[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets:

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling The draft edition of RAW saw the show experience an increase in its viewership hitting its highest mark since August 31st while finishing fourth among cable programming. The show averaged 1,855,000 viewers on the USA Network and a 0.57 rating in the 18-49 demographic. Both numbers were the show’s best since the August 31st episode that followed the WWE Payback event and represented a weekly increase of 12 percent in viewership and 9.5 in the demo rating. RAW began with 2,006,000 viewers and a 0.60 demo figure, it dropped to 1,884,000 viewers (0.59) in the second hour and the third hour saw a larger drop with 1,676,000 viewers and a 0.52 demo number. The show fell 16.5 percent from the first to the third hour. RAW went against the Monday Night Football game between the Chargers and Saints that did 10,694,000 viewers while FOX aired the NLCS game between the Braves and Dodgers that did 3,207,000 on the overnight figures with the final number out on Wednesday. Across RAW’s key demographics, the only audience that was down this week was males 12-34 by 5 percent. The increase was led by adults over 50 that were up by 10 percent, while adults 18-49 and females 18-49 were each up by 9.5 percent. The 2019 edition of the draft on RAW averaged 2,279,000 and a 0.74 rating in the 18-49 demo. That show also faced a bigger NFL game that topped 13.3 million viewers and went against the Major League Baseball game. From last year, they fell 18.5 percent in viewers and 23 percent in the demo. The first to third-hour drop was most significant with women 12-34 which dropped 17 percent despite staying even overall from the prior week. Adults over 50 and women 18-49 dropped 16 percent in the third hour and adults 25-54 declined 15 percent in the third hour.

Originally Posted by Observer Joey Ryan's run of recent lawsuits has continued. PWInsider first reported Tuesday that Ryan (Joe Meehan) filed a $10 million lawsuit against Impact Wrestling's parent company Anthem Sports & Entertainment in mid-September, alleging breach of contract for firing him due to allegations of both sexual abuse and assault. Anthem has until Saturday, October 24th to respond to the suit that was filed in Nashville, TN. We have reached out for comment to both Impact and Anthem but haven't not received a response. Ryan's contract ran through August 2021 and Impact released him on June 22nd. Based on language in the contract regarding warning and reprimands, he claims they needed to inform of him of any issue in writing along with a "5 day cure period" as it states in the contract. According to the contract language, if nothing could be worked out by the wrestler in five days, he and Impact would then have 30 days to resolve any issues. At that point, Impact could have terminated the deal another 30 days after that if there was still unresolvable issues. The $10 million sought is in addition to legal fees and other "relief" that a court may find in his favor. This comes after Ryan filed multi-million lawsuits against several accusers that emerged during the #SpeakingOut movement earlier this year. PWInsider noted he has filed six lawsuits.

Originally Posted by Observer While not officially announced by the company as of now, Ivelisse said during an interview Monday night that she has signed with AEW. She didn't give any details, but said she was overwhelmed to get the offer in the same week when she lost her home in a fire. She had tweeted about the fire in mid-September so if the timeline is accurate, she's been under contract for a month. Ivelisse made her AEW debut in mid-July in a loss to Diamante and then teamed with her in the first Women's Tag Team Cup. The duo won the tourney with a finals victory over Brandi Rhodes and Allie. Since then, she defeated KiLynn King and lost to NWA Women's Champion Thunder Rosa in a much-discussed match. She also teamed with Diamante twice, defeating Rache Chanel and Skyler Moore and losing to Rosa and AEW Women's Champion Hikaru Shida at the September 23rd Dynamite -- the last time she has been on AEW TV.

