[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets (Observer Newsletter Edition):

A funny thing about the Chamber matches. The Smackdown Chamber which opened the show had the 5:00 intervals generally go long. At one point, because King Corbin was to tap out to Cesaro before Kevin Owens came in, and it took so long to get there, an interval went 7:36. In the Raw Chamber match, the decision was made to speed it up and have people in at 4:00 intervals. The last person in the Smackdown match, which should be at 20:00, was 23:10 in the Smackdown match and 16:00 in the Raw match.

CMLL will start back with Friday night shows on 3/26 that will stream via TicketMaster Live! as iPPV shows. The first show will be the Copa Junior VIP plus the fourth try to get the Volador Jr. NWA middleweight title defense against Bandido after two postponements over COVID and one when the promotion was shut down after announcing the match due to COVID. If you notice, 3/26 is also the ROH PPV show and Bandido is under contract to ROH. But ROH is likely taping the PPV show ahead of time so he can do both. This is basically the card they had scheduled for 12/25 They were also back taping empty arena matches to fill television time this past week. They have taped so much it is believed they are months ahead but there are no angles or anything.

Konnan survived a real scare as noted last week. It got to the level that the doctors asked him about his wishes if his heart or kidneys stopped as both were in danger of failing, and his kidneys were going into failure. A chaplain was even sent to pray with him. Remdesivir pretty much saved his life. Even now being home he has an in-home nurse to give him his medications

NJPW: Regarding the talks with AXS, the company is in talks right now with a number of U.S. stations, AXS being one of them

Marty Scurll appeared and evidently did an angle with Rocky Romero on the 1/22 tapings of New Japan Strong in Port Hueneme, CA according to Fightful. Notes on NJPW Strong are hard to come by because all people involved have signed NDA’s regarding everything that takes place

The NDA stuff is interesting since depending when it was put place, it could explain why NJPW officials were very pissed over some spoilers being leaked by talent since it could have blown the big surprise of KENTA showing up in AEW and the AEW-NJPW partnership.

CyberFight, the fighting arm of Abema TV and parent company of DDT, Pro Wrestling NOAH, Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling and Genbare Pro, has announced a 6/6 date at the Saitama Super Arena as a joint show with the top stars of all four groups. Each company’s top championships will be defnded and there will be interpromotional matches.

Joseph Hudson, who was best known as Jocephus, Jocephus Brody and more recently as The Question Mark on NWA Powerrr, passed away on 2/24 from what was called an undiagnosed medical condition. Dutch Mantell, who knew him, tweeted that it appeared to be a stroke or a brain aneurysm.

Local pro wrestling returns to Memphis television on 2/27 for a weekly Noon Saturday show on CW-30 with Championship Wrestling from Memphis. It’s been almost 15 years since the last attempt to do pro wrestling in the city that has historically drawn the biggest ratings for pro wrestling consistently for the last 50 years. Dustin Starr and David Marquez are behind the new show. The first set of tapings were done on 2/14 where they taped three shows, using local talent that has mostly never been on television, as well as Derrick King and Alan Steel, who were featured on Randy Hales’ Power Pro Wrestling about 20 years ago and King actually started in the 90s with Jerry Jarrett’s promotion. Longtime Observer reader and correspondent Brian Tramel and Twitch content provider RynoJB will be doing a weekly live podcast on the STSPOD YouTube channel called Rollins into Memphis which will also air on the Memphis wrestling website. They had limited seating for the first show, which sold out, and also sold out the second set of tapings on 3/7. They will also tape on 4/11. They will open with the promotion of the Cobra Cup, named after local star King Cobra, which starts on week one and the finals will be taped on 4/11. Starr had approached both Jerry Lawler and Bill Dundee about being part of the show, but said he didn’t want them wrestling. He got some heat from older wrestlers when he said that he didn’t want Lawler, who is 71, and Dundee, who is 77, in the ring any longer. Lawler still wrestles locally for Bert Prentice’s USA Championship Wrestling in Jackson, TN, which does a local access television show in that city and they want to run in Memphis. Some of the local people involved in wrestling don’t like the idea they are using the name Memphis Wrestling or pushing the slogan Memphis Wrestling is back. Dustin Starr is the guy who booked the independent show where Dana White performed as a pro wrestler a few years back for a taping of White’s Lookin for a Fight series

