things both companies were hoping for was to get the government to allow them to bring in foreign athletes to shows without them having to quarantine for two weeks in a Japanese hotel before being allowed out

Crackle, a new streaming network, is launching a series called Heroes of Lucha Libre. All that is said is that it will be a new series with a fictitious promotion based out of Mexico City and it debuts on 11/25. The 11-episode scripted show will be based around the characters of Rey Misterio Jr., Mil Mascaras, Tinieblas Jr. Alushe, Dragon Lee and Blue Demon. There will also be a live match product that has been in production for nearly two years. Sam Adonis, Pirata Morgan, Oriental and Ruben Zamora are producers of the wrestling itself

The Young Bucks were at a virtual Comic Con and knocked about [AEW] doing a world tag league like they do in Japan using international teams and non-AEW teams competing for a trophy. Matt said they’ve talked about doing a tournament like New Japan does and that they would be open minded about using outside tag teams but also feel they have enough talent to do it without using any outside teams

Jon Moxley (Jonathan Good), 34, and wife Renee Paquette, 35, are expecting their first child. On Dynamite in the middle of a promo, Moxley casually mentioned having a pregnant wife at home which is the first anyone had been told of it. She has actually been pregnant for some time and she was about to announce it publicly. His first idea was that it’s nobody’s business but then he realized that the reality of being in the public eye is that you have to at some point acknowledge it. He was shown instagram notices on how celebrities have done it and found them gross and pretentious but never even considered the idea of announcing it in a wrestling promo. Then at 2 a.m. before the show, he came up with the inspiration to do a promo about his dad, which, by the way, was 100 percent real. On the morning of the show, when he woke up in Jacksonville, he decided he could tie it in, texted her at home and told her about it and that her phone would be exploding that nigh

The 11/25 AEW show, a taped show, may do a low rating since the show on the night before Thanksgiving last year did a bad number, and then did one of the best DVR numbers in the history of the show. The younger audience clearly went out on what is traditionally one of the two biggest bar nights of the year. NXT did 810,000 viewers and 0.24 the night before Thanksgiving while AEW did 663,000 and 0.26. That may be different this year because the bar scene will likely not be as prevalent ... For December, they will be going every other week. The 11/25 show was taped on 11/19. Last year’s night before Thanksgiving show did a terrible number, so if that happens again this year it may not mean much, because last year went on to do some of the best DVR numbers they had ever done. They will go live on 12/2 with the Winter is Coming show with the Jon Moxley vs. Kenny Omega title match. They then will tape 12/9 on 12/3, go live on 12/16 and tape the 12/23 show on 12/17, and go live on 12/30 and again live on 1/6 ... The Inner Circle Las Vegas promos were filmed at The Cromwell, formerly known as The Barbary Coast Hotel, which was Zane Bresloff’s weekend home when he’d be gambling in Las Vegas. The guy in the dragon costume was Piff the Magic Dragon, a Vegas entertainer who became a name on “America’s Got Talent ... They are also now doing retro 70s/early 80s style Mid Atlantic Championship Wrestling promos on Twitter. Tony Schiavone is in the role he had at the start of his career running down the card and where to get tickets and then interviews one of the main eventers who does a promo. This has been fun to watch for nostalgia reasons, but as far as the actual goal, getting people to buy tickets, it doesn’t appear to have made any difference. . Ticket sales for 11/18 were really weak. With about 650 seats for sales, they had less than 180 sold as of 11/16. They tried to push ticket sales by saying that the people with tickets to 11/18 will get the first shot at tickets to 12/2, which would be the next show with Jon Moxley vs. Kenny Omega for the title. They also added a non-contact autograph session for ticket holders to the show. They ended up with 450 in the building with 400 paid and 50 sponsor tickets

Regarding Nick Khan, one person in the [WWE] company who knows everyone at the top level said, “Nick is the sharpest, most street smart person in that position in quite some time. (George) Barrios understood Wall Street. Michelle (Wilson) had a long list of connections and tremendous market knowledge in terms of the TV landscape, emerging companies and distribution portals. Donna Goldsmith, Stu Snyder, none of these people have Nick’s common sense understanding of the true dynamic and bottom line street business.” “On the flip side, he’s used to calling his own shots Now he answers to a monarch, a dictator. The dynamic will be interesting to watch.

