[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets (Observer Newsletter Edition):

A reopening of Florida by Gov. Ron DeSantis will allow all sports to run events without governmental regulation, which was noted in the local news would mean full stadiums for NFL games ... While not announced officially, the plan is for WrestleMania to be on March 28, 2021 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa and then go to Los Angeles in 2022. WWE always wanted 2022 in Los Angeles but the city wanted 2021. Given that California is going to be more cautious about events like this than Florida (a drunk driver racing at Daytona is probably more cautious than the Governor of Florida in reality), it really all makes sense. Plus Tampa does deserve it based on the work put in to house it last year. While the Miami Dolphins won’t be doing that due to the NFL’s restrictions at 25 percent max, such a ruling means WWE would be able to do whatever it wanted as far as capacity goes, as would AEW, anywhere within the state. This is likely to mean the return of arena tapings with crowds for WWE in November, when its lease with the Amway Center in Orlando expires. AEW at this point has been policing itself on capacity at Daily’s Place at 600 to 750 and any increase from that would be up to the company ... WWE has brought back fans for the 10/4 Takeover and 10/7 NXT tapings at the Performance Center, limited to about 100 people, with all fans tested for COVID the day before, but kept very close together in a small indoor facility. At this point, other companies such as ROH, Impact, New Japan and others have yet to announce anything regarding bringing back fans. There are independent shows outside Florida, most notably Warrior Wrestling and Game Changer Wrestling, that have had fans, but have run outdoors and kept the fans socially distant. Right now, AEW has no plans at this time to run anywhere but Daily’s Place, because of the nature of the venue allowing fans to be kept apart from each other and far apart from the ring and wrestling crew with the large empty section separating them ... Really the only thing that could hold back continuing to allow arenas and stadiums at full capacity would be an increase in cases in Florida, and it would have to be substantial because as we’ve seen, Governors who rush to open aren’t usually willing to make changes when cases increase after doing so. You’ll have little in the way of foreign travel due to the restrictions and having to quarantine for two weeks going back to many countries. Technically people in Florida are supposed to quarantine for two weeks when coming to the Northeast but we’ve seen that’s strictly something politicians say to get brownie points with constituents and nothing enforced in reality. They’ll certainly be able to get tens of thousands of fans. Sturgis told us that common sense doesn’t play a part in many people’s decision making when it comes to events. We are likely to now start a race to reopen arenas, and live crowds for pro wrestling and MMA indoor arena events in the U.S. MMA Junkie reported on 10/6 that the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulations is allowing promoters to hold events within the state at 50 percent capacity in arenas, with one promotion asking for and receiving a date for Halloween night in San Antonio. Once one state opens up, many others will follow, although some states will also be cautious ... There are eight events tentatively on the schedule in the state between now and the end of the year.

