[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets (Observer Newsletter Edition):

For a number of reasons, as it turns out, the pandemic was the greatest thing for WWE’s business as they posted the most profitable quarter in their history. It’s not that they overcome the pain of the pandemic. They outright benefitted from it, with more consumer product sales, higher network numbers and the real difference maker, far lower costs to produce television. Profits quadrupled in the quarter, blowing away all estimates, due to saving $51.6 million in media costs. The vast majority of those savings was the lower cost of producing television the way they do it now in the Performance Center, no longer running live, and taping multiple shows on successive days as opposed to live Monday, Wednesday and Friday in different parts of the country with far more wrestlers, production people and costs. For one, taping two weeks had a time for each show, and taping shows on successive days, saved travel costs greatly. Producing a show in a small building greatly cut down on the production budget, not to mention the fewer production people and costs that were already lower were cut almost in half from there by generally taping two shows at a time. Plus there was savings on uplinks by no longer doing any shows actually live, as even when taped the same day, they never actually went live. The second positive was a huge increase in subscribers to the WWE Network. The number was 195,000 above what would have been normally expected as of 6/30. There are a number of factors involved here. One is that WrestleMania had so many people subscribing for free as compared to the past few years, that many of them didn’t cancel and stayed on as paying subscribers. Another reason, arguably the most important because ESPN’s PPV numbers for UFC were so much higher than previously, and AEW also set records in PPV, is that with sports bars are closed, and people are no longer getting together in large numbers for PPV parties ... But it does have to be noted when interest appears at a low point since at least 1996, that network subscriber numbers have increased so strongly over the last three months, and manly the month of June when the free month was dropped and the free tier was launched ... Another aspect is that streaming has gotten more popular across the board during the pandemic with more people home. Then again, more people are home to watch television, and there is less sports competition, and WWE had struggled badly there. What’s notable is that the record profits came during a quarter where revenues were not only much lower than last year even with the new television deals, but were slightly down from analysts expectations. The general expectation was $231 million in revenues and $11.5 million to $12 million in profits. The actual numbers were $223.4 million in revenue and $43.8 million in after-tax profit, basically quadrupling expectations. Last year’s numbers which included both all the live events associated with WrestleMania and the Mania show itself, a full house show schedule, and payment for a Saudi Arabia show, none of which happened this quarter. Last year’s second quarter grossed $268.9 million in revenue and ended with a $10.4 million after-tax profit ... It also should be noted that it was not the cost-cutting of talent salaries that led to the record profits. All main roster talent, and a number of the furloughed and fired employees, were being paid their regular salaries through 7/17. So the $4 million per month savings in that category will likely lead to $12 million more in added profits next quarter. The WWE Network on 6/30 had 1,690,000 subscribers, broken down as 1,229,000 in the U.S. and 461,000 outside the U.S. Three months earlier, just days before WrestleMania, the numbers were 1,083,000 in the U.S. and 412,000 outside the U.S., so the gains were 13.5 percent domestically and 11.9 percent outside the U.S. The strongest growth outside the U.S. was in India. For comparison, during the same three month period in 2019 there was a 0.4 percent decrease in the U.S. and 1.2 percent increase overseas. In 2018, it was a 6.9 percent increase in the U.S. and 8.3 percent increase outside the U.S. in quarter two ... Based on the current profit margins, the stock price is very low. The only red light regarding a strong increase to the past $60 to $80 per share range is the uncertainty that the huge rights fees, which are totally carrying the company at this point, may not be maintained in the next contract that would start in late 2024. There is a big feeling FOX way overpaid, and USA was forced to overpay because FOX really wanted Raw. WWE has already had to renew a number of international deals, including the previous No. 2 deals in the U.K., at substantially less money. In addition, the company has noted that profits will be down once they start touring and going back to live weekly television, particularly early on if they have to run arenas with limited capacity. Unlike in the past, where investors were more bullish on the prospects of 3 million to 4 million network subscribers, and growing from there, which never materialized, there is a realization that only numbers that really matter are rights fees. They’re dropping overseas, and the next round are likely to be determined by ratings in the 18-49 demo primarily, which have dropped badly in recent months. Analysts listened to Vince McMahon’s excuses, such as injuries, or needing to be patient because they have to build new stars, and now the excuse is the pandemic, but many are growing weary of excuses ... There was also a blame on the declining international rights on countries being affected by COVID, but that’s ridiculous. The U.K. deal was based on declining ratings in recent years and how WWE treated Sky by giving them more of a PPV cut and then not telling them about the network killing PPV until after the deal was signed. Plus, WWE ratings plummeted in the market. Italy was similar. It was not related at all to COVID, but to high costs with low ratings returns and the station willing to give it up. Riddick said the smaller international deals are because they are challenged by COVID. He also noted that there are no major renewals coming up, which also indicates they aren’t close to a new Middle East deal. When asked about the purchase of Evolve and, out of left field, the company getting into MMA, Riddick said, “Evolve was a content purchase deal and very straightforward and every small in size in terms of investment. Right now, we are not looking at any MMA opportunities. Hopefully, they will come along. We are actively, we do have investments in certain new technologies in new areas and we are looking for opportunities, but there’s nothing imminent there.” They also noted that a return to arenas will likely hurt profits because they will likely not be able to sell the same amount of tickets with social distancing. Virtually all revenue this quarter came from television rights, network subs and PPV, which combined brought in $200.1 million of the $223.4 million in revenues, with the rest coming from consumer products. Last year in the quarter the number was $197.0 million, but that included $50 million in a payment from Saudi Arabia. Regarding whether the originally scheduled November date in Saudi Arabia will take place, it has not been canceled and nothing is certain, but they are not expecting it ... Expenses when it came to television, network and PPV were $118.5 million, down from $170.1 million for the same period last year, or a savings in the quarter alone of $51.6 million. That right there is the profit margin and then some. Everything else is almost immaterial. As far as total revenue, Network plus PPV numbers declined from $51.8 million to $49.4 million. That’s due to a decline in PPV and a slight decline in average subs during the quarter. But the end of the quarter was up from last year so that should be ahead of last year in the next quarter report. The new deals led to television rights increasing from $69.0 million last year in quarter two to $132.9 million this year. Television advertising and sponsorships fell from $18.9 million to $13.3 million ... Last year, in a quarter that included WrestleMania, and all the Mania activities, the live event profits were $12.4 million. This year running no shows, due to various deals and money and advertising costs of shows that didn’t happen, the live events division lost $4.5 million. Profits from consumer products increased from $5.2 million in last year’s second quarter to $7.6 million. Licensed products, like video games, console games and mobile games saw revenue increase in the quarter from $9.4 million last year to $9.7 million, an increase seemingly having to do with people home more and playing more games. The industry as a whole has grown during the pandemic ... Merchandise sold through the web site increased from $6.6 million to $12.6 million, both increases being examples of the pandemic helping WWE business.