Regarding the Sammy Guevara stuff here, there were losses proposed and beatdowns scheduled and while he was to win his last match, it involved a post-match beatdown that he wasn’t coming back to get revenge for. One version of the story is that he was going to lose in a three-way with Ace Austin and Chris Bey in the plans. Black Taurus took his spot, so it appears week one was Taurus & Austin & Bey over Trey Miguel & Willie Mack & Josh Alexander where he would have won. Then the winners were put in a three-way for the second week, where the winner of that was to face TJP for the X title. One of the issues is that with the Guevara turn, if he’s not going to be pushed as a high-level babyface and I don’t know if he will be or not, it would be kind of a waste because he should have a high-level program with MJF. So if he worked elsewhere it should be in the position of gaining momentum for his program with MJF as a top level deal. Guevara did propose to Impact that he win the X title which they didn’t plan for. Really, Tony Khan and Impact should have had everything worked out beforehand and there was no point in having Guevara on the show and just being a guy on the show given this is either his make or break being when it comes to being a guy on the show in Impact

Right now Impact’s head of creative is Jimmy Jacobs. Jacobs reports to Scott D’Amore who has the final say but the television is mostly done by Jacobs, Robert Evans and Tommy Dreamer

Regarding the explosive barbed wire match, this was Kenny Omega’s idea from more than a year ago. Tony Khan said Omega suggested at some point doing this match in late 2019, in the same conversation he first brought up going heel with Don Callis as his manager. Omega has said to us that if you really think you’re the best in the world, you have to prove it by wrestling at a high level in every type of style and situation as opposed to just one way. That’s why he did the lights out match with Jon Moxley the way he did it in 2019. He pitched Tony Khan on the idea a long time ago. The deal is that you really have to do that kind of a match either at a huge stadium or better outdoors. Khan felt that Moxley was the guy and this was the time, and presented the idea to Moxley, who was very happy as he’s wanted to do that kind of a match himself

The Wednesday night war has moved to Canada with SportsNet 360 adding live NXT from 8-10 p.m. NXT had been airing in one hour form at 7 p.m. on Friday, not live, before Smackdown. SportsNet and TSN 2, the usual home of AEW (sometimes it’s bumped to TSN 1, which is actually the weaker station than TSN 2 since ratings are always lower when they move) are comparable. The move started on 2/24. The show will also stream live on SN Now. My gut is that this will end up more competitive than the U.S. for a variety of reasons. First, WWE is more popular per capita in Canada by far, particularly Raw. Smackdown is not quite as popular in Canada because it’s on cable rather than network. AEW going unopposed has done well in Canada, but not knocked them dead and unlike in the U.S., AEW is down from its peak. Early on AEW at times beat Smackdown and came close to Raw and that is no longer the case. Even WCW at its peak really was never as popular as WWE in Canada. The other is that if you follow Canadian ratings, you see wide variations as compared to the U.S. Canadian ratings and U.K. ratings, while the best we have to go by, are not nearly as accurate as Nielsen, for all the criticisms Nielsen gets, in the U.S. So when there are bigger swings, there will be in theory weeks with the swings where one or the other would win. Anyway, this should take a percentage off the AEW Canadian numbers even if NXT never actually wins, so that accomplishes its goal to begin with. And I think NXT will win at times even in the key demo because of the wild swings of the key demo number in Canada as compared to the U.S. WWE had been trying to get NXT in that time slot since October 2019. The reason it didn’t was because the two sides were far apart on money terms for the show, but they’ve come to an agreement. The deal is through the end of 2024, which would be the end of the current ten-year deal with SportsNet and WWE

Regarding Peacock, the plan for Fast Lane on 3/21 is to be on both Peacock and the WWE Network. The original plan was for the WWE Network to be switched over to Peacock on 3/18. The complete switch is still scheduled prior to WrestleMania for the U.S. only where Peacock will be the only way to get the show. It’s been noted to us that Peacock is now well suited for live sports and at least at first, that will be the case with WWE as well. One person noted to us their EPL coverage is not good, since if you watch live, it has to be live, you can’t join in and start at the beginning, or pause or rewind during the live broadcast. The service has also had issues with getting replays up in a timely fashion. Sometimes they are immediate once the game is over and sometimes it takes hours. Also, originally I was told your WWE Network account would transfer over, but now it appears you will have to sign up with Peacock to move your account over. But all this changes and will likely continue to change until the launch