Samantha Tavel, who wrestles under the name Candy Cartwright, filed a more than $40 million lawsuit against Matt Riddle, World Wrestling Entertainment, Evolve Wrestling and Gabe Sapolsky on 10/8 in U.S. Circuit Court in Cook County, IL. The lawsuit is the latest in a series of legal actions that have gone back-and-forth between the two over allegations that Riddle sexually assaulted Tavel during an affair the two had which she claimed was during a time frame between 2017 and 2020. The lawsuit seeks more than $10 million each from Riddle, WWE, Evolve Wrestling (which has been sold to WWE) and Sapolsky, who was the booker and co-promoter for Evolve and now works for WWE as an NXT producer. The money figure claims to be based on actual damages, damages for emotional distress, punitive damages, attorney’s fees and costs. The suit, filed by John W. Chwarzynski Jr., of the Chicago law firm of Hale & Monico, claims Riddle first sexually assaulted Tavel in April 2017 after a wrestling show in Brooklyn promoted by Evolve. The suit claimed that Riddle bragged about raping Tavel to Sapolsky and other employees of Evolve ... The WWE tie-in with the suit is that in May 2018, it was claimed that after a show in Summit, IL, outside Chicago, that Evolve was an agent promotion of WWE, and that Riddle forced Tavel to perform oral sex on him in the same van with several others in the van while leaving the event and claimed he choked her until she consented. The story, which Riddle denied, is that there are no witnesses because the three others in the van were all asleep when this allegedly took place. WWE was also tied into the suit with claims that Travel had bookings with WWE and Evolve, but on January 31, 2020, when she refused to continue to perform sexual acts on Riddle, the suit claims, she had her bookings with both promotions terminated. However that is provably false as Tavel still worked for Evolve as late as March 1, 2020, or at least on that date posted footage from Evolve 146 with her working the company’s final event, held in Melrose, MA. That was Evolve’s last show before the pandemic hit which led to the promotion closing and selling its assets to WWE. A major key to the credibility of the suit would be if she had any WWE bookings after January 31, 2020, which were then canceled ... WWE and Riddle were not aware of the lawsuit until a few hours before a press conference was held in Chicago. The WWE claimed on 10/8 that they had not yet been served with the suit ... Riddle was scheduled for the 10/9 draft episode of Smackdown. If he remains on the show, it would indicate WWE standing behind him. If he is not on the show, it would indicate a late change in plans. From a strategic standpoint, the attempt to tie in WWE is because they have the deepest pockets. But others observing the case believe it may backfire because WWE, being defendants in the suit, are on the same side as Riddle as opposed to be onlookers. Riddle’s statement in his most recent petition was that he met Tavel in 2016, and they started having an affair on November 6, 2017. He said he tried to break up with her in June 2018, but they ended up still seeing each other under he broke up with her again in July 2019. Tavel gives different dates, claiming a start in April 2017 and a finish on January 31, 2020, and now claims continued sexual assaults on both those dates as well as in between. But that would indicate getting back together after he had first looked into filing for a protective order against her and after making WWE aware of the problem. The January 31, 2020, date is key to the suit, particularly with WWE. It would seem strange that Tavel would have had bookings with WWE that many months after they were aware of the issues with Riddle and Tavel. But Evolve had continued to use Tavel and was aware of the issues, but by that time Riddle was no longer working for Evolve. In fact, the credibility of both sides really comes down heavily on this claim. If she had bookings that were pulled that late, it would tie WWE in. If there is no proof of bookings after that time that were pulled, then her story falls apart as it pertains to WWE, and it would be a major credibility issue in what comes down to a he-said she-said. The lawsuit claims sexual assaults took place between 2017 and 2020, multiple times, as opposed to the one time in the van that was originally claimed, although the lawsuit does focus on a May 19, 2018, date. It tried to tie in WWE by saying they were actively involved in the conduct and business of Evolve at that point. Riddle signed with WWE about two months after this date ... The suit claimed WWE had control of the Evolve events and provided rules from the direction of WWE and Vince McMahon. The lawsuit claimed WWE had condoned sexual assault in the workplace for more than 30 years. She claimed she was told on January 31, 2020, that her future bookings with WWE and Evolve were terminated due to “issues with the talent” and claimed Riddle informed WWE and Evolve that he didn’t want her working with WWE due to Tavel no longer performing forced sexual acts on him ... The lawsuit listed an April 2017 date as the first sexual assault while in a vehicle in a parking lot after an Evolve show. It claimed he bragged about it to Sapolsky and other employees of Evolve that he did this without her consent, and was never disciplined over it by Evolve or WWE. Of course WWE wasn’t even in the picture at this point.

The WWE will be doing its draft on the 10/9 Smackdown show and the 10/12 Raw show. Generally speaking, the draft shows boost ratings significantly, although the gain has lessened in recent years ... The picks are usually kept a secret from everyone. Only the biggest stars in general get tipped off ahead of time, so talent is just like fans when it comes to draft days. Because Styles was mad about missing his son’s high school football games, which are mostly played on Friday, he could go to Raw. The fact he did a clean job for Jey Uso on Smackdown was another indication, but nothing is ever a sure thing ... Since WWE booking often operates like the old territorial system, with the idea of jobbing on your way out, the prime candidates for switching would be those who lost on television this week. On Smackdown, that would include Styles, quick squash losers like John Morrison and Shorty G, as well as Jeff Hardy, who lost to Sami Zayn cleaner than expected in a match that would have figured to have either a DQ finish or a less clean one. Those who fit into the category on Raw would be Lana, Humberto Carrillo and Apollo Crews. But Lana just started her pairing with Natalya, although unlike other tag teams, they are listed separately.