Plans for a multi-tiered WWE Network, which had been talked about for years, and which would have included usage of the tape libraries of a number of independent promotions, including wXw, Evolve, ICW and Progress, that has been on-and-off for years, is back off. Regarding whether that content would be used on the paid tier, those decisions have gone back-and-forth for years and every time the decision has been made to do so, Vince McMahon in the end has changed his mind on it. At the 7/16 WWE shareholders meeting, when discussing the network, the company announced the free tier, which has the goal of trying to use that tier to convert viewers to becoming paid subscribers, has replaced multi-tiers and higher priced tiers giving more content and benefits in the WWE’s network strategy ... An obvious question is the return of live events, or even the question of WrestleMania 2021 in Inglewood, CA, and like everything, including a potential closing in Orlando, there are no answers. The reality is things aren’t going back to normal any time soon. A closing in Orlando is very unlikely to happen for the political reasons it opened up in the first place and the government turned a blind eye to all those tapings with no testing for months. WrestleMania is far enough in the future that perhaps there may be a vaccine, but from a timing standpoint, that’s a longshot. Many have speculated on the idea that Florida, even though it’s in bad shape, would welcome a WrestleMania more than California would, and Tampa in a sense is owed one. And ultimately, these decisions do have to be made in the next few months because if they are going to do a stadium event, they need to be able to start promoting it by the end of this year ... Regarding the 2021 WrestleMania and the new SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Vince McMahon said, “Again, we, it wouldn’t be fair to mention that now because we’re following the COVID-19 aspect. So many cities are obviously interested in Wrestlemania and many have bid for it, and what have you. This somewhat changes from time to time, again, depending upon the severity of COVID, but we haven’t announced anything yet.” Regarding a potential shutdown in Orlando, Vince McMahon said, “Let me just say there’s always a `B-plan.’ I don’t want to say right now exactly what that would be, but yes there is a `B-Plan.’” There are several backup plans in place. The belief is that WWE can’t be shut down in Florida due to Linda McMahon’s Super Pac agreeing to spend $18.5 million for Donald Trump’s reelection campaign in Florida, and Gov. Ron DeSantis being loyal to Trump. That could mean going down with the ship because Trump’s popularity numbers are so bad, but DeSantis won’t be making that decision in August. But according to one person who knows the situation, McMahon has DeSantis “by the balls.” If for some reason it gets so bad in Florida that there is a complete lockdown, McMahon had a study prepared and now has several different locations as backup. Among them is the television studio at their corporate offices in Stamford, CT, which was the ring they shot the John Cena vs. Bray Wyatt WrestleMania match in. It’s said they can make that setting look similar to the Performance Center, although they wouldn’t have as easy access to contracted wrestlers to be fans if they run outside Florida. Shooting outdoors on the beach for SummerSlam is another possibility, just for the visual differences, as noted first in PW Insider. As for a second Saudi Arabia show this year, the situation is the same, it’s completely out of the company’s control. McMahon has said in the past that if the show can’t happen this year, it would be tacked onto the end of the ten year deal. One of the issues with such a show are all the quarantine measures that UFC had to put in place. For UFC, they did it, but also ran four shows there over two weeks and had all kinds of infrastructure in Abu Dhabi put together including a bubble environment. Saudi Arabia may not be able to provide that, and while TV can be taped well ahead of time when a $50 million type of payment for an event is in the equation, it’s far more difficult ... Vince McMahon was also asked about a physical Hall of Fame. “Bricks and mortar is something that, generally speaking, we, other than office buildings and office space of course, that we’re not necessarily fond of, but nonetheless, again the interest in that continues to build and it’s still a possibility somewhere down the line.”

