Wrestling News & Rumors

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The Sheets:

Originally Posted by Observer Going against stronger than usual competition from the cable news channels as well as game two of the World Series, AEW Dynamite averaged 753,000 viewers last night on TNT. That's down 8.9 percent from last week and is identical to the number Dynamite did two weeks ago. NXT on the USA Network was down 1.1 percent in overall viewers. NXT averaged 644,000 viewers last night, almost the exact same number as each of the last two weeks. The MLB World Series game averaged 8.9 million viewers on Fox with the first two hours going directly against both Dynamite and NXT. In the 18-49 demo, Dynamite averaged a 0.30 rating. That's identical to last week and was 13th overall on cable in that category last night. NXT failed to make the top 50 chart in the demo for the third straight week, averaging a 0.16 rating. That's down 5.9 percent from last week. It was 56th overall on cable after finishing 51st the last two weeks. The combined viewership of 1.397 million viewers was down 5.4 percent from last week and almost the same as the 1.392 million the shows did two weeks ago. The strongest demo category for AEW was men 18-49, where Dynamite did a 0.39 rating. That was fourth overall on cable and the highest rating for any non-news programming. Year-over-year, Dynamite was down 33.3 percent in the 18-49 demo and 21.8 percent in overall viewers. NXT was down 23.8 percent in 18-49 and 7.7 percent overall.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling AEW’s drop in cable rankings was entirely based on the cable news programs that represent 11 of the 12 programs that topped AEW except for The Real Housewives of Orange County. The 0.30 demo rating for AEW on back-to-back weeks in its lowest in the category since July. NXT finished #56 for the evening with a 0.16 in the demo and 644,000 viewers on the USA Network. NXT fell 6 percent in the demo rating and dropped 1 percent from last week’s viewership ... One would reasonably expect that cable news viewership will dominate the ratings over the next several weeks through the U.S. election and the fallout.

Originally Posted by PWI Matt Hardy released the following promo about his AEW Full Gear PPV bout against Sammy Guevara, noting that their Elite Deletion match will take place at the Hardy Compound, which pretty much means a return to the Broken Matt Hardy cinematic style presentation

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKMa5xqkENc

Originally Posted by PWI The hope is that Jimmy Uso will be cleared to return to the ring for January.

Originally Posted by PWI Charly Caruso was asked why her storyline with Angel Garza ended: It also randomly stopped. https://t.co/ibcDmtTzJJ — Charly Arnolt (@CharlyOnTV) October 21, 2020

Link: https://twitter.com/CharlyOnTV/statu...27653941276673

Originally Posted by PWI Pat MaCafee tweeted out the following video, knocking online fans after his return to NXT TV last night: Good morning beautiful people..last night I rattled the wrestling community quite a bit. I’ve always said that I understand that there are people who hate me, the good news is..I hate them too This message is strictly for the Internet Wrestling Communitypic.twitter.com/Gwhrzzibq4 — Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) October 22, 2020

Link: https://twitter.com/PatMcAfeeShow/st...66906961072140

Originally Posted by PWI For those who asked about the MJF and Chris Jericho musical number, it was a version of Me and My Shadow by Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. AEW went out and secured a license to use the song, but as it turned out, there was instrumental version out there that was suitable for what AEW used. AEW's music guru Mike Rukus, set out to rerecord the music himself, playing all the instruments by ear and then received approval from both the original publisher of the song and the Frank Sinatra Estate. The actual shoot for the segment was shot over a few hours with a few versions shot, completed at 2 AM on Wednesday AM. One source believed the post-production editing and mixing ran about ten hours total and the final edited version was completed less than an hour before it actually aired ... While everyone knows Jericho's musical background, MJF was heavily involved in musical theater and even had an accapella group in High School. Alex Boniello, who won a Tony Award for producing the amazing Hadestown, went on Twitter to say he'd gladly hand his Tony over to Jericho and MJF: This is good. I hereby relinquish my Tony Award to @IAmJericho and @The_MJF. https://t.co/8dQWtsxVsf pic.twitter.com/bSDpuf3JaM — Alex Boniello (@AlexBoniello) October 22, 2020

Link: https://twitter.com/AlexBoniello/sta...10399975882753

Originally Posted by PWI MLW taped their Restart over the weekend in Orlando, Florida and there is content being taped today and tomorrow in New Rochelle, NY being overseen by Court Bauer. We are told morale was high at the tapings with Jacob Fatu, Alexander Hammerstone and Low Ki all standing out as locker room leaders over the course of the tapings. The Restart material will begin to role out in November. The promotion has been following up with talents to make sure everyone is healthy in order to insure proper contact tracing is done if necessary. Davey Boy Smith Jr. and MLW, who had been at odds, are said to have made amends. There will be some version of a Trios/Six Man Tag Team title being introduced as part of the promotion's restart ... As previously noted, the Opera Cup will be part of the promotion's Restart ... The promotion has a date this December at the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia, but obviously, given the state of the world, all live dates are tenuous at best.

Originally Posted by Fightful Three former WWE stars were present at the recent MLW TV tapings. According to Raj Giri of Wrestling Inc, Lio Rush, ACH, and Shawn Daivari worked the MLW TV tapings this past week. The promotion reportedly taped 16 episodes from Sunday through Tuesday at GILT Nightclub in Orlando, FL. ACH previously wrestled in the MLW Opera Cup last year, but then stated he was quitting pro wrestling, which led to him and MLW parting ways. ACH has been active this year, wrestling for various Independent promotions including GCW. Lio Rush has worked a handful of Independent dates following his WWE release in April, including a bout against ACH at Joey Janela's Spring Break 4. Daivari worked as a producer for the MLW tapings, which is the same role he occupied in WWE prior to his furlough in April and eventual release. Fightful Select posted an update on the MLW tapings on October 20, saying there was lot of positive feedback from wrestlers about the COVID protocols in place. Many wrestled their matches and went back to the hotels. MLW also had a CDC official present in order to help oversee that things went well. MLW has not announced an official return date for its restart.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Dark Side of the Ring executive producer Evan Husney appeared on Busted Open Radio to discuss the forthcoming season of the VICE series. Husney confirmed that one of the episodes will be about the 1995 WCW Collision in Korea show. “It was the one episode we always wanted to do and it was one we looked at for last season. We are gonna be doing the story of the WCW event in North Korea, that was in 1995. Kinda one of the wilder wrestling shows that’s ever been put on, because it’s actually the largest attended wrestling event ever, in the world was in North Korea so we’re kinda telling that whole story of how that event came to be, how there was a lot of close calls with the guys over there who were pretty much in over their heads, not knowing that they’re in a dictatorship, but it’s gonna be a pretty interesting episode for sure.”

Should be interested to see if they got Scott Norton for the WCW Collision episode considering the ill will he has towards the show's producers over how the Road Warriors episode turned out and his involvement with it.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Otis, Tucker and Mandy Rose all guest appeared on D-Von Dudley’s Table Talk podcast. Otis and Tucker shared that their split via the WWE Draft was something they found out about last minute. Tucker added that he was not made aware of the split until it happened on ‘Talking Smack’ on the WWE Network. Otis: “Terrible, just terrible.” Tucker: “Yeah, I mean, we found out at the last minute like most things happen here, you know? And that’s just part of being a WWE superstar and I actually found out live on Talking Smack, that I was gonna be moved to RAW so, yeah. It is what it is. Kind of good and bad, whatever but mostly disappointing because Heavy Machinery still feels that they have some things to achieve. We haven’t won the tag team championships together and we feel like we still have more to do as a team but, not everything is up to us and so, we’ll deal with what we gotta deal with.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling According to Law360, a WWE investor filed a lawsuit on 10/21 in a Delaware Chancery Court and is seeking company records to examine potential wrongdoings by WWE officials.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling According to Spectrum Sports 360 reporter Jon Alba, NXT is covering the cost of COVID tests for those attending their events at the Capitol Wrestling Center. WWE designates a testing spot for the attendee to take the test and the tests happen the day before NXT at the CWC.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Per PWInsider, Keith Lee is in New York City recording vocals for his new theme song.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Big E was the latest guest to join Corey Graves on After The Bell. Big E reflected on the history of The New Day and recalled that initially, they wanted to be a group that recruited other people and two names who they considered for the group were Alicia Fox and Aron Stevens, formerly known as “Damien Sandow”. “Thinking back to 2014, we always thought we would be a group that was always trying to add more members. It’s funny looking back but I remember thinking, ‘Oh, Alicia Fox was someone we wanted to add’ because at the time, she was doing the stuff with the tantrums. We had this idea of — this is when we were the more militant New Day, that idea was very quickly taken off TV. Just, ‘Nah, nah, nah! Let me get that off my TV screen and y’all sit in the back while we cook up something more,’ I guess family friendly. But that was kind of the idea. I remember — we never talked to them about it either but we thought her and [Damien] Sandow we thought would be a great addition. That was kind of the idea. A group that would recruit and I think that would’ve been a lot of fun. I wish we got that incarnation of The New Day. As grateful as I am that it went the way it did, I’m also kind of intrigued to see what it would’ve been like for us to have gone that militant route, to see what we could’ve done, because we shot so much stuff in pre-tapes, all the ideas that we put together. I thought we had something really special and I was excited about that. Obviously I think it worked out the best doing it the way we did, because I don’t think we would’ve been able to stay together for six years as this militant group. But those are just things where I think back and I know we had the ability to pull it off, where I think that would’ve been fun. We could’ve done something unique there too.” Big E talked about his signature apron spear and revealed that it was Fit Finlay who came up with the idea for it. “And even man, I’m just now remembering, Fit Finlay was the one who was like, ‘Hey, you do that running shoulder in the corner? Why don’t you try it with a guy on the apron to the floor?’ So Fit Finlay was the one who came up with the idea for the apron spear.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling On the 10/29 episode of NXT UK, Ilja Dragunov is challenging WALTER for the NXT UK Championship. The Heritage Cup will continue with the remaining matchups being Noam Dar versus A-Kid and Dave Mastiff vs. Trent Seven. A segment was announced for next week where Flash Morgan Webster and Mark Andrews will confront Eddie Dennis. Joe Coffey is returning as well. Coffey was named in the #SpeakingOut movement and was suspended by WWE. Jordan Devlin who was also named in the #SpeakingOut movement is returning next week.

