[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets (Observer Newsletter Edition):

If ever there was proof that the last second of a show can override almost everything that happened before, it was the AEW Revolution PPV on 3/7 from Daily’s Place in Jacksonville. Everyone knew going in that a show built around an explosive barbed wire match in the main event was going to be judged on the explosions. It’s a match invented by FMW in Japan, popularized by the May 5, 1993 Atsushi Onita vs. Terry Funk match at Kawasaki Baseball Stadium before 32,000 fans (announced as 41,000 in case you read the inflated number elsewhere). It’s been copied multiple times in the U.S., in a number of independent promotions and twice (once in 1993 and again in 2000) by ECW. The end result was always the same. The fart in church ending when the last big explosion of pyro to climax the match lays an egg. With history behind it, Kenny Omega came up with the idea more than a year ago, and Jon Moxley was picked as the opponent. The idea is that those matches have been successful in Japan based on explosions, but the body of work in the matches was rarely good. The idea going in was to have the greatest and most spectacular match of its kind, with both believing the other was the perfect opponent for that job ... The interference was a negative but the match itself up to that point was close to a classic. But the grand finale was to be at the 30:00 mark when the ring would explode. Anderson, Gallows and Omega continued the beatdown. They handcuffed Moxley’s hands behind his back. Omega hit Moxley with a barbed wire bat to the back of the head. Then he followed with the bat to the chest and back. Finally, with seconds before the explosion, Omega, Gallows and Anderson ran off, leaving Moxley in the ring. With seconds left, Eddie Kingston ran out to cover and protect Moxley. It was the same spot Onita did to protect Funk after beating him. Everyone knew this would be the perfect spot for the Kingston babyface turn. And then the explosion failed. Kingston still sold it like he took a bullet for his former friend. The failed climax undermined the entire show. Fans booed live, and even chanted refund. For better or worse, the show will be remembered not for the great matches, the end of the Battle Royal, or the main eventers achieving their goal as far as in-ring bell-to-bell went, and will instead be remembered for the lack of the explosion at the end. It also may not be remembered for the fact the show generated more money than any non-WWE show in the United States in almost 22 years, and aside from WWF/WWE and the 1994-99 era of WCW, more than any other wrestling show in U.S. history ... The finish was tested out multiple times, and it worked great every time. Then the time it counted, it didn’t. Anyone who has dealt with pyro knows there are duds, and the wrestlers didn’t have the backup plan. Kingston selling it the way it was supposed to be but not how it was only made it worse. Khan acting like it wasn’t a misfire and doing storyline at the press conference wasn’t the right thing in that situation. Ultimately, it was a bad ending to what had started out as a great day for the AEW owner, with Fulham beating Liverpool in Liverpool for the second time since 1875, a great reaction to the surprise debut of Maki Itoh, two great tags to open, a spectacular ending to the tag team Battle Royal and then getting early buy numbers from B/R Live at that point in the show. The end of the day was the most negative feedback to an AEW show in history. The PPV numbers look to be the strongest not only in AEW history, but the strongest for any non-WWE show in the U.S. since 1999, grossing in excess of $6 million and likely will end up closer to $7 million. Of that, AEW will take in a percentage likely around 50 percent because there is a split with distribution partners. There are no television PPV numbers in at press time, but the B/R Live streaming numbers were up more than 50 percent from Full Gear in November and by far the highest of any show in AEW history, and these days that’s the primary number. Streaming numbers outside the U.S., depending on the service, were up 20 to 40 percent from the last show. Based on that, even if regular television PPV numbers don’t increase from the last show, and it’s hard to conceive that could be the case, they would be above the record 120,000 buys for the 2020 Double or Nothing show. Khan has publicly said it was the biggest PPV number in history, and privately within the company, being conservative with no TV numbers, it’s very likely that will be the case. If the television PPV numbers increase like the streaming numbers did from what they did in November, they’ll end up a lot higher than anything done previously. In theory, one would expect the television PPV gain to be similar to the streaming gain from November, but you can’t discount a large migration of people who ordered the last show on television and decided to order this show on B/R Live. It would also mark the fifth show in a row (sixth if you consider the 2019 All Out to be the follow-up of 2018 All In, which took place before the promotion started but in many ways was the real debut of the concept) where the PPV beat the number of the corresponding show the year before. That streak may end because the third Double or Nothing takes place on 5/30 in Jacksonville, the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, and to continue the streak they’d have to top 120,000. The show also was broadcast for the first time on closed-circuit in theaters around the country. We don’t have any numbers, nor did AEW at press time, but did get reports of sold out theaters from fans who attended ... As noted last week, tickets sold out instantly, but that was to be expected given the limited amount of tickets being sold. The final numbers were just over 1,300 in the building, the second largest pro wrestling crowd since the pandemic started, with just over 1,150 paid.