WWE advertised a one-time only cameo appearance by Undertaker where only 30 fans would get to have a personalized conversation with Undertaker at the price of $1,000 each. As it turned out, as of last word, 11 signed up

There were reports Aleister Black asked to go back to NXT and was turned down. That’s basically true as far as smoke and fire but not exactly true. We were told he didn’t directly ask and get turned down, but he did float the idea around and nobody seemed interested when he did so

The day of the 11/13 Smackdown show was stressful because on Thursday night or Friday morning, Vince McMahon completely rewrote the show so that none of the writers nor the producers knew anything that was going to happen until McMahon came in with the finished product. One person there told us that every week these days is kind of like this nowadays

Paul Levesque is going through budgets trying to find a way to implement some type of a show that would get more NXT talent ring time and exposure. They aren’t going to do house shows but they may add something in some form

Jax, in response to the idea a vaccine is coming, indicated she wouldn’t be taking it because “God made my immune system and I trust him most.

The most-watched shows of the past week on the WWE Network were: 1. Brothers of Destruction; 2. Raw Talk on 11/16; 3. Mortician: The Story of Paul Bearer; 4. Best of Survivor Series; 5. Day of Hell in a Cell 2020; 6. Talking Smack from 11/14; 7. Undertaker’s Last Ride episode one; 8. Uncool with Alexa Bliss and Taylor Harrison; 9. Chasing Glory with Lilian Garcia and Cesaro; 10. Survivor Series 2019. NXT on 11/11 finished 11th for the week. NXT U.K. on 11/12 finished 24th

WWE Ratings, AEW vs. NXT Ratings:

SPOILER: show

Raw on 11/16, built around the Drew McIntyre WWE title win over Randy Orton, held the audience well, which was to be expected. The good news is the 1,779,000 viewers was the best the show has done since 9/28, and the 1,728,000 viewers in hour three was the best since 8/24. It was the lowest third hour drop from second hour since September 24, 2018, and before that you’d have to go back to October 2016 before you’d get such a strong third hour holding onto the audience. But a rare WWE title match advertised for a week featuring a contender who has been booked strongly and people saw as having a chance to win, particularly after Friday when it was heavily telegraphed, should have done well. The bad news is the gain from the last few weeks was mostly over 50 viewers. The 0.51 in 18-49 tied for the second lowest since 9/28. The audience was up 5.3 percent from last week, but 18-49 was down 3.8 percent and 18-34 was down 7.7 percent. Raw finished 27th overall on cable, better than it has been doing more because news channels were going back down to more normal levels ... Raw was fifth in 18-49, behind three NFL-related shows on ESPN and Below Deck on Bravo ... The first hour did 1,868,000 viewers. The second hour did 1,740,000 viewers. The third hour did 1,728,000 viewers. Unlike last week where the women saved the third hour, this week was the opposite, as it was the men who stuck around and women didn’t. In the first-to-third hour movement, women 18-49 dropped 25.0 percent, men 18-49 increased 1.5 percent, teenage girls dropped 20.4 percent, teenage boys increased 11.9 percent and over 50 dropped only 2.3 percent. The latter is very unique because that audience often falls in hour three just because of the nature of older people not staying up as late to watch television and even under the best of circumstances that will drop ... As compared to the same week last year, Raw was down 16.4 percent overall, 25.0 percent in 18-49 and 44.2 percent in 18-34.

