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Originally Posted by Observer Following a week in which they did their best ratings of the year, AEW Dynamite averaged 806,000 viewers last night, down 19 percent from the previous week. NXT had an overall audience of 766,000 viewers, a 16.2 percent increase over last Wednesday. In the 18-49 demo, Dynamite finished third on the cable charts with a 0.32 rating. That's down 28.9 percent from the 2020 high that the show recorded last Wednesday. NXT finished 34th on the charts with a 0.19 rating, up 11.8 percent from last week. NXT actually won a demo this week apart from the usual people over 50. That demo was males 12-34, where NXT drew a 0.13 rating to Dynamite's 0.11. NXT drew a 0.37 rating to Dynamite's 0.30 in people over 50. Dynamite finished first on all of cable in men 18-49 with a 0.49 rating. In people 18-34, where Dynamite was second on cable with a 0.29 rating last week, the show dropped almost 50 percent to a 0.15 rating this week. The combined Wednesday wrestling audience of 1.571 million viewers and the combined 0.51 rating in the 18-49 demo were the lowest since November 25. Those combined totals both beat Raw this week, but Raw's 0.41 rating in 18-49 topped Dynamite's 0.32 rating. Last week's Dynamite drew a 0.45 rating in the 18-49 demo. Year-over-year, Dynamite was up in overall viewers for the fourth straight week. For last night's show, the increase was 18 percent from the same week in 2019. In 18-49, Dynamite increased 28 percent over last year, the third straight week of an increase in that category. NXT was down 3.7 percent in overall viewers year-over-year and down 29.6 percent in the demo.

AEW being down big this week takes a lot of heat away from WWE needing to seriously fix their RAW woes. Instead of feeling the pressure of record low RAW ratings and AEW breathing down RAW's neck in key demo, now WWE can just try to spike the ratings for a week or two and go right back to not bothering doing any real long-term changes for the better.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling To assess where AEW stands compared to its programming prior to “Winter is Coming”, the show averaged 774,000 viewers and a 0.31 in the 18-49 demo in October, and 760,000 viewers with a 0.31 demo rating in November. The demographic numbers for AEW didn’t paint a great picture as adults 18-34 dropped 48 percent this week (its lowest in that category since November 11th), men 12-34 were down 56 percent and its female audience dropped 35 percent with women 18-49 and 45.5 with 12-34s. Each key demo was down double digits except for adults over the age of 50, which grew 3 percent. The closest category between RAW and AEW this week was among men 18-49 with RAW registering a 0.46 and AEW at 0.43. In Canada, AEW averaged 120,000 viewers on TSN 2 and was the #1 sports program in Canada, although the competition was minimal. The second-most-watched sports program was a UFC replay with 40,200 viewers and a 2016 World Cup of Hockey game between Canada and Finland with 38,400 viewers. The Canadian number was strong considering “Winter is Coming” did 108,500 earlier this month and was heavily hyped ... Even though NXT fell 7 percent among men 12-34, they topped AEW with a 0.13 to a 0.11. As usual, NXT won among adults over 50 and lost the other key demos. In overall viewership, it was NXT’s best performance since Halloween Havoc on October 25th and the highest demo figure since November 25th.

Originally Posted by Observer WWE has officially unveiled a new addition to the NXT UK roster. During this week's NXT UK episode, a video aired announcing that Ben Carter is coming to NXT UK. Dave Meltzer had confirmed this October that Carter had signed with WWE. The video on this week's NXT UK featured footage and pictures from early in Carter's career, along with comments from William Regal, Ashton Smith, Wolfgang, Nigel McGuinness, Seth Rollins, and Sid Scala. McGuinness called Carter a can't-miss prospect and Scala said Carter could have signed anywhere but decided to sign with NXT UK. The video also covered how Carter trained at Rollins and Marek Brave's Black and Brave Wrestling Academy. Rollins said the way Carter moves in the ring reminds him of Dynamite Kid and Eddie Guerrero. The 22-year-old Carter is from the United Kingdom. He made multiple appearances on AEW programming this year, including a match where he lost to Scorpio Sky on Late Night Dynamite this September.

