[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets:

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter NXT clearly won the 12/18 ratings war, beating AEW for the first time in the key demos ... NXT did 795,000 viewers, of which 344,000 fell between 18-49 (789,000 and 341,000 head-to-head) and set a show record with 1.32 viewers per home. AEW did 683,000 viewers, of which 319,000 fell between 18-49, and were still the most-watched shows as far as multiple people watching together for the week with 1.39 viewers per home ... I do think AEW was hurt by the last five minutes of their show as far as going forward. What has happened based on DVR numbers is that NXT has gained viewers and many are switching to watching live. Based on normal DVR patterns, AEW probably still wins in total viewers when you throw in DVR numbers, but it’ll be close, although the 18-49 differential will easily be made up ... A key difference, and why NXT won the overall 18-49, was women, as NXT did 58.5 percent women in 18-49, which I attribute to Shayna Baszler vs. Rhea Ripley .. NXT opened big with 977,000 viewers in the first quarter for Adam Cole vs. Finn Balor, which was the biggest thing of the night and by a huge margin. Baszler vs. Ripley was not even close if you’re looking at what drew the audience. Adam Page & Kenny Omega vs. Pentagon Jr. & Rey Fenix did 689,000 viewers against it. In the second quarter, the finish of Cole vs. Balor and post match lost 104,000 viewers while the finish of the AEW tag match and post-match brawl gained 2,000 viewers. In the third quarter, Killian Dain vs. Damien Priest 84,000 viewers. Cody & Darby Allin vs. The Butcher & The Blade gained 11,000 viewers. It was still a 789,000 to 703,000 edge for NXT. In the fourth quarter, Kushida vs. Cameron Grimes lost 25,000 viewers while Awesome Kong vs. Miranda Alize lost 57,000 viewers. The only quarter AEW won was the fifth. The ending of Grimes vs. Kushida and beginning of Io Shirai vs. Santana Garrett lost 32,000 viewers. Chris Jericho vs. Jungle Boy gained 135,000 viewers and AEW won 780,000 to 732,000. In quarter six, the ending of Shirai vs. Garrett and Pete Dunne vs. Travis Banks gained 34,000 viewers, likely the switch back from NXT viewers who wanted to see the Jericho match. AEW lost 113,000 viewers taking two long commercial breaks and interviews. In quarter seven, NXT lost 100,000 viewers for Dunne vs. Banks and AEW lost 29,000 viewers for Kris Statlander vs. Britt Baker. The main event battle saw Baszler vs. Ripley gain 38,000 viewers to 725,000 while the Young Bucks vs. SCU lost 3,000 viewers to 645,000. The overrun gained 145,000 for the Baszler vs. Ripley, which is usual levels of gain.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter AEW is the most DVR’d pro wrestling show now most weeks. It always was by percentage, as thus far, in the 18-49 demo, only 57 percent of the total viewers in that demo watch it live. NXT, by percentage is the second most, but does fall behind Raw & Smackdown (both usually around 400,000 to 500,000 as well) total DVR viewers. If you include DVR viewers, AEW beats NXT every week and most weeks handily a AEW does 140,000 more DVR viewers per week (about 540,000 to 400,000) and even the show the night before Thanksgiving saw AEW having a very small overall lead with +7 DVR viewers factored in. So it’s around 1.3 million to 1.4 million viewers for AEW and around 1.2 million to 1.25 million for NXT of late. What all that means to advertisers is a different story. One person with FOX noted to us that DVR numbers have little to no impact on the sales side ... He noted that there may be places where they may use +3 DVR viewers but within all the FOX stations, it doesn’t have much use. Others have noted the same thing. This is why sports rights have increased so much, because the culture is more and more turning to DVR viewing of television, but advertisers don’t see that as valuable. What is bad is that even five to seven years ago, wrestling fans viewed wrestling like sport and it wasn’t that long ago when 90 to 93 percent of wrestling television viewers watched live. Now, the need to watch live has changed with younger viewers. It’s a positive that the AEW audience skews younger while WWE is aging, but the negative is that those younger viewers watch on their own time and not live, so if they do 800,000 live and 540,000 via DVR, they are not getting credit financially for a huge percentage of their fan base. There is a premium on live viewing because it means you are watching the ads.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter There has also been a change in the AEW/NXT dynamic. Previously, AEW fans would switch to NXT in significant numbers during commercials but NXT fans would not do the same. And there is the huge number of viewers from AEW who at 10 p.m. switch to USA to see the end of NXT. TNT research has shown that there is an increase in NXT fans switching to AEW during commercial breaks. This came in the last month. By theory is what has happened with the tightening of the demos is that there are 18-49 fans who watched AEW and didn’t watch NXT, that are now making NXT priority but will switch back to AEW and not the original small 18-49 NXT demo just becoming AEW fans. But there is no way to prove that aspect

