[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets:

WWE’s last PPV show of the year, TLC, was a unique show, great on performance, good on drama, and weird on ending ... General public interest in the show was way down, as it had 100,000 searches, the same as the UFC the day before. That’s about half of the usual number for a B show.

With New Japan having finished up its year with the 12/23 show at Korakuen Hall, the final lineups for both Tokyo Dome shows have been announced, along with the match orders ... Both shows will have seven matches and likely be capped at four hours or less, a far cry from previous years. In addition, due to another COVID outbreak in Tokyo, with an all-time record 888 cases on 12/23, the government is requesting no events take place with more than 5,000 fans. This came across on Christmas Eve in Japan, and thus, it may be a few days before everything is processed but New Japan isn’t going to do anything that would defy recommendations. Originally they were looking at about 40 percent capacity, which would have been 16,000 to 20,000. From a financial standpoint, a drop from 16,000 to 5,000 between tickets and merchandise could be as much as $3 million in lost revenue from the show, which is gigantic for a company of that size ... The 1/5 show starts at 2 a.m. Eastern with a Stardom match. The participants have not been named. There has been talk of one match, or two matches. Last year this match was not available on New Japan World and it appears that will be the case this year as well.

Ring of Honor finished its year with a taped Final Battle PPV show. The show itself aired on 12/18, but was taped about a week ahead of time, at the same time the company did its massive television taping. The show was very good, although I don’t know how much interest there was in it. The biggest news coming out of it is that it appears Rush and Dragon Lee, whose contracts expired at the end of the year, must have re-upped. They were both pursued by WWE. Not only did they both retain their respective ROH and ROH TV titles, but ROH also hired their father, Bestia del Ring, who gave Brody King a chair shot to the head to lead to Rush’s title defense in the main event. The three, along with Kenny King, will make up the ROH version of Los Ingobernables. Bestia is far better off as a manager than a wrestler, as he was not good in CMLL, and that’s his style, and would be terrible in the ring past a managers role in ROH. Rush had gotten a high contract from ROH, believed to be second only to Marty Scurll, so this is also an indication even with revenues cut badly due to the pandemic that Sinclair hasn’t ordered major cost-cutting when it comes to contracts.

AAA has removed its U.S. Facebook and YouTube pages. This is likely a result of the lawsuit filed that was reported on last week. FMW is claiming the rights to all revenue earned outside of Mexico, so AAA is trying to make sure no revenue is being generated outside of Mexico. AAA is still on Twitter, but they don’t make any money on Twitter. This is also likely to affect the PlutoTV streams that were broadcast outside of Mexico

Regarding the women’s match at TripleMania, the original plan was Taya Valkyrie vs. Lady Shani. But Taya pulled out of the show out of concerns of travel to Mexico with the COVID situation being as it is. The next idea was a six-woman tag using Faby Apache, Shani, Lady Maravilla, Chik Tormenta, Hiedra and Hades. But there is pressure on all promotions to do things that sometimes make the shows worse, or are things that hurt ratings, but they have to do it in a way that pro wrestling has never faced in the past. It’s in both the U.S. and Mexico, but not in Japan at all. There was pressure to use Big Mami because she’s not like most girls and they had Exoticos on the roster so used them on the big show in this match as well. Another problem is the top rope was high and some of the women didn’t want to bump over the top to the floor, so they all bumped to the apron and went to the floor. But the match wouldn’t have been good with so many in there, going that long, even with the quick entrances and Rumble rules

There were only a few wrestling notes in the latest Bushiroad quarterly report. They had $12.1 million in the August to October quarter in sports business, which would be Stardom and New Japan. It was down from $14.2 million from the same quarter last year which was only New Japan because they didn’t own Stardom. Really, for a house show and merch company to be down only 14.9 percent right now isn’t mad, but the quarter did include the entire G-1 tournament. The May through July quarter only grossed $7.5 million and the company was in the red, but they did turn a profit the last three months, which is good considering everything. New Japan World subs were up to 110,000 during G-1

In the original COVID relief bill the legislature tacked on a law that illegally streaming copyrighted material for financial gain is now a felony punishable by a maximum ten years in prison

[MLW] Rich Bocchini and Jared St. Laurent are the permanent announcing team with Alicia Atout doing the interviews. Tony Schiavone, who is still under contract, is said to be under consideration for doing some interview segments like he did in 2017 ... The hope is with the vaccine out to do a show with fans sometime in quarter two of 2021 but everything is up in the air

ROH: In an interview with Fightful, PCO said he had signed a new two-year contract here.