Originally Posted by HeelByNature.com Joey Ryan Files Seventh Lawsuit, Seeking Millions In Damages Joseph Meehan, better known in wrestling circles as Joey Ryan, has filed another defamation lawsuit, seeking upwards of $15 Million. On 10/20, Meehan filed a lawsuit at the California Central District Court against a man in Pennsylvania, citing several claims, including emotional distress, libel, false light, and intentional interference with prospective economic advance. HeelByNature.com has obtained a copy of the complaint, which includes over two dozen statements made by the defendant against Meehan. The 63-page lawsuit, which is similar to others he recently filed, outlines a number of statements this person made against Meehan on social media ... The filing includes a total of 26 statements made by the Pennsylvania man. Meehan states this has caused him to be shamed, ridiculed, and hated. He also says the statements discouraged others from associating with him ... In total, Meehan is seeking $200,000 in economic damages, $5,000,000 in non-economic damages, and $10,000,000 in punitive and exemplary damages. Related: Report: WWE RAW Underground 'For Right Now Is Considered Done' He is ordering the defendant cease publishing defamatory statements, retract any defamatory statements made int he past, as well as direct any websites to delete defamatory statements ... In total, Meehan has filed seven lawsuits, including one against IMPACT Wrestling for breach of contract. Like other lawsuits Meehan filed, he is demanding a jury trial.

Originally Posted by Wrestlingheadlines.com According to Fightful Select, New Japan Pro Wrestling and Ring of Honor’s working relationship is still somewhat existent following the departure of former NJPW President Harold Meij. The report notes that the two promotion’s have an open dialogue, and are “tentatively” planning to release some content together in the future. This news comes after it appeared that NJPW and ROH’s alliance had ended, as the number of crossover events and star appearances had gone down. There are those on the ROH side who believe that NJPW will add to their relationship when available.

TPWW Frontpage:

• AEW: Rey Fenix and Alex Reynolds Injuries, Joey Janela

[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets (Observer Newsletter Edition):

Kota Ibushi pinned Sanada in the longest match in G-1 Climax history to win the most unique version of the tournament there will probably ever be ... The paid attendance of 2,928 on 10/18 at Sumo Hall in Tokyo, capped off at 30 percent, was the lowest in the history by a wide margin, but that couldn’t be helped. The total attendance from the 19 shows was 34,082 fans paid, down 64.9 percent from last year's record of 97,215. Most, but not all of the shows were sold out. The number is slightly below what was the best that was possible in buildings that were mostly set up for 30 to 40 percent of capacity ... In theory, this sets up Tetsuya Naito vs. Ibushi as the Tokyo Dome main event. New Japan announced two Dome shows, on 1/4 and 1/5, like last year. Of course this year will be different. The seating capacity is unknown, but when New Japan ran Jingu Stadium, they would only allow 5,000 in an outdoor stadium and the Tokyo Dome is indoors. Running two days is because there are probably too many matches planned for a one-day show, particularly since New Japan has tried to keep all of its shows under three hours since the pandemic started. How many people are allowed in the Tokyo Dome will likely be determined by the conditions of COVID in January, and impossible to even fathom a guess today. The indication we are given is that there are various sets of plans for the Dome shows. Attendance is something that will likely be determined by the government and the Tokyo Dome, along with New Japan, based on conditions. No doubt Gedo has the top stuff already booked, but when it comes to outsiders and regular foreigners, there is much left to be determined as opposed to Gedo having the show in his head at this point. There are different plans depending on who can or can't appear. As of right now, the talent that is staying in the country through the tag tourney finals, some will go home and then return on 12/20 to quarantine prior to the Dome show, which means they'll have to spend both Christmas and New Year's isolated. As of right now, announcer Kevin Kelly will be attending live and unless things change, he fits into that category.

The booking of the tournament over the last three days had its twists and turns. In the A block finals, still alive were Ospreay, Okada, Ibushi and White. White had the advantage in that if he beat Ishii on the last day, he was in the finals ... So Takahashi beat Cobb, meaning both Okada and Ospreay were alive in their singles match. In the biggest angle of the weekend, Ospreay turned on Okada and formed a new heel group with Bea Priestley, his girlfriend and the SWA champion with Stardom, and O’Khan, the former amateur wrestler Tomoyuki Oka, doing his Mongolian gimmick from the U.K. as a takeoff on Killer Khan. The match saw Priestley come out to support Ospreay. When Okada got Ospreay in the money clip, she distracted the ref and O’Khan claw slammed Okada. Ospreay used the storm breaker and got the pin. At first, Ospreay pretended to not know what had happened, and then smiled. Priestly told him to go back and give Okada the hidden blade, which he did. He then said F*** you and went on about how Okada held him back and that this was a long time coming. We had been told ahead of time that Ospreay, Cobb and Priestley would be forming a heel stable. O’Khan is either in the Cobb role, which is a big mistake, but they did have to do something with the guy, or Cobb will be added later. I think the angle would have been better with Cobb, particularly since Cobb grew so much during the tournament and then Cobb’s loss to Takahashi would make more sense.

[AAA] A big surprise is that Psycho Clown has basically revealed his identity, which was considered forbidden for a main event masked man. On social media he is using the name Psycho Clown Mario Alvarado, and on Facebook just Mario Alvarado

Luis Angel Sanchez, 23, who wrestled as Principe Aereo, passed away from a brain aneurysm, a ruptured middle cerebral artery suffered on 10/17 in a match for the MexaWrestling promotion at Arena San Juan Pantitlan in Nezahauolcoyotl. Aereo was in a tag team match and took two chops to the chest and a heel kick from Redimido. The chop wasn’t hard at all and the heel kick actually never touched him. There were no reports of any kind of a head blow during the match. He did a dive earlier but his head never touched anything. Redimido than went to bounce off the ropes and Aereo collapsed. The referee and Redimido immediately realized something bad had happened and the referee stopped the match. A stretcher took Sanchez to the back after about 20 seconds and he was rushed to Torre Medica Santa Anita, which is a hospital across the street from the arena. He died on the way to the hospital and they couldn’t revive him. A brain aneurysm of the type he had can be congenital, in the sense it was something he was born predisposed to and was going to happen and that was just the moment it happened. They are some underlying conditions that increase the risks, so they could also be in play. There are brain aneurysms resulting from brain trauma, but they are not common. The promotion, knowing about the death, continued the show, which is something that came across unbelievably bad, at the Owen Hart continuing the show level. This was covered in mainstream news in Mexico.

Tony Deppen noted that he tested positive for COVID, coming off The Collective shows the weekend of 10/9 to 10/11 in Indianapolis. Deppen noted that everyone he was around including people in a nine-hour car ride with tested negative. He noted it caused he and his wife to have to cancel their baby shower. The promoters of the show have urged everyone who attended to get tested. Dan the Dad noted that he was now negative and didn’t suffer any symptoms. One person who we know noted to us he was very close to a fan who tested positive and had lunch with Dan the Dad, but tested negative. He noted most fans he knew were not getting tested. At the matches everyone was wearing masks and the staff was looking after that. But after Bloodsport, with the drinks flowing, a lot of people were making bad decisions regarding mask wearing in public and social distancing. Game Changer draws mostly the same fans wherever they go. It’s a small traveling contingent, somewhat like PWG but a completely different type of fan. We were told that the depression caused by the lengthy lockdown has done a number on a lot of those people. Markus Mack, who promotes All Pro Wrestling in California, was so mad about The Collective events because people feared COVID spreading and then it happened, that he ended up being kicked off Facebook for 24 hours for his reaction to some the things done in the event, containing swear words. In particular he was furious about doing a 53 person Battle Royal under the circumstances, calling it one of the most reckless stunts in the history of the game

Gable Steveson of Minnesota is ranked as the No. 1 heavyweight in the country going into the start of the 2020-2021 wrestling season. Steveson was the favorite or at least co-favorite to win the NCAA title last year but the tournament was canceled. He's listed as a junior but there is talk of allowing college athletes in spring and summer sports another year of eligibility. He was 15-0 last year and ranked first in the nation. As noted multiple times, he's noted that after graduation he wants to be managed by Paul Heyman, and Heyman knows him and his family (his older brother, also a college wrestler at Minnesota, also wants to go to WWE after graduation) and he's trained with Brock Lesnar

The BBC ran another article on women in wrestling being sexually harassed. It was about a wrestler who used the name Nadia Sapphire who claimed that when she turned 16, all of the wrestlers pulled things out of a hat to see who would get to sleep with her first. 16 is the legal age of consent in the U.K. She said she started training at 14 in Wales and had a relationship early on with an older wrestler. It was noted that Pontygruidd MP Alex Davies-Jones has started a parliamentary inquiry to investigate the lack of regulations over the U.K. pro wrestling industry. She said she felt she was harassed and groomed when so many guys started hitting on her when she got into wrestling, saying some were teenagers but many ten to 15 years older than she was. She said she had low self-esteem so she loved the attention, but after a relationship with someone in his 20s she became labeled as a ring rat and her reputation was ruined. Davies-Jones said, "It's truly shocking, some of the stores we've heard are from women as young as 13, 14 who were threatened with rape and sexual violence if they wanted to wrestle. We've heard stories of male wrestlers competing to see who would be the first to take a female wrestler's virginity for example, truly harrowing tales." She also said that governmental regulation of pro wrestling is needed. "I think the problem we've got with wrestling is that it falls into that grey area, it's not classified as a sport, it's not really classified as a performance, and it's been left to run itself." Andy Quildan, the promoter of Revolution Pro Wrestling said that they want an independent body to oversee wrestling and to hold them accountable.