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter Smackdown on 12/13 did A 1.46 rating and 2,330,000 viewers (1.33 viewers per home), down 4.6 in ratings and 5.0 percent from the prior week, with its usual 0.7 in the 18-49 demo. One year ago FOX in the same time slot averaged 3,730,000 viewers and an 0.8 in the 18-49 demo, so down 37.5 percent in viewers but only 12.5 percent in 18-49.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter There were stories that Ric Flair signed a new deal, pointing to his pulling his merch from Pro Wrestling Tees after 1/13, but that’s not the case. It was his own team’s move regarding other businesses making offers to be able to carry Ric Flair merch. Flair’s WWE deal expires right around the end of the year. He is friends with Tony Khan, to the degree that Khan was an invited guest to his wedding. I would expect WWE to make a good offer to keep him given they wouldn’t want him on the AEW television show

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter The appearances of Chelsea Green and Deonna Purrazzo on Raw (Green was on the taped show losing to Flair) were just meant to be people to lose. It appears the idea is that if people in NXT are being used on the television show, they aren’t to be brought now to Raw or Smackdown to lose. However, if they are not on television, and either side wants someone to be competitive and lose, those people are available. It’s also possible if they impress in those roles they can be brought up. The people pushed on NXT television at this point can only be brought up when it is planned. It’s not going to be Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa building a big match and one day Vince feels they need new stars so he brings them in as a tag team with no notice or caring about NXT storylines, because NXT then was a feeder system. Now it’s a television product that has to be kept strong because it’s being used as the defense to make sure opposition doesn’t get more of a following. An interesting note, and the San Jose show this weekend was similar to other markets, is that now that NXT has two hours of television with all those viewers, the live show attendance is down, not up. Given AEW’s lower PPV number and house show attendance not growing as compared to the pre-television numbers, that is consistent and it shows just how much the business and world has changed, as 15 years ago television would have led to both products drawing more

NXT also going down in attendance in regards to house shows since the move to USA Network is interesting since that wasn't an area affected by show fatigue like the Florida loop.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter For Raw, current ideas are to push Carrillo and Andrade in a program to try and get both over, as well as Andrade with Mysterio, and Mysterio with Rollins & AOP and Rollins with Owens. It’s having top guys with two different programs instead of one

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter Kacy Catanzaro remains under contract. Nothing much else has been said. She’s not around and the speculation was she may come back in 2020. There was a story going around that she may try to do something in Titan Games since she’s a great athlete if they were to let her do it

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter Natalya was swerved by someone who claimed to be Jason Momoa who called her and wanted her to play a major part in a sequel to “The Wrestler.” While this was going on, “Total Divas” was filming so it made it on the show, and people thought it was real since she talked about it. But it was someone swerving her

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter Because of the April sellout of Madison Square Garden, ROH likely sold as many tickets and grossed more revenue than any year of its existence in 2019. But they’ve ended the year as cold as they’ve been in probably a decade or longer. ROH drew 1,000 fans on 12/13 in Baltimore for Final Battle, a show that had routinely sold out the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York well in advance in past years ... Those at ROH haven’t commented on who is going or staying. Cobb was put over Dan Maff at Final Battle and Maff just signed a new deal. Scurll did a surprise appearance on the 12/14 NWA PPV show from Atlanta, but also won in the main event, scoring the pin, on the 12/15 show in Philadelphia and they were indicating Villain Enterprises, which Scurll owns the rights to, was staying. Everything on the Philadelphia show indicated more dates with Scurll, who hasn’t said anything publicly about his future ... Scurll’s ROH contract expired at the end of November, but agreed to work this past weekend, and as a free agent, was able to work the NWA show and they seemed to be building Scurll headlining a PPV show there against Nick Aldis as some point ... Scurll likely got a similar level offer since we’d heard they were going to make a big play to keep him. Until he signs, because he is a free agent now, he can work anywhere he wants and we had heard of at least one more date for a non-NWA or ROH promotion soon, so it doesn’t look like he would be signing here right away, although it is notable that date has not been announced and the parties involved were asked to hold off on it ... Cobb’s priorities have always been New Japan, and ROH was the first company to offer him a contract with real money after the years with his career pretty much on hold due to Lucha Underground ... Even though New Japan talent hasn’t worked ROH, while continuing to work RevPro, the sides have worked together as far as New Japan getting dates on Cobb ... But the only names confirmed gone are Cabana, Klein and Taylor.