Originally Posted by Observer On this week's MLW Fusion, the finals of the 2020 Opera Cup tournament were made as "Filthy" Tom Lawlor advanced to a showdown with Low Ki. Lawlor defeated Rocky Romero and then ACH on his road to the finals while Ki defeated 2019 Cup winner Davey Boy Smith Jr. and then Richard Holliday to put the match into motion. Lawlor has faced Ki twice in MLW singles matches, winning both of them. The finals will be on next Wednesday's Fusion in addition to the return of The Dirty Blondes in their first MLW action since 2018. Also announced on Fusion was a new match for their January 6th Kings of Colosseum event as National Openweight Champion Alexander Hammerstone will face Mads Krugger of CONTRA Unit.

Originally Posted by PWI WWE has officially announced that Carmella will indeed get another shot at Sasha Banks and the SmackDown Women's Championship at TLC.

That makes last week's booking of the title match even more dumber considering Carmella was the one who demanded that her title shot be used up early and not have to wait till TLC.

Originally Posted by PWI Former WWE developmental talent Brett DiBiase admitted today in court that he was guilty of making fraudulent statements for the purposes of defrauding the government according to reporter Anya Wolfe of Mississippi Today: BREAKING: Brett DiBiase is pleading guilty to making fraudulent statements. He is the former pro wrestler charged within what @MSStateAuditor calls the largest public embezzlement case in state history. His luxury drug rehab stay was allegedly paid for with #TANF welfare dollars. pic.twitter.com/pf1FtC2h4G — Anna Wolfe (@ayewolfe) December 17, 2020 The charge deals with $48,000 he received under a contract with @MS_DHS for work he didn’t complete. In pleading guilty to fraud, conspiracy charge is dropped. He’s agreed to help the state in its remaining cases. Sentencing delayed. He also presented $5k in restitution today. — Anna Wolfe (@ayewolfe) December 17, 2020 Back in May, findings were released from an audit into the Mississippi Department of Human Services after arrests were made this past February in one of the largest embezzlement scandals ever in the history of that office, a scandal that saw direct connections the DiBiase wrestling family. Brett DiBiase was among those indicted several months ago as part of the scandal, which saw the former director of the state welfare agency and five others charged in one of the biggest embezzlement scandals in the history of the office. As PWInsider.com reported at the time, it was alleged that Brett was given funds to go to a drug treatment facility in Malibu that was earmarked for Mississippi's welfare programs. DiBiase admitted that was true today in court. The Associated Press later ran a follow-up story on the DiBiase family connection based on a revelation that WWE Hall of Famer Ted DiBiase Sr.'s non-profit religious organization, Heart of David Ministries, had reportedly received more than $2.1 million in welfare from the state of Mississippi after his son Brett began working for the State. The organization had received just $5,000 in grants in 2013, but pulled in $271,000 in welfare money, the same year Brett was hired as a senior official at the Mississippi Department of Human Services. DiBiase’s group received as much as $900,000 one year. According to the article, Heart of David Ministries spent all $2,126,739 it had received from May 2017 through earlier this budget year.

Originally Posted by Observer Cameron Grimes is facing some time out of action. On this Wednesday night's episode of NXT, it was said that Grimes will be out of action for 4-6 weeks. Dave Meltzer has confirmed that timetable is legitimate. The storyline explanation for Grimes' injury was the angle where his leg was attacked by Timothy Thatcher on last week's NXT ... PWinsider reported today that Grimes underwent surgery last week: "While PWInsider.com has not confirmed the nature of the issue, we can confirm that Grimes underwent a surgery last week, and is out of action until he is cleared to return."

Originally Posted by PWI WWE has announced that the match between "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt versus Randy Orton at this Sunday's TLC will be a "Firefly Inferno Match." Unless this is planned to be a cinematic match, it would be the fifth Inferno match in WWE history. The last time WWE held one was Summerslam 2013, featuring Kane against Bray Wyatt.