WWE announced WrestleMania tickets priced from $35 to $2,500 per night will go on sale on 3/16. They said only a limited number of tickets will go on sale. A few months ago the hope was to put 30,000 in the stadium but based on a meeting this past week it looks like the goal now is 45,000 each night. On 3/10, the city of Tampa had a meeting with some local hotels and the hotels were told that WWE is pushing to run Raymond James Stadium on 4/10 and 4/11 at 75 percent capacity. The capacity for a WrestleMania with the stage would have been 60,000, which is where 45,000 comes from. Based on WWE’s usual exaggerations, one would have expected an announced number between 70,000 and 75,000, and depending on what they deem is best for P.R., they could announce a number significantly larger than 45,000 but that was what they were requesting. Because sales at that level aren’t a certainty, since people are less willing to travel and Europe and Japan would have quarantine periods for those attending to be able to return, the feeling is they will draw minimally from overseas. WrestleMania has generally sold 15,000 to 25,000 tickets from the home market, and not every WrestleMania sells out so it’s not like those numbers in many cases are with people turned away. A Tampa WrestleMania was not a given to be a sellout, as opposed to a New York or Dallas which did sellout ... The key matches at WrestleMania appear to be a lock, with Roman Reigns vs. Edge for the Universal title, Bobby Lashley vs. Drew McIntyre for the WWE title, Randy Orton vs. The Fiend in some kind of a gimmick match, Braun Strowman vs. Shane McMahon, Sasha Banks vs. Bianca Belair for the Smackdown women’s title all either announced or a clear direction. Nothing has been done in recent weeks with Miz & John Morrison vs. Damien Priest & Bad Bunny, but that’s because Miz has been busy getting Lashley ready for his main event and Bunny is getting ready for his performance on the Grammy Awards on 4/14. Asuka vs. Charlotte Flair for the Raw women’s title will take place unless Asuka can’t get cleared in time from her concussion. Robert Roode & Dolph Ziggler vs. The Street Profits for the Smackdown tag titles is also likely. However as noted last week, Vince McMahon has wanted to change up everything so besides the stuff they were still pushing on TV this week, all prior plans are up in the air. An interesting thought for Orton vs. Fiend. The one thing we’ve pretty much learned loud and clear is that an explosive match (and you don’t need barbed wire or blood for it if Vince is against that sort of thing) is a draw in 2021. The vast majority of WWE fans don’t watch AEW or are even aware much of what happens in AEW, so it’s still the first time and we’ve seen full blown it’s a draw. They could show up AEW and all if the explosion at the end is spectacular, which really isn’t what this is about, but simply that there are so few things proven today so really move numbers and this was proven just this past week to do so. Yes, it would seem copying, but if they pull it off and the explosions work, it would not have the negative of outright copying but instead the aura of doing it better.

