[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets (Observer Newsletter Edition):

Kenny Omega turned full-blown heel, beat Jon Moxley for the AEW title, and appears to be paired with Don Callis as part of an AEW vs. Impact storyline, while Sting returned to TNT television for the first time in nearly 20 years as the headlines of the “Winter is Coming” episode of Dynamite on 12/4. The two angles were key parts of the tweet sent out on 11/11 on how the balance of power was changing, with the idea the return of Pac, something of a disappointment as the end result given the nature of the tweet, was just the first of several steps. Moxley vs. Omega, outdoors in 40 degree weather, still had a great big fight feel live according to those there. It’s very difficult to get a good response from a freezing crowd, but they were on their feet a lot. The show was set up for 750 paid and the rest being sponsors and those in Jacksonville who had associations with the football team or other connections to the family, and there were just over 1,000 in the building. The story of the match is that Omega made a gentleman’s agreement with the idea that there would be no weapons used, and they would win or lose on their own merit ... Moxley got out of the One Winged Angel twice. Moxley used a paradigm shift into the heaters at ringside. They teased that Omega was badly burned, or knocked out. The doctor came out. Callis, who was announcing ran to ringside to check on Omega. Moxley waited but finally threw Omega into the ring and threw punch after punch from the mount, basically the idea from an MMA standpoint that the ref had to stop it, which he didn’t. Callis said over the mic that Omega was hurt. Moxley shoved down Callis. In doing so, he dropped the mic. Omega picked up the mic, and hit Moxley with it, violating the gentleman’s agreement about not using a foreign object. Moxley was bleeding and Omega hit four straight V triggers and got the pin with the One Winged Angel at 28:27. Callis got up and he and Omega ran off, with the idea that they stole the title and were leaving, not having the in-ring celebration, which would have made Omega a babyface since the crowd celebrated his victory big at first. They ran past Tony Khan, as well as all the wrestlers backstage, and into the parking lot. Alex Marvez went to interview Omega & Callis, Omega said nothing and Callis said that he would explain everything on Tuesday. Marvez said Dynamite is Wednesday, and Callis said, no, on Impact on AXS TV. There was a lot of controversy regarding the nature of the finish, both with the idea of doing a promotional feud with Impact, which has some good talent but no buzz and a relatively small audience. In addition, Impact runs on Tuesday, the same as AEW Dark. Clearly this angle makes Impact relevant, which builds up a competitor. The promotion vs. promotion angle done correctly is usually good and AEW was looking for something to jump start business going into the new year. Sting and a promotion vs. promotion war were the key ideas. AEW’s attitude right now is to work with everyone, whether it be Impact, New Japan, AAA or NWA. Khan has been speaking to Rocky Romero regularly of late to try and open doors to New Japan, feeling the odds are better to do something with Harold Meij gone. Omega did a Kazuchika Okada tease with a rainmaker pose, which the announcers talked about. The door is open for matches like Young Bucks vs. Doc Gallows & Karl Anderson. Whether the storyline will be that Omega has “jumped” to Impact while holding the AEW title with Callis being his Bobby Heenan to Omega’s Nick Bockwinkel isn’t clear. We only know there will be interaction of some sort ... The build of the show as the biggest episode of Dynamite to date led to 912,000 viewers, of which 547,000, or an 0.42 rating, was in 18-49. The latter was by far the company’s biggest number of the year, and that’s the number that counts. Most important, this was the youngest median age of a Dynamite broadcast this year and highest percentage in 18-49. On the surface, a 912,000 number I’d consider a double and not a home run, but the most important number, the 0.42, is very much a home run. But whatever it did is far less important than the trends that follow. If this angle and Sting leads to regular shows beating 425,000 in 18-49 viewers, that’s a success. If the shows do 400,000 to 425,000 going forward, it is what it is, and it’s not bad in that the angle didn’t suck and Sting’s return wasn’t a flop. But it would not be a success either. Under 400,000 regularly would be a bad sign, although one would expect next week, with interviews with Sting and Omega scheduled, will do well above normal. If not, that would be a disappointment. In Canada, the show did nothing out of normal range with 108,500 viewers and 57,400 in 25-54. Sting arrived after a Cody Rhodes & Darby Allin vs. Ricky Starks & Powerhouse Hobbs tag match ... When the word got out a few weeks ago that Sting hadn’t signed a new contract with WWE, my gut was that, given his deal only entailed him having to make merchandise money without having to do much else, that not signing meant he was looking at another deal. Logically, this was the only place. With AEW trying to find a way to bring back the lapsed WCW audience, Sting was the only choice. Sting, who turns 62 in March, has signed a multi-year deal. With the face-paint, you can somewhat hide his age. Having seen him a few times over the years, he does look younger than his age, but he has also aged noticeably in the last few years. He has spinal stenosis and had neck issues that basically forced his retirement from the ring after his match with Seth Rollins. WWE had no interest in him as a television character. Khan wants to make him a regular television character, although he very clearly has to be protected when it comes to not taking bumps. Still it is known Sting wanted to do a Cinematic match with Undertaker, and for whatever reason, while fans have clamored for Undertaker vs. Sting for years, it has never been a match that appealed to McMahon. There are certainly questions. People would have rather the promotion vs. promotion angle be with New Japan, but the pandemic made that impossible. The Callis idea dates back before Callis first showed up for the Adam Page match. Sting’s appearance was the No. 10 most searched topic on the Internet on 12/3, but it was also just 20,000, but nothing from AEW television since the first week has ever trended, and nothing on Raw or Smackdown virtually ever does either. Pat Patterson was No. 7 the day before, but that was 200,000 searches. But it’s tricky. Sting’s debut was very much designed to be there for Christmas season merchandising. Good signs on 12/3 was that the Impact web site crashed and Sting set a Pro Wrestling Tees all-time record for one day sales of any T-shirt in its history. The Sting debuted did 1.2 million views the first day on YouTube, which is excellent for AEW and along the lines of a strong WWE angle, and keep in mind WWE has the huge YouTube advantage of popularity in India that AEW doesn’t really have at close to that level, and that’s where most YouTube wrestling views come from. In wrestling, the rule usually is that nostalgia works once. Sting had a long run with TNA and they were never able to really turn the corner with him. But he’s also not going to be portrayed as the top babyface in the ring. It’s another addition to a payroll that is largely fixed income based on television revenue. If Sting sells merchandise, or if somehow he can help facilitate selling international television deals or help consistently boost the 18-49 number, since AEW does share in ad sales and those are directly based on the 18-49 number, then it make sense. In the end, it will probably work for a few weeks and after that, it really depends on storylines, as does everything.