Originally Posted by PWI Q - Did Jim Ross ever wrestle or was he always involved in management and commentating? A - Jim Ross once headlined Raw in Madison Square Garden vs. Triple H, but he was never a full-time professional wrestler and that was a case of Ross being booked into a situation he probably wouldn't have chosen for himself. Before announcing, Ross did work as a referee in the Mid-South territory before he segued into announcing and management roles for Bill Watts, WCW and WWE before becoming a consultant and announcer for All Elite Wrestling.

From PWI's weekly Q&A articles on Jim Ross' in-ring career.

Originally Posted by PWI In regard to rumors making the rounds about Melina debuting for NXT, which made the rounds over the last week, PWInsider.com can confirm that the original plan when we reported her planned return back in September was for her to debut and be managed by Robbie E on that brand, not for Melina to return to Raw or Smackdown. E began building to that after Mercedez Martinez left his stable, noting he would move on to "bigger stars." Melina was brought into Orlando that week for NXT TV, but the company had a bad COVID-19 breakout and the debut never happened. The idea was for Melina to work with younger talents and help them learn how to showcase themselves better as stars.

The rumors originated from Johnny Fairplay who revealed what was WWE's original plans for Melina for her return to the company.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling n the mist of their on-screen partnership with All Elite Wrestling unfolding, along with the build to their Hard To Kill pay-per-view on January 16th, IMPACT Wrestling is also setting up matches for their IMPACT Plus special titled ‘Genesis’ on January 9th. The 1/9 show will see the return of the Super X Cup tournament which has only had three of its kind. The first was in 2003 and won by Chris Sabin, followed by the 2005 winner Samoa Joe and Dezmond Xavier won the tournament in 2017. The talents of IMPACT’s X Division will be a part of the tourney and participants will be announced soon. This announcement is coming off the heels of former IMPACT X Division Champion Chris Bey competing in New Japan Pro-Wrestling’s Super J-Cup that was won by El Phantasmo.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Former WWE producer Shawn Daivari was let go from the company this past April as a part of their mass releases/furloughs. The 36-year-old Daivari is active in the ring as he recently competed for IMPACT Wrestling at their Bound For Glory pay-per-view. He was a guest on the Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling podcast and spoke about his experiences working with Vince McMahon on the production side of the spectrum ... Daivari talked about the build to Kofi Kingston versus Daniel Bryan at WrestleMania 35. He stated that had Kofi and Bryan not had that moment at Elimination Chamber, Kevin Owens versus Daniel Bryan would have been the direction for that year’s WrestleMania. “Elimination Chamber, the last one where like the last two was Kofi Kingston and Bryan Danielson before they went to their WrestleMania match. That WrestleMania thing wasn’t supposed to happen. The electricity from that, them being the last two in the Elimination Chamber [in] an arena in Houston. I literally couldn’t watch it on the monitor anymore. It was so electric. I walked out in the crowd, watched it from behind the curtain because I wanted to feel — you literally feel vibration when you’re standing in front of a speaker at a concert. You feel the vibration of the crowd reaction when something’s rumbling and I don’t get reactions like that anymore so I’m trying to steal pops from the other guys,” Daivari laughed. “I went out there. I wanted to get the goosebumps and feel that. But without that electricity, that whole Kofi Mania run would not have happened. The next SmackDown, Kevin Owens would’ve come back and Kevin Owens and Daniel Bryan would’ve wrestled at WrestleMania. It might’ve been good, it might’ve been bad, it might’ve been indifferent. Probably would’ve been great. The audience, that electricity made Kofi Mania happen and as we know, that turned out f*cking amazing.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Mike Bennett is scheduled to have his first match back in Ring of Honor at their Final Battle pay-per-view. While speaking to TV Insider to promote the PPV, he stated that he’s working on a per-appearance deal with the company. “It’s per appearance [while] everyone is trying to figure out what’s going on with the world. I’m there. That’s my home. I love it there. I love my family there. It will take a lot for me to leave again. I don’t see that happening anytime soon.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Wrestling Inc. ran another portion of their interview with longtime WWE official Mike Chioda. He talked about the differences between how WWE treats their officials and how AEW does so. Chioda did not want to speak negatively about WWE but did recount them removing him from one of their video games after he asked about royalties for his likeness being in the game. “I was amazed about that. I was like, ‘You can sell shirts, 8 x 10’s, do a podcast and do that?’ I felt like I was in this bubble for so many years. I’m not gonna knock Vince, Linda, Shane and Stephanie, they gave me a hell of a run, 35 years. Had a hell of a run with them and I appreciate all they’ve done for me. Talking about from the referee standpoint, they let the referees have their own character. They let them do other shows, do other things, have their own shirts, video games [and] all that. You’re tied down at WWE. You couldn’t get royalties off of video games because they wouldn’t let us in the video games. They let me in for a little while, and then once I was talking about, ‘Okay, where’s my royalties?’ They took me right out of the game. I was in the SmackDown video game, and I was talking to Johnny [Ace] about it. I said, ‘Johnny, I’ve been here for quite a while. It’s not like I’m just a referee that came in here for two years or three years,’ and he’s like, ‘Nah just not doing the referees.’ And I said, ‘Wow.’ It’s a little uncomfortable because when you hear all the boys are making a lot of money off the royalties, which so be — I mean, I own my own name. You got to think about guys that don’t own their own name [and] what they go through if they leave the company. I think the referees get really locked down at the WWE. There’s enough to go around everywhere, especially with the WWE. Take care of the referees. If you have 60 talents, 17 refs, take care of the refs too.” As far as his business dealings go with AEW, Chioda is currently under a part-time deal. “Right now, it’s not a done deal, a full-time deal. Right now, it’s part-time deal, which is great for me right now. I love the vibe there. AEW has a fantastic vibe with Cody Rhodes, and Chris Jericho and a lot of guys, Jake Hager over there and stuff. You got some good old school talent, FTR, and you got some young talent that is amazing there. It was kind of weird. I feel green sitting around looking at all this talent that’s upcoming because I’ve been watching the show on TNT, of course, before I started. I think they really got a good thing going on there with Tony Khan, and Cody Rhodes and them guys.”