A series of things that have taken place over the past two weeks, from Harold Meij being out as the President and CEO of New Japan Pro Wrestling, to a number of mentions of New Japan personnel on the 10/7 Dynamite show, have led to a lot more speculation of what this all means. The relationship, or more accurately, lack of relationship between AEW and New Japan, the second and third largest pro wrestling companies it he world, has always been a subject of speculation ... At this point, the situation explained last week, that from an AEW side, Meij not being there is probably a positive for the potential of a deal, is still the situation. There are still people on both sides wanting a deal. And there are obviously reasons that get in the way of it. And with the pandemic, meaning it being difficult to impossible to have foreign talent come in (AEW has been unable to use its own contracted Japanese based talent like Riho, Yuka Sakazaki, Shoko Nakajima, Cima, T-Hawk and Lindaman), it’s not something that would need to be rushed through with any kind of a time element. Meij is still running New Japan for the next few weeks, largely involved with the COVID issue as well as plans for the hoped for Tokyo Dome show on 1/4. In a normal year, that show would be most important because it would spur on more of a rush when it comes to a deal as New Japan would be interested in AEW stars to make a Dome show more special. But the difficulty of bringing foreigners in at this point may make that a moot point this year. Speculation came from the 30th anniversary of Jericho Dynamite show where Tanahashi, with a New Japan Pro Wrestling logo in the background, appeared on the show and his name was referenced twice on commentary. In addition, in the promotion of the Jon Moxley vs. Lance Archer AEW title match on 10/14, both men in their promos referenced their Texas death match on January 4, 2020 at the Tokyo Dome. There was also a mention of Gedo, in noting the last previous time Jericho had faced Dr. Luther, in a tag match where Gedo was Jericho’s partner, in 1996 in the FMW promotion. On the Fite TV version, there was also a mention of Antonio Inoki, but that is meaningless since Inoki is not with New Japan and largely a persona non grata in the company except he can’t be completely ignored because it would be ignoring company history to do so. Jericho had little in the way of limitations of who he could get on the show, although obviously WWE would never allow its talent on. It’s been noted in many places that wrestlers from all over the world congratulated Jericho on his 30 year anniversary this past week, but nobody from WWE as far as we can tell with the exception of A.J. Styles on his Twitch channel has said anything publicly, which tells you, no matter what is said publicly, how heated the rivalry between those sides still is, or is at least perceived to be by WWE talent regarding WWE management’s reaction. Particularly since the largest portion of Jericho’s career was in WWE ... The Tanahashi video had nothing to do with either AEW or New Japan past that neither side didn’t strike down the idea. The reality is that Tanahashi and Jericho have great respect for each other as pro wrestlers and similar philosophies to the business ... New Japan officials said that they have great respect for Jericho and would have never had an issue with anyone wanting to be part of the show. In fact, of all the people Jericho contacted, Tanahashi was the first one to do the video, just two hours after he was asked ... If there is a likely first sign of a relationship, it would be Moxley defending his New Japan U.S. title any time soon. New Japan even had KENTA cut a promo on Moxley, and his briefcase that he won to get a shot at the title was used as a prop during G-1, with the teases of Juice Robinson and Tanahashi (who beat KENTA in G-1) challenging for the briefcase and a shot at Moxley. Moxley is allowed to work New Japan on his own, but until the 14-day quarantine is lifted, he can’t feasibly go to Japan because of his AEW commitments. If a relationship is made, where Moxley fits in is he would be doing a title defense, likely with KENTA, at the New Japan Strong tapings in Port Hueneme, CA. But politically, Moxley is not going to be able to lose that title, unless they do a DQ finish (New Japan titles change hands via DQ) as long as he’s AEW champion. The one negative in the way is that New Japan does want to expand to the U.S., and that would put them in a sense in competition with AEW. Without that, it would be easier. Alliances between promotions have worked out favorably for both sides as far as helping produce bigger events historically, including the 90s New Japan/WCW relationship and New Japan/ROH and to a lesser degree the New Japan/TNA relationship, but in all cases, where it be two U.S. offices working together, aside from New Japan/ROH, it has been when neither was running live events in the same markets as the other.