Originally Posted by PWI A trial date of Monday 1/25/21 has been set for the criminal trial for former WWE and Impact Wrestling Champion Jose Albero Rodriguez Chucuan aka Alberto Del Rio and Alberto el Patron following his indictment last week, Chucuan is facing one count of aggravated kidnapping and four counts of sexual assault and could be facing as much as life in prison. Chucuan, 43, was arrested on 5/9 after a victim went to San Antonio, Texas authorities, stating that on Sunday 5/3 at 10 PM, Chucuan allegedly became angry with her and physically assaulted her after accusing her of infidelity. When the victim would not admit to the infidelity, Chucuan allegedly slapped her "across the head" several times. The victim also alleged that Chucuan "forced her to wear a dress and dance for him" and that when she refused and he told her not to start crying because if she did, "he would take her son and drop him in the middle of the road somewhere." The arrest affidavit stated that the woman alleged Chucuan had sexually assaulted her and that she had her injuries documented via photographs.

Originally Posted by PWI As of last night, the plan is for the Andrade and Mickie James, the two talents left "Undrafted" following the 2020 Draft to land on the Monday Night Raw roster. Obviously, until it's officially announced, that's subject to change, but it was the plan as of yesterday.

Originally Posted by PWI WWE filed a number of new trademark applications on 10/8, including WWE Livewire, a series that existed in the late 1990s. This may be in advance of the company adding it to the WWE Network.

Originally Posted by PWI AdFreeShows.com, the subscription-based service behind Conrad Thompson's suite of podcasts, announced Monday that WWE Hall of Famer, Gerald Brisco, will be added to the lineup for a brand new series called "Monday Mailbag with Gerald Brisco." AdFreeShows.com members will have the opportunity to ask questions and delve into the mind of Brisco's, who has spent over 50 years in the wrestling business.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling MLW is preparing for their restart. The organization’s CEO Court Bauer tweeted out that a select number of fans will have the opportunity to attend the restart and more information on that is coming soon.

That leaves just ROH as the only notable US promotin running shows without fans around. Not counting NWA since they are running shows under the UWN banner and not on their own.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Asbury Park Press has a feature story up about All Elite Wrestling which includes a profile on Cody Rhodes ... While speaking about the first year of All Elite Wrestling, Cody feels that he “talked too much” in the sense that he strapped a label or confined the AEW product to something as it was still growing. “I wanted to really promote the brand, I wanted to pound the pavement, but in speaking I kind of confined our product, I tried to give an identity to a product (when the) identity is evolving, its identity is growing. AEW is going to have a different identity in year one than it has in year two, and we want that identity and that flavor profile to improve. But to say it’s one thing would be incorrect because wrestling is something that there’s no one specific way to do it right. There’s many different ways to do it right. So I spoke too much as an executive in my efforts to promote the brand and a lot of this kind of click-bait journalism (followed) in areas where what I said was taken out of context and might have rubbed people the wrong way or might have created more tension between an NXT fan and an AEW fan. A little less talk from me, a little more action, is one of my goals (going forward).”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling UPROXX conducted an extensive interview with AEW’s Britt Baker. Britt was asked about the criticisms of AEW’s women’s division along with the growth of the division. She feels that it’s something the company is working on and said she knows there are plans to grow the division. “Yeah, I definitely think it’s something the company is working on. You know, and we got hit hard—our women’s division, because of the COVID outbreak. Half our roster is international talent, so we immediately didn’t have access to any of those women. Then Kris Statlander got hurt, and I got hurt. And there’s only so much time on AEW Dynamite to start with. And I know there are plans to grow the women’s division, but at the same time we need help from the fans at home too! We can’t have the women’s segments being the lowest rated or the lowest views each week. Because at the end of the day it’s a business, and AEW needs ratings. It’s no secret we’re in a war every Wednesday night with NXT, so we need the ratings up. So for the fans that are so encouraging and saying, ‘We want more women, we want more women!’ That’s great, but please don’t turn the channel when the women are on TV then! We want everybody to be watching the segments and cheering us on from home.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Bruce Prichard and Conrad Thompson covered the 2005 WWE No Mercy pay-per-view for the latest installment of Something to Wrestle. During the Q&A portion of the show, Prichard stated that there were ideas tossed around about Shawn Michaels and Eddie Guerrero possibly wrestling one another at WrestleMania 22 in 2006. “It was kicked around as a possibility because they never worked together and that was, at least in my head, a dream match. That was one of those that I definitely would’ve loved to see.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Jim Ross and Conrad Thompson covered The Miz’s career in WWE for the latest installment of the Grilling JR podcast ... Jim Ross spoke highly of the late Matt Cappotelli as well. Ross said that Cappotelli reminded him of a young Brian Pillman and praised the former Tough Enough winner for his passion for wrestling. “Yeah, we thought Matt had great potential. What a sweetheart of a kid. Loved, loved, loved wrestling. Living his dream. God bless him, and he reminded me at times a little bit of a young Brian Pillman. Frame, pace, good looking kid and you couldn’t ask for a better person, teammate to be on your roster. Just a great kid, very athletic. He was never gonna be the biggest dog in the fight but he had that Ricky Morton ability, not that he was Ricky Morton, but he had that Ricky Morton ability and tendencies to sell, and smaller guys like that have to be baby faces especially, have to master the art of selling and all the different levels of selling. Selling is just not one word and it’s all the same. It’s a progression, registering, big sell, soft sell, whatever. But Matt was a good kid. We thought he had got past the hump. He was working in a gym I think in Louisville, but it was heartbreaking Conrad [Thompson]. If you knew this kid, you would love this kid and we all did.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Brandon Thurston at Wrestlenomics has an article attempting to get a better sense of the television rights fees that NXT is earning from the USA Network looking at a variety of sources and what has been reported. The NXT rights are reportedly up for renewal next year, which adds to the discussion of the strategy behind the show coming off the Tuesday experiment and the data we have to see what increase NXT could enjoy by moving off Wednesdays.

