[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets:

Originally Posted by Observer With a show highlighted by the long-promoted final match between Tommaso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano, NXT picked up a slight win in total viewers over AEW Dynamite this week. NXT averaged 693,000 viewers on the USA Network, up 17 percent over last week and the best number NXT has done since the start of the closed set shows. NXT scored a 0.19 rating in the 18-49 demo, up 27 percent from last week. That rating failed to crack the top 50 for the day on cable, finishing at 51st. AEW Dynamite on TNT finished just behind with 692,000 viewers, almost even with last week. In 18-49, Dynamite was up one percent to a 0.26 rating and finished 32nd for the night on cable ... Detailed demos are not available for NXT since it finished outside of the top 50, but AEW was strongest in men 18-49, where it averaged a 0.35 rating, which was 14th on cable in that category.

Originally Posted by PWI The MGM Grand Garden Arena that is set to host AEW’s Double Or Nothing pay-per-view on May 23rd has suspended all operations for the time being. The Double Or Nothing event is still listed on their website for May 23rd.

Originally Posted by Observer As expected, next month's Money in the Bank pay-per-view won't be taking place at its originally scheduled venue. The Royal Farms Arena in Baltimore, Maryland confirmed today that -- due to the coronavirus pandemic -- they won't be hosting Money in the Bank: "The WWE Money in the Bank event originally scheduled for Sunday, May 10 in Baltimore has been cancelled. Refunds are available at all points of purchase." Earlier this week, WWE.com hyped up Money in the Bank without mentioning the location for the PPV

Originally Posted by Observer WWE is adjourning its annual stockholders' meeting due to the coronavirus pandemic: "World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE: WWE) today announced that it intends to convene and then immediately adjourn, its Annual Meeting of Stockholders due to the rapidly evolving public health concerns relating to the COVID-19 pandemic and governmental actions related thereto, including the State of Connecticut’s Executive Order No. 7H dated March 20, 2020. The Annual Meeting is scheduled to occur at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time on Thursday April 16, 2020. The Annual Meeting will be convened and then immediately adjourned to a time and place that will be announced at the meeting and by press release. The record date will remain February 20, 2020. Stockholders should comply with applicable restrictions and not attend the Annual Meeting on April 16."

WWE's stocks probably going to take a big hit as a result since the biggest things that were expected to be discussed was the Network's subs number, lack of a PPV deal with a streaming provider after Vince hyped up one being done very soon, and details on the new India TV deal that supposedly is worth less than expected.

Originally Posted by Observer The coronavirus pandemic continues to affect WWE's upcoming schedule as the company locally announced a postponement to its upcoming SmackDown UK tour as well as a set of NXT UK tapings ... Additionally, they canceled their two-day NXT UK tapings in Bournemouth, England, for May 1st and 2nd with no return date booked. The tapings were the follow-up to the also canceled NXT UK TakeOver Dublin event. The brand's annual appearance and tapings at the UK Download Festival in mid-June have also been canceled. That would make their next set of tapings on Friday, July 24th and Saturday, July 25th in Glasgow, Scotland. Their last set of tapings were held on the first weekend of March.

WWE pretty much ran out of new episodes for NXT UK and are just airing "Best Of" episodes till this summer.

Originally Posted by PWI WWE has edited out the AC/DC and Metallica songs used from the Wrestlemania 36 VOD on the WWE Network. On WWE's After the Bell, Edge noted that due to when his match with Randy Orton for Wrestlemania 36 was taped, they ended up throwing out all of their planning and the entire nearly-40 minute match was done completely on the fly. To answer the many questions we have gotten about who Produced the Charlotte Flair vs. Rhea Ripley Wrestlemania 36 match, we are told that former NWA Champion Adam Pearce was the Producer of what was the best in-ring encounter at Wrestlemania, putting it together with Flair and Ripley. The Big Show-Drew McIntyre confrontation that aired on Raw last night was designed to show how strong McIntyre was, overcoming the monstrous Big Show despite being physically spent from fighting and beating Brock Lesnar just "20 Minutes before" Show maneuvered McIntyre into a match. The idea to show McIntyre beating both Lesnar and Show in succession, taking out two of the biggest beasts in the company in one fell swoop. The segment was indeed taped several minutes after the company finished taping McIntyre vs. Lesnar. The decision to move Apollo Crews to Raw was made last week. His match with Aleister Black was taped last Friday, separate from the rest of the Raw taping for last night's broadcast.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling According to Law 360, Ric Flair’s bid to trademark “The Nature Boy” was rejected. The Trademark Trail and Appeal Board stated that the nickname is too similar to the clothing line “Nature Boys” and both are attempting to sell merchandise using the name.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Paige did a live stream on her Twitch channel with Peyton Royce, Natalya, Renee Young, Nia Jax and Billie Kay. During their chat, Nia Jax talked about coming to the defense of Alexa Bliss when Alexa was working with an opponent that went unnamed and continued to get hurt. Nia said that Alexa did not want to complain to the higher-ups so Nia spoke up on behalf of Alexa to stop her from consistently getting injured. “I remember back when — I’m not gonna mention any names but, Lexi, other than Lexi’s name,” Nia laughed. “But when Lexi was working an angle and she was continuously getting hurt in a certain angle with somebody, and I remember her not saying anything, specifically because she wanted to be a team player. She was so nervous, she wanted to be a team player. She didn’t wanna be somebody who like, ‘Oh, I can’t do this’ but, me personally, from the outside looking in, I was so angry. I was like, ‘No, she can not do this anymore.’ I personally would not allow her to get back in the ring to get hurt again. I had to go to the higher-ups and I had to put down a stern foot and say, ‘Listen, Lexi is five-foot-nothing, 100 pounds getting thrown around like a little rag doll and injured every night.’ I was like, ‘Put me in. I’m a 6’0, 300 pound b*tch. I can handle it.’ So I understand there’s a certain thing of being quiet and taking it and being like, ‘No, I wanna be a team player’ and then there’s the other side where it’s like, ‘Sh*t dude, I can’t allow to see one of my good friends — not only my good friend but my co-worker who I want to be here in five years so I can continue to work her, like getting hurt.’ Like I need to stand up and be there for her and make sure that her life is gonna be okay when she’s done here.”

