[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets:

Originally Posted by Observer In terms of total viewers, NXT won the latest installment of the Wednesday Night War, averaging 759,000 viewers to AEW Dynamite's 715,000. NXT on the USA Network was down 4.2 percent in total viewers from last week's night one of the Great American Bash. In the 18-49 demo, the show averaged a 0.20 rating, down 9.1 percent. NXT finished 24th on cable in that demo. AEW Dynamite on TNT was down from the 748,000 viewers that the previous week's opening night of Fyter Fest averaged. In 18-49, the show averaged a 0.28 rating, topping NXT again but down 3.4 percent from last Wednesday. The number was good for seventh place overall on cable in the demo ... As it does almost every week, AEW won in every demo category except for people over 50, where NXT had a huge advantage of 0.39 to Dynamite's 0.27. AEW had a similar advantage in men 18-49 with a 0.39 rating to NXT's 0.26. The other demos were all relatively close.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling While AEW’s overall viewership was down, they saw a big increase with adults 18-34 growing by 27% and males 12-34 improving by 23.5% this week. Its largest loss was among women 18-49 which fell by 15%. The show also had a one-minute overrun on TNT. NXT experienced a 15% loss with males 25-54, females 12-34 dropped by 12.5%, and males 18-49 declined by 10%. They did see an increase in the 18-34 demo, which was up 10%, so both shows saw gains in that category. A big factor over the past three weeks for NXT has been its 50+ audience. One month ago, they were averaging 0.35-0.36 in that demo, and are coming off weeks of 0.42 on June 24th (their highest head-to-head rating int that demo), 0.40 on July 1st, and 0.39 this week.

Originally Posted by PWI Q - Since the last few weeks of the AEW vs. NXT battle, I've seen fans on Twitter pointing out that NXT has won the last few weeks but others are saying AEW is winning because they win the demos. What's more important? A - From a network perspective, I can tell you that the demographics are more important. Everyone wants to win when they are in competition, but for a network, the demographics are far more important as that is the data that they deliver and promise to advertisers, who want to know that their products are seen by the highly desired younger audience. AEW on Wednesday night was #7 for the evening in the 18-34 demo - and was the tops in LOTS of other demos this week)- and I can tell you that from speaking to a lot of sources at Warner Media, they absolutely love AEW's performance and do so much that there's been a lot of talk in recent weeks about developing other ways to link AEW with additional corners of Warner properties. Anyone who dismisses the demo numbers is either uneducated to their importance or they are looking for an incorrect way to prove themselves right. If WWE Smackdown is last in the viewership in their timeslot but they win the demo, it's not like FOX is going to look at the series as failing that week - and it's not like WWE would then bemoan that Smackdown was in last place vs. NBC, ABC, CBS, etc. The argument that AEW is "doing bad" in, in any way, is just plain silly and not rooted in reality. As far as the overnight audience, it is important for bragging rights but it's also an outdated way of looking at things. For fans indoctrinated in the way we all used to track Raw vs. Nitro, it's silly to act like it's 1995. The overnight numbers are different now. Unless there is access to the +3 and +7 numbers via DVR viewing (which we don't have access to) and streaming #s, we don't know the final audience levels for the shows. So, the overnight numbers don't tell the story on viewership the way they did decades ago. Lastly, it's Twitter. Not exactly the place to go for nuanced, detailed breakdown or discussions!

From PWI's weekly Q&A articles on the topic of viewership vs. demos debate between AEW and NXT in recent weeks.

Originally Posted by PWI The WWE Network's R-Truth game show, simply titled "R-Truth's Game Show" will debut this Tuesday, July 14th. WWE previews for the show features WWE stars answering questions and completing tasks over videoconferencing with the eclectic R-Truth as the master of ceremonies. WWE filmed a pilot for the series back in May 2017 but it never went to series. WWE has now resurrected the concept.