In a story that may have ramifications on pro wrestling, the NHL and ESPN reached a seven-year deal, but it’s been reported that it’s one of two major deals the NHL will be signing starting with the 2021-2022 season. The belief is the second deal will be with NBCU, which is in talks. The positive is that, like with so many sports, the NHL did not have a big ratings year, but their rights fees for what the NHL called is the A package, which will include four Stanley Cup finals over the next seven years, was a seven-year deal for $2.88 billion, or $411 million per year. They are looking to get another package for close to the same number which would have the other three Stanley Cup playoffs, the once NBCU is currently bidding for, although right now the two sides were considerably apart on price. There is also interest by FOX and Turner, although Sports Business Journal indicated Turner wasn’t interested at the current asking price. NBCU was paying the NHL $200 million per year on the old deal for exclusive national televison rights. This would show that a lower rated sport, as NHL numbers, except for the Stanley Cup finals, rate far lower than either WWE or AEW, is likely to get $650 million to $750 million on its new deal for television rights, which is significantly more than WWE ($465 million) and UFC ($300 million) got in their most recent deals although with the upgrades of selling the network WWE’s total take is $665 million and UFC’s is $500 million. A lot of the spending is earmarked for adding the NHL product to ESPN+ to build up the subscriber number. Essentially, as shown with the WWE/Peacock deal (and Peacock suffered $914 million in losses this past year) is that media companies are willing to spend huge money and overspend based on what they can make back, to build a major company by securing reliable sports franchises ... A key reason for the NXT proposed move to Tuesday was because USA would be airing NHL on Wednesdays during hockey season. It didn’t make sense to run NXT half the year on Wednesday and half the year on another day and change that, so the decision was to go to Tuesday. But if NBCU doesn’t get the other half of the deal, NBCU’s main reason for moving NXT is gone. If they do, NBCU will likely keep the Wednesday night game because ESPN carries the NBA on Wednesday nights, so there is no time for NHL games ... Before this deal was announced the plan was for NXT to move to Tuesday starting on 4/13, which would mean a nine-straight night period WrestleMania week of live WWE events ... The NXT move to Tuesday could still take place even if NBCU doesn’t sign up with the NHL and keep the Wednesday night game. It does benefit the NXT brand to move as they will draw more viewers and in particular much higher 18-49 numbers without AEW competition. It benefits USA for the same reason. But the move also benefits AEW, and the fact we know all this and this move never happened after NXT on Tuesday numbers were so much higher spoke volumes.

The plans by owners Dwayne Johnson and Dany Garcia to start the XFL in the spring of 2022 are now up in the air as they are now in talks of a working agreement with the Canadian Football League. In many ways, part of the conception of the first XFL was Vince McMahon’s grudge against the CFL in the late 1990s when he wanted to acquire the league and was unable to do so. The idea was that his new league would draw the player pool that otherwise would have been in the CFL, basically talent not quite good enough to make NFL rosters but who still wanted to keep alive their dreams of playing pro football, and were willing to do so for relatively little money. Johnson and Garcia have opened talks with the CFL regarding working together rather than against each other. As part of that, they have paused the planned restart of the league, which had been scheduled for February 2022. Regarding the nature of the talks between the sides, a statement by the XFL didn’t go into any detail ... The CFL, which canceled its 2020 season, is set to resume during its normal playing time, with its new season starting in June and running through the end of October.

CMLL: Fantasma, who heads the Box y Lucha commission in Mexico City, said he’s talking to people about allowing crowds back but capped off at 30 percent capacity. This isn’t his call, as local health officials will be making those calls

AAA: The lawsuit filed by Lucha Libre FMV (the people who ran Lucha Underground) and Lucha Libre AAA is now in mediation. They haven’t reached terms but according to The Cubs Fan, they had a 13 ½ hour settlement conference on 3/10

Patrick Shea, who used the name Colin West, the promoter of the New Jersey based Synergy Championship Wrestling, was revealed as a convicted pedophile. He had been going by the Colin West name until it was discovered. The promotion he ran was beginning to get popular. They had planned to be part of The Collective group of shows this year at WrestleMania. It was noted to us that he presided over a wedding, was friends with all the area indie guys and more. Wrestler Tessa Callaway found out about his real name. According to The Wrestling Estate, he was convicted in 1999 of sexually assaulting three boys between the ages of six and ten. He was 16 at the time. In 2004, when he was 21, he was arrested for sexually assaulting a 12-year-old boy, causing or permitting him to send nude photos as well as images of himself masturbating. Synergy Pro Wrestling was founded by Dan and Heather Funkenstein, who owned a wrestling store in Englishtown, NJ. They hired West as creative director. West handled creative until taking over the company in May 2019. West deleted his Facebook account and closed the company Twitter account. He made a statement about being abused as a teenager for what he did

Heel By Nature reported more details of Kelly Klein’s contract. She was suing based on gender discrimination as well as being labeled an independent contractor rather than employee. It should be noted that she worked for a multitude of different companies at the same time she worked for ROH, so there is a better case for her actually being an independent contractor as compared to a WWE wrestler or wrestlers from companies that restrict outside appearances (and really only WWE does that completely). Klein’s contract for 2018 was for only $12,000 per year, and she would get her transportation (flights) paid for and a double occupancy hotel room, plus 20 percent of any merchandise and DVD royalties from her stuff and 50 percent of any outside appearances ROH would book for her. In 2019, she was offered a $20,000 deal to renew, asked for $24,000, and was turned down. The claim is that in 2019 the highest paid male wrestler was getting $186,000 and single occupancy rooms covered. Obviously the high number in 2020 was considerably more than that.

