[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets:

Originally Posted by Observer The Raw after WrestleMania last night did 2.10 million viewers, a number that just has to be accepted for what it is. The good news is the first-to-third hour drop, which had been near record levels the past two weeks, was 17 percent. That's still significant, but it was greatly alleviated by the Drew McIntyre vs. Big Show match which ended the show with strong gains ... The viewers were up nine percent from last week's record low, but there should have been a substantial increase coming off WrestleMania. It was down 29 percent from the 2.94 million viewers last year for the Raw after WrestleMania, but a huge drop from last year was a lock as well. The show was also up 19 percent from last week in the 18-49 demo. The three hours were: 8 p.m. 2.31 million viewers 9 p.m. 2.06 million viewers 10 p.m. 1.93 million viewers

Originally Posted by Observer McIntyre told ESPN that he locked his WWE title belt in a room until his win aired: “Things are not official until they happen. So just like everybody else, I sat on the couch and watched both days of WrestleMania. I enjoyed the show. It took my mind off of things. Watching myself was very crazy, being on the couch -- watching it just like everyone else, wondering what was going to happen. I kind of pushed out of my head what had happened. I was reacting to it like I was in the match. My wife had to move away from me, because I was darting from side to side with every F-5, with every Claymore. Finally, when I had won the title, I saw the emotion and remembered how real it was to me. In that moment, it was real again as I was watching it. I went upstairs, I opened the door and I took the title out, now that it was official. I had another moment with my wife in the house, and with my family on Zoom. I had my whole family on there."

Originally Posted by Observer WWE touted that they set a WrestleMania week record with more than 967 million video views across their digital and social platforms (including the WWE Network, WWE.com, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat), That’s an increase of 20 percent from last year. WWE also hyped that 46 million hours of content was consumed during WrestleMania week, which was up 28 percent from 2019.

Originally Posted by Observer Becky Lynch has now been Raw Women’s Champion for a full year. WALTER’s NXT United Kingdom Championship reign also reached its 365th day on Sunday.

Originally Posted by PWI WWE announced this afternoon that they will report their first quarter earnings for 2020 on 4/23. In a change from their usual handling of the earnings, the regular conference call discussing the report will take place at 5 PM EST that day instead of the usual 11 AM.

Originally Posted by Fightful More Stardom shows have been canceled. Stardom announced that all shows through May 6 have have been called off as a result of the ongoing coronavirus outbreak. In addition, Pro-Wrestling NOAH and Big Japan have either canceled or rescheduled some of its upcoming shows.

Originally Posted by PWI BeIn Sport is now airing what is being advertised as the Best of MLW every night at 10 PM EST. Basically, the episodes are older episodes of MLW FUSION TV, airing in repeat form to help the network with programming gaps due to the current coronavirus pandemic. So, if you are looking to revisit old episodes or seeking to catch past MLW content that you may have missed in the past, set for DVRs accordingly.

Originally Posted by PWI MLW released the following interview with Court Bauer ... MLW.com: What’s your strategy for producing programming on the horizon if the pandemic goes on for some time? Court: ... As for strategy… we have a plan and it ties into something the fans have been demanding since we relaunched in 2017. We have at a minimum 50 episodes being mapped out. We could comfortably go into mid 2021 without promoting a live event ... We are building business models for a return as early as June, one that anticipates a return in 15 months and a few in-between that range. We need to be ready for several scenarios. There’s no playbook for what we’re going through, so we just have to be nimble, prudent and realistic about this.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling MLW did get in one final taping on March 13th for the show in Tijuana, which they have not begun airing yet, so they’ll have weeks of new programming. The company is hopeful of five, if not six episodes out of the Tijuana tapings. There was one match that went long and could end up being a show unto itself.

Originally Posted by PWI The forthcoming Undertaker limited series on the WWE Network was filmed from 2017 through 2020, documenting The Undertaker from Wrestlemania 33 weekend in Orlando through current day. It was noted in the preview that aired on the WWE Network that it was the film time Undertaker has allowed his career to be documented. A number of his WrestleMania opponents and Vince McMahon have been interviewed for the series.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Dark Side of the Ring focuses on the Brawl for All tonight at 10 pm Eastern on Vice TV and available on Crave in Canada. The episode that does focus a lot on the feud between Jim Cornette and Vince Russo with Russo positioned as the brainchild of the Brawl for All after hearing John Layfield mouthing off in the locker room and wanting to see him knocked out for real. The piece begs for some reaction from Layfield, who was obviously not part of this nor will anyone with WWE ties going to be on this series this season. Others they spoke with included Jim Ross, who was head of talent relations at the time and had to call these fights, Darren Drozdov, Bart Gunn, The Godfather, and Eric ‘Butterbean’ Esch. We will be reviewing this episode later this week on Rewind-A-SmackDown.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling The NWA is hosting a watch-along tonight at 6:05 pm Eastern of old Houston Wrestling. Below is the description of the footage they will stream tonight: This special presentation of Paul Boesch’s Houston Wrestling features legends of the National Wrestling Alliance like Andre The Giant, NWA Worlds Champion Harley Race who is holding the Ten Pounds of Gold, Superstar Billy Graham, Mil Mascaras, Bruiser Brody, Gino Hernandez and so many more. This video also features classic commercials from the era featuring Dusty Rhodes and others. Plus in action – Gino Hernandez & Superstar Billy Graham.