Antonio Inoki, who one can argue that along with Hulk Hogan, would be the biggest pro wrestling star of the last half-century, revealed on 7/26 that he was suffering from a rare incurable heart ailment. Inoki, 77, was interviewed in Weekly Sincho, talking about his battle with cardiac amyloidosis. Because Inoki was such a cultural icon, as the second biggest pro wrestling star in the history of the country behind Rikidozan, and considered one of the country’s ten biggest sports stars of the 20th century, this has become one of the most talked about topics in Japanese culture since he went public. From a cultural standpoint, Inoki in Japan would be much bigger than any pro wrestler has ever been in the U.S., perhaps LeBron James would be a comparison as he’d not be Muhammad Ali or Michael Jordan, but would probably be bigger than just about anyone else. As far as a wrestler being a cultural icon, probably only Rikidozan and El Santo would be at his level. The rare disease, that affects between 700 and 750 people in the entire country of Japan, has to do with an abnormal protein buildup on internal organs that interferes with their normal functions and causes heart issues. There are different types of cardiac amyloidosis, but Inoki’s type is believed to be hereditary ... Inoki said that this past fall he went a little deaf and was hospitalized, and after tests, was diagnosed with cardiac amyloidosis. He described it as the heart having a bad membrane called amyloid. Due to that, the function of the heart deteriorates, making it difficult to send enough blood for the body to fully function. He said that at times he felt like he was suffocating, but thought it was just the effects of aging. He said that he was taking ridiculously expensive medicine called Vindaquel to combat the problem. The medicine is not a cure, as there is no cure. But it does slow down the effects of the disease.