John Laurinaitis, 58, is back in charge of talent relations. Laurinaitis’ official title is the new General Manager of Talent, a newly created position. Basically talent relations is now being split into talent management and talent branding. There will be someone as head of talent branding, whose job it will be is book WWE talent for outside appearances, commercials, movies and third party engagements. Laurinaitis was brought into WWE in 2001. He had been the top agent at WCW, responsible for laying out matches from his experience as a booker and agent for Giant Baba and All Japan. He left Japan, where he was part of the golden era, just as All Japan was about to collapse. He was hired by Jim Ross as his assistant in talent relations after WCW closed down. The idea from the start was that he would learn from Ross and take over at some point when Ross would slow down after moving back home and just become an announcer again. In 2004, McMahon made the call to have Laurinaitis replace Ross before Ross made the call to leave, although Ross had moved back to Oklahoma by that point. Eventually Laurinaitis was moved out of the position for Paul Levesque, and in 2012, was removed completely. Usually in that situation you would let someone go, but with Laurinaitis, they kept him as a road agent since that time. Mark Carrano will remain in the role of the guy who gets all the heat and bears all the bad news to talent which Laurinaitis, Jim Ross, J.J. Dillon and others played forever. But Carrano will now report to Laurinaitis. It was described that Laurinaitis always has a smile for Vince and won’t challenge him, and like with the hiring of Bruce Prichard, Vince is right now a guy who wants to be told everything is great, which is funny because he’s so much not the old Vince in that way. So he’s more and more surrounding himself with people who won’t challenge him and will feed the idea the company is more popular than ever and television ratings don’t mean what they used to. Without live show attendance (which if it was bad they’d find a way to excuse that) or PPV numbers, and with the network being dropped, there’s really no metrics past ratings and the new thing is to tout social media numbers, which as in most entertainment companies, the sign of a con because those numbers never go down, and always rise unless you piss people off and talk political views, which WWE is smart enough as a company to avoid

Andrea Listenberger, one of the writers, just quit the company. She had been with the company since December 2019. This was first reported by Ringside News. They also reported that Ed Heller had joined Ed Koskey and Ryan Callahan as head writers. Both of these have been confirmed. Heller was with the TV show “Ridiculousness” and the Betty White show “Off their Rockers.” Heller was brought in by Christine Lubrano. I don’t know if the two items are related but two people have indicated that they appeared to be. What we do know is many of the writers were upset because the company had told them (like people in every position) that there was no money for raises, promotions or bonuses, and then they brought in somebody new. They did get $3,000 worth of stock, but the stock needs to vest before they can sell it

Regarding the thigh slapping, there was a sign this past week backstage at the shows that read “Do not slap leg when kicking” so the “ban,” if that’s the word, of slapping thighs when kicking is a real thing. Jey Uso still did it in the Bryan cage match. For so much of the talent, it’s just a natural body movement. The reaction I got from people internally was mostly along the lines of with all the different problems, why is this of all things an issue. The story going around is that a big wrestler did this sloppily on Smackdown and Vince reacted by wanting it banned. It’s one of those things (remember the no wrestling during commercial breaks ban) that most figure will be forgotten about soon enough. The weirdness was some old-timers, where the sound effects for hitting your own chest throwing a punch was considered part of the art, or before that, stomping your foot when throwing a punch, were acting like this sort of thing was exposing the business. I mean, if it is, it dates back probably 70 years and for the superkick and thrust kick about 40 years

Asuka is out with a concussion from the kick by Shayna Baszler. The problem with a concussion is that she could be fine next week or she could not be cleared for a long time and you never know. There’s enough time left that she probably would be back for Mania but that’s not a sure thing. It’s tough because they counted on Ric Flair weekly for Raw through Mania and now Charlotte Flair’s second Mania direction has a chance of also being in jeopardy

