[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets:

Originally Posted by Observer Despite the return of live sports in the form of Major League Baseball as competition, the total Wednesday night wrestling audience was up to 1.48 million viewers last night, 1.5 percent higher than the previous week. AEW Dynamite had the higher viewership this week with 773,000 viewers as opposed to 707,000 for NXT ... Dynamite's audience on TNT was down 8.5 percent from last week. In the 18-49 demo, the show averaged a 0.30 rating, down 6.3 percent from last week. Dynamite ranked sixth on cable in that category. NXT on the USA Network was up 15 percent from last week in total viewers. In 18-49, NXT was up 5.9 percent, averaging a 0.18 rating and finishing 28th on cable in that important demo. The total audience of 1.480 million viewers was higher than the third hour of Raw this week and the combined 18-49 rating of 0.48 beat out the three-hour average of Raw, which was 0.47. Those numbers would've been unthinkable just a few months ago. The key to the NXT resurgence was in people over 50. After narrowing the gap to 0.02 last week, AEW dropped to a 0.27 in that demo, while NXT drew a 0.37. So the same number of people in that category (0.64 combined) watched both weeks, but almost 18 percent of them switched from AEW to NXT for whatever reason. AEW won every other category and the gaps were similar to what they've been in previous weeks. One notable category was females 12-34, where AEW averaged a 0.15 rating. Raw this week, in the same category, averaged a 0.14. So even with competition, AEW beat them

*** Full disclosure, for the past several months, whenever Bryan Alvarez would post a quick tweet about AEW & NXT's numbers, people would post gifs mocking the loser show or company. Wanted to start including them sooner since I found them pretty funny and creative but when NXT was on top for a few weeks, WWE/NXT fanatics and Anti-AEW trolls didn't supply any notable ones and were mostly boring and plain with their trash talk so I just waited instead. Plus been getting a bit bored with doing sheet reports and wanted to spice things up a bit.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling AEW Dynamite fell 8.5% in viewership with 773,000 viewers tuning and posting a 0.30 rating in the 18-49 demographic, which was down 6.25% this week. Despite the drop, it was Dynamite’s third-highest viewership since May 27th and was higher than both Fyter Fest episodes. It was also the third-highest 18-49 rating for the show since April 1st. NXT saw increases in both categories with total viewers improving by 15% with 707,000 and a 0.18 rating in the demo that was up 6%. This was the first week that NXT has topped 700,000 viewers since the Great American Bash episodes earlier this month ... AEW was hit among males 12-34 which dropped 16% this week followed by the over 50 demo decreasing by 13% and males 18-49 dropping by 11%. On the other side, females 18-49 rose by 10% and females 12-34 improved by 7%. Among the key demos, NXT was up in every category except males 18-49. The biggest jump was seen among females 12-34 that increased by 100% to 0.08, so that category has stabilized after falling badly to a 0.04 last week. Females 18-49 were up by 40% and males 12-34 improved by 25%. Next week, both episodes will have competition with the NBA resuming play this week.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Coming out of the 7/29 edition of AEW Dynamite, a number of segments and matches were set up for the next several weeks of AEW programming ... Excalibur was not on commentary tonight and Taz filled in for him. Several videos of Excalibur saying the n-word surfaced and received a great deal of traction on social media.

Originally Posted by Observer Prior to their investors call Thursday afternoon, WWE released their 2020 Q2 numbers which showed a year-over-year decrease but a record year-to-date revenue record, buyoed by theiir TV contracts and some big savings with not running live shows. This was the first full quarter WWE hasn't been able to run live shows since the pandemic began. The company saw a year-over-year operating income increase to $55.7 million for the quarter, up from $17.1 million from 2019, thanks to running shows at the Performance Center and as the release said, "to a lesser extent...a decrease in accrued management incentive compensation." Additionally, net income, adjusted OBIDA, and cash flows were all up. Revenues for Q2 decreased to $223.4 million, down from 2019's $268.9 million with the company pointing to "unfavorable timing" for their February show in Saudi Arabia. Conversely, yearly revenue hit a company record $514.4 million, up 14% from the prior year. With both digital views and hours consumed increasing, WWE Network paid subscriber numbers ended the quarter up 6% to 1.69 million while the average for the quarter decreased to 1.66 million. WWE added their long-discussed new free tier over the past quarter. Another positive: while consumer products were down by roughly $1 million, ecommerce revenue doubled to $12.6 million. They cited new belt sales and video game revenue as helping in that area ... Other notes from the release and presentation: The lack of live events resulted in a $48 million drop year over year. WWE had to cancel 53 domestic shows and 23 international events in the quarter. The increase in subscribers marks the first time they've seen that since the fourth quarter of 2018. They achieved WrestleMania Week viewership records of just under 1 billion video views across digital and social platforms, up 20% from last year. Core content fees made up $132.9 million of the $200.1 million in media revenue for the quarter, up from $69 million from the previous year's quarter. Raw viewership was down 24% year over year, following USA Network's 26% year over year decrease while SmackDown was up slightly by 4% year over year while Fox's numbers were down 4% year over year. Notes from the Q&A portion (Vince McMahon, interim CFO Frank Riddick, Michael Weitz) VKM was asked about the "softness" of the ratings. He essentially blamed it on a lack of audience interaction, but said they can have better storylines, more compelling characters and more content that isn't in the ring that is interesting to viewers. VKM asked why NXT and AEW have bounced back from the COVID-19 downtick while Raw/SmackDown hasn't. He said because "they're new" and that it's up to WWE to make Raw/SmackDown more youthful. VKM asked about Heyman's firing from creative, he didn't really give much of an answer. He did say Paul Levesque helps on Raw and SmackDown when asked if he should help more given his success on NXT. They were asked about the EVOLVE wrestling purchase which was said to be a "content purchase deal" in very small size with no merger & acquistion elements attached to it. Asked if there are any options at looking at live shows outside the PC with fans, VKM curtly said they are looking at all opportunities currently.

