[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets:

Originally Posted by Observer Following last week's Winter is Coming special episode, AEW Dynamite improved on those impressive numbers, averaging 995,000 viewers on TNT last night. The rating in the 18-49 demo was a 0.45. Dynamite was up nine percent in total viewers from last week. This was the largest audience for the show on a night with NXT competition since October 16, 2019. The 18-49 rating for Dynamite was up 7.1 percent from last week and was the highest for the show since October 9, 2019, opposed or unopposed, which was the second-ever episode of Dynamite ... NXT was also up in both viewership and the 18-49 demo, averaging 659,000 in total viewers and a 0.17 rating in 18-49. That's a slight increase of 0.2 percent in total viewers and a 6.3 percent increase in the demo. Dynamite finished second in all of cable television in the 18-49 demo. In men 18-49, the show averaged a 0.57 rating. That was the highest in all of cable by a considerable margin, with the closest competition being the 0.40 rating that the season premiere of MTV's The Challenge drew. NXT finished 37th on cable in 18-49. The combined audience of 1.654 million viewers on Wednesday night was up 5.3 percent from last week and was the highest since February 19. The combined 0.62 rating in 18-49 was the highest in all of 2020 -- and that includes weeks when Dynamite and NXT aired on different nights. It was also well above the 0.53 rating that Raw did on Monday night and was essentially the same as last Friday's SmackDown. As usual, Dynamite topped NXT in every demo except people over 50, where NXT had a 0.35 rating to Dynamite's 0.29. In the other categories, Dynamite either doubled or tripled NXT in most. In females 12-34, Dynamite's 0.22 rating more than quadrupled NXT's 0.05. Year-over-year, Dynamite was up 27.9 percent in overall viewership and up a huge 60.7 percent in 18-49. NXT was down 15.3 percent in viewership and down 29.2 percent in 18-49. This week last year, the shows actually tied in overall viewership.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling AEW grew among women 18-49 by 21 percent this week, followed by women 12-34 increasing by 16 percent, and the 50+ demo was up by 11.5 percent. The latter demo still belonged to NXT, which scored a 0.35 rating. NXT didn’t suffer any significant declines, including a major rebound in its 18-34 audience. Last week, they hit a terrible 0.04 rating in that demo but were up to a 0.09 this week. The show increased by 55 percent with men 12-34 and increased by 25 percent with women 12-34. AEW scored its highest 18-34 rating since August 5th with a 0.29. The last two weeks have made it crystal clear that the story is not about AEW vs. NXT but rather, AEW catching fire and becoming more competitive with RAW. This week RAW and AEW tied among women 12-34 while RAW narrowly edged out AEW with women 18-49 by 0.01. When you consider what the ceiling for AEW would have been over the past two weeks without the NXT competition, it illustrates the role NXT is playing by capping that ceiling on Dynamite. The next question is whether AEW can sustain this level of viewership? The company is gearing up for several themed episodes of Dynamite over the holiday season and won’t be taking any weeks off.

Originally Posted by Observer Ring of Honor has revealed some more information about Final Battle 2020. It was announced today that Final Battle Hour One will air for free on HonorClub, Best on the Planet, STIRR City, Facebook, and YouTube. Final Battle Hour One will air from 8 p.m. Eastern time to 9 p.m. Eastern on Friday, December 18, with the Final Battle main card then airing on pay-per-view and HonorClub immediately after. ROH PPVs are now included with all HonorClub subscriptions at no extra cost ... Final Battle will be a four-hour broadcast in total. Here's the updated card for the show: ROH World Champion Rush defends his title against Brody King Jay Briscoe vs. EC3 ROH Pure Champion Jonathan Gresham defends his title against Flip Gordon ROH Tag Team Champions Jay Lethal & Jonathan Gresham defend their titles against Mark Briscoe & PCO Matt Taven & Mike Bennett vs. Vincent Marseglia & Bateman ROH Television Champion Dragon Lee defends his title against the winner of the four-way match from Final Battle Hour One ROH Six-Man Tag Team Champions Bandido, Flamita & Rey Horus defend their titles against Shane Taylor & The Soldiers of Savagery (Moses & Kaun) Pure Rules tag match: Tracy Williams & Rhett Titus vs. Fred Yehi & Wheeler Yuta Danhausen vs. Brian Johnson Final Battle hour one: Tony Deppen vs. Dak Draper vs. LSG vs. Josh Woods (winner will challenge Dragon Lee for the ROH Television Championship later in the night)

Originally Posted by PWI As part of their Investor Day presentation, Disney just announced that former WWE Raw Women's Champion and UFC Hall of Famer Ronda Rousey will host a new forthcoming series for ESPN+ - Peyton's Places is back – & growing! Produced with @NFLFilms, Season 2 is available now on ESPN+ & Season 3 is coming Fall 2021. Plus the show is expanding to tell the stories of other sports with series hosted by @davidortiz ??, @AbbyWambach ??, @RondaRousey ???? & @EliManning ????. pic.twitter.com/1abs2dlcD6 — Disney (@Disney) December 10, 2020 There was no further information announced. Rousey last appeared for WWE at Wrestlemania 35 and according to a WWE statement last year, her deal was slated to expire in April 2021.