Benjamin Carter’s new ring name on NXT U.K. is Nathan Frazier

Heaven,” the first non-pro wrestling documentary put on the WWE Network, about Heaven Fitch, the North Carolina high school girl who beat all the boys last season to win the 106 pound weight division state championship, was the most-watched show on the WWE Network this past week. That is really notable because they went out of the box, and they also debuted a Bill Goldberg doc on the same day. Granted, in a week with no major shows, nor no big releases other than Goldberg, the overall viewership of the network appeared down (shows like NXT and NXT U.K. placed much higher than usual, but it still wasn’t enough for Main Event of 205 Live to place). But no matter how you slice it, finishing first and beating a new Goldberg doc is a real accomplishment. Stephanie McMahon to promote it hard and the company did send out a special press release about a week ahead of time. The top ten were: 1. Heaven documentary; 2. Goldberg at 54 documentary; 3. Raw Talk; 4. WWE 24 Big E; 5. NXT from 3/3; 6. Elimination Chamber 2021; 7. Royal Rumble 2021; 8. Fast Lane 2015; 9. Talking Smack; 10. Smackdown from 2/5. NXT U.K. with the Kay Lee Ray vs. Meiko Satomura match finished 11th. No other wrestling shows or indie wrestling shows placed in the top 25

Ratings:

SPOILER: show

Raw on 3/8 held up in the ratings and was slightly down in the key demos, promoted around a Bobby Lashley vs. The Miz title rematch. Obviously this was a decision made late, since they had advertised a Lashley celebration. The show last week did well in the ratings, which likely led to the rematch, even though the booking of the match as a quick squash was exactly what you wouldn’t do to build a rematch. But the novelty of a WWE title match on television worked, because they had a big first hour. The show was helped by no NBA games, but that’s a very minor aspect. Raw did 1,897,000 viewers on average with an 0.55 (719,000 viewers) in 18-49 and 0.32 in 18-34. On cable, Raw was first in 18-49 by a wide margin (No. 2, Below Deck Sailing on Bravo was at 0.36). It was third in women 18-49, first by a large margin in men 18-49 (more than doubling second place Street Outlaws), first in 18-34, second in women 12-34 and first in men 12-34. It was ninth in total viewers, behind eight news shows, which is the best finish the show has done. The first hour, which featured the Lashley vs. Miz title match, did 2,031,000 viewers. It was the first time any hour of Raw topped two million viewers since 1/11. The second hour did 1,921,000 viewers and the third hour did 1,736,000 viewers. The first-to-third hour drop of 14.5 percent was larger than usual, but that’s because of the high first hour. As compared to last week, the show was up 0.7 percent in viewers, down 4.6 percent in 18-49 and down 17.8 percent in 18-34. Keep in mind last week’s 18-34 number was unusually big. Something to look at for a pattern next week or whenever he returns is that Bad Bunny wasn’t on the show this week that the under 34 numbers were way down, but the drop was mostly women . The key is that the over 50 audience was up, so just looking at total viewers, it hides that fact. Last week’s numbers under 35 were way up from usual, particularly with women, and that was the key audience that they lost this week. It could be just a fluke based on other programming but it’s a trend to look out for in the next few weeks. As compared to the same week last year, the show was down 12.3 percent in viewers, 20.3 percent in 18-49 and 37.3 percent in 18-34. So the show skewed much older this year than last year. The show did 143,000 viewers in men 18-34 (down 3.4 percent), 78,000 in women 18-34 (down 35.5 percent), 324,000 in men 35-49 (down 2.1 percent) and 174,000 in women 35-49 (up 13.0 percent). As far as the first-to-third hour drops, the declines were big with teenagers, particularly boys, as well as those over 50, while males 18-49 did stick around for the three hours. The drops were 14.3 percent for women 18-49, 6.7 percent for men 18-49, 23.7 percent for teenage girls, 24.5 percent in teenage boys and 12.2 percent over 50.