Link: https://wrestlenomics.com/2020/10/09...n-usa-network/

Originally Posted by PWI The 2300 Arena has seen a lot of violence, blood and guts over the last several decades, but the one thing the South Philadelphia pro wrestling staple couldn't take was a rally event for WWE Hall of Famer and United States President Donald Trump. The Arena was slated to host an "Italians for Trump" rally hosted by former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani today, but the Arena's owners canceled the event upon learning the event was to support President Trump. The legendary pro wrestling venue had been originally told they were being booked for a rally for a "local politician", according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. “There’s just a whole lot of things that come with a Trump rally,” Arena co-owner Christy Bottie said. “There’s no way we were going to take any risks on any level for a Trump rally.” Bottie was specifically concerned, according to the article about the venue not being able to handle the COVID-19 health concerns involving present with a larger gathering, although they had been told those attending would be wearing masks. There was also concern about the potential size of the gathering and protestors also coming to the building. The rally was moved to another location in Northeast Philadelphia, where Giulani blamed the change on the Mayor of Philadelphia contacting the venue, something Bottie denied happened. The Arena held a Republican National Committee event in 2016. The Arena itself has been shut down since the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic and is waiting for the chance to return to booking live events, including professional wrestling, MMA, concerts and boxing.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling IMPACT Plus was upgrading its platform and, in the process, deleted several subscriptions from the streaming service. Impact Wrestling has stated it will be reaching out to those that lost their accounts.

Originally Posted by Fightful AEW could be looking to add another name to its roster. According to Cassidy Haynes of Bodyslam.net, AEW has an interest in signing MLW star Mance Warner. A source told Haynes, "AEW 100% has interest." Warner was backstage at AEW Revolution in Chicago in February and also backstage at an episode of Dynamite held in Ohio back in January. Warner is currently under contract with Major League Wrestling, though details of his contract are currently unknown. He is able to work Independent events and had a presence at GCW The Collective over the weekend, including an appearance in the Clusterfuck Battle Royal at Joey Janela's Spring Break 4.

TPWW Frontpage:

• Lars Sullivan Reportedly Lost More Support in WWE Following New Controversy
• WWE Announces More Draft Picks, Only Two Wrestlers Remain Unpicked
• Some Topics for Dark Side of the Ring Season 3 Revealed
• WWE Reportedly Extends ThunderDome Stay for at Least Another Month
• Eva Marie Reportedly Returning to WWE