It is confirmed that Braun Strowman’s knee injury will keep him out of the TLC match, and that Drew McIntyre vs. A.J. Styles, who won a three-way over Keith Lee and Riddle on the 11/30 Raw, will headline. It’s only announced match right now, but the tentative lineup also includes Randy Orton vs. The Fiend, Shayna Baszler & Nia Jax vs. Lana & Asuka for the tag titles and Roman Reigns vs. Kevin Owens for the Universal title.

AAA officially announced a seven-match TripleMania card for 12/12 from Arena Ciudad in Mexico City, the home of the show since 2011. The show will be without fans. The promotion felt the show would work better in its usual home as an empty arena as opposed to the drive-in outdoor shows it had been doing in Mexico City. The show is scheduled for an 8 p.m. Eastern time slot, meaning it will go head-to-head with a UFC PPV show and the seven matches are scheduled to air live throughout Latin America on Space TV in a four-hour time slot. It will also air in Spanish live on the AAA Facebook and YouTube pages, but not on the AAA’s Twitch Channel, which is notable since the Twitch Channel is the paid service and the others are free. TV Azteca, the leading network in Mexico, will air the top matches of the show starting at 10:30 p.m. Multimedios, another TV Network in Mexico, will air the show on the next day. There will also be some Cinepolis movie theaters in the U.S. airing the show, but only on the day after and not live. At this point there is no English language announcing, only Spanish. The main event is a hair vs. hair match with Chessman facing Pagano. As noted here last week, Kenny Omega will be defending the AAA Mega heavyweight title against Laredo Kid in the No. 2 bout on the show. Given the situation with COVID and traveling, this is subject to change up until the day of the show but everyone is going with the idea it’s happening. Omega is the only U.S.-based wrestler announced for the show, but there will be some Americans and some Mexicans playing the Marvel characters in a heavily pushed cross-promotion. The identities are not clear but the belief is that the characters will be played by AAA stars, and at least one AEW wrestler and one MLW wrestler. One Impact wrestler, Kylie Rae, was originally going to be on the show but she will have to be replaced since she has left wrestling. With no fans, plans are scaled down somewhat as AAA originally wanted to be able to book Jon Moxley and other AEW talent, as well as Taya Valkyrie and the Colons ... During the press conference Dorian Roldan noted that Rush was unavailable on that date due to ROH television tapings going on that weekend and he’s world champion there. The same would go for Dragon Lee, who was not asked about, but is TV champion for ROH and on those tapings.