AEW on 12/30 has Kenny Omega vs. Rey Fenix for the AEW title, Wardlow vs. Jake Hager, Hikaru Shida vs. Abadon for the women’s title and the return of Jon Moxley. The 1/6 show has Darby Allin vs. Brian Cage for the TNT title, FTR vs Jungle Boy & Luchasaurus and Cody Rhodes vs. Matt Sydal. .; . The situation with Pac is that he is still living in the U.K. which makes using him tricky. Right now there is no problem getting him into the U.S. There are flights in and there are no quarantine rules coming into Florida. But going back, he has to quarantine for two weeks. So he can’t fly in for tapings and then fly home, they have to do periods where he’ll be around for several; shows and then he goes home and it makes no sense to go home for two weeks and then come back. So we’ll basically have on and off cycles unless he moves back to the U.S For the 12/30 show, there were about 130 tickets left at press time and they were opening up to PPV levels and not usual TV levels because of the Kenny Omega vs. Rey Fenix title match

The comedy-based DDT Iron Man Heavymetalweight championship found its way to AEW over the summer and is now held by a copy of the Young Bucks book, “Killing the Business.” It’s their 24/7 title except inanimate objects can win it if a referee is there. Joey Janela had won the title from Nate Webb on 8/3 when Janela pinned Webb as Webb was dropping him off at the Indianapolis Airport. Janela then submitted to Dean Malenko, who was pinned while he was sleeping by Orange Cassidy. Janela got it back, but lost to Jungle Boy in a match on Dark. Marko Stunt and then Britt Baker got the title after pins while the other person was sleeping. Baker fell asleep reading the book, which then fell on her and a referee counted to three. None of this is acknowledged anywhere but in Japan.

With the Reigns vs. Owens cage match plus having an NFL lead-in directly to the show on FOX, the 12/25 Smackdown should do a huge number even with it being on Christmas. Usually Christmas night would hurt it badly, but not with the NFL lead-in. If anything, it should be the highest rated Smackdown episode in a long time, or at least the first hour should be. But with the big lead-in they are going for the big number with three title matches on the show and they open directly after the football game with the Universal title cage match. The show was taped on 12/22 so talent wouldn’t have to work Christmas day ... Viewers per home should be the highest in its FOX history since an NFL Christmas game should be getting big numbers based on families being together and even a wrestling show on that night due to people being together in theory should be big

WWE has been making overtures now toward some of the top level Impact talent to find out when contracts expire

Right now, as far as WrestleMania is concerned, the plan is to do the Hall of Fame ceremony with the planned 2020 inductees, which were John Layfield, Dave Batista, Davey Boy Smith, Jushin Liger, The Bella Twins and the NWO of Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall and Sean Waltman. It’ll probably be a virtual ceremony but those decisions depend on a number of factors

While Raw and Smackdown are famous for last-day rewrites and driving the writing team crazy, NXT is being written with the long-term booking in mind and there are almost never late changes the day of the show. And if there are, they are usually forced based on someone booked being pulled for COVID or other reasons We’re told McAfee will be off TV for a while. It was WWE’s call, not his. No exact time frame was said, but we’re told he was given the impression it’ll be the spring. He’s such a natural at this and really, if the main roster creative wasn’t such a mess, he should be there. Plus, his affiliation would get far more sports media talk if it was on Raw or Smackdown and unlike most celebrities, you don’t have to worry that his segments or his physical end will come off looking bad