On the 7/25 New Japan Sengoku Lord show, a surprise announcement was made regarding the first pro wrestling show at Tokyo’s Jingu Stadium, the site of the famous battle of world champions with UWFI world champion Nobuhiko Takada and WCW world champion Vader on December 5, 1993. The show was announced for 8/29, just five weeks later ... There are a number of reasons, all related to the pandemic. The first is that doing 30 percent capacity limits paid attendance and live gates greatly, and New Japan’s revenue base is largely ticket sales to live shows and merchandise sold at those shows. Between shutting down for months and now generally drawing about one-third of projections and running fewer shows, the company has taken a huge economic hit this year. In addition, the budget included a huge August event in Madison Square Garden, Wrestle Dynasty, with the idea of running the building once a year, and that show was moved to 2021. There is no word on capacity, but the stadium holds 37,933 for baseball, so capacity depends on staging and seats on the field and being outdoors if they can do more than the 30 percent that they do indoors. Only three matches have been announced thus far, Evil defending both the IWGP and IC titles against Tetsuya Naito; Hiromu Takahashi defending the IWGP jr. title against Taiji Ishimori and a four-way match to crown the first King of Pro Wrestling champion ... New Japan already has too many titles to keep up with, although less are in play now. The IWGP and IC titles have merged. The U.S. champion (Jon Moxley) and British champion (Will Ospreay) are out of action. In the case of Moxley, due to the 14 days quarantine going into Japan and AEW commitments, he’s likely not going to be available for a long time. There is no set date for Ospreay’s return but the hope is October for the G-1 Climax tournament. The Never trios titles are around, but not taken seriously. The IWGP jr. tag titles are also not in play, as Yoh, who holds the title with Sho, underwent surgery for a torn ACL and will be out for six months or more. While this can change, as of right now the plans are not to strip them of the titles. So it’s just the main singles title, the junior title, one secondary singles title (Shingo Takagi as Never champion) and the main tag titles. The KOPW title is an idea of Kazuchika Okada, legitimately. It’s very Americanized, to the point the first champion will be crowned in a four-way match. Historically, the very few times the IWGP title was put up in three-way matches, fans were not particularly positive with the idea.

AAA: Konnan on his podcast talked about the idea of the drive-in shows. He said that they would be doing stand-alone matches rather than storylines at these shows. He said it would be a way to present unique matches and pairings that you wouldn’t expect to see, similar to Lucha Fighter. He also said that there would be a roof over the ring to protect the ring in case of rain.

Fantasma, in his role as head of the Box y Lucha commission in Mexico City, held a press conference on 7/22 announcing a distribution of pantry items to wrestlers who are currently out of work, which is basically all of them. He also distributed medicine to those in need. At the press conference, he was asked about AAA and CMLL starting back. He showed a letter from CMLL asking that same subject. CMLL would like to open at 50 percent capacity, which would be about 8,000 seats, which would be more than anyone has opened up in front of and Mexico is in worse shape than the U.S., even if you don’t hear that on the news. Fantasma said AAA presented him an idea three weeks ago, which would be the drive-in show idea. The reality is that in Mexico City, the government looks to be a long way of allowing events like this. Fantasma encouraged wrestlers to see if they could get other jobs until the pandemic ends

Jeff Jarrett and Global Force Wrestling prevailed to at least a degree in its lawsuit against Anthem Entertainment regarding the usage of the GFW name and the television shows taped in Las Vegas years ago that Impact used as part of its PPV shows. PW Insider reported the jury ruled for Jarrett that Anthem used the term Global Force Wrestling and its logo, and used content owned by GFW without the license to do so, and that Anthem was negligent for deleting the original master tapes. But they also ruled Anthem’s actions were caused by Jarrett breaching his fiduciary duty as owner of GFW and he’s liable to Anthem for certain damages. The amount of damages due both sides was not declared yet by the jury. According to PW Insider, Anthem on 7/29 filed a new motion in U.S. District Court in the Middle District of Tennessee requesting that the rulings be nullified and that a mistrial be declared. They asked for a mistrial based on Jarrett’s attorney, Samuel Miller, making a statement in court that Ed Nordholm wasn’t there in court even though Anthem’s attorneys had specifically requested that not be brought up. Nordholm and Scott D’Amore weren’t there because Anthem was taping Impact on 7/21, the day in question and the court had been told neither man could attend the trial on that day. Miller tried to portray Nordholm as the villain and him not being there for part of the trial was brought up with the idea he didn’t care. Jarrett’s side is fighting the attempt to get a mistrial declared. Impact had claimed all the revenue they derived between PPV and DVD sales of the GFW tapes was only $10,000