DRAGON GATE ... Boku R Shimizu, formerly Big R Shimizu, has changed his name again, and how he’s Bokutimo Dragon, doing an Ultimo Dragon parody. He sings his own version of Dragon’s entrance music

The weekly UWN PPV shows are no more for the time being. The show on 12/1 didn’t happen and it was said to be due to the new COVID restrictions in the state of California. That was also where NWA Showcase was being taped, so for the time being, that show is off as well. After they made the call, a few days later Thunder Studios in Los Angeles, where both shows are taped, shut down. The They are planning to return when restrictions ease for the Mike Bennett vs. Chris Dickinson final of the UWN championship tournament

Duane Gill (Gillberg) was released from the hospital over the weekend after his heart attack and is doing better

Kevin Nash is listed as the star of a movie called “COVID-19: Invasion” and is the face of the movie poster. The story of the movie is that Chinese bats invade the U.S. and it’s up to Navy Seal Team Six to stop them. It’s listed as being in post-production and being filmed in Longview TX with a $3 million budget

While this got no media attention regarding the death of David Prowse, who played Darth Vader in the first three Star Wars movies, Prowse claimed to have been a pro wrestler in the U.K. during the 60s and 70s. The story was that it was a way to make money when he was competing in bodybuilding and weightlifting. Historian Bradley Craig noted to us over the weekend about Prowse having wrestled and I recall stories from the early 80s where Prowse talked about being a pro wrestler. Craig said that Johnny Kincaid had said Prowse did some matches and he was definitely at a British Wrestlers Reunion in 2012. But another U.K. historian, Tony Earnshaw, said that was an issue that came out when he became famous as Darth Vader and talked about it, but claims those stories are not true. It definitely became a controversy in pro wrestling in the U.K. in 1981 as Prowse basically claimed that pro wrestling was fake. Prowse was quoted in the Daily Mail on July 1, 1981, saying he was in tournaments and talked about instructions being chalked on a blackboard for the matches. Wayne Bridges, who was the world heavyweight champion at the time, then said, “Come off it, Dave. You are talking out of the back of your head. If you know as much about wrestling as you claim, what about taking me on at any venue you care to choose, at any time. I say that Prowse has never even been a wrestler for the promoters have no record of him ever appearing in the ring before the public and certainly his claims bear no relation to any of the tournaments in which I have appeared over the years.” There is nothing that can authenticate Prowse doing pro wrestling such as advertisements for cards with his name on them past his claims. He did play a character called “Charles the Wrestler” in a 1978 BBC adaption of the Shakespeare play “As You Like It.” Pat Roach, who was a major U.K. wrestling star, auditioned for the role as Darth Vader but Prowse got it.

Tony Khan, in promoting the Jon Moxley vs. Kenny Omega title match, talked about a lot of different subjects in a press call ... The idea is one show would be the tryout/developmental show where younger wrestlers would be featured and the other would be a show with the talent that isn’t wrestling on Dynamite that week. But if they are adding a one-hour TV show on TNT next year, you probably wouldn’t want two Dark shows per week

There is still no official start date for the second [AEW] show on TNT. Late first quarter would be an educated guess but there is nothing in place

Jon Moxley was on his wife Renee Paquette’s podcast and talked about an idea he and Josh Barnett had regarding shooting an angle for their Bloodsport match at a Bellator show in Honolulu, which would have been one year ago in December. It never happened because Barnett ended up getting sick and not fighting. “We were going to go to Honolulu, for a vacation, and it just so happened that Josh was fighting in Bellator. We were going to have dinner with Josh the night before and everything was fine. At this point, I'm scheduled to wrestle Josh at Bloodsport in April. This is December. This is an advantageous opportunity to get some press behind this thing. Josh is like, 'After the match, I'll do a promo. You jump in the cage, we do our business and promote Bloodsport. We'll make sure everyone is aware and you don't get arrested.' I was assuming (he wins). The details weren't clear, but I wasn't going to be a wuss. If I said I was going to follow through, I would follow through, even if I got arrested. I was set to jump in the cage at Bellator and start talking shit. Security or cops be damned. I was just hoping the whole Bellator locker room didn't empty and beat the f*** out of me,

