|
Former TPWW Royalty
|
The Sheets:
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Observer
AEW Dynamite averaged 845,000 viewers for last night's show on TNT, topping the 615,000 viewers that NXT averaged on the USA Network. The gap of 230,000 viewers was the highest since March 18, which was the first closed set broadcast of the pandemic era for either show.
Dynamite was up 7.2 percent in total viewers from last week. In the 18-49 demo, the show ranked fifth on cable with a 0.32 rating, up 10.3 percent from last Wednesday and matching Dynamite's best number since March. The 845,000 total viewers was the best for the show since the March 18 episode, which featured the long-promoted reveal of the Exalted One of The Dark Order and the debut of Matt Hardy.
NXT was down 2.5 percent in total viewers from last Wednesday and had its lowest audience total since May 20. The show was actually up 21.4 percent in the 18-49 demo, averaging a 0.17 rating to finish 35th in the cable rankings for that category.
The combined audience of 1.46 million viewers was up three percent from last week.
AEW dominated the individual demo categories except for people over 50, where NXT had a slim advantage of 0.33 to 0.31.
AEW doubled, and in some cases tripled, NXT in most of the other categories. Dynamite's strongest category was men 18-34, where they had an advantage of 0.44 to 0.23. In the men 12-34 category where NXT cratered last week, NXT was up slightly to a 0.04 rating as compared to AEW's 0.14.
|
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Post Wrestling
AEW increased in all but one of the key demographics led by a 40% jump among females 12-34 and adults 18-34 improving by 12.5%. The lone loss was with males 12-34 that fell by 5%.
NXT was all over the place with their audiences dropping last week, so they experienced several rebounds. The largest was with males 12-34 which hit 0.02 last week and were up to a 0.08 rating this week that translates to a 300% improvement. Males 18-49 were up 64% and adults 18-34 were up by 60%. The big losses were seen with females 12-34 that fell by 55.5% and females 18-49 decreasing by 28.5%.
|
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Observer
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, next month's SummerSlam pay-per-view officially won't be taking place at its originally scheduled location.
WWE posted a statement today confirming that this year's SummerSlam will no longer be taking place in Boston, Massachusetts. It was noted that SummerSlam will still stream live on the WWE Network on Sunday, August 23 and that "information regarding a new location for the event is forthcoming" ...
NXT's next TakeOver special was supposed to take place in Boston on the night before SummerSlam. It will remain on Saturday, August 22 but is no longer being held in Boston. The event is now titled NXT TakeOver XXX.
|
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by PWI
PWInsider.com reported several weeks ago that the Performance Center will host Summerslam. However, we were told this morning that the company is "considering" other potential options, including at least one potential outdoor location, so stay tuned.
|
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Observer
Despite not having any shows planned for the foreseeable future, Major League Wrestling is still getting things in shape for the future as Jacob Fatu has signed a four-year contract extension.
Fatu had signed a one-year extension in November 2019, but ESPN's Marc Raimondi first had the news that the current MLW World Champion had inked a new extension that will keep him under Court Bauer's employ through late-2025 ...
Fatu has been a pro since 2012 and won the MLW title in early-2019. His father is Sam Fatu, the former Tonga Kid in WWE. He was trained by his uncle Rikishi and his cousins are WWE tag team standouts The Usos.
MLW's next live date is planned for October 3rd in Dallas, Texas, with a December date in Philadelphia two months afterward.
|
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by PWI
MLW Champion Jacob Fatu's new deal with Major League Wrestling gives the promotion exclusivity on Fatu through 2025 and would specifically prohibit him from performing for WWE and AEW. The original MLW deals talents signed only prevented talents from working for WWE but with the emergence of AEW last year, all exclusive MLW deals have been re-worked to become more exclusive in nature.
Fatu is among a number of MLW talents who have signed new or re-worked contracts with the company, following MLW National Openweight Champion Alex Hammerstone, Richard Holliday, MLW Middleweight Champion Myron Reed and Salina de la Renta.
|
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Observer
In an interview released Thursday, AEW president and creative lead Tony Khan talked with Sports Illustrated about his decision to bring Sammy Guevera back on Wednesday's AEW Dynamite, ending his 30-day suspension.