Originally Posted by PWI While it appears plans for a multi-tiered WWE Network have been paused, perhaps forever, after WWE was initially slated to launch that project several months ago, PWInsider.com can confirm that independent wrestling content is still scheduled to be utilized on the company's streaming network. Several sources have stated that content involving several promotions is being planned for rollout on the Network. WWE has the rights to Great Britain's PROGRESS and ICW and recently purchased the EVOLVE and Dragon Gate USA libraries from World Wrestling Network. The company also has a strong working relationship with Germany's Westside Xtreme Wrestling, so one would think those libraries are the most likely to be involved. There is no timetable for when the content will be released, but we can confirm there was work being done in recent weeks to prepare for its incorporation onto the Network, unless of course, there is another change in plans.

Originally Posted by PWI United States District Court of The Middle District of Tennessee Chief Judge Waverly D. Crenshaw, Jr. officially declared a mistrial earlier today in the Jeff Jarrett and Global Wrestling Entertainment vs. Anthem Wrestling (parent company of Impact Wrestling) lawsuit, PWInsider can exclusively confirm. As reported earlier today, Anthem filed for a mistrial after the verdict came in from the jury, claiming that Jarrett's attorney had prejudiced the jury by noting that Anthem's Ed Nordholm was not present on 7/20 for court proceedings and by bringing up numbers during the liabilities portion of the closing arguments when it had been stressed by the court that those were to be left for discussion when it was time to cover potential damages and punitive damages. Chief Judge Waverly set a 9/11 status conference to begin the process of setting up a new trial. He also ordered that the GFW Amped! tapes be preserved.

Originally Posted by PWI Q - Whatever happened to Austin Theory? A - He's still with WWE but has been pulled from TV. No one will confirm why, but his disappearance came after an allegation was made against him during the #SpeakingOut movement online.

From PWI's weekly Q&A articles. The other rumor regarding his absence involved him testing positive for the coronavirus but if that was the case, probably would have been back on tv by now or at least should be very soon.