Kurt Angle put up a photo of himself with the TNA title which people are taking as a tease he may be coming here. He had been cut by WWE but had in the past said he wasn't going to sign with anyone else because he was looking to work on outside business interests

Heath Miller (Slater) spoke to WrestlingNews.co about the difference between working here and WWE. "It's just one of those things in that spot over there. You get these roles you gotta play and then you play them very well even if you don't want to play them. Trust me I did a lot of them. It was one of those things to where like you play and you play them well and you give your ideas to make it better. Vince sometimes will do it and when they'll do it and when it gets over and it's not their idea then they put you on ice. I don't know how many times in my career to where I'll get something that's horrible and no one wants to do but I'll stretch it for a mile. John Cena would tell me that all the time. He's like `man you did some of the worst things but you stretch it so far to where people will remember it.' Like 3MB, we have a redneck an Indian and a Scotsman walking in a bar, like a joke. But we went 2 years with it so it's like one of things and people honestly still remember it because we're entertaining and we have fun trying to do it because we all were buddies. Even other gimmicks and stuff that I did, it's just one of those things where you can try and try and try and try but if they don't want you to keep going, it's gonna stop. It doesn't matter how good it is or how good you are or what it is. If they don't want it to keep going then it's to the next one. Impact, what I love is my ass gets to be myself. I get to go out there to do the things I would like to do. Yes, there's agents and you give your ideas but the agents are cool as hell It's just one of those things that honestly, Impact is a breath of fresh air. Don't be surprised if you see more surprises because there might be some more people heading on over." "I can honestly say the communication there is amazing. Other places you would have to send an email and never hear back and if you go talk, you never get an answer. At Impact, it's like one of those places where you can go right up to the Bossman and say, `Hey, this is what I think, this is what I think we should do,' and then he'll throw something and then you'll throw something and then next you thing you know, you come to a 50/50 solution here to where it works for both teams. The good thing about the locker room is that everyone tries to help one another. It's legit, like a fraternity, it's a team. They try to help, they don't try to one up. It's about the match, not about yourself. I've always been like that in wrestling. It's not about me, it's about the match, what are we trying to tell, what are we trying to get over. That's what it's always been about for me, tell a good story and we both will win. It's one of those things at Impact you can honestly see that the guys are all wanting to win and that's where I think Impact is going to strive more than some of these other places. All I hear is Impact stories are good, the wrestling is good, it's all good."

While WarnerMedia was down $960 million in revenue from the same quarter last year, with declines in many business like movies since the theater business is dead, The Turner end, which would be TBS, TNT, was up 5.6 percent in revenue for the quarter and is very profitable. The revenue is because of a number of things, but expenses are also down because of less production of new shows, but NBA costs that normally aren’t around this time of year are up, but revenues from airing NBA games also usually aren’t in this quarter. In all, despite all of the pandemic related obstacles which did drop profitability a considerable amount, the profit margin this past quarter for WarnerMedia was still $1.93 billion

Brock Lesnar has been added to the new EA Sports UFC 4 video game, so that means he must have made a deal with UFC or EA for the game

The Orange County Department of Health is asking the Strike Team to look into 17 businesses locations in town where they believe COVID-19 might be spreading. Health Officer Dr. Raul Pino said that a lot of spread has come from people in their late teens and early 20s gathering together to watch football, listing eight area bars including Gilt Nightclub, where MLW just taped this past week, some gyms, a church, as well as WWE events at Full Sail University, WWE events at the Amway Arena and WWE events at the WWE Performance Center. WWE released a statement to WFTV news in Orlando that read, "WWE is not open to the public, but rather operating on a closed set with only essential personnel in attendance. As part of ongoing weekly testing protocols, Aventus Labs have administered more than 10,000 PCR tests to WWE performers, employees, production staff and crew resulting in only 1.5 percent positive cases as compared to the current national average of more than five percent. Additionally, extensive contract tracing takes place and impacted individuals are placed in a 14-day quarantine and then only cleared after they test negative." There are a few notes to that statement. WWE does not sell tickets or have fans like AEW, but does have fans in the sense that about 100 or more Full Sail regular fans that they know and can contact easily are allowed to test on Tuesdays and then come to the shows on Wednesdays if they test clear. That is not essential personnel and before that other wrestlers, also not essential, were used as fans at those shows. You would also have a lower than the national average test positive rate because every person attending, and all talent and everyone working the shows will be tested. In real life, as a general rule, most people don't get tested unless they are afraid based on symptoms or there is a reason they have to be tested. But that would also be 150 positive tests since they started doing actual testing. Some people may have tested positive multiple times. Some are likely fans, so exactly how many positive individual tests that have been among everyone tested is far higher than 1.5 percent, but WWE has not released the number of individuals whether they be wrestlers, agents, or others working in production of the show. WWE does follow contact tracing and in recent weeks put a number of talents in quarantine because they were in contact with people who had tested positive. The question of allowing fans indoors in the Performance Center has been a question, particularly when one brought up to me how some get tested in the afternoon and then go to bars after the test, but hopefully that's a tiny number or not at all. WWE has not allowed any fans at the Amway Center, although another part of that building is being used for voting. This is one of those things where they will look into it but nothing of substance will end up happening

Coming off the Speaking Out movement, and the belief by many the charges against various talents including the Samantha Tavel lawsuit and an attempt to change the longstanding company and industry culture from the prior generation, all WWE talent on 10/28 have a mandatory counseling session to attend via streaming on keeping healthy relationships. Total Life Counseling will present a mandatory session for all talent on that subject. The first conference will be the main presentation to all talent and the second zoom link will be for later individual breakout sessions. The second smaller group session is being done to give talent the opportunity to participate and ask questions in a small group

Ben Carter, who looked great in AEW matches with Scorpio Sky and Lee Johnson, signed here [WWE]. The guy is a real talent who deserved to be signed. It would have been better if he would have gotten a year working the indies first to get matches with a wider variety of people, but that isn’t possible now. AEW is tough because they already have too many guys for the amount of TV time they have. But WWE is even worse as they have guys even more talent stockpiled. Carter had also just appeared on Impact tapings and did an Xplosion match with Chris Sabin that people were raving about

Strowman was one of 2,000 plus people who attended a bike rally in Daytona Beach over the weekend. This reminded me of recently when Paul Levesque was asked about the latest outbreak and said that some of the talent thinks this thing is over and it’s not over

The top ten most-watched shows of the past week on the WWE Network were: 1. Day of Clash of Champions 2020; 2. First Look: 30 Days of the the Deadman; 3. Talking Smack on 10/17; 4. Best of Aleister Black in Progress Wrestling; 5. Best of Hell in a Cell; 6. Clash of Champions 2020; 7. Hell in a Cell 2019 8. Uncool with Alexa Bliss with Ryan Cabrera; 9. Raw Talk on 10/19; 10. NXT from 10/14. NXT U.K. was No. 11

WWE Ratings, AEW vs. NXT Ratings:

SPOILER: show

Raw on 10/19 did 1,777,000 viewers and a 0.52 in 18-49, a reasonably good performance on a night with two NFL games, although the first one ended just as Raw was starting. They key note is that the second hour actually had more viewers than the first hour, and the 6.3 percent first-to-third hour decline was much lower than usual. Some of that was because a lot of viewers tuned in late and when you tune in late, you are likely to stay. But unlike most weeks, there was not a major tuning out point in the show. Raw was down 4.2 percent in viewers from last week’s draft show, as well as down 8.8 percent in 18-49. However it was up 3.4 percent in 18-34. The show was fourth on cable in 18-49, trailing only NFL-related programming ... As compared to last year, the show was down 24.1 percent in viewers, 30.7 percent in 18-49 and 42.3 percent in 18-34. The first hour did 1,806,000 viewers. The second hour did 1,835,000 viewers. The third hour did 1,689,000 viewers ... The first-to-third hour drop or gain was 7.1 percent down in women 18-49, 1.7 percent up in men 18-49, 10.3 percent down in girls 12-17, 15.6 percent up in teenage boys and 6.7 percent down in over 50. The increase in hour three does show that hour three did keep the interest better than usual with men 12-49.

Smackdown on 10/16 did a 1.30 rating, 2,123,000 viewers (1.35 viewers per home) and an 0.56 (723,000 viewers) in 18-49. With extra promotion for the season premiere and loading up with Roman Reigns vs. Braun Strowman for the Universal title, the return of Daniel Bryan and the last appearance together of the New Day, they dropped 7.1 percent in households, 2.5 percent in viewers, 13.8 percent in 18-49 and 25.0 percent in 18-34. But those were drops from a draft episode that should have done well over the usual numbers, and it was against major sports competition. They went against two baseball championship games. The Houston Astros vs. Tampa Bay Devil Rays American League championship game did 3,468,000 viewers and 0.84 in 18-49 on TBS against the first 76 minutes of the show. The Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Atlanta Braves game on FS 1 did 3,605,000 viewers and 1.05 in 18-49. Smackdown tied with Shark Tank on ABC in both 18-49 and 18-34 (0.3) for first among networks shows. On television overall, they were also behind the two baseball games. In total viewers Smackdown was behind everything on network television on Friday except an American Ninja Warrior repeat. Smackdown was only down 12.2 percent from the same show last year, which is much better than most WWE shows these days do. It was down 20.0 percent in 18-49 and 40.0 percent in 18-34.