There have been some new developments in the Vince McMahon and Olivier Luck lawsuits back-and forth. McMahon now claims that Luck repeatedly gave confidential XFL information to his brother-in-law, William Wilson, an NFL agent with the Wasserman Media Group. He is accusing Luck of sharing XFL requests for proposals, meeting notes, presentations, draft contracts and analysis of players and other attorney-client privileged information. McMahon is accusing him of disclosing company trade secrets and sensitive material without his consent. There have been two other key things in the case since the start of the year. Judge Victor Bolden ruled in favor of Luck on his request for all documents and communications, including emails, from Alpha Entertainment (XFL) related to Luck. McMahon is claiming that Luck went incommunicado when the pandemic started, but Luck is trying to show that McMahon wasn’t available for communication to begin with. They are also claiming that McMahon and the other executives never issued any warnings or notice to Luck regarding his job performance before he was fired. Luck is trying to show there was no communications showing they were unhappy, and none to him, before he was fired and the reasons McMahon gave were created after the firing which was done because the league folded. However, McMahon had personally guaranteed Luck his money even if the league didn’t make it, and was owed $23.8 million more on his deal. They argue that unless there is evidence McMahon or Alpha ever talked about his performance being mad, and never warned him, or put him on notice, Luck can argue that the charges against him either weren’t real or never considered serious enough until the league folded. Bolden also made a ruling this month in favor of McMahon, ordering Luck to reveal his passcodes for his company iPhone and that Alpha can access his phone contents which is likely where he newest charges comes from. Luck acknowledged using the phone for both work and non-work related reasons, and argued against that, saying there was attorney-client privileged information on the phone. McMahon’s side was ruled by Golden to develop a system to segregate and not use any privileged information

The top ten shows for the week on the WWE Network were: 1. Elimination Chamber; 2. Steve Austin’s Broken Skull Sessions with Sasha Banks; 3. Best of Elimination Chamber; 4. Elimination Chamber pre show; 5. Raw Talk; 6. Royal Rumble 2021; 7. Elimination Chamber 2020; 8. Talking Smack; 9. Ultimate Elimination Chamber; 10. The Bump. NXT was No. 14 and the Progress return was No. 22. It was NXT U.K., Heat and 205 Live among others

Ratings:

SPOILER: show

Raw on 2/22 did 1,890,000 viewers and 0.57 in 18-49. The number was up 4.4 percent in viewers but the same in 18-49 and down 10.3 percent in 18-34, so it was up but an older overall audience. Basically whatever was gained by the PPV bump and changing the title was mostly with viewers over the age of 50. Raw was first for the night in 18-49 and 13th place overall, trailing 12 news shows, which is higher than the show usually ranks but about the same as last week. It was second in women 18-49, first in men 18-49, first in 18-34, second in women 12-34 and first in men 12-34. It had much easier competition than usual. The only sports were an ESPN college basketball doubleheader where the 7 p.m. game did 827,000 viewers and 0.22 and the 9:30 p.m. game did 590,000 viewers and 0.14. As compared to one year ago this week, Raw was down 14.5 percent in viewers, 20.0 percent in 18-49 and 44.7 percent in 18-34, so again an example of an aging audience. The first-to-third hour drop was normal. The first hour did 1,978,000 viewers. The second hour did 1,926,000 viewers. The third hour did 1,765,000 viewers. I think the key thing is that the women’s drop that had been really bad of late was normal and the teenage girl drop that had been terrible saw a huge gain as the show went on. The two angles that were believed to be hurting women from staying were the Lacey Evans/Charlotte Flair angle and the Alexa Bliss portrayal, and the younger women’s audience with neither on the show were a lot stronger as far as sticking with it. The first-to-third hour drops were 15.0 percent in women 18-49, 8.8 percent in men 18-49, a 20.0 percent growth in girls 12-17, but a 29.0 percent decline in men 18-49 so there was something on this show that didn’t keep guys in hour three, and 8.8 percent in over 50. Really, nothing would be negative by usual standards except teenage boys. The show did a 0.26 in 12-17 (up 4.0 percent), 0.26 in 18-34 (down 10.3 percent), 0.88 in 35-49 (up 2.3 percent) and 0.88 in 50+ (up 4.8 percent).