AEW: Excalibur was off the 7/29 show with no explanation given. The company hasn’t said anything publicly, or privately about the matter. There was talk but not confirmed that he asked to be off the show because there had been a Twitter furor over him using the “N” word in a PWG angle 17 years ago. This incident was known about. It totally sucked, like bad, at the time, and everyone realized it and regretted it and pretty much apologized for it shortly after the time. I saw it resurface a few weeks ago but didn’t get any traction. Evidently on 7/28 people made enough of a case about it that it became an issue. The story, again, not confirmed, was that he didn’t want to be on the show thinking it would be the focus of the show. As it turns out, it became a much bigger issue because he wasn’t on the show. There is no word if he’ll be back next week. The 8/5 show was being taped on 7/30. He had flown to Florida for this set of tapings but he’d have flown in before the stuff got hot again. According to one person close to the situation, there was a promo involving Human Tornado, who is black and was at the time the top babyface, and heels Excalibur (when he was a wrestler), Disco Machine and Kevin Steen. One person was there and said that Human Tornado had often asked for heels to do racial stuff on him as a babyface and had asked people to use the N word on him. Steen argued against it but Tornado was persistent and talked him into it. We don’t know if Machine or Excalibur argued the point or just agreed to do it. I saw the video of it, and it sucked. There’s an issue because Tony Khan had said that Hulk Hogan, and Linda were not welcome as part of his group for racial remarks in the past. Hulk’s remark was not in an angle and part of a storyline. The fact is WWE didn’t sit Steen out because of this and they were aware of this and it was taken care of long ago. Everyone pretty much apologized after and acknowledged that it was a bad idea. Excalibur has brought it up and said he regretted it multiple times and Steen has publicly at least once in an interview. It was an angle that wasn’t a secret, that everyone knew and figured was taken care of, but the nature of Twitter is such that it became an issue this past week.

The women’s eight-team tournament will be a blind draw in the sense partners are drawn at random in storyline, like a WCW Battle Bowl type thing. The tournament won’t be on Dynamite, or at least most of it won’t, and will be a YouTube series that will be released every Monday at 7 p.m. starting on 8/3. The teams will be announced on that show. So AEW will now have a Monday and a Tuesday YouTube show, a Monday BTE show and Wednesday’s Dynamite

As of early in the week, Rey Mysterio and Vince McMahon were still in negotiations for terms of a prospective new deal

Regarding office people furloughed, the idea many were told that they would be brought back next month but now most have been extended until 8/28. A number are looking to find new jobs at this point, although this is probably the worst time in our lifetimes to be on the job market. The added time to the furloughs in the cases when you look at the profits for the quarter tells quite the story

Even though he wasn’t on the last two shows, Owens was at the Raw tapings on 7/20. He had been written into the original shows but with all the changes made, they decided not to use him. I think the key was that since they wanted to do injury angles with Black on both shows, the feeling was that Owens would theoretically have to do run-ins to attempt to break those up and they didn’t feel the need to sacrifice him in angles like that

The most-watched shows of the past week on the WWE Network were: 1. Daniel Bryan’s best matches; 2. Raw Talk for 7/27; 3. 1997: Dawn of the Attitude; 4. The Horror Show at Extreme Rules; 5. Undertaker’s Last Ride: Tales from the Deadman; 6. WWE Break it Down: Mick Foley; 7. R-Truth Game Show

RAW, SmackDown, & AEW vs. NXT Ratings stuff:

SPOILER: show

Raw on 7/27 was another disappointing showing, as the third hour, which contained most of the Asuka vs. Sasha Banks match, and all of the Drew McIntyre vs. Dolph Ziggler match, ended up as the least-watched hour and lowest rated in the key demo in the history of the show. Overall, on a week where the number should have shown a noticeable increase, it ended up as the second lowest overall number, with 1,616,000 viewers, and tied for the third worst demo number at .48 (618,000 viewers). The third hour, featuring the two matches advertised a week ahead of time, both advertised ahead of time as title matches, set record lows with 1,463,000 viewers and 0.41 in 18-49. McIntyre vs. Ziggler ended up changed to a non-title match after being pushed for most of the week as a title match. Both numbers broke last week’s record for the lowest hour in show history with hour three, headlined by Randy Orton vs. Big Show, doing 1,504,000 viewers and a 0.42 in 18-49. The third hour decline, a record level among teenagers and really all but the over-50 audience, was almost surely based on the Asuka vs. Sasha Banks title change finish. Even though most of the audience of the show was over 50, and that audience for the most part stayed until the finish, about 15 percent of the total audience tuned out after the finish of that match. The look at that breakdown is likely along the lines of the first-to-third hour declines. Those saw were women 18-49 dropping 27.8 percent, men 18-49 dropping 16.2 percent, teenage girls dropping 88.0 percent (this sounds completely ridiculous and there’s never been anything like this level of viewers tuning out of any demo like that on the same show), teenage boys dropping 52.6 percent while over 50's steady the ship by only dropping 7.2 percent. Raw has now done the three lowest numbers in its history and three of the four lowest 18-49s in its history over the past three weeks. Even with that, Raw was No. 1 on cable for the night in Males 18-49 and Males 18-34. It was 19th place overall and No. 4 in 18-49, behind two episodes of 90 Day Fiancé on TLC and one of Below Deck Mediterranean. It was No. 5 in total viewers among non-news programming. The scary stuff remains the comparisons with last year. For the same week last year, Raw was down 30.3 percent in total viewers, 35.1 percent in 18-49 and 51.9 percent in 18-34. The first hour did 1,699,000 viewers. The second hour held steady with 1,688,000 viewers before hour three’s 1,463,000. In the key demos, Raw did 118,000 in males 18-34 (up 34.1 percent from last week), 61,000 in women 18-34 (up 10.9 percent), 291,000 in men 35-49 down 2.3 percent) and 148,000 in women 35-49 (down 5.7 percent).

Smackdown on 7/24 did a 1.22 rating with 1,924,000 viewers (1.31 viewers per home) and 0.48 (618,000 viewers) in the 18-49 demo. The slight increase in audience is a good sign because it aired out of prime time in Detroit due to Tigers baseball. In theory an increase over recent weeks would figure to be attributable to the Jeff Hardy vs. Sheamus bar fight, but that was not the high point of the show, and it opened stronger than usual. Overall the rating was down 1.6 percent but that was offset by a solid increase in viewers per home, with total viewers up 0.6 percent and 18-49 up 2.8 percent ... Smackdown was one of only two first-run shows on network television, with CBS having a one-hour show at 8 p.m. that did 3,488,000 viewers and 0.4 in the demo. Greatest At Home on CBS tied Smackdown in 18-34 at 0.3, and beat it in 25-54 by a 0.7 to 0.6. Smackdown also beat everything on cable in 18-49 and was first in males 18-49, but last in over 50, and had the fewest actual viewers of any network show event though they were almost all reruns. Last year in the same time slot airing two reruns, FOX averaged 1,358,000 viewers and 0.3 in 18-49. In the segments, the Bayley & Sasha Banks stuff with Nikki Cross and Alexa Bliss and the Cross vs. Bliss match for the title chance did 2.02 million viewers. The Firefly Fun House, Matt Riddle vs. Tony Nese and Miz & Morrison’s Miz TV with Naomi did 1.85 million viewers. The ending of Miz TV with Lacey Evans, plus Shorty G vs. Lince Dorado vs. Gran Metalik vs. Drew Gulak for an IC title match did 1.97 million viewers. And Hardy vs. Sheamus in the bar fight did 1.86 million viewers.