Going against the World Series, both NXT and AEW stayed pretty steady in the key demo, but AEW lost heavily with males 12-34 and older viewers. AEW did 753,000 viewers and a 0.30 in 18-49 (389,000 viewers), ranking 13th for the night, but placed second among non-news programming. NXT did 651,000 viewers and 0.16 (205,000 viewers) in 18-49, putting it in 56th place for the night and 19th place among non-news programming. AEW was down 8.8 percent overall but was up 1.6 percent in 18-49. The decline was mostly over 50, as the women 18-49 gained enough that the decline in men 18-34 didn’t hurt the final demo number. NXT was down 1.1 percent in viewers and 8.9 percent in 18-49. The World Series and the news channels are the main reason NXT was out of the top 50 and that AEW numbers were at the level they were. Game two of the World Series did 66% male in 18-49, doing a 2.3 in 18-49 and 1.7 in 18-34. While both sides held up with in the key demo, AEW’s 0.11 in males 12-34 was down 38.9 percent from last week, while the usually low women 12-34 number from last week was up 40.0 percent from last week ... An interesting note is that both AEW and NXT took a huge hit with males 18-34, so it was consistent across wrestling and not exclusive to either show. Both shows had more women 18-34 than men. AEW also had far more women teenagers than men. NXT teenage figures are not available to compare., Even with its huge drop in younger men, with NXT’s drop, AEW doubled NXT in men 18-34, almost doubled in women 18-34, more than doubled in men 35-49 and almost doubled in women 35-49. AEW did 48,000 viewers in males 18-34 (down 40.0 percent from last week) to 24,000 for NXT (down 25.0 percent from last week). AEW did 57,000 in women 18-34 (up 23.9 percent) to 30,000 for NXT (down 14.3 percent). AEW did 203,000 in males 35-49 (up 10.9 percent) to 98,000 for NXT (up 4.3 percent). AEW did 81,000 in women 35-49 (up 9.5 percent) to 43,000 for NXT (down 32.8 percent). NXT had more viewers in the first quarter due to the lead-in, but AEW still had a 108,000 lead in 18-49 in quarter one. AEW doubled NXT in three of the eight quarters and nearly doubled them in a fourth one. In the main event battle, AEW did 762,000 viewers and 417,000 in 18-49 for The Young Bucks vs. Alex Reynolds & John Silver vs. Private Party vs Butcher & Blade main event and post-match angle with FTR and Tully Blanchard. NXT did 555,000 viewers and 176,000 in 18-49 for Tyler Breeze & Fandango vs. Oney Lorcan & Danny Butch for the tag team titles and the reveal of Pat McAfee as the mystery partner. The ratings stars and demo gods were Penta vs. Fenix, who also had the arguably best match on either show. For what it’s worth, the consensus two best matches were the two bouts that gained the most, both with men and women. Penta vs. Fenix were the high point of the night in overall, 18-49, 35-49, 18-49 men and 18-49 women. The gains in the match were 7 percent in males 18-49, 30 percent in females 18-49 and 21 percent in overall 35-49. They didn’t gain in males 18-34. The Young Bucks vs. Butcher & Blade vs. Alex Reynolds & John Silver vs. Private Party started lower, but gained 28 percent with women 18-49, 19 percent with men 18-49, 20 percent with 18-34 and 24 percent with 35-49. The first quarter saw AEW do 737,000 viewers and 346,000 in 18-49 for Wardlow vs. Jungle Boy. NXT had 765,000 viewers and 238,000 in 18-49 for Kushida vs. Tommaso Ciampa vs. Velveteen Dream. In the second quarter, AEW did 761,000 viewers and 391,000 in 18-49 for Jon Moxley promo, Kenny Omega vs. Sonny Kiss, and promos by Orange Cassidy and Cody. NXT did 739,000 viewers and 254,000 in18-49 for the last few minutes of Kushida vs. Ciampa vs. Dream, an Undisputed Era promo a Rhea Ripley video and Ember Moon vs. Jessi Kamea. The third quarter saw AEW do 832,000 viewers and 448,000 in 18-49 for an Eddie Kingston interview and mostly Penta vs. Rey Fenix. This was the high point of everything except males 18-34. NXT did 714,000 viewers and 236,000 in 18-49 for both Bronson Reed vs Austin Theory matches In the fourth quarter, AEW did 822,000 viewers and 426,000 in 18-49 for the ending of Peta vs. Fenix, a Miro & Sabian promo and a Silver, Reynolds and Colt Cabana promo. NXT did 617,000 viewers and 186,000 in 18-49, huge drops, for Santos Escobar & Raul Mendoza & Joaquin Wilde vs. Jake Atlas & Isaiah Scott & Ashante Adonis. In the fifth quarter, AEW did 749,000 viewers and 391,000 in 18-49 for Adam Page vs. Colt Cabana. NXT did 619,000 viewers and 203,000 in 18-49 for the ending of the six-man tag, Johnny Gargano & Candice LeRae sin the wheel and Drake Maverick & Killian Dain vs. Ever Rise. In the sixth quarter, AEW did 676,000 viewers and 352,000 in 18-49 for a Taz interview with Brian Cage and Ricky Starks and the Chris Jericho/MJF dinner and musical comedy routine. While it did almost double NXT, it was still the low point of the show for AEW in total viewers. NXT did 607,000 viewers and 178,000 in 18-49 for the segment with William Regal announcing the new main event, Xia Li vs. Kacy Catanzaro, the Raquel Gonzalez post-match destruction and Cameron Grimes promo. In the seventh quarter, AEW did 686,000 viewers and 341,00 in 18-49 for Britt Baker vs. KiLynn King. It was the low point for AEW in all key demos except 18-34. NXT did 538,000 viewers and 165,000 in 18-49 for Thatch-as-Thatch-Can and the Damien Priest interview. The main event segment four team match gained 76,000 viewers (11%) and 66,000 in 18-49 (19.4 percent) for AEW. NXT gained 17,000 viewers for its tag title match (3.2 percent) and 11,000 in 18-49 (6.7 percent) ... As compared to the same week last year against the World Series, AEW is down 22.3 percent in viewers, 33.3 percent in 18-49 and 61.5 percent in 18-34. From last year against the World Series, AEW is actually up in over 50 viewers from a year ago, but way down under 35, particularly among men. For a comparison, FOX News was up 68 percent in the first hour (Tucker Carlson) and 56 percent in the second hour (Hannity), so that is the big difference. NXT numbers in finishing out of the top 50 are not available in usual detail. As compared to last year, they are down 7.5 percent in viewers and 23.8 percent in 18-49.

The Cody vs. Orange Cassidy match last week peaked at more than 1 million viewers live

[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets:

Originally Posted by Observer After getting a lift from the WWE Draft and its fallout over the past two weeks, Raw last night dropped slightly in the ratings, even with coming the day after Hell in a Cell. Last night's Raw did 1.73 million viewers and 0.51 in 18-49, numbers down three percent and two percent respectively from last week. The real difference was the return of the third hour drop, with a 15 percent drop from the first hour. That isn't surprising since the main event segment was not a match, but a Moment of Bliss segment with Randy Orton. But the show did push the idea that Drew McIntyre and The Fiend were likely to show up ... Even with the drop, in 18-49, the third hour of Raw beat everything on television except the NFL and Weakest Link on NBC. If you factor out the difference in homes, the Raw number was far more impressive than the NBC number. The Fox News shows did monster numbers which probably explains some of the decline from last week ... In 18-49, Raw was sixth behind ESPN football related coverage, Hannity (7,304,000 viewers; 0.72 in 18-49), and Tucker Carlson (6,765,000 viewers, 0.67 in 18-49). As compared to last year, viewers were down 20 percent, 18-49 was down 29 percent, and 18-34 was down 52 percent. With the exception of 18-34, those declines were less than Raw has been doing. The declines from hour one to three were 15 percent in women 18-49, 12 percent in men 18-49, nine percent with teenage girls, there was a four percent increase in teenage boys, and a 14 percent decline over 50. The three hours were: 8 p.m. 1.86 million viewers 9 p.m. 1.75 million viewers 10 p.m. 1.59 million viewers

Originally Posted by Observer Tucker is now listed as part of the Raw roster on WWE.com. He was drafted to Raw in the WWE Draft earlier this month, but his brand was never changed on WWE's website. It had been noticed yesterday that he was listed on the SmackDown roster on WWE.com, leading to incorrect speculation that his brand had been changed. Tucker turned against Otis at Hell in a Cell and caused Otis to lose the Money in the Bank briefcase to The Miz. Otis is a member of the SmackDown roster. Tucker tweeted after not appearing on Raw last night: “On my time. #RAW”

Originally Posted by Observer Beyond Wrestling announced that they’ve canceled their Tournament for Tomorrow event that was scheduled to take place in Atlantic City, New Jersey on November 8 and won’t be scheduling any more shows for the remainder of 2020: “After much deliberation I've decided to cancel our upcoming #TFT2020 event originally scheduled for Sunday, 11/8 in Atlantic City. Refunds will be handled automatically within the next few days. We will not be scheduling any more live events for the rest of 2020. Stay safe.” Beyond Wrestling explained their decision in an additional tweet: “I’ve had a number of lineup changes and refund requests due to COVID concerns. The closer we get to the finish line, the tougher it becomes to find a suitable substitution when we want everyone to test negative before the event.”

Originally Posted by Observer The capacity for both nights of Wrestle Kingdom 15 will be capped at 20,000 people. In an interview with Tokyo Sports, new NJPW President Takami Obari said that a limit of 20,000 people would be set for both nights. This is due to COVID-19 concerns. The Tokyo Dome ususally carries a capactiy of 50,000. The company announced last week that they would once again run Wrestle Kingdom on two nights: on their usual January 4 date as well as the following day on January 5. Last year’s shows drew 40,008 and 30,063 respectively.