Most of the key younger talent that they [AEW] are high on are being signed to five-year deals

Regarding Tessa Blanchard, who has still not surfaced anywhere since being released by Impact and only wrestled once since the pandemic started, which was a loss to Kylie Rae on Warrior Wrestling, as things stand right now, this [AEW] is not going to be her destination. Based on what we were told, when her name came up, the feeling was that while nobody will deny her talent and from that standpoint they know she’d be very valuable, especially with the nature of their women’s division, the decision was made to not pursue her

If there are more travel bans and quarantines within the U.S., it may not affect WWE and AEW because the state of Florida has now deemed all pro wrestlers in both companies as essential workers

Paul Levesque on a conference call for Takeover noted that when he said how the Rhea Ripley loss to Charlotte Flair would make sense down the line, and now it doesn’t, that COVID simply changed plans. I don’t know exactly what that means, because the banning of NXT talent going on main roster shows and keeping main roster guys off NXT because of COVID came months later. He also said the reason NXT wasn’t part of Survivor Series this year like it was last year was due to COVID and Vince McMahon’s decision because of outbreaks at the Performance Center to not have Performance Center talent interact with the Raw and Smackdown talent at this time, which does make sense given the timing of everything

NXT also had enough of a window after Mania to tie up whatever lose ends were left in the Ripley vs. Charlotte feud considering Charlotte didn't take her break from wrestling for medical reasons until a little over 2 months later. That was well before Vince's ban on NXT and main roster talent mixing together was issued.

The WWE filed for a motion to dismiss the claim against the company in the lawsuit filed by Samantha Tavel aka Candy Cartwright against WWE, Evolve Wrestling, Matt Riddle and Gabe Sapolsky. WWE’s argument is that it shouldn’t be part of the lawsuit because the Northern District of Illinois is not a valid venue as they had no involvement in anything regarding her that took place anywhere in Illinois. They also claim that her complaint fails to plausibly allege that WWE personally encouraged or assisted Riddle’s alleged acts of gender violence. They argued that even if the complaints against Riddle were true, courts have ruled that for the company to be tied in implies the company being in a conscious active role and not merely failing to act on a situation. They also claim that the defendant claimed Riddle was an employee of WWE, and they say he is not (the independent contractor deal) but even if he is, he wasn’t during the time she alleged the acts took place in Illinois. The lawsuit claims incidents following Evolve events in April 2017 and May 19, 2018, the latter being in Summit, IL, for jurisdictional purposes. They noted Riddle wasn’t even working for WWE at the time. They noted Riddle signed his first contract with WWE on August 8, 2018. They also said they had no involvement in the Evolve show and thus nothing ties anything related to this case to WWE within the jurisdiction of the Illinois court. They said the complaint has nothing that plausibly suggests WWE encouraged Riddle to sexually assault Tavel; or that WWE tried to convince him doing so would be a good idea. There wasn’t even an allegation that WWE knew about it. There was also a signed declaration from Mark Carrano, the Vice President of Talent Relations for WWE. He said WWE had no involvement in the Evolve shows in question. He said the claim in the suit that WWE provided rules for which Evolve had to comply were “Simply false.”

The top ten most watched shows of the week on the WWE Network were: 1. Liv Forever (special on Liv Morgan which many called a total expose of how badly disorganized WWE booking is); 2. 2020 Survivor Series; 3. Best of New Day; 4. Stone Cold Steve Austin’s Broken Skull Sessions with Undertaker; 5. Takeover War Games 2017; 6. NXT from 11/25; 7. Takeover War Games 2019; 8. Smackdown from 10/23; 9. Undertaker’s Most Bone Chilling matches; 10. Takeover War Games 2018. NXT U.K. was No. 11, much higher than usual, for the finals of the Heritage Cup. No. 13 was the 1991 WCW WrestleWar show. I’m not sure the reason why but maybe a podcast pushed it this week or WWE just decided to put it in rotation. The Best of NXT in Progress, a show airing matches with wrestlers in Progress who went on to NXT, was No. 15. 205 Live still didn’t crack the top 25

WWE Ratings, AEW vs. NXT Ratings:

SPOILER: show

Raw on 11/30 did 1,741,000 viewers and an 0.53 in 18-34, both of what should be considered good numbers, all things considered. Raw was down from the past two weeks, but that was the Drew McIntyre vs. Randy Orton-led show and last week was the day after Survivor Series. The story of the night was the teenage girl audience, and women in general. Just based on the men’s audience, this would have been the lowest number for Raw in history, as everything else was at the level for a show at record low levels. If women viewers were at normal levels, the audience for the show would have been 1,501,000, the record low. In 18-49, men were down 17.0 percent and women were up 9.4 percent from last week. In teenagers, boys were down 11.1 percent from last week while teenage girls were up 12.4 percent from last week. It was among the lowest numbers for male viewers in the history of the show, but for females 18-49, it was the best number since the day after WrestleMania, and for teenage girls, the best since the pandemic, even beating the day after Mania. Raw was fourth in 18-49, behind the NFL-related programming on ESPN, including the Seattle Seahawks vs. Philadelphia Eagles game that did 11,376,000 viewers, a 3.40 in 18-49 and 2.51 in 18-34 ... The first hour did 1,828,000 viewers. The second hour did 1,763,000 viewers. The third hour did 1,632,000 viewers. Overall the show was down 3.7 percent from last week in total viewers, 7.0 percent in 18-49 and 6.9 percent in 18-34. As compared to the same week last year, the show was down 21.2 percent in viewers, 23.2 percent in 18-49 and 40.0 percent in 18-34. However, in males 18-49 it was down 36.2 percent from last year while women 18-49 were even. In teenagers, boys were down 47.3 percent from the same week last year while girls were also identical to the same show last year ... The show did 77,000 viewers in males 18-34, 115,000 in women 18-34, 308,000 in men 35-49 and 180,000 in women 18-49. The first-to-third hour declines were 12.8 percent in women 18-49, 10.9 percent in men 18-49, 1.0 percent in teenage girls, 8.5 percent in teenage boys and 10.8 percent in over 50.

Smackdown on 11/27 did a 1.27 rating, 2,141,000 viewers (1.39 viewers per home, well above usual which indicates over Thanksgiving weekend that even though the viewers were down, people gathered together more to watch it with their families) and 0.60 (779,000 viewers) in 18-49. The decline of 13.0 percent in ratings, 8.0 percent in viewers and 10.1 percent in 18-49 was probably more related to Thanksgiving weekend and consistent with what the show did last year on the same weekend. At 0.6, Smackdown was tied for third place with Santa Claus is Coming to Town and Frosty the Snowman, but behind How the Grinch Stole Christmas and Illuminations the Minions Holiday show that both did 0.7s. Smackdown had the fewest viewers of all shows on the big four networks even though most were reruns. Smackdown also finished behind College football on ESPN which did 2,801,000 viewers and 0.78 ... Smackdown was only down 11.8 percent in ratings, 7.9 percent in total viewers from last year in total viewers, 11.3 percent in 18-49 and 40.0 percent in 18-34, the latter showing that the audience has aged up considerably over the past year. The show did 146,000 viewers in male 18-34, 77,000 in female 18-34, 347,000 in male 35-49 and 209,000 in female 35-49. In 18-49, the audience was 63.3 percent male. The first 30 minutes with Jey Uso, Roman Reigns and Paul Heyman out, Uso beating down Otis with a chair and Street Profits vs. Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode non-title did 2.23 million viewers, which was the high point. A Daniel Bryan interview, the Mysterio family/Murphy/King Corbin segment, an Undertaker video package and Bryan vs. Sami Zayn non-title did 2.11 million viewers. Kevin Owens confronting Uso and Reigns, Bianca Belair vs. Natalya and Murphy vs. Corbin did 2.21 million viewers. And the final segment with Big E, Crews and Zayn, Carmella interview and Uso vs Owens main event did 2.00 million viewers.