WWE booked a double count out last week and not have the Roman Reigns vs. Daniel Bryan Fast Lane main event announced, so they could do a Bryan vs. Jey Uso cage match that Bryan had to win to get a title shot for the 3/5 Smackdown show. Putting a cage match with that stip on television led to increases as the show did a 1.36 rating with 2,252,000 viewers (1.37 viewers per home) and a 0.60 (771,000 viewers) in 18-49 and 0.37 in 18-34. Smackdown placed second for the night in 18-49 behind Shark Tank at 0.71. It placed first in 18-34, with Shark Tank in second was 0.33. It was helped by no NBA due to it being All-Star weekend and the cage match led to very strong gains in men 18-34.. Smackdown tied for fifth among the eight network shows in women 18-49, won with men 18-49 and finished last in over 50. It also finished last in total viewers with the second worst mark being a rerun of a Dateline episode on NBC that did 2,662,000 viewers. As compared to last week, the show was up 5.0 percent in viewers, 10.3 percent in 18-49 and 26.0 percent in 18-34, so skewed much younger. The show did 162,000 viewers in men 18-34 (up 32.8 percent from last week), 95,000 in women 18-34 (up 15.9 percent), 299,000 in men 35-49 (up 4.2 percent) and 215,000 in women 35-49 (up 3.4 percent). In 18-49, the audience was 59.8 percent male. As compared to one year ago, we don’t have the household number, but it was down 8.3 percent in viewers, which is a very low year-to-year-drop for a WWE show, 14.3 percent in 18-49 and 7.5 percent in 18-34, again much lower drops than is usual.

A few more notes on the 3/3 head-to-head. As noted last week, AEW skewed the oldest it has all year and NXT skewed the youngest, which was mostly due to AEW taking away a lot of the usual NXT over 50 audience that wanted to see Shaquille O’Neal early, but also with the main event already airing, some of the younger audience then went with NXT the rest of the show. AEW was also down from usual with 1.43 viewers per home, as another thing Shaq did was bring a ton of new homes to the show, but they were one viewer homes. Actual homes watching were up 25 percent from usual, and they were mostly single viewers over the age of 50, very similar to the NXT audience. AEW still had the most viewers per home among wrestling shows, but they were way below all the NBA All-Star activity when it came to viewers per home and younger skewing audience. AEW skewed older than UFC and UFC had more viewers per home. AEW had an older audience than most soccer and NBA as well as UFC. The Rhodes & Red Velvet vs. O’Neal & Jade Cargill match averaged 1,162,000 viewers and peaked at 1.3 million, which has a good chance of being the biggest numbers for each that AEW will have all year. However, the 469,000 in 18-49 was small. Both AEW and NXT had more than one million viewers, numbers almost identical, when the show started. NXT got that based off its lead-in and AEW had it likely because of O’Neal. AEW gained from there while NXT’s opener with Tommaso Ciampa & Timothy Thatcher vs. Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch was mostly in the 750,000 range, although NXT fell as low as 575,000 during the commercial break. NXT would go ahead in every AEW commercial break except n the last 30 minutes where even AEW’s commercials were getting more viewers than NXT’s wrestling. The O’Neal match started at 400,000 in 18-49 and ended up at about 560,000. No AEW segment averaged 500,000, but there were a number of points in the show over 1 million viewers and a few over 500,000 in 18-49. However the only other segment that for its entirely that averaged over 1 million was the Chris Jericho/MJF press conference with the Young Bucks run in that did 1,004,000 viewers and 465,000 in 18-49 over 12 minutes. The FTR & Tully Blanchard vs. Jurassic Express match averaged 957,000 viewers and 448,000 in 18-49. The Paul Wight interview averaged 954,000 viewers and 469,000 in 18-49 and Nyla Rose vs. Ryo Mizunami averaged 931,000 viewers and 448,000 in 18-49. NXT’s high point in 18-34 was Cameron Grimes vs. Bronson Reed. In 35-49 it was Shayna Baszler & Nia Jax vs. Raquel Gonzalez & Dakota Kai for the regular show and Finn Balor vs. Roderick Strong as the unopposed overrun. The unopposed overrun only did 48,000 viewers in 18-34 for NXT, actually the low point of the show, but did 221,000 in 35-49, the high point. For AEW, the high point in 18-34 was the Wight interview and Rose vs. Mizunami, which is shocking it wasn’t the O’Neal match, but that’s likely because it was first and AEW usually peaks later. The O’Neal match was first in 35-49. As noted, AEW skewed significantly older and more male than usual. NXT skewed significantly younger, but not more female, as the split was not significantly different from a lot of weeks, but it wasn’t as if it was the night that made a difference or the MTV show, because that would have affected NXT’s skew and didn’t. It was definitely women not interested in AEW at usual levels for whatever reason, and men more interested. Both would likely have to do with Shaq. AEW was still the youngest skewing audience of the five national wrestling shows, although the O’Neal match and the Raw average were basically identical. Raw was second, with NXT very close to Raw while Smackdown skewed significantly older and Impact was still the oldest of all.