Originally Posted by PWI Ring of Honor announced that next week's edition of ROH TV will pay tribute to STARDOM star Hana, who took her own life in May: Next week on ROH TV is a very special tribute episode celebrating the career of Hana Kimura We look back at Hana’s ROH matches, Her G1 Supercard match at Madison Square Garden, The stars of ROH share their favorite memories of Hana & more! TV Listings: https://t.co/7wgWAA43tX pic.twitter.com/SWFPYd2QG0 — ROH Wrestling (@ringofhonor) July 8, 2020

Originally Posted by PWI Last night, Taz resurrected his old FTW World Championship belt on AEW Fyterfest and bequeathed the Championship to Brian Cage, who going forward will be billed as the FTW Champion. Since that time, PWInsider.com has received numerous questions about the title and how it can be used in AEW. While I covered this somewhat in my Q&A this morning, here is the deal. The FTW belt was never owned by ECW, therefore it did not transfer over to WWE's ownership. In actuality, The belt was designed, created and owned by Taz, who came up with the original 1998 ECW storyline where he declared himself champion as a result of Shane Douglas refusing to defend the ECW World title against Taz. While Paul Heyman obviously gave Taz a platform and the push at the time, it was not something ECW devised for him nor was the belt something ECW commissioned. Taz actually holds the copyright on the actual design of the belt, which allows him to do whatever he wishes with the design and the FTW intellectual property within professional wrestling. If he ever wanted to merchandise the belt, such a replicas, t-shirts, etc. Taz would be well within his rights to do so. The belt that Brian Cage now holds is indeed the actual original FTW Championship belt. After FTW the belt was retired following the 1999 ECW Living Dangerously PPV, Taz retained ownership of the championship belt, which has been in his possession for the last 20-plus years.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling FTR (Dax Harwood & Cash Wheeler) joined Bully Ray and David LaGreca on Monday’s installment of Busted Open Radio. Harwood revealed that he and Cash’s appearance on Jim Cornette’s podcast was not well received by those within AEW and said that they were “the biggest heels in the locker room” once that podcast hit people’s feeds. “Just really quick off that, we did Cornette’s podcast not too long ago and we talked to Tony Khan and asked him if it would be okay if we did that, but no one else knew about that, and man when we got to TV, the next day after that podcast aired, we were the biggest heels in the locker room. Everyone, even our buddy MJF, everyone was so pissed off with us because they thought we went rogue and went on Cornette’s podcast to bury The Young Bucks and AEW. We were not a very well-liked pair in the locker room that day" ... Also during the podcast, Wheeler and Harwood spoke about their new finisher, “The Goodnight Express”. Harwood stated that they did not have to change the “Shatter Machine” name but they wanted to anyway and also, they’ve been using the spike piledriver on AEW programming and they did pitch to use that move in WWE, says Harwood. “So, the Shatter Machine and now we have to call it the Goodnight — we don’t have to but we enjoy calling it the Goodnight Express. It’s a move that obviously we took from parts of another great tag team. You may have heard of ‘em and we just incorporated [it] and put our own little spin on it. But, going to AEW with a spike piledriver, that’s something we always wanted to use in WWE. We even talked to Hunter about it. He said no. We had asked other people. Like we had asked Vince [McMahon] about it. He obviously didn’t want to use the piledriver at all and so we came to AEW and we started incorporating the spike piledriver just almost as a restart for us, and it’s something we want to incorporate into our matches. But for the Shatter Machine, no one has ever, ever, ever, ever kicked out of it. We learned that from listening to another great tag team that had the same kind of finisher with the same kind of premise. No one’s ever kicked out of it and we just want to take the spike piledriver and utilize it to its fullest extent and if no one can kick out of it, no one can kick out of that one as well. Just another move to the repertoire…”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Corey Graves welcomed Booker T onto the After The Bell podcast. Booker was open about the low ratings for WWE Backstage on FS1 and felt like the minimum number the show should’ve done was 500,000. Booker added that it may have helped if they covered independent wrestling on the program. “And my thing was, I was always weary weekly, just because the ratings wasn’t what I wanted. I said with my star power and all the rest of the guys on the panel, our star power together man, we shouldn’t have no less than 500,000 per week. That should’ve been the low number for us. For me, I don’t think it was enough thought going into something like that. Everybody was just f*cking loving it. I’m like, ‘Man we gotta get these numbers up,’ and I thought stuff like that [talking independent wrestling] would intrigue not just the casual WWE viewer, but people that’s really thinking about, ‘Man, what is this business really, really truly all about?’”

Expanding the show to cover other wrestling promotions would have been an interesting idea but probably would have meant just promotions WWE is affiliated with. Plus WWE probably wouldn't be happy after a while if they started talking about their competitors in a positive light.