NXT had another strong Takeover show on 10/4, as the first show since the brand has moved from Full Sail University to the Performance Center, renamed the Capitol Wrestling Center. The new setup includes a wall for virtual fans, a setup for 100 fans and a barricade that had both a metal fence over the regular barricade and the plexiglass. Fans were required to wear masks, although early on some of them started taking them off but seemed to be ordered to put them back on. All fans were tested for COVID a day ahead of time, which is better than temperature checks. But they were also clearly on top of each other in a small indoor building. The timing of doing this right after a breakout seems strange as one would think you’d want fewer people in the building and only those necessary. As people involved have brought up, people can get tested and then go out to bars that night since in Florida, everything is open. Capitol is an ode to Capitol Sports, which was the parent name of Vincent James McMahon’s WWWF promotion. On the NXT TV show they even showed clips of Buddy Rogers, Vincent James McMahon, Bruno Sammartino and showed old clips of announcer Ray Morgan at the start of the show. This came just weeks after WWE was talking about how important it was to get TV out of the PC because it was needed for training. Now they’ve changed it to bring in fans, friends and family, plus using virtual fans and piping in fake sound which ranges from enhancing some matches to being out of sync (it was much better for the NXT TV show than for Takeover). The move has to do with COVID and Full Sail. NXT will now be taped every Wednesday at the CWC with two hours of NXT and 45 minutes to an hour of 205 Live ... The returning champion ended up being Ember Moon. In a strange deal, just before Moon came back, to challenge Io Shirai after she had retained her title over Candice LeRae, they had played a video of Toni Storm, who is also returning to challenge for that title.

From the time Bushiroad purchased Stardom in late 2019, the company has been planning a major show. But COVID made these shows impossible until a show on 10/3, “Yokohama Cinderella,” which aired as a live television PPV show from the Yokohama Budokan (formerly the Bunka Gym which has been the city’s regular 4,500-seat arena for wrestling dating back decades). With social distancing, the show sold out but they only allowed 1,007 fans and featured five title matches and a losing group must disband match with Oedo Tai vs. The Tokyo Cyber Squad. Fans were really upset fearing that Tokyo Cyber Squad, which was the group Hana Kimura was the top star in, might disband. And that was the booking idea, and is what happened. The reality was the women in the group wanted out. They didn’t want the pressure of being in Kimura’s group, especially because after her death, Kimura has become this mythical figure to Japanese fans of women’s wrestling. Stardom also debuted two new wrestlers and a third is coming. Natsumi Maki and Mina Shirakawa debuted on the show from Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling. Maki is now using the name Natsupoi. Both women’s contract expired at the end of September. A third woman will be debuting shortly after her contract expires. In these cases, none were raids by Stardom as much as the women letting their contracts expire to start with Stardom.

Stardom’s Jungle Kyona will be undergoing surgery on her left knee and her right shoulder and will be out for a long time. Her injury list includes a torn left ACL, a torn right LCL and a dislocated right shoulder

One New Japan insider noted to us that while Takami Ohbari was being groomed to be the next person in charge after Harold Meij leaves in a few weeks, inside the company they don’t know if that will really be the case past public positioning. While many in the company were happy Meij was leaving (we were told that fans generally weren’t happy because Meij was very good with the New Japan fans, the wrestlers were generally happy and the office was mixed but more on the happy side from those who were there pre-Meij), Ohbari is not welcomed as a new leader privately by many. Of late, New Japan Presidents and CEO’s have been newcomers to the wrestling business chosen by Bushiroad and almost always have a hard time getting trust and respect from the employees and the wrestlers. The wrestling people don’t want to be told what to do and what not to do by what they consider as “amateurs” when it comes to the wrestling industry. This has hurt morale to some extent since 2018 The foreign talent, Jeff Cobb, Will Ospreay, Gabriel Kidd, Zack Sabre Jr., Juice Robinson, KENTA (who lives in Florida) and Jay White are in most cases staying until the Tokyo Dome show. Some will go home in December for a short period after Budokan, and then come back just before Christmas to quarantine if they are on the Dome show.