Khan confirmed that the suspension was unpaid with his salary being donated to the Women’s Center of Jacksonville. Khan said Guevara had to "earn" his reinstatement by taking sensitivity training.
“I meant what I said about re-evaluating his status with the company based on his conduct. Sammy needed to make a lot of strides to keep his job and make amends for stuff he shouldn’t have said. None of us knew he said those things, and it’s stuff that was years old, but that doesn’t make it right," he said.
The 26-year-old was suspended indefinitely on June 22nd after an inappropriate comment he made on a 2016 podcast regarding Sasha Banks was revived on social media during the #SpeakingOut movement.
Khan said Guevara completed four weeks of "extensive sensitivity training" where he delved into "matters of tolerance, gender, race relations, and why people’s words matter. During his suspension, he was very contrite. I asked him to use that time to try and become a better person, and I think he did."
Guevara returned to TV Wednesday as a surprise to close the show, rejoining his Inner Circle teammates in a beatdown of Jurassic Express. Khan said it was the right time to bring him back "because he’s shown that he’s very sorry and that he can change. He’s spent every day over the past month trying to prove that. I think Sammy was very happy to have an opportunity to apologize, publicly and privately, and do something to turn a terrible comment he made into something positive.”
|
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Observer
It appears the expected AEW in-ring debut of Mike Tyson won't be happening prior to Labor Day as as the boxing great and mainstream sports star will instead be returning to the ring against another former great.
Yahoo's Kevin Iole reported Thursday that the 54-year-old will return to action after retiring in 2005 against multi-division champion Roy Jones Jr. in an eight-round exhibition match set for September 12th at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California.
The TV distribution platform is unknown at this time, but is likely set for pay-per-view given the names involved. ...
Rumors of a Tyson return started earlier this year when clips of an in-shape Tyson training surfaced on social media. In doing media for an event earlier this year, UFC president Dana White said he heard Tyson was definitely coming back against a big name even though he wished he would stay retired ...
Tyson had appeared at AEW Double or Nothing this May, presenting the first-ever TNT title to Cody Rhodes. The Wednesday afterward on Dynamite, he and an entourage got in a pull apart brawl with Chris Jericho and the Inner Circle which was expected to lead to a singles match at some point.
|
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Observer
Eric Young made his first podcast appearance post-WWE on Busted Open Radio. Young acknowledged creative problems within the company, saying “It’s hard to get a word in. Even when you’re doing nothing, it feels like you’re just trying to fix people’s mistakes all day, there is no creativity. They want everyone to do things the same, be the same and bump the same and sell the same. And there’s millions of rules, which I’m sure you guys have all heard and talked about on the show at length, and people talk about on the internet and the secret rules. Those change daily and it’s just really hard to understand what’s going on and why it’s going on. The system is flawed.”
|
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Post Wrestling
Doc Gallows was a recent guest on The Wrestling Inc. Daily podcast. Doc revealed that during the Boneyard match taping between Undertaker and AJ Styles, Undertaker suffered a serious injury in-which he lost a lot of blood and a tendon of his was wounded as well. Undertaker did wear a bandage around his wrist during the airing of the match.
“Man I don’t know. After seeing him there and seeing how tough and how hard he is, he definitely has one more in him. Early on in the shoot, he goes to throw that back-fist and his arm goes through the freaking window. It’s a laceration, there’s tendon, there’s blood and I mean a lot of blood and a lot of swelling, and if it were somebody else, they might’ve stopped that. There might have been serious medical attention but there wasn’t. He wrapped it with a towel, he took a ten second break and he’s back out there fighting and rolling around in the dirt. That’s a bad ass dude. That’s legit. I watched it with my own two eyes so, as far as that goes, in the right setting, I think yeah and I think it was great for those two to do it in that setting because you can’t have WrestleMania with AJ Styles and The Undertaker in a empty Performance Center. That’s a match that deserves — it deserves the crowd reaction that it would get. I said that at Slammiversary too. As much fun as Slammiversary was and as great as it was and as cool as it was and how I really think it was a big shot in the arm, the only thing missing were — when that Motor City Machine Guns graphic showed up at the beginning of that pay-per-view, that would’ve been a hell of a pop and it’s a shame. I told those guys, ‘It’s a shame you didn’t get to get that pop’ so it’ll be fun when the world opens up again to feel those reactions and stuff.”