Originally Posted by Fightful Otis addresses reports that he was sent to do extra training at the WWE Performance Center. On December 11 it was reported by The Wrestling Observer that Vince McMahon "threw a fit" over the working ability of certain main roster guys. McMahon was reportedly "mad in particular about some of the big guys." PWInsider later reported that Otis, Keith Lee, Dabbo Kato, Dio Maddin and AJ Styles' bodyguard Omos were among the names WWE was looking to "refine" inside the ring. Those talents were reportedly taking part in training sessions at WWE Performance Center on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Speaking to Ryan Satin of Fox Sports, Otis addressed the report that he and others were called to do extra training at the Performance Center. "It's always been there. It wasn't like we told this and that. The Performance Center is a tool for us to get better. If someone wants to come up to me and work on stuff or vice versa -- we're always working. That report was kind of funny. We're never not working, especially not when we don't have live events so we can't really get our stuff out, it's just bottled inside. We're not getting that stuff out there, so we'll find more and more ways to get in the ring. Nothing beats a crowd and that's one thing I miss. There hasn't been set dates or anything, it's just when you want to come in. It's always been there, I don't know why it became a big report gimmick," he said. Otis noted that he found out the report from his father and called it a "misinterpretation." Fightful Select gathered more on the report and said about Otis that he is "well liked backstage, but we were told of a couple of spots in recent months that got the attention of people at Gorilla Position that believed Otis could also be safer in the ring. There wasn't said to be heat in association with that."

Originally Posted by Fightful Salina de la Renta is bringing Mil Muertes to Major League Wrestling. Since The Restart, de la Renta has stated that she's looking for new clients in her battle with Konnan. Last Wednesday, she traveled to the Aztec Ruins and told the same origin story associated with Mil Muertes. This week it was confirmed that Mil Muertes is headed to MLW with Salina making the big reveal.

Really hope MLW ends up selling Mil Muertes masks since that was the one mask I wanted to buy the most during his time in LU but they never sold it officially and other wrestling merch sellers were charging too much for non-official replicas and way more than I was comfortable paying for.


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