Originally Posted by PWI Meiko Satomura is joining WWE’s NXT UK brand in a player coach role according to a bombshell article from Tokyo Sports. Satomura announced today she will start limiting her appearances in Sendai Girls’ Pro Wrestling going forward and will miss the company’s upcoming shows in Sendai PIT on November 22 and Korakuen Hall on November 29 ... According to the article, Satomura will travel to England in November. This would suggest WWE is planning to hold another set of tapings, presumably at the BT Sport Studios in London. Satomura participated in the second Mae Young Classic in 2018. She defeated Killer Kelly, Mercedes Martinez and Lacey Lane before losing the eventual tournament winner Toni Storm in the semifinal. Satomura has also competed for companies such as PROGRESS Wrestling, Pro-Wrestling: EVE and Fight Club: PRO in England.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Mark Henry chatted with Brandon Robinson of Heavy.com about WWE, the NFL and the NBA. Mark was asked if he could go back and redo a match from his career, which matches would he choose and one of the matches he selected his WWE Championship match against John Cena in 2013 that was led into by Henry’s fake retirement speech. Henry feels that he should have won that match but at the time, he informed WWE that he was done with the in-ring portion of his career. “The other one is after my retirement speech and I turned on John Cena which is one of the more historical wrestling moments in history. I was so beat up that I wanted to go home, that I didn’t really wanna wrestle no more. Like I was in so much pain, because like I said, it was real to me and I told people, ‘Lay it in, because I’m gonna hit you’ and I want you saying, ‘I beat you up and took advantage of you.’ Like I’m giving my body to you, let’s go, and the match I had was in Philadelphia [Money In The Bank 2013] with John Cena and I lost that match when I should’ve won that match. I should have told them, ‘Nah, I’m not gonna go home.’ Like, let’s run a six-month program and we could’ve had many matches, but you know, I was ready to go.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Lilian Garcia spoke to Braun Strowman for a new installment of her ‘Chasing Glory’ podcast. Strowman was candid during his ‘WWE Chronicle’ special on the WWE Network about mental health. Strowman further spoke about the mental breakdowns he had and almost being driven to the point of taking his own life. “You know, it was just a culmination of things going on in my life. The worst about it was like, literally at the beginning of last year, I went through a really bad breakup and just wasn’t — my personal life was a mess. I mean, with being a WWE superstar, it’s really hard to balance the road life and your personal life and that’s part of the reason why the relationship I think didn’t work out and stuff like that, and then I got to a point to where, I felt like I wasn’t important at work so I had no escape. My mind and everything was just all over the place and I was by myself, I just moved into this house. I bought the house of my dreams, I bought this beautiful house on the lake and I’d been in there like six or seven months at this point and the only thing I had was a mattress on the floor and one in the room and a ringside chair sitting in the living room and I would get home from the road and something that was just weird, and I would sit there and sit in that chair in an empty living room in a empty house and sit there for like seven hours at a time and just sit there. Just because I couldn’t kick out of this funk that I was in and I’m dead honest — when I went to Vince [McMahon] to talk about some stuff that I was having problems with and it really pissed me off that the dirt sheets and these guys that like clickbait stuff tried to spin this whole thing and when I talked about this in the documentary that I wanted to commit suicide because I was mad with how I was being booked in WWE and that’s just complete, total opposite end of it. WWE was my only thing positive that I had at that point and I was so mentally hard on myself with what was going on in my personal life that I started letting it affect my business life. When in the grand scheme of things, I have the most amazing job on earth but I got to a point where I felt like a number in a system and I was like, ‘I need to address this.’”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Former WWE talent Mark Jindrak joined David Penzer’s ‘Sitting Ringside’ podcast to discuss his career in wrestling. Jindrak recounted being swapped out of Evolution (Triple H, Ric Flair, Dave Bautista & Randy Orton) for Batista. Jindrak stated that if anyone should’ve been kicked out of the group, it should have been Triple H and Jindrak also detailed his friendship with Randy Orton. “Basically, when I went over to OVW, I made a friendship with Randy Orton and we hung out all the time and eventually, when they moved me up to the big show, when I was traveling on the crew with WWE, we traveled together, me and Orton so we became almost like the Natural Born Thrillers I think. They see this Orton, who obviously they have huge, super huge plans for in some way, shape or form so they kind of had him in the group and then Batista was kind of supposed to be in it but he kept getting injured, so it was my spot and then, basically what happened was just that. It was just like, I was immature, Orton was immature. We both were immature. We had a lot of fun on the road. It was just — and a lot of people thought it was humorous. They loved our act. We’d come to TV and just show off and goof off and stuff and people loved it. It went from Kane to a lot of top guys but the one person that hated it, hated it, hated it was Triple H, and it was just completely — if you could be a fly on the wall for some of those car rides. Like when they basically made the group and we knew the group was gonna be Triple H, Ric Flair, myself and Orton, Triple H kinda wanted to have us driving together the whole loop, you know what I’m saying? House show, house show, house show, TV. Get talking wrestling, forming as a group and stuff, and that’s where you kind of get the chemistry in a group is hanging out, talking and stuff and to my knowledge, I thought we were. Orton and I were having fun, Ric Flair was a ton of fun. I thought the person that should’ve been kicked out of the group was Triple H, because he was the bore. He was boring as sh*t man, he was boring as sh*t.” Evolution was profiled on the WWE Network via the Ruthless Aggression series. Jindrak’s issue with the documentary was that Triple H said he and Ric didn’t think Jindrak fit well with the group, but Jindrak stated that Flair was always fond of he and Orton and sort of lived vicariously through them. “And that’s the problem I had with that little documentary, the Ruthless Aggression piece they did on Evolution is when Triple H said, ‘Oh, I told Vince he’s not good for the group. Vince said, Yeah he is and I said no he’s not, me and Ric.’ Triple H kept saying, ‘Me and Ric thought he wasn’t good for the group.’ It wasn’t Ric, it was [not] Ric in any way, shape or form. It was all Triple H and that’s the whole thing. These car rides, I thought these car rides were exposing Triple H for being a bore and non-charismatic, you know what I’m saying? That’s what I felt.”

Without Triple H, Evolution would have been missing the key present big star link between past and future stars but then again, a Triple H-less Evolution probably would have spared early Brand Split era RAW from dealing with the terrible Reign of Terror by Triple H.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Forbes ran their interview with Ohio Valley Wrestling owner Al Snow. Al was asked about the idea of OVW possibly becoming a developmental promotion for various major wrestling companies and he said it’s a possibility. “I think eventually, yes [we could be a developmental territory for WWE], and not just with WWE but with AEW and other national organizations, I think we could provide a value. If you think of the amount of investment that WWE has to make into a talent that they bring into NXT to develop them, it’s immense. But if they were to bring talent from OVW to NXT, it would accelerate the developmental for them from NXT on up exponentially. We’re not going to just teach a performer how to wrestle, or how to perform in front of an audience. We’re going to teach them how to operate a camera, how to set the lights, how to run the audio, how to produce, how to direct.”

Originally Posted by WrestlingHeadlines.com It was announced last week that AEW star and former WWE world champion Jake Hager will be competing at Thursday’s Bellator 250 event, his fourth professional MMA fight since turning pro in the sport. According to Fightful Select, Hager knew about the fight for over a month and immediately alerted AEW so they could take care of any potential storylines and get him off television for the appropriate amount of time. He is currently undefeated with a record of 2-0, the same record as his upcoming opponent Brandon Calton. The report also notes that AEW is totally fine with Hager taking these fights, with Hager joking to the publication that as “long as he keeps winning” it won’t be a problem.

Originally Posted by Fightful What was originally promised to be a steak dinner between Maxwell Jacob Friedman and Chris Jericho turned into a full song and dance routine to the soundtrack of a parody of the old Rat Pack song, “My Shadow And Me.” The segment, which Chris Jericho called “the greatest moment in the history of wrestling,” was certainly polarizing but garnered a massive reaction on social media. On the latest episode of Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer reported that the original idea for the musical number came from MJF after he watched the film “Rocketman,” which is an autobiographical film about Elton John. Meltzer says that Maxwell initially wanted to sing an Elton John song with Jericho but Jericho had the idea for this Rat Pack classic instead. Meltzer also notes that the segment was put together with a one-day rehearsal and a 7-hour shoot that kept all parties up until two in the morning.

Originally Posted by Observer NXT's Brendan Vink now has a new in-ring name. Vink announced on Sunday night that his name in WWE is now Tony Modra. Modra was among the names that WWE filed trademarks for last week. Tony Modra is also the name of a former Australian rules football player. Vink is from Adelaide, Australia. Vink made several appearances on Raw this March and April, teaming with Shane Thorne in the weeks after WWE television first moved to the Performance Center due to the COVID-19 pandemic. They were aligned with MVP and got one win against Ricochet & Cedric Alexander. Vink & Thorne also teamed together in a loss to Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch on NXT TV this March.

Originally Posted by Fightful The WWE Championship change at last night’s Hell in a Cell reportedly caught some talent backstage off guard. As noted last night, Randy Orton beat Drew McIntyre to capture his 10th WWE Championship and 14th world title reign overall. According to Fightful Select, there was a lot of confusion backstage regarding the timing of the title switch. While Orton is well-liked backstage and is known for helping out younger talent over the last year, wrestlers who spoke with the outlet said that the timing was odd considering how Orton was well-protected from WrestleMania to SummerSlam, but then lost to McIntyre and others several times after that.

Originally Posted by PWI Lucha Libre AAA World Wide held a virtual press conference today to announce Kenny Omega will defend the AAA Mega Championship against Laredo Kid at TripleMania 28. The match was originally scheduled to take place at Rey de Reyes on March 21. However, the event was cancelled. AAA hopes to hold TripleMania in December, pending the current COVID-19 health situation. No date was given during’s today’s press conference. The event will still take place in Arena Ciudad de México as previously scheduled on August 22 ... Two further matches have been announced for TripleMania 28. Chessman will face Pagano in a Hair vs. Hair match and there will be a tag team match debuting AAA’s new Marvel-themed wrestlers. Aracno (Spider-Man) and Leyenda Americana (Captain America) will face Terror Púrpura (Thanos) and Venenoide (Venom).

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling The Back Body Drop outlet has some updated UK viewership totals from the past month: * RAW on October 12th – 63,200 on BT Sport * SmackDown on October 16th – 26,500 on BT Sport * IMPACT on October 14th – 9,400 on Freesport * A replay of NXT UK on October 17th – 26,500 on BT Sport * AEW Dynamite on October 16th – 118,000 on ITV4 (it aired at 11:50 pm that night instead of its usual slot of 10 pm)

Originally Posted by Fightful AEW fans in the United Kingdom will get to watch Dynamite this week a little earlier than usual. The promotion announced on Twitter that this week's Dynamite will air in the United Kingdom at midnight local time on October 28. Viewers in the United States will still watch the episode on its usual 8 p.m ET time slot on October 28 on TNT.