Link: https://twitter.com/Disney/status/1337161367116279808

Originally Posted by PWI During today's Investor presentation, Disney announced that their Disney+ streaming service will feature the first-ever Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, featuring the cast of the GOTG films in a new live-action special that will be filmed concurrently with the third Guardians of the Galaxy film for a winter 2022 release. The special will feature Dave Bautista reprising his role of Drax. The third GOTG film will be released in 2023. It was also announced that there will be an animated series spinoff to Moana, which featured Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson as demigod Maui. Johnson was not (yet) announced for the series, but it's certainly possible that at least his character will return.

Originally Posted by PWI Major League Wrestling ("MLW") today announced World Middleweight Champion Myron Reed vs. Lio Rush as one of its main events for KINGS OF COLOSSEUM on January 6 at 7pm ET available on YouTube, Fubo Sports, Pluto TV.

Originally Posted by PWI Bobby Fish stated he had surgery to set his triceps muscle back in place following Wargames.

Originally Posted by PWI Kenny Omega is now entering from the heel entrance on AEW's stage. Don Callis will be a regular with him in AEW going forward ... Darby Allin personally produced his Rorsach Test vignette on last night's edition of AEW Dynamite. Snoop Dogg coming in for the 1/6/21 episode is in part to promote the TBS' Go Big Show variety show, in which he and Cody Rhodes will each be judges. There's already been conspiracy theorists that have claimed the Snoop-Undertaker collaboration merchandise was pulled by WWE because of the AEW appearance, but that limited edition merch was actually only scheduled to run through 12/6, so it had already pulled removed by WWE. After his hilarious performance on commentary for the recent Mike Tyson fight, hopefully AEW will utilize him in that manner. The Dark Order offering Dustin Rhodes the number seven slot was a reference to his ill-fated WCW character of the same name. Jim Ross' second autobiography Under the Black Hat: My Life in the WWE and Beyond will be released in paperback form on 3/2/21.

Originally Posted by PWI MLW began teasing matches for their 1/6/21 Kings of Colosseum broadcast this week and it appears the top bouts will be: *MLW Middleweight Champion Myron Reed vs. Lio Rush. *MLW National Openweight Champion Alexander Hammerstone vs. Mads Kruger (Logan Creed in a new role). There is talk of that special episode having an expanded run-time beyond 60 minutes. The Salina de la Renta "produced" episode of FUSION has been postponed. MLW teased the debut of the former Mil Muertes in Lucha Underground, now billed as Pascal Mendoza. What is @salinadelarenta up to?#MLWFusion ???? ???? ???? YouTube | Fubo Sports | Pluto TV ???? https://t.co/l7AEvK5QZb pic.twitter.com/bw5LFqB2AV — MLW FUSION | Wed. 7pm (@MLW) December 10, 2020

Link: https://twitter.com/MLW/status/1336827216835964928

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Dark Order’s John Silver and Alex Reynolds joined Tony Schiavone and Aubrey Edwards on the AEW Unrestricted podcast. Silver and Reynolds did enhancement work for WWE prior to signing with All Elite Wrestling but were never offered more than that. Silver shared that when they officially signed to AEW, WWE contacted him about a tryout. “No [they didn’t try to sign us] but after I signed here, they hit me up to do a tryout,” Silver said. Elsewhere during their chat, Alex Reynolds further spoke about the incident on Dynamite when he was knocked out during a tag match in October. He stated that he was awake the entire time and was just selling the double team move that he took from Private Party. “But what many people online don’t know, obviously because they weren’t in the situation. I wasn’t knocked out, I was awake the whole time. I remembered everything, knew where I was, knew what was going on in the match. I literally did like a self-check of myself. Fingers, toes… I was like, ‘Okay.’ The big thing everyone was complaining about was Pepper, The Blade like dragging me to the corner. That was all called. What people aren’t understanding is I just took a double team move, whether I got hurt or not, off the top rope, in a way four-way tag. So, in order to win the match, you have to be legal so Pepper just drags me to his corner so he can become legal and try to win the match, and then yeah, people were upset then yeah, I was just laying there because I was selling this incredible — but also, I was rocked but I was kind of making sure I was okay.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling WWE’s Armageddon pay-per-view from the year 2000 was the focus of the latest Grilling JR podcast. While speaking about R-Truth’s arrival and eventual success in WWE, Ross talked about the racism that existed in the territory days of wrestling and how during the early 2000s time period, WWE attempted to incorporate more talents of color into the fold. “I think his [R-Truth’s] ethnicity in that era helped him, because the company wanted to become, as they should’ve probably 20 years before, wanted to become more diverse. But that was the trend in the wrestling business. You got to remember Conrad [Thompson], when I got in the wrestling business, the territory ran by white promoters had an unwritten rule that there could only be so many African-Americans on their roster, or people of color and I heard that. I’m not just bullsh*tting [or] I made that up. I mean I’ve heard those conversations. Bill Watts’ famous remark to one of the NWA people was, ‘My favorite color is green. I don’t care who they are, what they are. My favorite color is green so this Black thing don’t work in my territory’ and we had a lot of African-Americans. Top babyface, top heels, booker. Whatever, who can do the best job, as it should be. The best people, no matter their skin color should get the jobs and so, no quotas.”

