[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets:

Originally Posted by Observer There was both good and bad news for Raw last night when it comes to the ratings. The bad news is that the 1.91 million viewer average would be the lowest in modern history for a live episode, falling just under the 1.92 million for the Raw go-home show for WrestleMania. The good news is that the audience largely stayed for all three hours with just an eight percent first-to-third hour drop. This means some combination of two factors, that the show itself and the Drew McIntyre vs. Andrade main event kept those who at least tuned in at first interested, and/or that the low first hour, under two million viewers, is down to the hardcores that will stay no matter what. It's likely more the former, given many shows have done worse than hour three, but the starting point was so low to make it the least-watched Raw except for Christmas week taped shows in 2018 and 2019. Raw finished in the No. 3, No. 5 and No. 7 spots in 18-49 ... For total viewers, the show was down nine percent from last week, but in 18-49, the decline was 20 percent. It was down 25 percent overall and 38 percent in 18-49 from the same week last year, but that was also a special draft episode, and the circumstances are completely different ... The three hours were: 8 p.m. 1.99 million viewers 9 p.m. 1.91 million viewers 10 p.m. 1.83 million viewers

Originally Posted by PWI We have been told by a number of readers that they woke up this morning to find they had received refunds from Ticketmaster.com for Wrestlemania 36. If you are waiting for a refund, you should you check your credit or debit card accounts

Originally Posted by Observer The status of the NXT Tag Team titles will be addressed this week. WWE announced last night that William Regal is appearing on Wednesday morning's episode of WWE's The Bump and will address the NXT Tag Team title picture: "What news will @RealKingRegal have for us this week? The #WWENXT GM stops by #WWETheBump to address the @WWENXT Tag Team Championship picture, this Wednesday at 10am ET!"

Originally Posted by Observer WWE’s Ask WWE Network Twitter account noted that episodes of NXT now aren’t being made available on-demand in the United Kingdom until seven days after they originally air in the country ... For those who have asked about changes in getting to see NXT on the WWE Network in certain countries, there are cities where the first-run is delayed based on local television contracts that the local station put in to protect their television rights.

Originally Posted by Fightful Jim Ross is often called the greatest pro wrestling announcer in history, with many not batting an eye before putting him right on to the Mount Rushmore of wrestling announcers. Now, Jim Ross is revealing his own personal Mount Rushmore of wrestling announcers. Speaking on the Top Rope Nation Podcast, Jim took some time to heap praise on those that paved the way for him and some that he was lucky to work with over the course of a career that spans across multiple decades. "Gordon Solie, Bob Caudill, Lance Russell, Gorilla Monsoon would be four off the top of my head that I would put on there,” Ross revealed. “If you included color guys, color commentators, that would certainly include Bobby Heenan, who may be the best all-around performer I've ever worked with, as far as being an outstanding wrestler, a great heel, a manager, a host, a color guy. He excelled in everything he did. And nobody in that era was better or that area was better than Bobby, in my view. So Bobby Heenan would be on that list, Paul Heyman would be one, Jerry Lawler would be one. Lawler, Heyman, Cornette (was a) great color guy....When you ask the announcers, I just assumed it was like my role as a play by play guy. So those four I mentioned I think would be there quite easily. There's a very subjective list like everything else, but there's my favorites."

Originally Posted by PWI A number of readers sent word that material the WWE Network made free for all to stream (after signing up with an email account) has now returned to being exclusive content for paid Network subscribers. WWE announced on 3/23 that were making certain content free to stream for a limited period of time due to the coronavirus pandemic, including every WrestleMania, Royal Rumble, SummerSlam, Survivor Series, NXT TakeOver and NXT UK TakeOver events, WWE 24, Ruthless Aggression and The Monday Night War documentary series and more.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Sports Illustrated has a sobering view of the level of sophistication for major league sports to return to play even in empty arena settings. It’s mind-boggling to read this and the preventive measures necessary while WWE is going to have people traveling weekly to shows. In the feature, epidemiologist Zach Binney predicts there will be sports events involving fans until there is a vaccine that could be 12-18 months away. Regarding empty arena games, SI spoke to numerous experts and before anything could be started, every person involved would need to be isolated for two weeks and be tested multiple times during that period. In WWE’s case, they are no living at the PC in isolation but instead, going home either by car or by plane and expected to do so every seven days. They are also assessing sports that have much less body-to-body contact that professional wrestling necessitates. Below is a portion of the article: Conversations with experts painted a picture of what exactly it would take to make these sports vacuums a reality. Before any of this can begin, every person who would have access to the facilities will need to be isolated separately for two weeks to ensure that no infection could enter. That’s players and coaches, athletic trainers and interpreters, reporters and broadcasters, plus housekeeping and security personnel. No one can come in or out. Food will have to be delivered. Hotel and stadium employees will have to be paid enough to compensate for their time away from their families. Everyone on site will have to be tested multiple times during this initial period. All right, so the 14-day period is over and everyone has tested negative at least twice. Now they are allowed to begin spending time around one another—but not too much time. If one person gets it, he or she will begin spreading it immediately, so everyone will have to continue practicing social distancing. That probably means using a new ball for each play. It probably means seating players in stands rather than on benches or in dugouts. It certainly means banning high-fives. All personnel must continue to be tested daily. We will be unlikely to have enough rapid testing by then, so they will probably have to settle for the tests that take several hours to produce results. That means the testing will probably run a day behind.