Kurt Angle did a podcast with PW Insider and said he had a tumor in his neck that he needed to get removed

Tracy Smothers, 58, who was one of the most underrated wrestlers of the mid-90s when he was top babyface in SMW and also a regular in Japan, before later going to WWF as Freddy Joe Floyd from Oklahoma (the name was a rib because Jack Brisco’s real name was Fred Joseph Brisco and Gerald Brisco’s real name is Floyd Gerald Brisco) and then to ECW as part of the Full Blooded Italians. Smothers, who has been battling cancer plus dealing with having two dozen concussions in his career for years, now has added heart problems to his issues

Mexican wrestler Tormento was diagnosed with COVID-19. It’s notable because he thought all the talk of the disease was exaggerated, and he did his doctor did as well. So his doctor thought he just had a cold when he came in coughing. A few days later, he lost his sense of taste and smell, got tested and tested positive. He said he’s also having occasional headaches

It will be interesting to see if this has any impact on AEW, but due to the pandemic, WarnerMedia is looking at cutting up to 20 percent of its costs. Time Warner was hit hard due to its movie businesses being hit hard including theaters they own being shut down, cable subscriptions down and a major decline in television advertising. Based on commercials throughout baseball this past week, it appears AEW is still in good standing. Their ratings held up far better than expected, and better than any wrestling show during the pandemic. But they are looking to do a complete business overhaul which would include TBS, TNT, HBO with thousands of layoffs expected coming on the heels of 500 layoffs in August. For TBS and TNT, the issue is that going forward, the costs of the NBA and MLB will go up, and if ads and viewership declines, the secondary programming would take a hit. AEW is very reliable right now but it will never be the priority over the NBA and MLB

The situation with WWE taking over Twitch accounts from talent and paying them a percentage, that is counted against their downside guarantee has led to several unhappy campers. One talent noted to us that everyone is mad, but time after time they get mad and they never stand up. In this situation, the women are losing out the most since a lot of them have been able to make a good deal of money from their fan bases through twitch and cameo. Paige actually tweeted, “Learned a lot about unions today,” which led to Zelina Vega writing “hmm.” It’s known that a few of the talents talk with Andrew Yang, and depending on how a lot of things play out, the Yang/WWE story in 2021 could prove to be very interesting

WWE was apparently looking at doing a U.K. PPV which would have been headlined by McIntyre vs. Tyson Fury, but they aren’t able to do it at this time. Both WWE and AEW were in a race for the first U.K. PPV in years as AEW had planned for something big this year as well. The idea of the match isn’t dead but they have to work based on Fury’s schedule

A&E is working with WWE for three television specials in 2021, one on Randy Savage, one on Roddy Piper and another regarding Paul Levesque & Stephanie McMahon

The top ten most-watched shows of the past week on WWE Network was: 1. NXT Takeover; 2. WWE 24: Drew McIntyre; 3. Clash of Champions 2020; 4. Steve Austin’s Stone Cold Sessions with Kurt Angle; 5. WWE Top 10: Slapping Family Members; 6. Takeover pre-show; 7. Raw Talk on 10/5; 8. Talking Smack on 10/3; 9. Smackdown on 9/4; 10. No Way Out 2004. NXT finished 13th for the week. No. 17 was the only independent show, a Best of NXT wrestlers from the Progress tape library. NXT U.K. was 19th. 205 Live did not crack the top 25

WWE Ratings, AEW vs. NXT Ratings, Wrestling vs. NBA Finals Ratings, Impact Ratings:

SPOILER: show

Raw on 10/5 did its seventh lowest overall numbers in history, but to me, that’s a win considering the competition. Raw did 1,686,000 viewers and 0.52 in 18-49, with competition from the Kansas City Chiefs vs. New England Patriots game on CBS (14,602,000 viewers, 4.0 in 18-49), the Atlanta Falcons vs. Green Bay Packers on ESPN (8,652,000 viewers, 2.92 in 18-49) and a major league baseball playoff game with the New York Yankees vs. Tampa Bay Devil Rays (2,330,000 viewers, 0.60 in 18-49). The show was down 7.8 percent in viewers from last week, which was the combination of the post-PPV bump and the appearances of Ric Flair, Shawn Michaels, Christian and Big Show; down 5.5 percent in 18-49 and down 8.8 percent in 18-34 ... Raw was No. 6 in 18-49, No. 5 in males 18-49, No. 7 in women 18-49, No. 6 in 18-34 and No. 5 in males 12-34. As compared to the same period last year, Raw was down 27.8 percent in viewers, 30.7 percent in 18-49 and 42.6 percent in 18-34 ... The first hour did 1,791,000 viewers. The second hour did 1,666,000 viewers. The third hour did 1,601,000 viewers. The first-to-third hour drop of 10.6 percent is normal levels. By demo, women 18-49 were down 13.0 percent first-to-third hour, men 18-49 were down11.9 percent, teenage girls were down 25.4 percent, teenage boys were up 1.9 percent and over 50 was down 8.6 percent.