Originally Posted by Fightful According to a report from Cassidy Haynes of Bodyslam.net, Sting reportedly signed a contract with AEW "about a month ago."

Originally Posted by Fightful Major lawsuit in the lucha libre world. According to Luchablog, Lucha Libre Factory Made Ventures, the production company primarily known for being behind Lucha Underground, has filed a lawsuit against Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide in the state of California, claiming they own the rights to any money AAA makes outside the borders of Mexico. The lawsuit accuses AAA of "breach of written contract, breach of implied covenant of good faith & fair dealing, copyright infringement, trademark infringement and unfair competition." According to the lawsuit, LLFMV was given the exclusive rights to distribute AAA events outside of Mexico, the exclusive right to sell AAA merchandise outside of Mexico and the exclusive right to otherwise exploit and monetize AAA outside of Mexico. LLFMV claimed AAA violated the agreement by beginning deals with Marvel, Twitch, YouTube, Facebook Watch, Turner International and Pluto TV. LLFMV is arguing these are worldwide deals, and so all proceeds should be going to them. They are seeking all the money from the agreements (at least $2.5 million), statuary damages, and lawyer’s fees.

Originally Posted by Fightful An update on Penta El Zero M following AEW Dynamite. Before the six-man tag team bout that pitted The Lucha Bros and Lance Archer against Eddie Kingston, The Butcher, and The Blade on AEW Dynamite; Penta El Zero M was taken out of action when The Butcher put him through the timekeeper's table. Penta was helped to the back following the spot, turning things into a handicap match. According to Cassidy Haynes of Bodyslam.net, Penta suffered a leg injury while training a few weeks ago and the spot was designed to keep him out of action for the time being. It is unknown how long Penta will miss due to the injury.

Originally Posted by Fightful CM Punk had plans to enter the world of MMA before his first fight in 2016. In December 2014, Punk announced he signed a multi-fight deal with the UFC. Nearly two years later, Punk competed in his first MMA fight at UFC 203 in September 2016. The fight lasted two minutes and 14 seconds with Punk tapping to Mickey Gall. Speaking to Renee Paquette on Oral Sessions, Punk discussed his decision to jump into the Octagon and his original plan before he was given an offer he couldn't refuse. "I always wanted to do it and being on the road for how long WWE people are on the road for, I could never train consistently. I had planned on leaving when my deal was up at the end of 2010 or 2011. If I was going to train, it was never going to be just a hobby for me. So, I was going to leave, I needed time off anyway, and I would devote full-time to training. I wasn't a big enough name to where I thought everyone would be like, 'it's a spectacle and everyone wants to watch you fight.' So, I was going to do it 'the right way' (where I would) train and do amateur fights. The way I did everything was 100% backward. It's easy for someone to say, 'this bum went right to UFC, he didn't deserve it,' but they often don't understand the business, let alone the fight business. People say, 'Oh, I'll get beat up for $1 million.' My retort to that is 'do the work I did to get to the point where someone would offer you that money to see you fight.' 73 Twitter followers doesn't equate to a million-dollar payday. I got hot at the end of my WWE run and was faced with an opportunity; re-sign for three more years even though I was already shot and mentally and physically exhausted. I obviously re-signed and had to wait another three years. The idea was to do it before I got too old. Turns out, I was too old," he said. Punk returned to the octagon at UFC 225 in June 2018, losing a lopsided decision to Mike Johnson. Since losing his second fight, Punk has done commentary work for Cage Fury Fighting Championships.

Originally Posted by WrestlingInc Celebrity WWE Hall of Famer Snoop Dogg reportedly has some heat within WWE for his upcoming AEW Dynamite appearance. AEW announced last night that Snoop will be appearing on the January 6 Dynamite episode on TNT, to promote the "Go-Big Show" talent competition series that is set to premiere on TBS the next night, featuring Snoop and AEW Executive Vice President Cody Rhodes as two of the judges. January 6 is the same night that the WWE NXT New Year's Evil special airs on the USA Network. It was noted by Bryan Alvarez on Wrestling Observer Radio that there are people within WWE who are "very upset" over Snoop appearing on AEW TV. Snoop has appeared on WWE TV a few times over the years and was inducted into the Celebrity Wing of the WWE Hall of Fame in 2016, by John Cena. He recently partnered with WWE for a limited edition merchandise collection with The Undertaker. Regarding the collaboration with The Undertaker, there were rumors on WWE pulling the merchandise over Snoop's upcoming AEW appearance. That is incorrect. It should be noted that the limited edition merchandise was only scheduled to run through Sunday, December 6, and had already been pulled before AEW announced Snoop's Dynamite debut.

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