There was a lot of news regarding the 7/22 ratings that wasn’t noted last week ... The biggest thing is that the last five minutes of the Young Bucks vs. Butcher & Blade falls count anywhere match did 1,018,000 viewers and 502,000 in 18-49. This was the best figure in 18-49 on Wednesday and the highest peak as well. The match itself averaged 912,000 viewers and 459,000 in 18-49. The last quarter of Keith Lee vs. Adam Cole was 922,000 viewers and 355,000 in 18-49, but the overall match from start-to-finish was 887,000 viewers and 339,000 in 18-49. AEW was near one million viewers briefly during the Darby Allin run-in and again prior to the commercial break in Young Bucks vs. Butcher & Blade, the last five minutes of the match, at 950,000 for the post-match involving The Dark Order, Adam Page, FTR and Kenny Omega and the Chris Jericho & Jake Hager vs. Luchasaurus & Jungle Boy match started at 650,000 due to a huge turnout during a commercial break, was at about 800,000 most of the match and hit 900,000 right as Sammy Guevara was revealed in the post match. NXT’s first minute, coming off the strong lead-in, was at about 1 million viewers but the Dexter Lumis vs. Killian Dain match had it down to 600,000 by five minutes in. The show was a little under or over 600,000 most of the way, hitting 700,000 during a few AEW commercial breaks and a high point of 750,000 during Oney Lorcan vs. Timothy Thatcher at the time AEW was in the commercial break before the Jericho match. The main event final quarter battle saw Jericho & Hager vs. Luchasaurus & Jungle Boy do 799,000 viewers and 393,000 in 18-49 to NXT’s 602,000 viewers and 232,000 in 18-49 for Karrion Kross vs. Dominik Dijakovic ... AEW opened with 905,000 viewers and 391,000 in 18-49 for Cody vs. Eddie Kingston. The number was almost a straight line steady from Cody coming out first until the end of the match. NXT opened with 633,000 viewers and 199,000 in 18-49 for William Regal and Keith Lee’s interview and Lumis vs. Dain, but it was a huge first few minutes from the lead-in and a collapse. In the second quarter, AEW lost 94,000 viewers and 15,000 in 18-49 for a Jon Moxley promo and MJF vs. Griff Garrison. NXT lost 31,000 viewers but gained 22,000 in 18-49 for an interview with Strong, Reed and Gargano, a Dakota Kai feature and Breezango vs. Matt Martel & Chase Parker. In the third quarter, AEW gained 81,000 viewers and 68,000 in 18-49 for the Taz & Cage promo with Darby Allin, Ricky Starks and Moxley running in and a Jericho & Inner Circle promo and the start of Young Bucks vs. Butcher & Blade. NXT gained 30,000 viewers and 12,000 in 18-49 for Aliyah vs. Blackheart. In the fourth quarter, AEW gained 20,000 viewers and 15,000 in 18-49 for the rest of Young Bucks vs. Butcher & Blade. NXT lost 14,000 viewers and 8,000 in 18-49 for an Isaiah Scott package and the beginning of Gargano vs. Reed vs. Strong. In the fifth quarter, AEW lost 25,000 viewers and 22,000 in 18-49 for Diamante vs. Ivelisse. NXT gained 33,000 viewers and 3,000 in 18-49 for the rest of Reed vs. Gargano vs. Strong. In the sixth quarter, AEW lost 81,000 viewers and 33,000 in 18-49 for Adam Page vs. Alan Angels and the post-match, with the post-match growing well. NXT lost 63,000 viewers and 31,000 in 18-49 for Thatcher vs. Lorcan . In the seventh quarter, AEW lost 57,000 viewers and 38,000 in 18-49 for the rundown of next week and beginning of Jericho & Hager vs. Luchasaurus & Jungle Boy. NXT gained 11,000 viewers and 19,000 in 18-49 for the ending of Lorcan vs. Thatcher and the backstage segment with Robert Stone, Aliyah and Mercedes Martinez. In the final quarter, AEW with Jericho & Hager vs. Jungle Boy & Luchasaurus gained 50,000 viewers and 28,000 in 18-49. NXT with Kross vs. Dijakovic gained 3,000 viewers and 16,000 in 18-49.