Smackdown on 10/2, even with competition from the NBA playoff finals and baseball playoffs, did very well, doing a 1.40 rating and 2,155,000 viewers (an unusually low 1.27 viewers per home) and another 0.59 in 18-49 (773,000 viewers). The rating was up 7.7 percent, viewers were up 2.1 percent and 18-49 was up 0.9 percent ... Smackdown tied with the NBA pre-game show was second behind the NBA on ABC for the top spot in 18-49 on cable, with the game doing 6,609,000 viewers and 2.41 in 18-49 (3,131,000 viewers) and 2.0 in 18-34 ... This is the first week-to-week comparison of Smackdown on FOX, but it’s totally misleading because you are comparing it to a show with all the hype advertising literally every star they could find (many of whom weren’t even on the show) and was built around Dwayne Johnson. Starting next week the comparisons will be more relevant. But it was down 39.7 percent in ratings, 44.6 percent in viewers and 56.7 percent in 18-49. The show opened huge with 2.32 million viewers for the Roman Reigns/Jey Uso/Paul Heyman segment and Uso vs. A.J. Styles. It fell to 2.12 million for the Sami Zayn interview, Otis vs. John Morrison and Sheamus vs. Shorty G. Usually the top of the hour gains, but it fell slightly to 2.09 million Kevin Owens with Alexa Bliss, and the Matt Riddle & Gran Metalik & Lince Dorado match against Shinsuke Nakamura & Cesaro & King Corbin. The final half hour with the Sasha Banks return interview and Zayn vs. Jeff Hardy for the IC title also did 2.09 million viewers.