Link: https://www.si.com/mlb/2020/04/10/sp...ming-back-soon

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Amy Weber, who worked for WWE after participating in the first Diva Search in 2004, posted a video explaining why she left the company. She was complimentary of talents such as Big Show, Eddy Guerrero, and JBL. She said most of the women in the locker room were nice to her, but she didn’t come up in wrestling and said it probably rubbed some people the wrong way. She left in the company in February 2005 and explained that it occurred after a series of events following an injury while practicing with Joy Giovanni. Weber said she suffered an injury to her tailbone and was instructed by the doctor to get two Ibuprofen pills and ice from the men’s locker room and some ice. Later, while on a flight to Alaska, she was sleeping across three seats and was awoken when Randy Orton charged at the seats knocking her onto the floor. She went back to sleep and awoken a second time when a drink had been poured onto her. She saw Edge with the same colored drink and accused him of pouring it, which he denied to her. Weber landed in Alaska and informed Shane McMahon she was done with the company.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kWUpBZtr4c

Originally Posted by Fightful NWA will be bringing fans extra content this week in lieu of the previously scheduled 2020 Crockett Cup event. On Tuesday, April 14, NWA will air the build for the 2019 Crockett Cup, which was headlined by Marty Scurll vs. Nick Aldis. The show will debut in NWA's usual 6:05 p.m. ET spot on YouTube. Then, on Sunday, April 19, at 7 p.m. ET, NWA will re-air the 2019 Crockett Cup. The 2020 Crockett Cup was scheduled to air live on pay-per-view on Sunday, but was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. The rematch between Scurll and Aldis was the headlining bout for this year's edition of the show. Furthermore, NWA will air new content on April 21 at 6:05 p.m. ET as a brand new special featuring Kamille will debut. The special will feature Kamilla's wrestling debut.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling On Monday night, it was revealed by Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings that WWE falls into the category of ‘essential businesses’ within the state of Florida. Orange County has been hit with a lot of criticism and is deflecting by stating this was a decision made by the state and not the county. On their official Twitter feed, Orange County is directing critics of the classification to contact the office of Governor Ron DeSantis ... I have reached out to several promotions regarding this classification within Florida and if they are considering running in the state and below are the statements we received at POST Wrestling on Tuesday from Ring of Honor and MLW: Joe Koff of ROH: "I think it’s great for WWE that they are able to operate how they see fit, or how they may even need to for their business. It doesn’t necessarily change our approach to the pandemic though. The safety of all of our performers, staff, vendors, and fans are the most important thing to us right now and we are continuing to improve our infrastructure and find ways to connect with them during this time. Are we eager to get back? Absolutely. For now, we will be monitoring day by day." From Court Bauer at MLW: "No. I will not put my athletes, crew and staff along with their families at risk of contracting the virus."

Originally Posted by Fightful Donald Trump wants his sports back. During his press conference on Tuesday, Donald Trump discussed re-opening the economy and putting together a group of advisors, all from the sports world, to help him in doing so. Trump named WWE Chairman "The Great" Vince McMahon and UFC President Dana White as part of the advisory team.

Originally Posted by Fightful On Monday, WWE was publicly deemed an "essential business" by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. The new executive order allows WWE, and any professional sports and media production with a national audience, to hold events as long as the location is closed to the general public. "Obviously, WWE, there's no crowd so it's a very small number of people," he said. "We look at it on a case-by-case basis. We haven't had a huge amount of requests. A lot of this will be 'what do we look like in May?' rather than doing stuff now. The one thing I do support is, we do need to support content, especially sports and events. We're not going to have crowds there, I get that. If NASCAR does a race and can televise it, I think that's a good thing. I'd like to see [Tiger] Woods and [Phil] Mickelson golf. That's social distance. I think people are starved for content. We haven't had new content since the middle of March. If people are told to say closer to the house, it sure does help to have fresh things to do. People are chomping at the bit. I think people, to be able to have some light at the end of the tunnel and see things get back on a better course, I think from a psychological perspective, it's a good thing."

Originally Posted by Fightful There may not be a new WWE 2K game this year. Former WWE SmackDown vs. Raw video game series writer Justin Leeper posted a video on YouTube claiming he's heard from reliable sources that WWE 2K21 has been canceled. Leeper continued, 2K is publishing a different kind of WWE game from a different developer that's not Visual Concepts. Leeper went on to say that WWE 2K22 won't be released on next generation consoles. Leeper previously reported that the budget for WWE 2K21 would be slashed and developers had quit after the release of WWE 2K20, which underperformed in sales and was heavily criticized by fans due to glitches. Yuke's and 2K split months before the game was set to release, which reportedly contributed to the problems in WWE 2K20. Fightful reached out to 2K for comment, but were not given a response. Alex McCarthy of TalkSPORT reached out to 2K about the report and was given the following response. “We don’t comment on rumors and speculation.”

Originally Posted by 411Mania WrestleVotes reports that the mood at the WWE Performance Center ahead of tonight’s live RAW is that of uncertainty, with some of the talent feeling as if they shouldn’t be there. “Source states mood at the PC today is that of uncertainty. Many know they shouldn’t be there, but realize this is their job. And as unfortunate as it may sound, they can all pull out 1 by 1, and the show will still go on. WWE will always have a big enough roster to continue.”

TPWW Frontpage:

• Florida Declared WWE an “Essential Business,” Allowing Them to Continue Doing Shows (Update)
• More on WWE Being Declared an “Essential Service” in Florida
• AEW Double or Nothing Will Still Take Place Next Month, But Not in Las Vegas
• Impact Rebellion Will Air as a Two Week TV Special