Originally Posted by PWI For those who asked about Leon Ruff after WWE's Performance Center released a video on him yesterday, he has been signed to a NXT deal, the first of several EVOLVE talents who were signed after WWE acquired that company. WWNLive removed all Dragon Gate USA and EVOLVE content from their website on 7/28. WWE is now in possession of those video libraries.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Ring of Honor’s Kenny King was a guest on The Wrestling Inc. Daily podcast. King was candid and explained in detail about the portrayal of black characters in pro wrestling. King mentioned how black wrestlers are often times stereotyped and pigeon-holed while there are white wrestlers who are allowed to have fully fleshed out, three dimensional characters. “Well, I think — and it’s part of the roundtable and I said this during the roundtable and I’ll say it again. This is a conversation I had with Vince Russo about black talent and he asked me, ‘Why do you feel there’s been a lack of top tier black talent?’ And I said, ‘The finger goes directly at you Vince. It’s people like yourself who write the shows and you only write black talent from your perspective which is either gangsters or hustlers or pimps or these caricatures,’ right? When you look at Triple H, you look at Randy Orton, these are three dimensional fully fleshed out characters. Triple H can be the Cerebral Assassin, he can be The Game. He can be all these different things which allows you to say, ‘Damn, Triple H can be this main event talent because look how many layers he has.’ When you look at R-Truth who raps and… and if you know Ron Killings like I know Ron Killings, Ron Killings has multiple layers. There’s multiple more interesting things to Ron Killings than R-Truth, the rapper, dapper, dapper guy but we don’t never get to see that, we don’t get to connect with Ron on that level that we need to connect with him on that level that we need to [with] a world champion. You have to connect emotionally. I have to wanna care for your well being if I wanna see you as world champion or vice versa, depending on how it fits. But, if you’re not fully fleshed out, if my character — if I haven’t been allowed to show you all the things about myself that you need to care about or hate me, then that’s why these things fall flat so, where pro wrestling can continue the bridge in the conversation is in that case, right? And they’ve done it in certain cases but you know, why is Titus O’Neil’s — he’s a wonderful father and he’s this wonderful family man but that’s just his off-camera persona, and all these other things. Let’s start giving more detail and depth I think… and this is not just black people. Hispanics are stereotyped as Ese’s and Asians are always Ku Fung masters and all this same nonsense that happens over and over and over so, if we can just give these people characters. ‘This is Ron, and he raps but he also does this and he’s also this other stuff.’ Then I think, wrestling kinda mimics society so if we stop seeing black people as gangsters and thugs in wrestling culture, maybe we’ll stop seeing them as gangsters and thugs in regular culture. All of this kinda subliminal messaging, it all just kinda bounces off one another.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Davey Boy Smith Jr. spoke to Wrestling Inc. and told the publication that his contract with Major League Wrestling expires this December. He was hopeful that MLW could run shows with no fans and make talents take COVID tests but the organization is not running. Smith added that he’s unsure if MLW will be able to bounce back from the COVID-19 pandemic ... Smith Jr.’s father, The British Bulldog was set to be a part of the 2020 WWE Hall Of Fame class. The last that Smith Jr. heard was that the ceremony was going to take place SummerSlam weekend but the ceremony has been pushed back yet again. “With my dad going into the WWE Hall of Fame, we don’t know when that is going to happen. The last thing was they were pushing for SummerSlam,” he said of the Hall of Fame ceremony planning. “Now they are pushing that back. Things keep getting pushed back. That’s why I’m hoping MLW is able to survive this. I have my doubts for a lot of companies. It’s going to be a long time. We’re in a marathon, not a race here.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Cody Rhodes and QT Marshall’s ‘Nightmare Factory’ wrestling school will host development camps for those looking to become pro wrestlers starting on September 21st.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated chatted with Johnny Gargano ahead of the 7/29/20 edition of WWE NXT. Gargano shared that he and Tommaso Ciampa have tried several times to set themselves up to wrestle Shawn Michaels and Paul “Triple H” Levesque in a tag team match. “If we can still make that happen, I’ll still do it. That would be so great. Me and Tommaso have pushed in the past to wrestle Shawn and Hunter, and that is something that could potentially happen, or maybe something we’re just dreaming. But me and Tommaso against Shawn and Bret would be amazing. That would have been a really fun dynamic.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Ricky Starks was a guest on The Distraction podcast with Fightful’s Jeremy Lambert. Ricky was asked if the reactions from wrestlers in the crowd during AEW shows are organic and Ricky stated that they are not told how to act or react to anything and it’s all a natural flow. “No, we just go out and we have a natural reaction to what we’re watching and that’s it. I would hate to be told what to say or what to do when I’m out there because I’m trying to watch what’s in the ring. Not really put something in motion.”

Would explain why they've felt or come across different than WWE's shows. Also doesn't help that Fightful and others revealed WWE's been using the PC's PA system to instruct talent for crowd reactions during shows. Based on production miscues, AEW seemly only tells their crowd when they go in and out of commercial breaks.

Originally Posted by WrestlingInc WWE has reportedly added a new pay-per-view to the 2020 schedule. While no announcement has been made, it was reported today by @Wrestlevotes that WWE has added the Payback pay-per-view to their schedule for this year. It's interesting to note that Payback 2020 is scheduled for August 30, which is just one week after the SummerSlam pay-per-view. It's also interesting that WWE has a Payback pay-per-view planned for August 30 as this is the date that the rumored Evolution 2 show may have taken place on. It was reported earlier this month that WWE was considering a second night of SummerSlam or an Evolution 2 special for August 30, the week after SummerSlam.

Originally Posted by WrestlingInc WWE is reportedly delaying an announcement on the 2021 Royal Rumble pay-per-view. It was reported today by @Wrestlevotes that WWE planned on announcing the 2021 Rumble date and location in early August. However, word now is that the announcement is on hold as details on the event are likely changing. There's no word yet on if COVID-19 is the reason for the Royal Rumble changes, but it seems likely. WWE has dealt with numerous schedule changes since the outbreak hit in March. There has been hope that WWE will be able to resume normal live events with at least some fans this fall, but that has not been confirmed.

TPWW Frontpage:

• AEW Announces Women’s Tournament Rules, Cameron Returns
• Zack Ryder (Matt Cardona) Appears on AEW Dynamite
• Three Matches Announced for Next Week’s Dynamite, MJF Challenges Moxley at All Out
• Three Matches Announced for Next Week’s NXT