With AEW coming off a PPV and NXT advertising two title matches as part of angles built up for weeks, including one with the two biggest stars on the brand, the Wednesday numbers figured to be up. And they weren’t. AEW was way down in viewers, but almost the same in 18-49, even though very strong in 35-49. They lost all the older single-home viewers brought in by Shaquille O’Neal last week, but were stronger than last week in three of the four key demos. They were also down in under 35 viewers. NXT, pushing Finn Balor vs. Adam Cole and Io Shirai vs. Toni Storm should have had a big improvement over last week and they were actually the same in viewers and down in the key demo, with them picking up the over 50 audience they lost last week, but losing the younger audience they had last week. The key takes are that the first TV appearance of Christian Cage appeared to mean nothing for the ratings. But for NXT to do what they did with Balor vs. Cole, who were both major ratings draws for the company in big matches in 2020, the numbers were even worse. AEW did 743,000 viewers and 0.32 in 18-49 (415,000 viewers), good for fourth place for the night. NXT finished in 25th place, with 691,000 viewers and 0.18 in 180-49 (229,000 viewers). The NBA wasn’t on ESPN as is usual for Wednesday, and that should have helped AEW in particular because they have more similar demos. But the night on cable was dominated by South Park (1,740,000 viewers, 0.82 in 18-49 and 0.70 in 18-34, which are monster cable numbers). Challenge Double Agent did 927,000 viewers and 0.53 in 18-49. Between that and Real Housewives on Bravo, Married at First Sight, House Hunters and Farmhouse Fixers, there was a night with shows that did huge with women, which was the key component with the wrestling shows both being down. AEW was second to South Park in Males 18-49, ninth in 18-34, and down to seventh in males 12-34. The other sports were a Big 12 College Basketball tournament doubleheader on ESPN (560,000, 0.15 for the late game, 409,000, 0.13 for the game against the first 96 minute of wrestling), San Antonio vs. Dallas NBA on NBA TV (307,000 viewers; 0.12) and NHL on NBC Sports Network (Las Vegas vs. Minnesota doing 356,000 viewers and 0.11). So overlooked to a degree seems to be that the sports audience was way down across the board. AEW was down 20.4 percent in viewers from last week’s show with Shaq, but only down 2.4 percent in 18-49 but down 18.5 percent in 18-34. NXT was down 0.1 percent in viewers (a drop of 1,000), but down 11.6 percent in 18-49 and up 5.5 percent in 18-34. Comparisons with last year are misleading because the Wednesday last year was the night Tom Hanks tested positive and the NBA shut down. AEW was still down 3.0 percent in viewers, but up 22.8 percent in 18-49 which again shows how much younger the audience is this year. But like I said, you can throw out that comparison. NXT from last year was down 0.9 percent in viewers but down 14.2 percent in 18-49. AEW did 60,000 viewers in males 18-34 (down 31.8 percent from last week) to 36,000 for NXT (up 24.1 percent). AEW did 41,000 in women 18-34 (up 13.9 percent) to 22,000 for NXT (down 15.4 percent). AEW did 231,000 in men 35-49 (up 0.9 percent) to 114,000 for NXT (down 11.6 percent). AEW did 83,000 in women 35-49 (up 15.3 percent) to 57,000 for NXT (down 24.0 percent). AEW won all eight quarters in total viewers, but a few were close, and obviously in 18-49, it wasn’t close. AEW doubled NXT in the first 45 minutes but not after that point. In the main event battle, AEW with the show closing angle with Chris Jericho, MJF, his new group and the Inner Circle did 742,000 viewers and 391,000 in 18-49. NXT with Balor vs. Cole did 631,000 viewers and 213,000 in 18-49. However, when AEW went off the air the Balor vs. Cole match gained 183,000 viewers, the best gain since NXT went back to having an