The one thing that it seems AEW can’t fight is the night before Thanksgiving, as for the second year in a row, that night had huge drops from the week before and was the first time since Halloween Havoc (Io Shirai vs. Candice LeRae for women’s title; Damien Priest vs. Johnny Gargano North American title; Rhea Ripley vs. Raquel Gonzalez), that AEW didn’t win with total viewers. While the early numbers had NXT up by a slim 712,000 to 710,000 margin, including the overrun, the final numbers had both shows at 712,000 viewers. The head-to-head numbers for 11/25 were 712,000 for AEW (1.51 viewers per home) and 709,000 for NXT. As would be expected, families watching together led to the Fox Thanksgiving afternoon football game doing 30,333,000 viewers and 2.08 viewers per home, both numbers the biggest of the season. AEW won in 18-49, by 0.26 (340,000 viewers) to 0.20 (253,000 viewers; 251,000 head-to-head), which was the closest since an AEW win on 6/24 of 0.22 to 0.19 (when NXT had Finn Balor vs. Johnny Gargano vs. Keith Lee where the winner was to get a shot at Adam Cole’s title). It was really the night that was the key, as AEW was No.7 in 18-49, trailing four news shows as well as a Hallmark Movie aimed at women (0.31) and Real Housewives of Orange County (0.28) ... AEW skewed older than usual, likely with a lot of its audience out on Wednesday, and maybe the oldest to date. But NXT skewed far younger than it has been doing. The median age of AEW and percentage of viewers in 18-49 were better than every sport event of the week on national television with the exception of seven soccer games, with the youngest skewing sports audience being the Seattle vs. Los Angeles MLS game on ESPN ... Last year on the night before Thanksgiving, AEW with its reliance on a younger audience on the biggest bar night of the year, fell greatly while NXT, with its key audience being older, did not. Still, NXT did far better than it has done in a long time in 35-49, although did not do well with 18-34, although still up from last week. With the loss of young viewers, AEW had its oldest audience to date and NXT was far younger than usual. There was some thought that AEW, which had its strongest key number since January for a show with head-to-head competition the week before, would hold up better between momentum and the idea that bars would not be as crowded this year. But that didn’t prove to be the case. But it was more the AEW viewership leaving because their biggest losses with the exception of Males 35-49 were in places NXT did not do well. NXT had more viewers throughout hour one, up 729,500 to 680,300, winning all four quarters when it comes to viewers. AEW had more viewers in hour two, up 739,300 to 689,300. AEW won in 18-49 in every quarter, with the closest being quarter four at 304,000 to 258,000 and the biggest gap being quarter six at 376,000 to 239,000. NXT did win quarter four in 35-49, by a 220,000 to 210,000 but lost the other seven in 35-49, and 18-34 saw AEW double NXT in the last five quarters and tripling in two of the five. AEW’s numbers were basically understandable for the two hours given everything else in television was down due to the night. But NXT did very well, better than in recent weeks even though the bad night. One would think it was the ladder match, but the ratings patterns say otherwise. NXT opened at a good level with the lead-in, but the post-match with Toni Storm turning on Ember Moon drew attention and Kushida vs. Timothy Thatcher held the audience as did the Kevin Owens segment with Johnny Gargano, Damien Priest and Leon Ruff. They lost some in other spots, but not a lot. The lesson is AEW was hurt by building the future, giving Jack Evans & Angelico vs. Top Flight and then a Powerhouse Hobbs match in a row. With new characters, the reality is they aren’t going to be over until getting the opportunity, but giving them that opportunity often doesn’t work that night. The turnaround with a 106,000 viewer increase and 60,000 in 18-49 came for Chris Jericho & Jake Hager vs. SCU, and then they continued to grow for the Omega-Moxley contract signing. They did drop for the women’s title match and the main event, beating NXT, but not by nearly the margin that has been the case of late. AEW did 74,000 in