For those interested, link for the episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rA_n-CpjUek

Originally Posted by Fightful Rhea Ripley will be off WWE television for the foreseeable future as her work visa has expired and she has returned to Australia. Mike Johnson at PWInsider reports that Ripley returned to Australia on Monday and must now get her visa renewed. It is unknown when she will be able to return to the United States, especially given how things are in the world with the coronavirus pandemic. It is unknown if Ripley's expiring visa played a role in her losing the NXT Women's Championship to Charlotte Flair at WrestleMania 36. Fightful Select reported that WWE is planning on taping mass content this week, beginning on Friday with SmackDown. The company had already taped Monday's episode of WWE Raw and Wednesday's episode of NXT. The tentative plan is for the company to tape three episodes of SmackDown, three episodes of Raw, and multiple episodes of NXT through next week. Ripley will not be part of these tapings and will have to quarantine following international travel.

Originally Posted by Fightful Ric Flair has made his choice for who he believes is the top guy in WWE right now. Though his match with Edge at WrestleMania 36 came under criticism, Randy Orton did some of the best work of his career in the build-up to the match with Edge. Orton delivered personal and authentic promos while doing many of the little things that other wrestlers always notice from him. And Orton's former running mate in Evolution took notice of Orton's work. “Nobody is higher on Randy Orton than I am,” Flair told Alex McCarthy of TalkSPORT. “I think, right now, he is doing some of the best work he has ever done and I think Edge is too. Randy has done and accomplished so much and he’s been there a long time – people don’t realise this. But every time he says something, it’s the truth. And his level of ability right now and his health are both great. He’s at the top of his game, which, in my opinion, makes him the number one guy. The thing about Randy is, he’s so good that I think just because he’s been there for so long you think ‘gosh, can he get any better?’ and he just continues [to get better] if given the opportunity to shine. But I hope he retires soon so I can get my third ring [laughs]. But he’s a great talent, really, really good and an important part of WWE’s TV." If Orton is at the top of Flair's list as far as male performers go, who does he believe the top female performer is? His answer probably doesn't surprise you. “Well, you know me, people are going to say I’m biased, but she’s the female Orton. Younger, less time in the business, but she’s picked it up. The art of being able to make somebody look good and make the match the priority rather than what you are capable of doing or not doing is what separates the good from the great. She’s been in that conversation as the greatest ever since, I think, Dallas. I think the conversation becomes more solidified as the greatest ever every time she goes out there and you have an opportunity to compare her skills with somebody else. I know she was excited and looked forward to the match with Rhea, she certainly didn’t look at it as a step down. She looked at it as an opportunity to wrestle somebody else with a lot of skills and a great work ethic," said Flair. Charlotte has nearly caught Orton in terms of WWE Title reigns. Orton is a 13-time WWE/World Heavyweight Champion while Charlotte collected her 12th WWE/NXT Divas/Women's Title at WrestleMania 36 when she defeated Rhea Ripley.

Originally Posted by Fightful Edge officially returned to the ring at WWE Royal Rumble 2019, marking his first match in nearly nine years after he was forced to retire due to a neck injury ... Rumblings of Edge potentially being cleared to return began at SummerSlam 2019 when he delivered a Spear to Elias. For the next several months, Edge denied that he had been cleared despite rumors online throughout the fall and winter. After his return, reports came out that AEW had reached out to Edge about signing him. Edge reportedly told WWE that AEW offered him $3 million per year. On WWE 24, Edge confirmed that he did speak with "another company" before signing on to return in WWE. He didn't mention by AEW by name or go into detail about his discussions with the promotion. "SummerSlam happened and another company within the industry contacted me and said they were interested and wanted to know if I could wrestle. At this point, I didn't know if I could. Before I did anything, I decided I needed to find out," he said. "Some discussions were had. The one thing I told them through all of this was, 'When you give me your offer, I need to go talk to Vince.' He's done right by me my entire career. He gave me my chance. He trusted me to be able to pull off a lot of things, be a pillar for his shows, be a general. That goes a long way for me. I reached out to Vince and said, 'I need to talk to you this weekend. It needs to be face to face, not through texts or phone calls.' I went, sat down with him, and told him everything. It wasn't trying to get a bidding war going or anything like that. WWE didn't even know if this was possible. I didn't know if this was possible. He said, 'Well, this needs to happen here.'"

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Charlie Adorno, who is the fan that has attended every WrestleMania since 1985 spoke with Justin Barrasso at SI.com about the end of his own streak. Adorno told SI that he did speak with people at the company, who wanted him to attend if there was any way they could allow a select number into the WWE PC: "A couple of people internally wanted me to come. They even said that if some fans were allowed in, I’d be at the top of the list. So, there was definitely talk about the possibility, but with all of the strict guidelines, they were already at capacity for the amount of people they could have in the building. It wasn’t meant to be. If it was possible, I would have been there."

Originally Posted by Observer ECW Press announced that the Andre the Giant biography, "The Eighth Wonder of the World," will be released on 4/14. Bertrand Hebert and Pat Laprade wrote this book. I can't recommend this book highly enough because it is by far the most in-depth feature ever done on Andre, far more than any television special and also far more factual, basically it's the best source on what is and isn't real about Andre. It's great as well for fans of 70s and 80s wrestling because it goes heavy into the politics and power players, since Andre worked almost everywhere.

TPWW Frontpage:

• WWE: Edge on Last Man Standing Match, Michael Cole Promotion, Jeff Hardy Legal Update
• Ratings: WrestleMania 35 on ESPN, WrestleMania Kickoff on FS1, Total Bellas
• Impact Taping Several Episodes This Week
• WWE Planning to Tape Several More Shows Starting Friday
• More on WrestleMania 36’s Boneyard Match, Taping Length & Original Plans for Undertaker’s Entrance
• AEW Signs Anna Jay