Smackdown on 11/13 did a 1.40 rating 2,234,000 viewers (1.32 viewers per home) and an 0.63 in 18-49 (825,000 viewers). The show was actually up 0.7 percent in households, but down 3.5 percent in viewers due to the decline in viewers per home, from last week’s show headlined by the Sasha Banks vs. Bayley title match. Really, for this show to only drop that much from the big number that match drew is a strong showing. The 18-49 number was down 4.7 percent. The show did 173,000 viewers in men 18-49 (down 4.4 percent from last week), 118,000 in women 18-49 (down 8.5 percent), 340,000 in men 35-49 (up 1.5 percent) and 194,000 in women 35-49 (down 13.9 percent). The women’s drops were expected since the women’s number was way up from usual likely due to the Bayley vs. Sasha Banks match ... FOX placed second to ABC in 18-49 and was last of the four networks in total viewers and last among all network shows in viewers, but tied for second in 18-49 with 20/20 and behind Shark Tank (0.8) ... The rise in Smackdown combined with less new network competition has led to this being the closest any show has done to the prior year, as it’s only down 4.7 percent in household ratings, down 3.2 percent in viewers and down 8.0 percent in 18-49 and the same in 18-34. Usually these drops are 20 to 40 percent from last year depending on the age demo, more younger than older. Last year’s show was a taped show and did a little less than usual.