Originally Posted by Fightful NJPW announced that there will be live English commentary for the Power Struggle show taking place on November 7

TPWW Frontpage:

• WWE: More on Hell in a Cell, Survivor Series to Celebrate Undertaker’s Debut, Trademark Dispute
• Six Matches Announced for Survivor Series
• Marty Scurll Removed from ROH’s Roster Page
• WWE Reportedly Moving the ThunderDome to Another Arena in December

[Droford]

How did Vince not get the Marvel deal for wrestlers on Smackdown?

[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets:

Originally Posted by 411Mania As we reported yesterday, the WWE has been hit with another outbreak of COVID-19 at the Performance Center, to the point that tonight’s NXT Halloween Havoc could be affected. According to new details from Fightful Select, the outbreak possibly happened at a training event this past Friday. NXT regularly holds in-house live events to track how far along the NXT talent are. That kind of event was held on Friday and many of those in attendance were the ones asked to quarantine. Those who did not attend were “in the dark” about rumors of an outbreak and many were asked to come in to make noise for Halloween Havoc. It was noted that several training sessions have also been cancelled. WWE does not test their talent daily but it is at least twice a week.

Originally Posted by Observer After news of positive COVID-19 tests at the WWE Performance Center on Friday came to light Tuesday night, there were questions as to whether fans who were scheduled to attend Wednesday's NXT taping would still be allowed to do so. Dave Meltzer is reporting that WWE has confirmed with those fans that they can attend as previously planned if they passed their required COVID-19 test. It's unknown how many fans passed their tests, but there were initially scheduled to be 100 in attendance tonight. Fans were tested in Winter Park, Florida, Tuesday, part of the regular weekly procedure to attend. There is still no additional news on the extent of the positive tests and how they will affect tonight's Halloween Havoc show. Performance Center attendees on Friday were asked to quarantine for two weeks due to contact tracing, regardless whether they tested positive or negative, This marks the second straight month there haS been COVID-19 issues at the Performance Center.

Originally Posted by Observer Impact Wrestling has revealed a couple of additional details regarding their revival of the Knockouts Tag Team titles. It was revealed last night that the tournament to crown new Knockouts Tag Team Champions will kick off on Impact in three weeks (Tuesday, November 17). It will be an eight-team tournament, though the teams for it have yet to be revealed ... The announcement that the Knockouts Tag Team titles are returning was made at Bound for Glory this past Saturday. The tournament will play out on Impact, with the finals then being held at January's Hard to Kill pay-per-view. Hard to Kill is taking place on Saturday, January 16. The Knockouts Tag Team titles were first introduced in 2009 before being deactivated in 2013.

Originally Posted by PWI Major League Wrestling's Court Bauer announced to Forbes that the promotion has inked a new deal with its existing cable broadcast outlet BeIN Sport "We are excited to continue to be a cornerstone of beIN Sports’ portfolio of world-class sports content. beIN’s dual language reach will help further entrench MLW as a thriving sports league," Bauer told Forbes. Bauer stated additional announcements are coming. MLW Fusion will continue to air on Saturday evenings. The promotions reboot after pausing production due to the COVID-19 pandemic will begin airing next month.

Originally Posted by PWI All Elite Wrestling applied to trademark 'AEW Games' for -G & S: Video game discs; Downloadable game software; Downloadable video game programs; Downloadable computer game software; Downloadable electronic game software; Downloadable interactive game software; Downloadable video game software; Recorded video game programs; Recorded video game software -G & S: Providing a website featuring entertainment information in the field(s) of gaming and wrestling; Entertainment services, namely, providing online video -games; Entertainment services, namely, providing temporary use of non-downloadable video games; Production of video and computer game software; Providing a website featuring non-downloadable game software; Providing online non-downloadable game software; Provision of information relating to electronic computer games provided via the Internet

Originally Posted by PWI All Elite Wrestling today announced the release of their PPV events on DVD for the first time: Now available AEW PPV on DVD! Buy 3 get an automatic 10% off! Get yours today! pic.twitter.com/gzHjvvUfaS — ShopAEW.com (@ShopAEW) October 28, 2020 Available are: -AEW Double or Nothing 2019 -AEW All Out 2019 -AEW Full Gear 2019 -AEW Revolution 2020 -AEW Double or Nothing 2020 All of the DVDs can be purchased at www.ShopAEW.com.

Link: https://twitter.com/ShopAEW/status/1321499304901681153

Originally Posted by PWI Shotzi Blackheart stated on today's episode of "The Bump" that she will be having four costume changes and some new adornments for her tank for tonight's NXT Halloween Havoc. Blackheart stated some of her outfits are inspired by Elvira: Mistress of the Dark. The NXT superstar said that being a horror host has always been a dream. It was also announced that Elias and former Tough Enough winner Maven will be on next Wednesday's episode.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated caught up with Shotzi Blackheart for his ‘This Week in Wrestling’ column. Shotzi detailed what she wants people to think when they see she is announced for a match: “That’s exactly how I want people watching at home to feel. I want them asking, ‘Is Shotzi Blackheart going to die tonight?’”

Originally Posted by PWI WWE.com is now listing Tucker as a RAW Superstar. But, they are still listing Mustafa Ali as a Smackdown Superstar Also, they have Mickie James in the Smackdown Superstar section, but her profile has the RAW logo.

Originally Posted by PWI World Wrestling Entertainment will report their third quarter earnings for 2020 tomorrow, Thursday 10/29. The company will hold a conference call with Vince McMahon and WWE's Chief Financial Officer, Kristina Salen tomorrow at 5 PM EST to discuss the quarter and take questions.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Pro Wrestling Junkies hosted a virtual meet-and-greet with Alex Reynolds. Last week, Reynolds provided an update on how he was doing after he was knocked unconscious on AEW Dynamite in a four-way tag match. During the virtual meet-and-greet, Reynolds was asked if the fans’ safety concerns about AEW’s protocols are valid and here’s what he had to say: “No, I think our team does a fantastic job. I think they took care of me, right away when we all realized I was hurt. They got me out of there nice and safe, so it’s a contact sport, you know? Injuries are gonna happen and I think they’ve shown that they can handle those situations so yeah, I don’t think those safety concerns are validated, as somebody who’s kinda just lived through it. I’ve put my trust fully in our staff.” Reynolds later added that when he heads back to Jacksonville for another Dynamite taping, he’ll meet with their doctor and the doctor does believe Reynolds will be cleared to return. “Yeah, so we have this week off so I’m just kind of resting up and then [when] we go back down, I have to go talk with [the] doctor and see, but he thinks I should be good to go. Yeah, it was definitely a scary moment but I feel pretty good and looking forward to being back in action.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Ariane Andrew and Matt Dillion welcomed AEW Chief Brand Officer Brandi Rhodes onto their ‘Sippin The Tea TV’ show. Brandi was asked about the idea of Women’s Tag Team Titles in AEW following the ‘Deadly Draw’ tournament several months ago and here’s what she had to say about the idea: “Well, that’s quite a question so, I think the tournament was a step in the right direction, because across the board, there was this, I guess, thought that we didn’t have enough women to do tag team wrestling in AEW and a lot people got really down-hearted when we had some injuries and things like that, so I think that this just showed everyone that we have the women available, we’ve got great women, great characters, great in-ring competitors and we can hold people’s attention and put something really good together. So, my hope is that we continue to grow and go in that direction, but can’t promise anything, because you know, it’s week-to-week these days.”

AEW needs to seriously rehaul their booking mentality with their Women's division and title first before entertaining any idea of adding more belts for that division.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Hollywood Life has an extensive feature published on their site about All Elite Wrestling and it includes an interview with Matt and Nick Jackson. Nick reflected on what the ‘Blood & Guts’ match could have done for AEW programming and viewership-wise. He added that they’re saving that match for fans and have the structure ready to go when it’s time. “Man, it is tough to say because a lot of that we have planned for the future is what we are currently doing,” says Nick. “Somethings did change. Obviously, the Blood And Guts steel cage match never happened. And we spent a lot of money building that structure. [laughs] But the good thing about it is that at least we now have it. So, we can pull the trigger on that at any time. I feel like we are saving that for fans. I think that is the biggest reason we haven’t done it. That is the biggest thing that changed, not having that match. Because if you look at it, the buildup to it was so strong, our ratings were going up, and it was looking we were going to [have] above a million [viewers] for that show. We probably would have, but we can’t control what is going on around the world. I think that was probably the biggest change, not doing that cage match" ... On the merchandise front, Matt Jackson shared that he has spoken to Dana Massie, his wife, about the idea of AEW ice bream bars. “I told her that I would love to have some type of AEW ice cream bar. I remember fondly in the summer when the ice cream man would come, and I would get the Good Humor Hulk Hogan ice cream bar. I don’t know how much of a possibility it would be, but I put the idea out there, at least.”

If AEW ice cream bars becomes a reality, it better be like those old WWF ones and not the current cookie style ones from WWE that are lame.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling The Paramount Animations and WWE Studios film ‘Rumble’ has been pushed back to May 14, 2021 for its release date, per Deadline. The film was previously scheduled for a January 2021 release. The likes of Becky Lynch, Roman Reigns and Stephen A. Smith did voiceover work for the film.