Link: https://twitter.com/flairsnia/status...969789952?s=20

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Jake Roberts appeared on a recent edition of The Wrestling INC Daily Podcast and Jake revealed that he is currently in Atlanta quarantining in a Marriott hotel and has been there for quite some time. Roberts was previously living with Diamond Dallas Page and due to the Coronavirus outbreak, Dallas told Jake that if he left the property, he couldn’t come back. Jake ultimately decided to leave the property to go appear for AEW. “I’m stuck in a hotel. Of all damn places to be stuck, I’m stuck in a damn hotel. I’m on the 16th floor at the Marriott in Atlanta and the restaurant’s shut down so I’m having food brought to me and… I’m quarantined. I’m quarantined in here. I was living with Dallas [DDP]. Whenever all this started, Dallas was one of the first people to say, ‘Hey man, I’m locking down and if you leave, you can’t come back.’ Well, AEW wanted me to come out so, what’d I do? I went and did [it] but then I couldn’t go back to Dallas’ house because he had a baby in the house and nobody needs to get sick, especially not a baby, and he took the hard line and said, ‘Dude if you leave, you can’t come back.’ I’m like, ‘Well, I gotta do this Dallas. It’s for AEW and I wanna help these guys.’ So, now I’m paying for it brother.” In regard to the COVID-19 pandemic, Roberts believes that the pro wrestling industry should go on hold. He commended AEW for taping a bunch of content to fill TV time over the next couple of weeks and/or months but still believes that the business needs to be put on hold until further notice. “Yes, I think it should happen. I really do man. We gotta buckle down, and if you look on the television and still see live wrestling then that tells me people aren’t buckling down. As much as I hate it, we gotta do what’s smart and I’m not a doctor or anything but that’s all I hear on television. We got to go home. Just go home and stay there until this sh*t’s gone and it sounds to me like AEW is doing that too. The last taping they did, I know they taped a lot of matches so they [did] several weeks of shows and it seems that’s what they were kind of doing too. Trying to get guys to go home and taking care of business, keeping everybody safe.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Taz was the latest guest to join Aubrey Edwards and Tony Schiavone on the AEW Unrestricted podcast ... Taz also spoke about his WWE debut at the 2000 Royal Rumble pay-per-view against Kurt Angle. Taz stated that he knew he was doomed in WWE when he heard the reaction from the crowd because from his point of view, WWE was not fond of guys who already made their name outside of the company and by him getting that reaction, it solidified that he made a name outside of WWE. “When I wrestled Kurt [Angle] at the Garden, when I came out, like when I heard that pop, I knew I was f*cked. I knew I was doomed. I knew it. I knew it because it was massive and again, it was before the big craze of the internet and all that sh*t and people didn’t know I was gonna be there. It was a legit surprise and a legit pop in the world’s most famous arena, and the reason I know I was doomed is because that pop did not come from WWE. I was a made guy before I got to WWE, and WWE at that time — they never would admit it then and they won’t admit it now; they don’t want made guys. They wanna make guys. So that’s what happened. So as I’m walking out with the towel on my head looking bad as a motherf*cker, I’m saying to myself, ‘Oh my God, shut up. Don’t cheer, don’t pop. Just boo me, do something. Don’t do nothing.’ Even though it was an awesome feeling, I knew I was…”

Probably can pinpoint to his ECW champ vs. WWF champ match against Triple H where WWE no longer considered him as a potential big star.


TPWW Frontpage:

• Jerry Lawler Says He’s Returning to Raw on Monday
• Killer Kross and Scarlett Bordeaux Appear Briefly on NXT
• Edge Responds to Criticism Over His Match Against Randy Orton