men 18-34 (down 24.5 percent from last week) to 28,000 for NXT (up 12.0 percent). AEW did 32,000 in women 18-34 (down 63.2 percent) to 20,000 for NXT (up 53.8 percent). AEW did 163,000 in men 35-49 (down 18.1 percent) and NXT did 141,000 (up 69.9 percent). AEW did 71,000 in women 35-49 (down 23.7 percent) and NXT did 64,000 (up 12.3 percent). AEW was down 16.5 percent in viewers and 29.1 percent in 18-49 from the prior week. NXT was up 11.6 percent in viewers and 42.1 percent in 18-49, with the key being the ladder match. As compared to last year, AEW was up 7.1 percent in viewers and up 0.9 percent in 18-49. NXT was down 12.1 percent in viewers and 16.7 percent in 18-49 as compared to the night before Thanksgiving last year. AEW took a major hit across the board, particularly with women, as compared to recent norms, but was up in over 50. In the main event battle, AEW with Butcher & Blade vs. Pac & Fenix did 703,000 viewers and 325,000 in 18-49. NXT with the Pete Dunne vs. Kyle O’Reilly ladder match for the man advantage did 682,000 viewers and 241,000 in 18-49. In the first quarter, AEW had Adam Page vs. John Silver and did 702,000 viewers and 345,000 in 18-49. NXT had Candice LeRae vs Ember Moon and did 805,000 viewers and 237,000 in 18-49. In the second quarter, AEW had a Kenny Omega promo, a Darby Allin video, Will Hobbs vs. Lee Johnson and the Taz promo with Cody Rhodes out and did 692,000 viewers and 336,000 in 18-49. This was AEW’s high point in 35-49. NXT did 721,000 viewers and 260,000 in 18-49 for the LeRae vs. Moon post-match and Toni Storm turning heel, plus a Legado del Fantasma interview and an Undisputed Era in-ring promo. This was NXT’s high point in 18-34. In the third quarter, AEW had 677,000 viewers and 318,000 in 18-49 for an Eddie Kingston promo with Jon Moxley out and the beginning of Jack Evans & Angelico vs, Top Flight. NXT had 697,000 viewers and 263,000 in 18-49 most of Timothy Thatcher vs. Kushida. This was NXT’s high point in 18-49. In the fourth quarter, AEW had 650,000 viewers and 304,000 in 18-49 for the ending of Evans & Angelico vs Top Flight, the post-match with the Yong Bucks, Nyla Rose & Vickie Guerrero and an FTR interview. NXT had 695,000 viewers and 258,000 in 18-49 for the ending of Thatcher vs. Kushida and a Rhea Ripley video package. In the fifth quarter, AEW had 756,000 viewers and 364,000 in 18-49 for Chris Jericho & Jake Hager vs. Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian. NXT had 706,000 viewers and 262,000 in 18-49 for the Kevin Owens show with Leon Ruff, Johnny Gargano and Damien Priest, as well as William Regal. This was NXT’s high point in 35-49. In the sixth quarter, AEW had 788,000 viewers and 376,000 in 18-49 for the Omega/Moxley in-ring, an Inner Circle promo and the beginning of Hikaru Shida vs. Anna Jay. This was the high point of the show for AEW as well as in 18-49. NXT had 682,000 viewers and 239,000 in 18-49 for Cameron Grimes vs. Jake Atlas, Dexter Lumis coming out, a Rhea Ripley interview with LeRae, Storm and Dakota Kai doing a beatdown an angle. In the seventh quarter, AEW had 710,000 viewers and 339,000 in 18-49 had Shida vs. Jay, a Matt Hardy interview and Ricky Starks, Will Hobbs and Brian Cage were there. This was AEW’s high point in 18-34. NXT had 687,000 viewers and 250,000 in 18-49 with Boa & Xia Lee, The Grizzled Young Veterans beat down on Ever Rise and LeRae and the beginning of the Kyle O’Reilly vs. Pete Dunne ladder match. In the eighth quarter, AEW had Butcher & Blade vs. Pac & Fenix and lot 7,000 viewers and 14,000 in 18-49. NXT lost 5,000 viewers and 9,000 in 18-49 for the ladder match. After AEW ended, the overrun gained 141,000 viewers and 84,000 in 18-49 ending at 823,000 and 325,000 in 18-49 for the end and post-match of the ladder match. AEW did a 0.09 in 12-17 (down 43.8 percent from last week, 0.15 in 18-34 (down 42.7 percent), 0.37 in 35-49 (down 20.5 percent) and 0.29 in 50+ (up 7.4 percent). Its audience was 70.1 percent male in 18-49 and 71.8 percent male in 12-17. NXT did an 0.05 in 12-17 (we don’t have comparisons with last week since NXT wasn’t in the top 50), 0.07 in 18-34 (up 26.3 percent), 0.33 in 35-49 (up 31.7 percent) and 0.38 in 50+. NXT was 66.8 percent male in 18-49 and 41.7 percent male in 12-17.