Originally Posted by Fightful Fans of 'Macho Man' Randy Savage can add to their collection with the new limited edition collector's boxes. Wrestling World Reacts To Tracy Smothers' Death Related Article Wrestling World Reacts To Tracy Smothers' Death WWE is selling the collector's box, which includes a t-shirt, vinyl figure, replica crown, and more at WWE Shop for $49.99. The boxes are limited to 750. Get ready to experience your cup of coffee in the big time with the Limited Edition Macho Man Randy Savage Collector’s Box. Exclusively available at WWELegendsShop.com, this box has been specially designed to celebrate the legacy of this incomparable Legend and make you say “Oooh yeah!” It is filled to the brim with Macho Man gear that you can’t find anywhere else. Dig it! Each box contains: * Macho Man T-Shirt - The most Savage tee ever. * 11x14 Art Print Poster - An illustration by noted artist Doug Hills captures the pageantry that was every Macho Man entrance * Vinyl Figure - The cream of the crop rises to the top with this mini figure * Macho Man Face Mask - Say “Oooh yeah!” wherever you go * Macho Man Legacy Title Center Plate - Scale reproduction of the center plate from the all-new Limited Edition Macho Man Legacy Title that can be displayed on your desk or bookshelf * Enamel Pin - Exclusive collector’s pin only available in this box * Replica Crown - Your coronation as Macho King awaits

Originally Posted by Fightful Fans who wanted Big E to finally get the big singles push can partially thank Daniel Bryan. With Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods sidelined earlier this year, Big E ventured on his own on SmackDown. The singles run led to a feud with Sheamus that culminated in a well-received Falls Count Anywhere match. New Day was split in the 2020 WWE Draft with Kingston and Woods going to Raw while Big E remained on SmackDown. Speaking to The Gorilla Position, Big E discussed the creative process on SmackDown and how Daniel Bryan went to bat for him. "With the Sheamus program, we talked about ideas like new music and new presentation for me and we talked about 'when is the right time to play it?' and we never got around to it because I hadn't been in the arena for a few months because a lot of our stuff happened backstage until we had the match. With SmackDown, we don't have as many segments to fill. We're afforded the luxury of being able to do a little more creative stuff. I'm not entirely sure the differences between the Raw and SmackDown creative team, but the nice part is I feel like I have a voice with the SmackDown creative team. We're able to go back and forth with ideas and they're actually listening. Also, I have to give credit to Daniel Bryan. The idea for the solo run was from him. He's the reason. Not just, 'Hey, Big E...' he's actually part of the process and he's the one who said, 'This is what we should do with Big E.' It feels like an environment where I do have a voice and I get to do what I want by any means," he said. It was reported by the Wrestling Observer earlier this year that Bryan and Edge had significant creative influence and were part of the writing teams for their respective brands.

Originally Posted by Fightful Lio Rush is coming to UWN Primetime Live. The promotion announced that Lio will be making his debut for the company on the November 3 episode of Primetime Live. No opponent was given.

Originally Posted by 411Mania Kylie Rae’s missing out on Bound For Glory was a big headline over this past weekend, and a new report on her status in the company is online. As as has been reported, Rae did not appear at the Bound For Glory taping and Impact promoted her right up until the match, when Su Yung took her place and beat Deonna Purrazzo for the Knockouts Championship. According to the latest from Fightful Select, there’s no negative on Rae from Impact’s side and the promotion hopes she can return in the future. They kept a lot of storyline open-ended in the tapings that took place this week in case she can make the November 17th through the 20th tapings, but are not pressuring her to do so. As of Tuesday morning, none of the roster that had spoken with Fightful had heard from her. Rae reportedly did not give an explanation for her absence and just “disappeared.” When contacted after the show, she was said to be “physically fine.”

TPWW Frontpage:

• Another COVID-19 Outbreak at WWE’s Performance Center, NXT & Fans Status
• Tracy Smothers Dies at Age 58
• AEW Dynamite & NXT Cards for Tonight + AEW Rankings
• AEW Wrestler Serena Deeb Wins NWA Women’s Championship From Thunder Rosa

[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets:

Originally Posted by Observer The return of Halloween Havoc saw NXT top AEW Dynamite in overall viewers for the first time since July. Last night's Halloween Havoc episode of NXT averaged 876,000 viewers on the USA Network, up 18.6 percent from last week. Dynamite averaged 781,000 viewers on TNT. That's up 3.7 percent from last week. Dynamite still won the night in the 18-49 demo with a 0.32 rating, up 6.7 percent from last week. The show finished 12th on cable for the night with no major sports competition, though cable news ratings were way up. NXT finished in the cable top 50 in the 18-49 demo for the first time in a month. The show averaged a 0.25 rating, up 36 percent from last week and good for 21st on the night. It's one of the best showings NXT has ever had on a head-to-head night against Dynamite. The combined audience of 1.657 million viewers was the highest on a week where Dynamite and NXT both aired on Wednesday night since February 5. The NXT audience was its highest since November 20 of last year -- and that's with or without head-to-head competition. The 95,000 viewer advantage for NXT was the show's biggest gap over Dynamite since June 24. It's also the closest NXT has come in 18-49 since that date. NXT's 0.25 rating in 18-49 is the best that it's done on a head-to-head night since December 18 of last year. Dynamite, as usual, won most of the individual demos, though they were much closer than normal. NXT won people over 50 in a big way with a 0.43 rating to Dynamite's 0.29. NXT also won in males 12-34 with a 0.2 rating as opposed to Dynamite's 0.14. Dynamite's best category was people 25-54. where it drew a 0.40 rating to NXT's 0.29. Another strong category for Dynamite was men 18-49. It did a 0.38 rating in that category and was the top non-news program on cable. Compared to the same week last year, Dynamite was up 2.9 percent in overall viewers but down three percent in 18-49. NXT was up 51 percent in overall viewers and up 38.9 percent in 18-49.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling NXT also had an eight-minute overrun with the Io Shirai vs. Candice LeRae main event, which likely helped the overall number ... In Canada, with all the playoffs over with, AEW was the #1 sports program in the country with 103,500 viewers and 68,200 in the 25-54 demographic on TSN2. They also topped the Toronto FC soccer game, which aired on the other four TSN channels and was more widely available.

Originally Posted by Observer Driven by their TV contracts, WWE's 2020 third quarter revenue finished at $221.6 million, up 19% from 2019's third quarter -- part of an optimistic call and overall upward trend in numbers. The company noted the increase was offset by the loss of both ticket and live merchandise sales due to the pandemic. On a similar vein, their ecommerce numbers grew to $9.1 million year-over-year, impressive considering they had 74 live events in the third quarter of 2019 in addition to online in which to sell merchandise. Operating income was up to $63.4 million, an increase of 9x year-over-year, thanks to the content rights fees increase and a decrease in event-related production expenses. WWE noted they paid out $5.5 million in severance pay due to pandemic related layoffs. On another positive note, average paid WWE Network subscriptions were up 6% year-over-year to 1.6 million. The third quarter saw the creation of the ThunderDome structure, which will add "an incremental $22 - $27 million investment" which includes "increased personnel expenses as employees return from furlough" in the fourth quarter ... Call Notes (audio below): WWE president Nick Khan announced a multi-part Vince McMahon documentary has been sold to Netflix with WWE and Bill Simmons (The Ringer, Andre doc) as executive producers. Khan noted the financial investment will make the series one of Netflix's most expensive on the documentary side. No release date was noted. Khan said they are still exploring options for WWE Network to reach a wider audience, a callback to when McMahon said earlier this year they were exploring options and partners for the Network that were put on hold due to the pandemic. There is interest and they are talking to partners, both domestic and global, on a regular basis about licensing. McMahon answered a question about ratings, saying they aren't the only thing they look at. He said they have far more fans than they have ever had. "WWE ratings are what they are, but you just can't hang a hat on ratings being down," he said. He said that while their TV programming is a mothership, they are being seen on other platforms all the time. He said they are doing everything they can and that viewers have been coming back, pointing to the ThunderDome, better writing, and better execution ... They are still negotiating the long-discussed Middle East TV deal with no timeline for completion. McMahon said it will get done ... On where ThunderDome could be moving to, CFO Kristina Salen said their assumption is they will be in "some kind of center for foreseeable future" into '21 with "lots of places for them to go." She didn't confirm when the Amway deal is up or when they would be leaving. Asked about NXT, Khan put over their ratings from Wednesday and didn't comment on length of the USA deal but that Network subs have held without NXT there.

The most laughable part of the Q&A session was Vince using Youtube to deflect their sagging tv ratings issues. Based on the way Youtube tracks views, its something like 6-8 Youtube views is the equivalent of a single tv viewer in the US but WWE's views for their videos are inflated a lot by certain international markets like India. Its why they make pennies on the dollar with their Youtube content compared to their tv deals.

Originally Posted by PWI During today's WWE Earnings Call, it was noted by Vince McMahon that Chief Brand Officer Stephanie McMahon now has "increased responsibilities" within the company. In asking around, we are told that the company's Global Sales and Partnerships now fall under Stephanie's purview, which would include sponsorships and other relationships. John Brody, who was heading that area, is still with the company in the same role, but now reports to McMahon. McMahon took over these responsibilities in August but her involvement was not publicly announced until today's call.

Originally Posted by Observer Tickets to this year's AEW Full Gear pay-per-view are set to go on sale this week. AEW has announced that Full Gear tickets will go on sale to the general public at 10 a.m. Eastern time this Friday (October 30). A pre-sale for AEW season ticket holders began today. Full Gear is being held at Daily's Place in Jacksonville, Florida on Saturday, November 7 with a limited audience capacity and socially distanced seating chart. This will be the third straight AEW PPV that's been held at Daily's Place due to the COVID-19 pandemic. AEW began selling limited tickets to live Dynamite episodes at Daily's Place this August. There was also a limited crowd for September's All Out PPV.

Originally Posted by Observer Renee Paquette, formerly known as WWE's Renee Young, announced a release date for her forthcoming cookbook today. "Messy In The Kitchen: My Guide to Eating Deliciously, Hosting Fabulously, and Drinking Copiously" will be available on May 18, 2021. It was made available for pre-order today on Amazon.