Going against the Vice Presidential debate, which drew 52,636,000 viewers and a 10.8 in 18-49, you can almost throw out comparison relevancy for AEW and NXT on 10/7. AEW did 753,000 viewers and a 0.31 in 18-49 (401,000 viewers), good for No. 19 for the night behind 15 news shows and three major league baseball playoff games. NXT did 639,000 viewers and 0.16 in 18-49 (212,000 viewers), good for the No. 56 spot for the day. No entertainment show on television aside from AEW in prime time other than The Masked Singer on FOX beat an 0.24 in 18-49. The two baseball games head-to-head saw the TBS game do 2,391,000 viewers and 0.65, and the FS 1 game did 1,635,000 viewers and 0.55. Really, the debate could have hurt AEW a lot worse if it didn’t have the publicity of the Chris Jericho 30th anniversary show. The show was down 13.0 percent in total viewers and 6.3 percent in 18-49 with the debate and playoff games on TBS and FS 1 head-to-head. With the same competition, NXT was down 12.7 percent in viewers and 14.2 percent in 18-49, so the competition looks to have hit both groups hard, but hit NXT, surprisingly, harder with the key demo, but most likely if it had not been a Jericho special show that TBS and TNT pushed hard during its baseball broadcasts, the damage would have been significantly greater. AEW more than doubled NXT in three of the four key demos. However in the fourth, women 35-49, AEW was barely ahead. Overall, the first and seventh quarter were close. In 18-49, AEW doubled NXT in the fifth and eighth quarter. Both shows took a hit late due to the debate, although AEW’s strong fifth quarter with the dog collar match staved off the decline that came after the match. The most notable thing is that in 18-34, AEW had more women viewers than men, which would be a first. It also had more girls than boys 12-17, which was also the case the prior week, but that was likely due to the big NBA numbers with teenage boys. In the main event battle, AEW did 696,000 viewers and 399,000 in 18-49 for Chris Jericho & Jake Hager vs. Luther & Serpentico. NXT did 613,000 viewers and 179,000 in 18-49 for Ember Moon & Rhea Ripley vs. Dakota Kai & Raquel Gonzalez. AEW did 61,000 viewers in men 18-34 (down 17.6 percent from last week) to 29,000 for NXT (down 31.0 percent from last week). AEW did 68,000 viewers in women 18-34 (up 4.6 percent) to 27,000 for NXT (down 22.9 percent). AEW did 204,000 viewers in males 35-49 (down 1.0 percent) to 92,000 for NXT (down 9.8 percent). AEW did 68,000 viewers in women 35-49 (down 18.1 percent) to 64,000 for NXT (down 5.9 percent). This is the first week one can make year-by-year comparisons, but between AEW’s huge debut number and the debate, like the Smackdown comparisons, it’s misleading. Really any valid comparisons would start in November. However, AEW was down 46.6 percent in viewers, 54.4 percent in 18-49 and NXT (which had its big debut two weeks earlier and had a more normalized number by this point) was down 28.8 percent in viewers and 50.0 percent in 18-49. For AEW, the peak in every key demo except Men 35-49 was the Cody vs. Brodie Lee chain match. In Men 35-49, it was the Brian Cage vs. Will Hobbs match. For NXT, the peak for men 18-34 and women 18-34 was the Ridge Holland vs Danny Burch/injury and Johnny Gargano & Candice LeRae vignette,. The men and women 35-49, the peak was the end of Kushida vs. Tommaso Ciampa, the post-match and the Moon interview. The show opened with AEW doing 767,000 viewers and 414,000 in 18-49 for Cage vs. Hobbs. NXT with its big lead-in did 718,000 viewers and 216,000 in 18-49 for most of Kushida vs. Ciampa. In the second quarter, AEW did 760,000 viewers and 399,000 in 18-49 for the post-match of Cage vs. Hobbs with Taz, Ricky Starks and Darby Allin, a Lance Archer promo and the beginning of FTR vs. Jack Evans & Angelico. NXT did 687,000 viewers and 251,000 in 18-49 for the end of Kushida vs. Ciampa, the most-match, and Moon interview. It was the 18-49 peak for NXT. In the third quarter, AEW did 814,000 viewers and 396,000 in 18-49 for most of FTR vs. Evans & Angelico, Best Friends out and MJF promo. NXT did 654,000 viewers and 232,000 in 18-49 for an Io Shirai interview, Undisputed Era promo, Drake Maverick & Killian Dain vs. Chase Parker & Matt Martel and a Toni Storm video. In the fourth quarter, AEW did 777,000 viewers and 409,000 in 18-49 for the build up and ring intros of Lee vs. Cody. NXT did 663,000 viewers and 238,000 in 18-49 for a Gargano & LeRae vignette, Austin Theory vs. Leon Ruff and the beginning of Theory vs. Dexter Lumis. In the fifth quarter, AEW did 849,000 viewers and 436,000 in 18-49, both the peaks, for most of Lee vs. Cody. NXT fell to 573,000 viewers and 200,000 in 18-49 for most of Theory vs. Lumis, a Cameron Grimes and a Finn Balor vs. Kyle O’Reilly video package. In the sixth quarter, AEW did 723,000 viewers and 389,000 in 18-49 for the end of Cody vs. Lee, the post-match promo with Orange Cassidy, a Kenny Omega promo and the beginning of Big Swole vs. Serena Deeb. NXT did 612,000 viewers and 202,000 in 18-49 for Ridge Holland vs. Danny Burch and another Gargano & LeRae vignette. In the seventh quarter, AEW did 637,000 viewers and 364,000 in 18-49 for Swole vs. Deeb and a Jon Moxley promo. NXT did 590,000 viewers and 178,000 in 18-49 for a Timothy Thatcher video, Holland going out on a stretcher and Shotzi Blackheart vs. Xia Li. In the eighth quarter, AEW gained 59,000 viewers and 35,000 in 18-49 for Jericho & Hager vs. Serpentico & Luther. NXT gained 23,000 viewers and 1,000 in 18-49 for Ripley & Moon vs. Kai & Gonzalez. AEW did a 0.13 in 12-17 (up 8.3 percent from last week), 0.18 in 18-34 (down 7.2 percent), 0.44 in 35-49 (down 5.9 percent) and 0.26 in 50+ (down 23.5 percent). The show did 66.1 percent males in 18-49 and 49.5 percent males in 12-17. It shows that 12-34 males who watch AEW regularly were very likely to have watched either the debate or baseball; while teenage girls were not. Actually teenage girls were above usual levels. Because NXT didn’t crack the top 50, we don’t have full details on its numbers, other than it was down 27.3 percent in 18-34 and down 8.2 percent in 35-49. In 18-49, it was 57.1 percent males.