Smackdown on 2/19 did a 1.33 rating and 2,217,000 viewers (1.38 viewers per home) with an 0.59 (762,000 viewers) in 18-49 and 0.35 in 18-34. So as expected, last week’s low number was largely if not almost entirely due to news coverage since this week bounced back to usual levels. Smackdown was second among network shows in 18-49, trailing Shark Tank (0.72). It was also second to Shark Tank in 18-34. As far as overall viewers, it was last again with it being the only network show on the night to do less than three million viewers. It beat everything on cable in 18-49 as far as viewers went, but if you factor in network advantage, it pretty much still beats everything but Gold Rush and the NBA. In women 18-49, Smackdown was sixth out of eight shows. With men 18-49 it was first and in over 50 it was last. As compared to last week, it was up 8.1 percent in homes watching, 11.4 percent in viewers watching (based on more viewers per home), up 4.1 percent in 18-49 and even in 18-34. As compared to one year ago in the same week, homes were down 14.2 percent, viewers were down 10.7 percent, 18-49 was down 20.0 percent and 18-34 was down 30.0 percent.

Some more notes on the 2/17 ratings. AEW placed fourth for the night, behind Challenge: Double Agents, the late NBA game and Real Housewives of New Jersey with an 0.31 and 400,000 viewers in 18-49. NXT was at 0.16 and 202,000 was No. 39, skewing older than ever. Viewership across the board was way down from a usual Wednesday due to Texas blackouts, but AEW still did well with men and NXT did super strong with over 50 viewers even with the limitations. AEW did 1.54 viewers per home. It was second among sports for the week behind the U.S. vs. Canada women’s soccer in the She Believes Cup which did 1.58 on FS 1. AEW was also the youngest skewing sports television show of the week, although it was only by percentage points from the Monday afternoon Newcastle vs. Chelsea EPL game at 3 p.m., in a time slot that is going to skew young. AEW was second in male 18-49 behind the late NBA game, but first in its time slot on cable. It was ninth in 18-34, and fifth in males 12-34. The NBA game that went head-to-head with AEW and NXT did 749,000 viewers and 0.25, and only beat AEW in 18-34 and Males 12-34. The NHL game was No. 66 with 439,000 viewers and 0.11. AEW did a 0.12 in 12-17 (down 7.7 percent from the previous week), 0.17 in 18-34 (up 7.4 percent), 0.45 in 35-49 (up 4.4 percent) and 0.25 in 50+ (down 7.4 percent) ... We don’t have NXT comparisons in all categories because the show didn’t chart the week before, but the show did a 0.10 in 12-17, 0.06 in 18-34 (up 25.7 percent from last week), 0.26 in 35-49 (up 35.5 percent) and 0.40 in 50+.