In a surprise, particularly since Raw had its biggest match of the year, this was the first week where AEW beat Raw in both males and females 18-34. There were several weeks prior to Thunderdome where AEW beat Raw, and even Smackdown, in women 18-34, and even overall, but it was the gap with women being higher and not winning with men. Smackdown, with the network edge, was tops in 18-34 with both men and women. AEW did 98,000 men 18-49 for 95,000 for Raw, and did 87,000 women to 70,000 for Raw. It was also the biggest 18-49 head-to-head gap on Wednesdays of the year, as AEW did its best opposed mark since 1/15 (477,000 viewers) and NXT tied its second worst (178,000 viewers). The other big note is The Young Bucks vs. Top Flight, the debuting brothers Darius & Duante Martin, did 526,000 viewers (0.41) in 18-49, the best mark for anything on Dynamite since the 3/4 show in front of fans where Chris Jericho & Sammy Guevara vs. Jon Moxley & Darby Allin did 528,000 viewers in the key demo. Just behind it was the return of Pac vs. The Blade at 523,000 viewers. Overall, AEW Dynamite on 11/18 did 850,000 viewers and 0.37 (477,000 viewers) in 18-49 to NXT’s 638,000 viewers and 0.14 (178,000) in 18-49. If you go head-to-head and take over the overrun, the NXT numbers decline very slightly to 634,000 viewers and 175,000 in 18-49. AEW ranked No. 7, but really No. 4 since the NBA Draft was split into three shows and was clear No. 1 for the night. It was the No. 1 entertainment show since the other three shows beating it were news shows. AEW beat everything but the NBA draft in men 18-49. It beat everything but the NBA draft and Sports Center in 18-34 overall. NXT was No. 56 in 18-49 and No. 17 in the entertainment category. The NBA draft was split up into three shows on ESPN, 7:30 p.m. show that did 1,508,000 viewers and 0.68. The 8-11 p.m. show that went against AEW and NXT and did 2,587,000 viewers and 1.10. And the 11 p.m. to 12:24 a.m. show that did 998,000 viewers and 0.39. AEW was up 11.3 percent in viewers and 22.6 percent in 18-49 from last week. The keys look to be more interest in the show than the past few weeks which would be the various key segments, far more interest in 18-49, and news shows getting back to normal levels after weeks of blow away numbers form the election. NXT was up 0.9 percent in viewers but down 15.2 percent in 18-49. As compared to the same week last year, AEW was down 4.8 percent in viewers, 5.1 percent in 18-49 but up 8.0 percent in 18-34. NXT was down 30.3 percent in viewers and 53.3 percent in 18-49. AEW doubled NXT in every key demo except women 35-49 and beat NXT nearly four-to-one in men 18-34, nearly seven-to-one in women 18-34. AEW did 98,000 in men 18-34 (up 127.9 percent from last week) to 25,000 for NXT (down 10.7 percent). AEW did 87,000 in women 18-34 (up 55.4 percent) to 13,000 for NXT (down 43.5 percent). AEW did 199,000 in men 35-49 (down 1.5 percent) to 83,000 for NXT (down 12.6 percent). AEW did 93,000 in women 35-49 (up 5.7 percent) to 57,000 for NXT (down 10.9 percent). In the main event battle, AEW with Cody Rhodes & Darby Allin vs. Brian Cage & Ricky Starks did 722,000 viewers and 428,000 in 18-49. NXT with Io Shirai vs. Rhea Ripley did 675,000 and 182,000 in 18-49. It should be noted that was the closest NXT came in total viewers and NXT gained 80,000 viewers and 32,000 in 18-49 for its main event while AEW lost 100,000 viewers and 37,000 in 18-49 for its main event, and those numbers being so close indicates most of the movement in the main event segment was from AEW to NXT to see the women’s title match. NXT went five minutes long and after AEW ended with Finn Balor and Pat McAfee’s crew and the Undisputed Era and they were able to get 73,000 new viewers and 68,000 in 18-49 to finish at 748,000 and 250,000. When NXT always had an overrun people patterned things and it could grow 200,000 viewers, but now it was basically most people didn’t know and didn’t switch over, but a number did. AEW doubled NXT in every quarter in 18-49 and tripled NXT in quarters five and six. AEW opened with 975,000 viewers and 526,000 in 18-49 for Young Bucks vs. Top Flight. NXT opened with 692,000 viewers and 194,000 in 18-49 for Johnny Gargano vs. Leon Ruff. In quarter two, AEW did 882,000 viewers and 474,000 in 18-49 for the Inner Circle in Las Vegas part one, the Director X video and a Jon Moxley promo. NXT did 643,000 viewers and 196,000 in 18-49 for Cameron Grimes vs. Dexter Lumis in a blindfold match, a Shotzi Blackheart promo and the beginning of Candice LeRae & Indi Hartwell vs. Kacy Catanzaro & Kayden Carter. In quarter three, AEW did 812,000 viewers and 432,000 in 18-49 for Orange Cassidy vs. Kip Sabian. NXT did 638,000 viewers and 179,000 in 18-49 for the ending of LeRae & Hartwell vs. Catanzaro & Carter and Kushida vs. Arturo Ruas. In quarter four, AEW did 892,000 viewers and 507,000 in 18-49 for the contract signing that didn’t happen and part two of the Inner Circle Las Vegas trip. NXT did 618,000 viewers and 176,000 in 18-49 for Dakota Kai & Raquel Gonzalez vs. Toni Storm & Ember Moon. In quarter five, AEW did 899,000 viewers and 523,000 in 18-49 for Pac vs. The Butcher and the post-match. NXT did 600,000 viewers and 155,000 in 18-49 for the ending of Kai & Gonzalez vs. Storm & Moon and the post-match, and Timothy Thatcher vs. August Gray, In quarter six, AEW did 794,000 viewers and 463,000 in 18-49 for Thunder Rosa vs. Serena Deeb. NXT did 595,000 viewers and 150,000 in 18-49 for the Thatcher/Tommaso Ciampa confrontation, a Ciampa interview and a three-way brawl with Ruff, Priest and Gargano. In quarter seven, AEW did 823,000 viewers and 465,000 in 18-49 for the end of Rosa vs. Deeb and the post-match. NXT did 608,000 viewers and 167,000 in 18-49 for the beginning of Shirai vs. Ripley for the title. AEW did a 0.16 in 12-17 (up 45.5 percent), 0.27 in 18-34 (up 86.9 percent), 0.47 in 35-49 (up 0.7 percent) and 0.27 in 50+ (same as last week) ... NXT wasn’t in the top 50 so we don’t have as detailed a breakdown as usual, but the show did 65.8 percent male in 18-34 and 59.3 percent male in 35-49 to 60.7 percent in 18-49.