Originally Posted by Fightful A month after it was announced that he signed a multi-year deal with MLW, Saieve Al Sabah asked and was given his release from the company. Earlier today, Sabah announced on Twitter that he is no longer with the company after asking for his release. Al Sabah was the newest member of Injustice, joining Myron Reed and Jordan Oliver on the June 4 episode of MLW Pulp Fusion. According to Andrew Thompson of Post Wrestling, Al Sabah has been voicing his displeasure with MLW Chief Operating Officer Jared St. Laurent and his connection to Chasyn Rance, who has been registered as a sex offender since 2014. Al Sabah believes that St. Laurent may be tied into or may know more information about the disappearance of Samantha Fiddler who was last seen at the Team Vision Dojo, where St. Laurent used to be a trainer for and Rance currently runs, in 2016. Thompson then reached out to St. Laurent, who said he hasn't been affiliated with either Rance or Team Vision Dojo in years. St. Laurent added that Al Sabah about a royalty check from a t-shirt sale that was only $5, but noted that he wasn't the one who gave Al Sabah that money and that he didn't know Al Sabah had a shirt due to his contract with MLW still not running. St. Laurent added that all of his 2020 dealings with Al Sabah were pleasant and that Al Sabah appeared to have been apologetic after negotiations between him and MLW fell through in 2018. St. Laurent added that Al Sabah was telling people that he was going to get him fired. Going back to the connection with Rance and Team Vision Dojo St. Laurent claimed he cut business ties with Rance and the school a decade ago Rance's legal issues were public, but would check in with the students at the school throughout the years to see how they were doing. In an update to this story, Chasyn Rance sent an email to Andrew Thompson of POST Wrestling, noting that St. Laurent was booking at Team Vision’s ‘I BELIEVE’ promotion until May 2018 “The last show MSL booked for BELIEVE was May 4, 2018. He started being too busy with MLW and distancing himself from I Believe Court’s request. I did for years try to distance my name and stop wrestling for a bit but that only made the internet calm down but made business slow down. When I wrestle on shows, business has gone up. It’s been an issue for the past 10 years. MSL did not book the June 1, 2018 card. I gave him my thoughts and he said good. He did not come to book anymore shows which was fine. I had a nice handle on things. He had quit previously at one point after my issues but came back when I brought business up and he didn’t have much going on. That was the NJPW/CEO deal 2 years ago. Last year with AEW/CEO, MSL was not booking. I didn’t quite get things pulled from me. I finally got an answer that it was best to lay low. I was in the area promoting and getting my 20 tickets to my students and assistants for that event,” said Rance's email. Alex Pourteau, the founder of the Pro Wrestling 2.0. Academy, reached out to Andrew to say that Samantha Fiddler, the missing person who was in a relationship with Teddy Hart at the time of her disappearance in November 2016, only trained at the school through the summer of 2016.

Originally Posted by Fightful Recently, NXT has played host to a lot of former superstars who cut their teeth on the black and gold brand and have now come back as part of the main roster to help elevate the brand. Triple H recently spoke with Yahoo! about how often he gets requests from alumni to come back to NXT and how he makes it work with the WWE schedule. "One of the things that I love about NXT is that there’s a bond and a family feel about it," Hunter began. "It’s something special when people are a part of it. It always reminds me of the pride people have in their college. When you graduate from college you have spent four years of your life there, that’s always your school, you’re proud of it, you wear the sweatshirts, you support the teams, still go to games. I think NXT is like that for a lot of talent. Sasha and Bayley call all of the time asking if they can come down [to Florida] and work. They’re on different brands, so I have to work within the creative components of what they already have, but I see it all the time." He continued, "When all of this went down, a lot of the stuff that was happening was Charlotte’s idea, her being a part of the brand, being there on a regular basis. Kevin Owens competing for NXT last year in WarGames was something he had been on me about forever, about wanting to come down and do something. Almost everyone who comes through the door and then leaves is asking if they can come back and be a part of it again. You can see it and feel it in the afternoon when they walk in. It’s like going back in time for them, the excitement level is high even though at its best it’s a smaller building and crowd then they are used to. It’s really cool to see."

Main roster Creative and Vince doing a terrible job handling NXT call-ups probably helps a lot on that view former NXT talent have. Already have some like Ciampa being vocal about not wanting to ever leave NXT since he saw what WWE did with his group of call-ups and got lucky he didn't suffer a similar fate due to injury.

Originally Posted by PWI WWE released an excellent video on Keith Lee dedicating his WWE NXT Championship win (which aired last night) to his trainer, the late Killer Tim Brooks. The video notes Lee flew back to Texas to see Brooks one last time five days before his passing.

TPWW Frontpage:

• Lana Says Both of Her Parents Have COVID-19
• Taz Brings Back the FTW Championship, Crowns Brian Cage as Champ
• Four Matches Announced for AEW Fight for the Fallen Next Week
• Two Matches Announced for Next Week’s NXT