Regarding the fan who tested positive in trying to attend the NXT show a few weeks back, he contacted us and said he believes he got COVID from attending Disney World and not from NXT. This is his timeline. He attended the 11/18 show and then went to Disney World on 11/19. He skipped the 11/25 NXT show. He doesn’t attend every week. He believes it came from Disney World because everyone in the pod with him on 11/18 tested negative when they came back for the 11/25 show. He was going to attend the 12/2 show and got tested on 12/1 and it came back positive, and noted that all of the people in his pod on 11/18 also tested negative on 12/1. The reason he believes it was from Disney World and not NXT was because Disney World had lines for indoor attractions with people removing their masks as they were in the line with him. WWE for NXT does do a good job in the sense everyone who attends the NXT tapings live as fans, and there are only about 100 allowed, have to pass tests the day before. AEW doesn’t test fans, but the shows are outdoors and the fans are far more spread out and thus far AEW hasn’t had any fan related outbreak as far as we are aware and I don’t know that such a thing would be able to be kept quiet. WWE hasn’t either. But there have been fans who have expressed to us being worried because of the fear some people have been tested the day before and then go to bars after being tested. We’re also told that if that happens it would be the exception to the rule, and thus far it hasn’t been a problem and the one positive test that the fans know about was this one

The most-watched shows of the past week on the WWE Network were: 1. TLC PPV; 2. Broken Skull Sessions with Drew McIntyre; 3. Best of the Holidays; 4. TLC Kickoff show; 5 WWE Icons: The First look (preview of the series); 6. WWE Chronicle: Kevin Owens; 7. Survivor Series 2020; 8. Raw Talk for 12/21; 9. WWE Untold: Bill Goldberg’s streak; 10. NXT for 12/16. The War Games Takeover was 13th this week and NXT U.K. was 24th. None of the other wrestling shows or indie stuff was in the top 25

WWE Ratings, AEW vs. NXT Ratings:

SPOILER: show

The ratings for the 12/30 and 1/6 NXT and AEW shows will not make it by press time the next two weeks. We will have Raw and Smackdown ratings, while delayed, in the issues. The 1/6 date will be the last one affected by the holiday delays.

Raw on 12/21 coming the day after the PPV bounced back to normal levels after last week’s record lows, and actually for the first time in a long time, saw 18-49 beat the same week last year and men under 50 increase throughout the show. Raw did 1,691,000 viewers and 0.53 in 18-49, numbers up 10.7 percent in viewers and 29.3 percent in 18-49 from the prior week. As compared to the same week last year, which set the all-time record non-holiday low at the time, the show was down 7.8 percent in viewers, but up 1.9 percent in 18-49 and down 3.2 percent in 18-34. Generally those declines are 20 to 50 percent from a year back. Last year’s show didn’t have the advantage of coming the day after a PPV show. Raw was fourth for the night in 18-49 and 20th overall, trailing three NFL-related show and 16 news shows. Raw was fourth in males 18-49, fourth in 18-34 and fourth in males 12-34, trailing only football related programming. The first hour did 1,841,000 viewers. The second hour did 1,701,000 viewers. The third hour did 1,531,000 viewers. The first-to-third hour decline was 16.8 percent, which is more than usual. However, the declines were mostly older viewers and women. Women 18-49 dropped 15.9 percent from hour one to three. Men 18-49 gained 4.8 percent. Girls 12-17 fell 27.5 percent. Boys 12-17 gained 15.8 percent. Over 50 dropped 25.6 percent. The third hour of the show did 0.67 in over 50, which would be the lowest hour in that age group in the history of the show.