overrun. AEW opened a 756,000 viewers and 462,000 in 18-49 for Matt Jackson vs. Rey Fenix. It was not only the highest number in 18-49 this week, but beat the Shaq match and everything else last week. NXT, with the big lead-in, did 740,000 viewers and 210,000 in 18-49 for William Regal’s two announcements and the presentation of the women’s tag team belts. In the second quarter, AEW did 751,000 viewers and 441,00 in 18-49 for the end of Matt Jackson vs. Fenix, a Jon Moxley & Eddie Kingston interview, Cody Rhodes vs. Seth Gargis and the Cody/Penta angle. NXT did 729,000 viewers and 219,000 in 18-49 for Io Shirai vs. Toni Storm and a Finn Balor promo. In the third quarter, AEW did 757,000viewers and 445,000 in 18-49 for a Chuck Taylor & Orange Cassidy interview, Sting & Lance Archer & Jake Roberts, QT Marshall interview and the beginning of Lee Johnson vs. Ethan Page. NXT did 679,000 viewers and 224,000 in 18-49 for the L.A. Knight interview and confrontation with Bronson Reed, Pete Dunne vs. Jake Atlas, a Dunne promo and an Imperium promo. In the fourth quarter, AEW did 719,000 viewers and 418,000 in 18-49 for Johnson vs. Page, the post-match. The first part of the quarter and end of the prior quarter was the sound problems that likely hurt the quarter. The rest of the quarter had Adam Page & Dark Order and Kenny Omega & Don Callis & Good Brothers out. NXT did 683,000 viewers and 227,000 in 18-49 for a Leon Ruff interview and Dakota Kai & Raquel Gonzalez vs. Ember Moon & Shotzi Blackheart for the tag titles. In the fifth quarter, AEW did 758,000 viewers and 413,000 in 18-49 for the Omega, Good Brothers, Callis brawl with Eddie Kingston and debut of Christian Cage and the beginning of the women’s six-person tag match with Nyla Rose & Britt Baker & Maki Itoh vs. Hikaru Shida & Ryo Mizunami & Thunder Rosa. NXT did 685,000 viewers and 245,000 in 18-49 for the end of the women’s tag title match, a Cole interview and The Way interview. That was NXT’s high point in 18-49. In the sixth quarter, AEW fell to 697,000 viewers and 364,000 in 18-49 for the end of the women’s six-person match, Matt Hardy introducing Butcher & Blade & Bunny to his stable and the beginning of Darby Allin vs Scorpio Sky. NXT did 685,000 viewers and 242,000 in 18-49 for Xia Li vs. Kayden Carter, the post-match, a Jordan Devlin promo and a Zoey Stark piece and a Santos Escobar promo. In the seventh quarter, AEW did 766,000 viewers and 385,000 in 18-49 for Allin vs. Sky for the TNT title. This was the high point in viewers for AEW. NXT had 639,000viewers and 225,000 in 18-49 for Grizzled Young Veterans vs. Joaquin Wilde & Raul Mendoza, the post-match, Shirai challenging Gonzalez, a Tommaso Ciampa & Timothy Thatcher interview and the beginning of Cole vs. Balor. In the final quarter with The Inner Circle blowing up going against Cole vs. Balor, AEW lost 24,000 viewers but gained 6,000 in 18-49. NXT lost 8,000 viewers and lost 12,000 in 18-49.

We’ve gotten the WWE ratings from the U.K. for the past several weeks from backbodydrop.com. Raw on 2/1 did 109,100 viewers, which was a great number. This was the day after Rumble show headlined by Edge vs. Orton. It was the first time a WWE show had topped 100,000 since March 9, 2020 (which was also the last show before an arena crowd). NXT and NXT U.K. didn’t chart and smackdown did 67,700 viewers. For 2/8, Raw fell to 56,900 while the other shows didn’t chart. For the week from 2/15 to 2/19, Raw did 44,900 viewers. NXT did 35,900 which is the first time NXT charted since 9/16. NXT U.K. didn’t chart. Smackdown did 50,500 viewers. AEW on 2/19 did 145,000 for an 11:20 p.m. start. A correction. ITV doesn’t stream Dynamite prior to the Friday night airing any longer. But the hardcore fans watch Dynamite on FITE for $5 per month and get access to it live (or the next morning if they prefer rather than waiting for Friday night)