In the viewers per home stats for the week of 9/28 to 10/4, the 9/30 AEW show, going against the NBA finals and baseball playoffs, set its all-time record at 1.67, and also topped the sports category. This would be the first time a pro wrestling show has done peak attitude era (1.7) numbers. The situation with AEW is that in homes that are aware of the product, people watch together, and that is growing. But the recognition of the brand is still way down. NXT was actually viewed in more total homes but did 1.32 viewers per home, also well above its usual levels. Smackdown did 1.27 against NBA and baseball playoffs, it’s lowest in recent memory, but it had a big increase in total homes watching. On 9/28 against AEW & NXT, the NBA first game of the finals (the finals are so far down from last year that it’s become a giant sports story) did 1.51 while baseball had 1.38. The Friday night playoff game did 1.53 and the Sunday NBA playoff game did 1.56, the latter tying for second behind AEW for the week in sports. The baseball playoff game against Smackdown did 1.43. Fox’s Sunday football early afternoon games did 1.54. The CBS late afternoon games did 1.55 for third. The NBC Sunday prime time game did 1.49 and Monday night football did 1.42. Of the major college football games, the highest was 1.56 for the Auburn vs. Georgia game on ESPN on Saturday night, while the most-watched game, Texas A&M vs. Alabama, did 1.43. The last game of the Stanley Cup against Raw did 1.43 while the top NASCAR race of the weekend did 1.33. The Holly Holm vs. Irene Aldana UFC Fight Night did 1.35.

IMPACT: We have an update on television ratings for the month of September from Wrestlenomics.com. The 9/1 show did 102,000 viewers and 31,000 (0.02) in 18-49. The 9/8 show did 78,000 viewers and 22,000 (0.02) in 18-49. The 9/15 show did 170,000 viewers and 43,000 (0.03) in 18-49. The 9/22 show did 200,000 viewers and 51,000 (0.04) in 18-49. The 9/29 show did 168,000 viewers and 52,000 (0.04) in 18-49. There are a few notes to these numbers. The first is that 9/1 and 9/8 went head-to-head with NXT on USA. So with head-to-head competition, they averaged 90,000 viewers and 26,500 in 18-4, and 29.4 percent of the viewers in the key demo. Without head-to-head competition they averaged 179,000 viewers and 48,700 in the key demo (27.7 percent). Keep in mind that you could have watched NXT and then watched Impact via DVR before midnight that night and counted. What it tells you is that of the regular Impact audience, half of the total viewers and 45.6 percent would skip AEW if NXT was on at the same time, so essentially they are more wrestling fans than Impact fans. You’ll notice that with AEW if we compare 9/9 (no NXT) with 9/16 (with NXT) they only dropped 12.8 percent in viewers and 7.5 percent in 18-49 which tells you that a large percentage of Impact viewers would choose to watch NXT on an unfamiliar night, whereas that is not the case with AEW viewers. The fans Impact gets back with no NXT skew older. For AEW, the percentage of viewers 18-49 with no NXT was 47.3 percent, and the next week with NXT was 50.2 percent, so similarly with no NXT, Impact gets new viewers, but those new viewers skew older. So in both cases, you take NXT away, and both shows get more viewers by percentage over the age of 50. Using last week’s numbers. Also, Impact is the oldest skewing pro wrestling TV show of those with significant national viewers, with a normalized 27.7 percent in the key demo as compared to 33.7 percent for NXT, 36.3 percent for Smackdown, 38.7 percent for Raw and 49.4 percent for AEW. Keep in mind with the competing sports, notably the NBA which is so strong with 12-34 males, that if these shows go against the NBA, and all but Raw did, they will skew older than usual