Smackdown on 12/18, moved to FS 1 due to the Pac-12 college football championships airing on FOX, did 1,030,000 viewers (1.47 viewers per home, the highest for any WWE program of the year in fact) and 0.30 (389,000 viewers) in 18-49, roughly half of what the show does on FOX. The actual conversion rate as compared to last week is down 53.3 percent overall and down 48.5 percent in 18-49 ... The numbers were the best of the three Smackdown shows on FS 1 of the last 14 months. That’s probably because the prior two went against World Series games, so this is probably a more realistic look at what Smackdown would do on cable on Friday nights and also of the true value of FOX vs. cable when it comes to Smackdown on a regular (non-World Series) night. Smackdown was fifth on cable for the night in 18-49. The football game on FOX did 3,847,000 viewers and an 0.9 in 18-49 and 0.6 in 18-34, all numbers significantly up from what Smackdown would do, but that’s to be expected. Smackdown was fourth for the night in males 18-49, 12th in 18-34 and sixth in males 12-34. The show did an 0.15 in 12-17, 0.13 in 18-34, 0.47 in 35-49 and 0.50 in 50+. The audience was 66.7 percent male in 18-49 and 54.7 percent male in 12-17.

The 12/23 numbers, because AEW and NXT didn’t go head-to-head except for three minutes, aren’t really indicative of anything past changes where NXT had no wrestling competition, while AEW got a far better than usual lead-in but a worse time slot. AEW did 775,000 viewers and 0.32 in 18-49, which was fifth place for the night behind two NBA games, Challenge: Double Agent on NXT (with Lio Rush that did 790,000 viewers and 0.42), and Montgomery Bowl college football game (1,271,000 viewers, 0.35). AEW was second in its time slot behind the second NBA game on ESPN that did 1,215,000viewers and an 0.52. NXT, going unopposed by wrestling, but against the NBA and College Football, finished No. 40 with 698,000 viewers and 0.19. Those numbers had to be major disappointments but the competition was far tougher than usual on cable, although networks were all reruns. For AEW, viewers were in the middle of expectations given the late time slot but better lead-in. 18-49 was probably higher than one would expect, but who would really know, given the second hour airing 11:04 p.m. to 12:04 a.m. was expected to be much lower than usual and the first hour much higher given the lead-in. As expected, the women’s AEW audience which hasn’t followed to new slots, didn’t here either. It was a far stronger male skew, as expected, because the NBA skews more male than AEW. Basically the audience was going to be a combination of AEW regulars that would follow it to a new time slot and NBA fans, heavily male, who would sample for the first time. AEW was fourth in males 18-49 behind the football game and two NBA games, and second in the time slot. In 18-34, AEW was fifth, and second in the time slot. In Males 12-34 AEW was fourth, and second in the time slot. NXT was No. 20 in Males 18-49 and didn’t rate high anywhere else.. AEW came off a Bucks-Celtics game that came down to the wire and did 2,003,000 viewers and 0.80 in 18-49 and 0.77 in 18-34. It went head-to-head with the Dallas Mavericks vs. Phoenix Suns game that did 1,215,000 viewers and 0.52 in 18-49 and 0.41 in 18-34. With the holiday, we don’t have full comparisons. But it was a more-male audience, slightly more in 18-49, but with teenagers it went from 47.0 percent male last week to 69.6 percent this week, although last week was unusually low and this week was very unusually high which is time slot and NBA related as opposed to anything we can read from the programming. AEW did a 0.16 in 12-17 (up 166.7 percent from last week’s unusually low number, but this is higher than most weeks but not two weeks ago), 0.23 in 18-34 (up 53.3 percent from last week, 0.41 in 35-49 (down 16.3 percent) and 0.28 in 50+ (down 6.7 percent. It was 68.8 percent male in 18-49 and 69.6 percent male in 12-17. AEW did 0.08 in 12-17 (down 27.3 percent from last week), 0.09 in 18-34 (up 28.6 percent), 0.29 in 35-49 (down 6.5 percent) and 0.36 in 50+ (down 2.7 percent). The audience was 60.5 percent male in 18-49 and 47.0 percent male in 12-17, likely the key being sports taking away from the male audience.

Impact on 12/22, for a year-in-review show, was down to 133,000 viewers and 0.03 in 18-49, falling out of the top 150 after three weeks in. It was down 24.9 percent overall and 25.0 percent in 18-49 from last week.

Smeat's note: Seeing as this week was mostly slow for news due to the Christmas holiday period and next week likely will be the same with New Year's holiday, skipping all of next week except for Friday for sheets report posts.