Both AEW and NXT showed increases for a normal week, with no hotshot matches, but no huge news numbers or Texas blackouts like with the previous week. AEW did 831,000 viewers and an 0.35 (452,000 viewers) in 18-49, putting it in fifth place for the night behind two NBA games, Challenge: Double Agents on MTV and Real Housewives of New Jersey. NXT did 734,000 viewers and 0.18 (233,000 viewers), putting it at No. 24 for the night. For AEW, that would be up 11.2 percent in viewers and 13.0 percent in 18-49 from last week’s show that was hurt by the Texas blackout. NXT would be up 2.9 percent in viewers and 15.3 percent in 18-49, so it skewed younger than the very old skewing show last week. As compared to one year ago, AEW was down 3.9 percent in viewers, up 16.7 percent in 18-49 and down 19.0 percent in 18-34. Essentially as far as the important numbers, the decline in 18-34 was overridden by huge increases in 35-49. NXT from one year ago was up 2.4 percent in viewers, but down 21.7 percent in 18-49 and down 53.8 percent in 18-34, so it skews much older than it did one year ago. AEW was 10th for the night in women 18-49, third in men 18-49 (trailing two NBA games), eighth in 18-34, 14th in women 12-34 and eighth in men 12-34. The NBA game that went head-to-head with AEW and NXT did 1,138,000 viewers and 0.37 in 18-49. The NHL game did 569,000 viewers and 0.17 in 18-49. AEW won all the key demos and doubled NXT in all of them except women 35-49. AEW did 66,000 viewers in men 18-49 (down 9.6 percent from last week) to 22,000 for NXT (down 35.3 percent). In women 18-34, AEW did 50,000 (up 16.3 percent) and NXT did 23,000 (up 130.0 percent). In men 35-49, AEW did 236,000 viewers (up 18.6 percent) to 118,000 for NXT (up 24.2 percent). In women 35-49, AEW did 100,000 viewers (up 17.6 percent) to 70,000 for NXT (down 4.1 percent). AEW won seven of eight quarters overall, and all eight in 18-49. It doubled NXT in 18-49 from 8:45 p.m. until to 9:30 p.m. In the main event segment, AEW with Lance Archer vs. Rey Fenix did 827,000 viewers and 457,000 in 18-49. NXT with Santos Escobar vs. Karrion Kross did 743,000 viewers and 241,000 in 18-49. NXT’s actual main event with the angle with Adam Cole, Roderick Strong and Finn Balor came after AEW ended its show, with the overrun. NXT picked up 50,000 viewers and 27,000 in 18-49 at that point. AEW opened with 832,000 viewers and 407,000 in 18-49 with Jon Moxley vs. Ryan Nemeth, a Moxley interview and an Archer & Fenix interview. NXT opened off its big lead-in at 800,000 viewers and 232,000 in 18-49 for Dexter Lumis vs Johnny Gargano. The second quarter saw AEW at 765,000 viewers and 389,000 in 18-49 for The Young Bucks and family at the truck, and Ricky Starks & Brian Cage vs. Brian Pillman Jr. & Griff Garrison. NXT had 781,000 viewers and 250,000 in 18-49 for an MSK video package, Grizzled Young Vets beatdown on MSK, Tyler Rust vs. Leon Ruff and William Regal with Zoey Stark. This was much closer than usual for NXT in 18-49, winning overall, and was the high point as far as a competitive quarter in 18-49 for NXT. The third quarter saw AEW rise to 840,000 viewers and 460,000 in 18-49 for the Sting, Darby Allin and Team Taz angle, interview with Miro & Kip Sabian & Penelope Ford and Jake Hager vs. Brandon Cutler. NXT did 745,000 viewers and 235,000 in 18-49 for Io Shirai vs. Stark. The fourth quarter saw AEW do 835,000 viewers and 475,000 in 18-49 for the angle where Papa Buck was bloodied up, a feature on the Shaquille O’neal mach and beginning of Adam Page vs. Isaiah kassidy. NXT had 706,000 viewers and 213,000 in 18-49 for the end of Shirai vs. Stark, Toni Storm challenging Shirai, The Way promo and a Cameron Grimes vignette. The fifth quarter saw AEW do 841,000 viewers and 482,000 in 18-49 for most of Page vs. Kassidy and a promo with Kenny Omega & Don Callis. This was the high point of the show for AEW in both 18-49 overall and women 18-49. NXT did 729,000 viewers and 236,000 in 18-49 for Xia Li vs. Kacy Catanzaro and a women’s tag team title match preview video. This was also the high point for NXT in women 18-49. The sixth quarter saw AEW do 866,000 viewers and 479,000 in 18-49 for the women’s tournament video and Britt Baker vs. Nyla Rose. This was the high point of the show in men 18-49. NXT did 623,000 viewers and 207,000 in 18-49 for another Grimes video and Drake Maverick & Killian Dain vs. Grizzled Young Veterans. This was the most one-sided segment of the night. The seventh quarter saw AEW do 838,000 viewers and 464,000 in 18-49 a package building Jurassic Express vs. FTR & Tully Blanchard and the beginning of Archer vs. Fenix. NXT did 709,000 viewers and 233,000 in 18-49 for the beginning of Kross vs. Escobar. In the final quarter, AEW lost 11,000 viewers and 7,000in 18-49 for Archer vs. Fenix. NXT gained 34,000 viewers and 8,000 in 18-49 for the ending of Kross vs. Escobar. As far as competitive quarter, this was NXT’s best in men 18-49. AEW did an 0.11 in 12-17 (down 8.3 percent from last week), 0.17 in 18-34 (identical to last week), 0.53 in 35-49 (up 18.3 percent) and 0.29 in 50+ (up 16.0 percent) ... NXT did an 0.10 in 12-17 (identical to last week), 0.06 in 18-34 (up 2.3 percent), 0.30 in 35-49 (up 11.9 percent) and 0.40 in 50+ (identical to last week).

In Canada for the first night of the Wednesday night wars on 2/24, we don’t have any numbers. Neither show made the top ten, due to the Raptors and the Maple Leafs doing huge numbers (Maple Leafs vs. Calgary numbers were gigantic at 1,342,900 and to get a U.S. equivalent multiply by nine). No. 10 for sports was 137,800 and I wouldn’t expect either show without competition to hit that, let alone with another wrestling show and the NBA and NHL. Raw on 2/22 did 246,500 viewers and 126,700 in 25-54