A few notes on the 7/29 ratings. The wrestling audience on Friday, Monday and Wednesday, all of which had baseball competition, all did similar numbers in 18-49. Friday was 618,000. Monday was also 618,000. Wednesday was 625,000 ... In 18-34, Wednesday did a combined 196,000, while Monday did 179,000 and Friday did 175,000. But AEW, which had been only slightly behind Raw and Smackdown the past few weeks in 18-34, did 133,000 so it fell well behind both. AEW did beat hour three of Raw in overall 18-34. In women 18-34, AEW beat Raw this week by 65,000 to 61,000, even with competition, as it also did last week. But Smackdown won the night with 80,000 ... The 7/29 numbers saw AEW do 773,000 viewers and a 0.30 in 18-49 (394,000 viewers), putting it in sixth place for the night. NXT did 707,000 viewers and a 0.18 (231,000 viewers), finishing in the No. 28 spot, essentially meaning it had a very old audience ... AEW was down 8.5 percent in viewers and 3.7 percent in 18-49. AEW’s lead-in, Talladega Nights, was down 28 percent in 18-49 per usual and really that’s probably the complete difference in the 18-49 drop and maybe the overall drop. It took AEW until quarter three to beat NXT in total viewers due to the huge lead-in difference ... AEW’s decline was strongly in men over 35, which could mean baseball. Women were way up from last week, particularly teenage girls. Baseball beat AEW handily in males under 35, but AEW beat baseball in women under 35. AEW beat NXT in every key demo. In men 18-34, AEW did 68,000 viewers (down 4.2 percent) to 39,000 for NXT (up 5.4 percent). In women 18-34, AEW did 65,000 (up 12.1 percent) and NXT did 24,000 (up 41.2 percent). In men 35-49, AEW did 182,000 (down 13.3 percent) and NXT did 103,000 (down 9.6 percent). Those may be baseball drops. In women 35-49, AEW did 79,000 (up 12.9 percent) and NXT did 65,000 (up 27.5 percent). AEW won every quarter big in 18-49 with the biggest gap in quarter five (Kenny Omega & Adam Page vs. Dark Order on one side, and Keith Lee, Cameron Grimes, Scarlett, Karrion Kross, a main event package and Imperium vs. Ever Rise on the other side) where it more than doubled NXT. In total viewers, because of the lead-in, NXT had a huge first quarter lead and a significant second quarter lead, before AEW turned it around in quarter three during the Cody vs. Warhorse match ... However, NXT had strong growth for the Finn Balor vs. Dexter Lumis vs. Timothy Thatcher main event, which did 671,000 viewers and 230,000 in 18-49. AEW’s main event of Jon Moxley & Darby Allin vs. Brian Cage & Ricky Starks did 721,000 viewers and 360,000 in 18-49. The show opened with AEW at 718,000 viewers and 367,000 in 18-49 for The Inner Circle vs. Jungle Boy & Luchasaurus & Best Friends & Orange Cassidy match. NXT with the big lead-in did 853,000 and 247,000 in 18-49 with Io Shirai & Tegan Nox vs. Dakota Kai & Candice LeRae. This was NXT’s high point for viewers and 18-49, but most of that would have to do with the huge lead-in advantage and not having Dexter Lumis in the match. In the second quarter, AEW gained 3,000 viewers and lost 9,000 in 18-49 for the ending of the Inner Circle ten man tag and post-match, Jon Moxley interview and beginning of Cody vs. Warhorse. NXT lost 75,000 viewers and gained 1,000 in 18-49 for the Adam Cole/Pat McAfee angel and beginning of Roderick Strong vs. Johnny Gargano. Quarter three saw AEW gain 84,000 viewers and 48,000 in 18-49 for Cody vs. Warhorse, post-match with the debut of Matt Cardona and an Inner Circle interview. NXT lost 71,000 viewers and 5,000 in 18-49 for Gargano vs,. Strong and the Dakota Kai/Rhea Ripley promo. Quarter four saw AEW gain 27,000 viewers and 17,000 in 18-49 for the FTR contract signing with Arn Anderson and Adam Page and beginning of Omega & Page vs. Stu Grayson & Evil Uno. NXT lost 3,000 viewers and 8,000 in 18-49 for an Undisputed Era backstage piece, and Shotzi Blackheart vs. Mercedes Martinez. Quarter five saw AEW gain 46,000 viewers and 32,000 in 18-49 for Omega & Page vs. Dark Order, and the post-match angle with The Young Bucks, FTR, Brodie Lee and others. This was the high point of the night for either side with total viewers and 18-49. Quarter six saw AEW lost 88,000 viewers and 43,000 in 18-49 for Hikaru Shida vs. Diamante and the Nyla Rose/Vickie Guerrero interview. NXT lost 36,000 viewers and 10,000 in 18-49 for the Imperium/Undisputed Era angle, a Bronson Reed feature, more interviews and the beginning of Isaiah Scott vs. Jake Atlas. Quarter seven saw AEW lose 70,000 viewers and 30,000 in 18-49 for the MJF interview. NXT lost 51,000 viewers and 32,000 in 18-49 for Scott vs. Atlas and ring intros for the main event. Quarter eight saw AEW gain 1,000 viewers and but lose 20,000 in 18-49 for Moxley & Allin vs. Cage & Starks. NXT gained 60,000 viewers and 36,000 in 18-49 for Lumis vs. Balor vs. Thatcher.

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