Gallows was asked about the tag team division in WWE, specifically the Viking Raiders (Ivar & Erik). Gallows believes that the higher-ups in WWE don’t believe that tag team wrestling can draw money and he added that later down the line, he hopes to have a match against War Machine, not The Viking Raiders.
“It used to [bother me seeing tag teams being misused in WWE] but I understand it. I mean, they [Viking Raiders] were a hell of a team. They’re a great team. We’ve had great matches with those guys. But, they’re War Machine-lite. We were Gallows and Anderson-lite. It’s the PG version, it’s the character version. Sometimes, in that company I feel like the people that are making the final decisions don’t have as much as modern touch, especially when tag teams are never a focus there because I don’t think that they actually believe tag team wrestling can draw money which I think has been proven all around the world not to be the case. But, it just is what it is. Those guys are characters. I hope they can make some good money for their families and pay off their houses and do all that stuff that you like to do as a wrestler so you can secure a good future for yourself but, at the end of those deals, there will be a place for War Machine to come and I’d like to stand across the ring from them again. The real War Machine. Maybe not the Vikings, you know?”
|
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Post Wrestling
IMPACT Wrestling’s Acey Romero guest appeared on the ‘Living The Gimmick’ podcast. Romero detailed IMPACT’s COVID-19 precautions and said that he’s felt safe at their tapings.
“IMPACT’s been taking extreme measures. For starters, they recommend us two weeks before tapings to self-quarantine and then for tapings itself, we have our own hotel rooms now. Usually, we double up but we’ve been having our own hotel rooms which has been great, and then we get our temperature taken and we get our blood-oxygen levels taken. A bunch of more science-y stuff that I don’t even know about. But they take the measures. Gloves, the anti-bacterial stuff, all that stuff. E.M.T.’s. They take all the measures and they make sure after tapings that they’re checking on people to see how we’re all doing. So I always feel safe. I never felt worried about coming to work and getting… being at risk.”
Romero admitted that IMPACT has not been doing COVID testing but reiterated that they are taking temperatures, establishing social distancing and keeping a limited number of people in the studio where matches are being taped.
“Not full-blown COVID testing, as some would say. But like I said, they are doing their best. There’s only a certain amount of people that can be in the studio at a time while taping. Social distancing has definitely been put in play, and like I said, they’re checking on us as much as they can to make sure we’re doing well and are taking their precautions.”
|
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Post Wrestling
As first reported by Fightful Select, former IMPACT World Champion Tessa Blanchard is sending back the IMPACT World Title belt. IMPACT and Blanchard cut ties in June. The following note comes by way of Fightful:
“Tessa Blanchard and IMPACT Wrestling are on the outs, and reports have emerged suggesting that she demanded a large sum of money to return the title. Her side of things has disputed that, and mentioned that not only did Tessa not try to hold up IMPACT, but that the company only provided an address to send the belt this week. They claim the title is planned for a safe return.”
|
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by PostWrestling
AJ Styles went live on his Twitch channel on Wednesday night and shared his thoughts in-depth about Paul Heyman and why exactly he [Styles] wanted to get away from the RAW brand. Styles added that he’s heard from multiple people that they disliked Heyman and that Heyman was the one who threw Gallows and Anderson’s names to the wolves because he had nothing for them creatively.
“So, it was said that I was so angry with RAW that Gallows and Anderson were released. I was so angry, that I said, ‘I don’t wanna be on RAW anymore.’ That’s not the way it went down, at all. It was the person who was in charge of RAW who lied to me to my face. Just the most believable lie I’d ever seen, directly to my face.