Originally Posted by PWI Flamita has signed a multi-year deal with Ring of Honor, PWInsider.com can confirm. While it appeared Shane Taylor bid farewell to Ring of Honor after Final Battle, the two sides are in conversations for him to remain ... There's been some talk of late about Bullet Club (likely Guerrillas of Destiny) being involved in future storylines leading into Wrestlemania weekend in Lakeland, Florida.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter The final ROH show of the year was 12/15 in Philadelphia at the 2300 Arena, drawing just 350 fans. That would be the smallest crowd I’ve heard them do in that building, even during down periods in the past ... But it’s been noted ROH has been offering great money and such a light schedule that some are looking at it that ROH is now a good money option, and while you get less notoriety, there is less physical wear-and-tear and that extends your career

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter The California State Legislature passed a law, aimed at cracking down on independent contractors in the state. A lot of people have talked about what affect that will have on pro wrestlers performing in California, and the WWE has put forth a lobbying effort, as have other businesses, to get pro wrestling exempt from the new law. At this point it is unclear but where pro wrestling falls under the radar is that there are so few people working as WWE pro wrestlers, and with the exception of AEW and ROH, due to the nature of some contracts, all over America pro wrestlers really are independent contractors.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter La Parka is out of the hospital and recovering from his life-threatening injuries in a house in Monterrey that the AAA promotion owns. News reports are that his medical expenses have topped $157,000 and that AAA has covered them all

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter Tickets for both Tokyo Dome shows are selling ahead of the pace of last year’s sellout. The advance is ahead of the pace of any show in more than 20 years ... Unlike in the U.S. where most buy their ticket show tickets on the first day, for the Tokyo Dome, because the matches are such a big part of the draw, tickets continue to sell steadily and they usually still sell thousands in the last few days based on the promotional hype

Originally Posted by Observer On a popular day for pay-per-view onsales, the NWA's second PPV sold out in three hours Friday with VIP tickets selling out in just three minutes. Hard Times is scheduled for Friday, January 24th at the GPB Studios in Atlanta, GA, and will be available on Fite.tv. December's Into The Fire ppv, their first in this latest relaunch of the company, also sold out in three hours.

Originally Posted by PWI WWE will be taping content for future episodes of WWE NXT tonight as part of tonight's Smackdown taping at the Barclays center. That is why they are not broadcasting 205 Live tonight. Keith Lee & Lio Rush vs. Tony Nese & Damian Priest are among the matches scheduled. That match will air on 12/25.

205 Live could have benefited a lot from being in a big market crowd tonight but nope Triple H only gives a shit about his NXT brand these days.

Originally Posted by PWI WWE Hall of Famer Edge posted the following statement on his Twitter seeming to rebuff the claims that he has been cleared medically is making an in ring come back: Still not and still not. Period. — Adam (Edge) Copeland (@EdgeRatedR) December 20, 2019 So, for now, still not!

Originally Posted by PWI In regard to the Tony Khan stunner on Shawn Spears that closed the Dynamite taping this week, it was not something that was planned out or booked in advance. The entire thing was improvised and was a Shawn Spears' suggestion on the fly ... Cody called Khan to the ring on the house mic, which was not something Khan knew was coming. When Khan did come out, Nick Jackson suggested he hit the stunner but Khan declined. Realizing Spears was setting up for him to do it, anyway, Khan then hit the move, because otherwise everyone would be standing around looking at each other. Obviously, anytime someone in charge who isn't a wrestler doing something like this is going to open the door to criticism and that was certainly realized. We are told that Khan is adamant he will not be an on-air character for the company, which is something we have seen a lot of readers believe is coming based on the segment ... There were about 3,500 in Corpus Christie this week

Link: https://twitter.com/Perfec10n/status...12898992218113

Originally Posted by Fightful Since its TNT premiere on Oct. 2, AEW Dynamite's viewership has suffered drops throughout its twelve-week run ... The shows remain generally well-received, though more criticism has come to light in recent weeks. Two issues some fans seem to have are the lack of video packages and the length of matches. And AEW World Champion Chris Jericho hears those complaints loud and clear. "We have to get more promo pieces and video packages to explain who the people are. People complain about that, a lot of fans complain about it. Like I keep saying, it's only been eight weeks. You can't build a roster of 50 people in eight weeks. Give it some time. We have to be different. Some of our matches go too long, I agree," Jericho said on the Keepin It 100 podcast. AEW has started to do more video packages on Dynamite compared to the first few weeks. They've also mixed in more squash matches in recent weeks.

Originally Posted by Observer Jim Cornette has filed a federal lawsuit against William J. Molnar Jr. and Brandon Graver (G-Raver) for selling T-shirts that contain his image and uses the term "F*** Jim Cornette."

TPWW Frontpage:

• WWE: Cain Velasquez at Royal Rumble? The Revival Being Booked as a Comedy Act?
• AEW Notes: Dark Order Angle, Colt Cabana, Shawn Spears, Jacksonville Show
• AEW Revolution PPV Tickets Sell Out in Under an Hour

Side note:
Except for next Friday since that is when the next Observer Newsletter arrives, taking next week off as a break from doing Sheets report posts.