The Winter is Coming episode of AEW, built around the Jon Moxley vs. Kenny Omega match did the company’s best demo numbers of the year, including beating Raw in male 18-34 and beating Smackdown in women 18-34. But it didn’t beat either show overall in 18-34, with Smackdown at 223,000, Raw at 192,000 at 181,000. We don’t have complete details due to the Thanksgiving holiday delaying numbers, such as rankings. AEW did 913,000 viewers and 0.42 (543,000) in 18-49, the latter figure being the company’s best of the year. Seven of eight quarters beat the prior Wednesday night pandemic record of 526,000 viewers set by the Young Bucks vs, Top Flight match two weeks earlier. Omega vs. Moxley actually peaked in the first 15 minutes of the match, doing 952,000 viewers and 588,000 in 18-49, and the final quarter did 945,000 viewers and 581,000 in 18-49. The last 15 minutes of the show did do the high point of 210,000 viewers in 18-34. The NXT main event, Raquel Gonzalez vs. Shotzi Blackheart in a ladder match did 689,000 viewers and 221,000 in 18-49. NXT did 658,000 viewers and 0.16 (210,000 viewers) in 18-49. AEW was up 28.2 percent in viewers and 59.7 percent in 18-49, with a far younger fan base than usual. NXT was down 7.6 percent in viewers and 16.3 percent in 18-49. AEW more than doubled NXT in every key demo except women 35-49, and did seven times as many males 18-34 and 4.6 times as many females in 18-49 than NXT. AEW did 103,000 viewers in males 18-34 (up 39.2 percent from last week) to 14,000 for NXT (down 50.0 percent). AEW did 78,000 in females 18-34 (up 143.8 percent) to 17,000 for NXT (down 15.0 percent). AEW did 252,000 in males 35-49 (up 57.1 percent) to 109,000 for NXT (down 22.7 percent). AEW did 106,000 in women 35-49 (up 49.3 percent) to 70,000 for NXT (up 9.4 percent). AEW was 66.1 percent male in 18-49. NXT was 58.6 percent male. As compared to last year on the same week, AEW was up 7.3 percent in viewers and 31.3 percent in 18-49. NXT as compared to last year was down 22.1 percent in viewers and down 44.8 percent in 18-49. So the AEW audience was much younger this year and the NXT audience was much older. With the exception of the first quarter, AEW doubled NXT in 18-49 in every quarter. AEW opened with the Battle Royal doing 844,000 viewers and 451,000 in 18-49. NXT opened with a Pat Patterson tribute, plus Leon Ruff & Damien Priest vs. Santos Escobar & Raul Mendoza, which did 718,000 viewers and 252,000 in 18-49. In the second quarter, AEW did 899,000 viewers and 528,000 in 18-49 for Chris Jericho vs Frankie kazarian, which was a big 55,000 gain in viewers and 77,000 gain in 18-49. NXT did 701,000 viewers and 224,000 in 18-49 for the ending of Priest & Ruff vs. Escobar & Mendoza, and an Undisputed Era video. In the third quarter, AEW did 940,000 viewers and 553,000 in 18-49 for the ending of Jericho vs. Kazarian, the post-match, The Young Bucks angle and beginning of Britt Baker vs. Leyla Hirsch. NXT did 668,000 viewers and 206,000 in 18-49 for a Team LeRae interview and Cameron Grimes vs. August Gray. In the fourth quarter, AEW did 874,000 viewers and 522,000 in 18-49 for the post-match of Baker vs. Hirsch with the Thunder Rosa run-in and the beginning of Cody Rhodes & Darby Allin vs. Ricky Starks & Powerhouse Hobbs. NXT did 647,000 viewers and 199,000 in 18-49 for Jake Atlas vs Tony Nese. In the fifth quarter, AEW did 942,000 viewers and 558,000 in 18-49 for the bulk of Rhodes & Allin vs. Starks & Hobbs, the post-match wit Sting and a Hikaru Shida promo. NXT did 642,000 viewers and 194,000 in 18-49 for that Pat McAfee team promo and a Boa and Xia Li vignette. Quarter six saw AEW do 911,000 viewers and 559,000 in 18-49 for a preview of next week and the intros and opening minutes of Omega vs. Moxley. NXT did 619,000 viewers and 197,000 in 18-49 for Fabian Aichner & Marcel Barthel vs. Zack Gibson & James Drake. Quarter seven saw AEW do 952,000 viewers and 588,000 in 18-49 for Omega vs. Moxley. NXT did 577,000 viewers and 199,000 in 18-49 for the Tommaso Ciampa vs. Timothy Thatcher angle, War Games rundown and Thatcher interview. Quarter eight was a surprise in the sense that for the end of Omega vs. Moxley, while it was second highest (behind the prior quarter) demo number of the year, AEW did lost 7,000 viewers overall and 7,000 in 18-49 for the last 12 minutes of Omega-Moxley and the post-match. NXT gained 112,000 viewers and 30,000 in 18-49 for the Gonzalez vs. Blackheart ladder match, so the ladder match visual still helped them a lot, but they are totally burning ladder matches out.