I’m talking about Paul Heyman. Basically said to me — and here’s the kicker to this whole Paul Heyman thing; having put other guys over and Gallows and Anderson were getting beat by one guy and I’m like, ‘What the heck?’ And he’s like, ‘Hey, I need ya. Gotta trust me. We gotta get this guy over’ and of course that’s what you do. You help guys get over and be bigger [a] star of course but also, like hey, you can’t just bury us completely. I don’t mind losing. That’s not even a part of it as long as there’s a good story that comes behind it. But, he would be like, ‘Listen, you guys trust me. Trust me, trust me, trust me, and if you guys — everything I’ve done you wrong, you get on social media and you bury me. You bury me to every social media you can possibly think of.’ He said this to us, so it came down to Money In The Bank, I found out that my guys were getting released. I was upset and I wanted to go talk to Vince [McMahon] and [Vince was like], ‘It’s already in motion. It has already been done,’ and then Paul Heyman pulls me into his office and tells me he had nothing to with it. He knew nothing about it. Had he knew that Gallows and Anderson were gonna get released, he would’ve fought for him and that’s why they didn’t even tell him [they were] getting released. ‘I appreciate that. I understand. That makes a lot of sense. Well, I mean, listen, we understand what’s going on.’ The COVID, you should’ve seen headquarters. It was sad. It’s a huge building and there was hardly anyone there. So it sucks for everybody, I understand. Even Gallows and Anderson understand to a certain extent. I mean you’re talking about two guys who got released when they were in the main event of WrestleMania. At least one of them. Had one of the bigger matches for sure, but, it was later that I told a friend what was said and he told me what he knew was the truth which was basically, Gallows and Anderson weren’t even on the list, but Paul Heyman just spoke out abundantly like, ‘Hey, we gotta get these guys out of here. We don’t need ‘em, they’re getting paid too much,’ all these things, and the one thing Paul Heyman is good at is talking. He’s very convincing, very, and one thing led to another, Paul advocated for Gallows and Anderson to get released. It’s that simple. Their names wasn’t even on the list until Paul brought it up and I think that the reason why he did what he did — well there’s a couple reasons. He’s a liar. That’s what they do, but it was because he knew he had nothing he wanted to do with them, that he didn’t wanna do anything for them, he didn’t wanna help them become bigger stars. He didn’t wanna do any of that. So the best way to do that after everything he said to ‘em was boom, get ‘em out of there. That’s the real story, and the reason I went to SmackDown is because I couldn’t stand looking at him. I just can’t stand a liar. I’m a grown man, you’re a grown man. Why lie? You don’t even have to say anything. So, I just couldn’t stand to look at him and I was just like, ‘You know, if and when the opportunity if SmackDown’s available, I can’t be around Paul Heyman. I just can’t stand him. But if there’s ever an opportunity, I don’t mind coming over. That’d be great. I don’t wanna do anything now because if my son plays football on Friday nights, I wanna be there.’”
|
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Fightful
Before Sonny Kiss became a star in AEW, he was known as XO Lishus in Lucha Underground. Kiss was apart of season four of Lucha Underground and one of the highlights of the season.
Lucha Underground went through major issues following season four with season five never happening but talent still being under contract. Lawsuits ended up being filed and settled, which allowed the talent to finally get out of contracts and sign elsewhere. Though Kiss was not part of the lawsuit, he did have to deal with his Lucha Underground contract when talking with AEW.
"Brandi slid into my DMs [Laughs]," said Kiss on Talk Is Jericho when asked about signing with AEW. "She messaged me and goes, 'Are you signed anywhere? We'd like you to come to our first show.' I was like, 'Yes, but I can still do other bookings.' [I was signed] to Lucha Underground. Thankfully, we were allowed to do everything but the other company [WWE] so I was able to still do it, but I didn't get my official contract [with AEW] until way after. That contract issue [with Lucha Underground] it was a nightmare. We were maybe making four grand a year. We couldn't sign anywhere else at all. There were times when I couldn't pay my cell phone bill, anything. [Fenix and Pentagon] were one of the first to get out and I was happy for them. I was one of the last. Cody was like, 'Don't worry, we'll still book you and make sure you're still here.' I didn't get my [AEW] contract until TV happened."
Sonny went on to say that he thought Brandi's offer was for All In 2 and didn't realize it would be for an entirely new promotion.
Fortunately, Sonny did get out of his contract and has become a featured star on AEW television.
|
TPWW Frontpage:
|