Link for those interested: https://www.amazon.com/Messy-Kitchen.../dp/1682619389

Originally Posted by PWI TNT will air a special, Road to Full Gear on Friday 11/6 at 11 PM EST.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling On today’s episode of NXT UK on the WWE Network that was headlined by WALTER versus Ilja Dragunov for the NXT UK Championship, it was promoted during the show that 22-year veteran Rampage Brown is joining the WWE and will be a part of the NXT UK brand. Brown, real name Oliver Biney has been a fixture on the UK wrestling scene. He has held gold in Insane Championship Wrestling, PCW UK, PROGRESS, RevPro, World of Sport, Southside Wrestling and more promotions across Europe. Per Cagematch.net, Brown last wrestled prior to the Coronavirus pandemic for the ‘British Wrestling Revolution’ promotion. Rampage worked with WWE in 2011 and appeared on their ECW brand. He was also a part of Florida Championship Wrestling. While in WWE, Brown was known as “Monty Lynch” and worked with the likes of Thomas Latimer, Titus O’Neil and Aron Stevens. Rampage was released from WWE in the Summer of 2011.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling This past Tuesday on United Wrestling Network’s Prime Time Live show, Thunder Rosa was defeated by Serena Deeb for the NWA World Women’s Championship. Thunder Rosa reigned as NWA Women’s Champion dating back to January and after dropping the title, there were questions surrounding her status with the National Wrestling Alliance. NWA owner Billy Corgan responded to a question about Thunder Rosa’s status on his Instagram story and noted that she’s under contract to the organization until 2021. Rosa is preparing for her next MMA bout and while appearing on the Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling podcast to promote her title defense against Serena, she stated that she may be taking time off from wrestling to focus on her fight camp. Yes, yes, absolutely. I talked to Combate [Americas] and we’re seeing either before they start or when they start, I wanted have one more fight… so I can get my feet wet again, and so I’m more ready for the bigger stage. I probably will have a local fight, by February. That’s what we’re looking at. Yeah, so that means I might be taking a little bit of time from professional wrestling so I can focus on my fight camp. Thunder Rosa added to the conversations about herself on social media when posting a video at a gym with “AEW? WWE? NWA?” written on her body.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling wXw in Germany did a thread on social media about their forthcoming events and what’s to come in the future in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. All events up until February 28th have been postponed. Their Catch Grand Prix tournament will continue as it was taped in September. As far as their signature 16 Carat Gold tournament, one of their solutions is to postpone the tournament for six months to a year, change dates and venues or reduce audience numbers. They’ll reevaluate in January. Contact sports in Germany are banned until November, therefore the wXw Academy is closed until late November.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Chris Van Vliet caught up with Chavo Guerrero for an exclusive interview. Chavo told the story of how the “Kerwin White” character came to life and the lengths he was willing to go with the character. Chavo stated that the basis of the character was to be a man of color who wanted to be white but is also mimicking white people. Chavo added that he pitched to come out in a KKK sheet as well. “There was no conversation. I got off the plane in Japan and it was — I came to RAW, Vince McMahon looks at me and he goes, ‘Well hello Kerwin,’ and I’m like okay, so what’s going on? ‘Well today you’re going to denounce your Hispanic heritage and you’re going to become a white guy, [Vince laugh]’ and I was like alright. I had two options. You either say no and possibly go back on the back burner for a while, or get fired or you say, ‘Alright, let’s do it’ and at the time, the political climate was different and I literally told Vince, I go, I had a meeting with him. I said, ‘If we’re going to do this, let’s do it right.’ I’m supposed to be a brown guy playing a white guy, saying, ‘This is how you white guys are’ and they’re saying no, so the Hispanics hated me because I was denouncing my Mexican heritage. I had the whites because I was kind of making fun of them and they’re like, ‘That’s not how we dress.’ I’m like, ‘Oh yes you do’ and then — I would say, ‘If it’s not white, it’s not right’ and I had Caucasians going, ‘That’s not the way we are.’ I said, ‘That’s exactly how you are’ so, I had everybody hate me and a true heel wants everybody to hate them, and then I told Vince, I go, ‘Look, at the end of the day, I wanna come out in a white sheet’ and he was like, ‘Oh! Oh! Yes. I love it.’ Now of course, we never ended up doing it. It got too risque, a little too racist for a network. I wanted to [come out in a KKK sheet], absolutely. I wanted to come out — I grew up in the time of wrestling that the more heat, the better. I wanted to fight my way back to the dressing room every night. I wanted to have to sneak out the back window, I wanted to be in the streets and people yell, ‘We hate you’ because that’s heat, that’s what I wanted. I didn’t want them going, ‘Hey, it’s Chavo. Hey, what’s up?’ I want them to look at me and go, ‘God, we hate you’ and still to this day, and I was a heel. That’s what you have to do as a heel.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Scorpio Sky was the most recent guest on Colt Cabana’s Art of Wrestling podcast. Sky recalled doing extra work in WWE along with The Young Bucks and when John Bradshaw Layfield saw them in the locker room, he shook his head and yelled “TNA” because of their respective sizes. “I remember sitting in a dressing room one time and it was me and The Young Bucks and one other guy, and obviously we’re four smaller guys and JBL walks past the dressing room, he looks in, he shakes his head and he keeps walking and you hear him go, ‘TNA! TNA! TNA!’ Because obviously we’re small guys so, it’s like TNA and so…”

Originally Posted by Fightful Multiple WWE superstars are suspending their Twitch streams for the time being. AJ Styles took to his Discord server and posted that he will be suspending his Twitch channel as WWE is making changes regarding streaming. He said that they will "see what the future holds" but that it isn't goodbye. He reiterated that it isn't the end of the stream, just a pause. Mia Yim took to her social media and announced she is also suspending her Twitch stream for the time being. During his livestream on Thursday, Cesaro signed off by saying that he doesn't know when he'll stream again and he'll likely find out more news when the rest of us do.

Originally Posted by Fightful This week’s RAW show saw The Hurt Business defeat RETRIBUTION in an eight-man Elimination Match. One odd moment came during the match when Reckoning (Mia Yim) provided a distraction by dropping down and causing a scene, which looked like some sort of seizure. In an update, Fightful Select reports that Vince McMahon initially wanted Reckoning to mimic a seizure during the spot, but she, and others, spoke up and said the method originally pitched was not in good taste. Vince reportedly liked the spot as it played out, as more of a “possession,” outside of Reckoning being referred to on commentary by her real name.

As someone who has suffered from multiple seizures in the past, Vince can go fuck himself with that shit idea he had. Even the changed idea was still very stupid to begin with since it didn't even lead to any real benefit for Retribution since they quickly lost the man advantage and match itself afterwards.

Originally Posted by Fightful The MLW Restart is upon us. Major League Wrestling announced that the restart will get underway on Wednesday, November 18. MLW has taken back control from CONTRA and set to begin running events again. MLW taped multiple episodes of television earlier this month from GILT Nightclub in Orlando, FL. MLW previously aired events Saturday on beIN Sports, but moved to Wednesday nights when they moved to the fubo Sports Network. New episodes will air at 7 p.m. ET with a replay airing at 10 p.m. ET.

Originally Posted by RingsideNews.com Xia Li had an amateur kickboxing fight, and she didn’t tell WWE about it. They had to read about it online. According to Fightful Select, WWE didn’t learn about Xia Li’s fight until everyone else. It came out during an interview with the event’s promoter. WWE pulled her from an event, and that upset her. Everyone understood why WWE pulled her from the show, but she didn’t understand. She thought that “WWE wasn’t giving her respect.” Several people also said that Xia Li has “grown frustrated from not being used much on NXT TV after years with the company.” She went right to Triple H to let him know what was wrong. She expressed her feelings to Triple H, and it’s uncertain how the conversation went, but Triple H “appreciated the initiative.” Xia Li was also “adamant” she could “hold her own” if given an opportunity in NXT.

TPWW Frontpage:

• Matt Riddle Now Just Going By “Riddle”
• Thunder Rosa Still Under Contract With NWA, But Has Interest From WWE & AEW

[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets (Observer Newsletter Edition):

Vince McMahon expressed a sense of optimism with his two most recent hires, President and Chief Revenue Officer Nick Khan and Chief Financial Officer Kristina Salen, when opening an earnings call on 10/29 talking about the most complex time in the company’s history. The entire media landscape is filled with uncertainty. The biggest challenge is the changing role of television and the move to streaming content. While McMahon pushed the idea that more people than ever before are watching WWE, actual product popularity is still based on getting people interested in the product, whether that be from a big show perspective or regular viewing perspective. Television ratings are down. In a sense, they are down less than many sports that returned to play of late, and more than others. They are down more than television in general. There are more ways to watch the content than ever before, but WWE’s revenue is more based on television, in decline both in priorities to the large conglomerates and in viewing. At the same time, new streaming services are opening up. WWE can manipulate numbers, as all companies do, using essentially worthless stats that have proven over the years to not make a difference in popularity. Social media numbers always increase, but when it’s not related to an increase in consumer spending, it’s pretty much proven the value is limited. WWE has had bright spots in a COVID world. Merchandise spending is roughly the same as before, even with no live events. Licensing is up, such as gaming. The Thunderdome has led to a six percent gain from where Raw bottomed out at and a 12 percent gain from where Smackdown bottomed out at, even with much tougher competition ... In particular, Khan noted that talks are back on to sell network content to streaming providers, similar to what UFC did with ESPN+ ... Khan said that everything on the network is for sale, aside from the network itself. He said both domestic and worldwide streaming services are looking for new subscribers and he said that they have content than can do it ... For the third quarter of 2020, the company had $221,595,000 in revenue and $48,485,000 in profits. Last year’s third quarter, prior to the new domestic television deals going into place, had $186,383,000 in revenue and $5,862,000 in profits. Virtually all due to television, revenues were up 18.9 percent and profits were up 727.1 percent. The new TV deals pretty much saved the company from what would have otherwise been a disastrous financial period due to COVID, that has been the case for every sports and entertainment property that isn’t carried by television rights ... They also said that almost all the employees furloughed, which were about 25 percent of the company’s head count, will be brought back by the end of the year ... Revenues, which are not hard to figure due to most being fixed costs from television rights, and network numbers that only have a slight variation, were almost identical to expectations. But analysts were predicting profits generally from $30.7 million to $34.9 million for the quarter. Total expenses for the quarter went from $179.9 million last year to $158.2 million this year. Much of the decline would have been not doing house shows and from the furloughs and talent cuts. Salen did note that the fourth quarter would not look as good, because television production expenses will be up $22 million to $27 million which is partially from the move to the Thunderdome technology and people returning to work. She said quarter four would be less profitable than quarter four last year due to no second Saudi Arabian show this year ... When analyst Curry Baker asked about the ratings still being well below last year and what that means for the next negotiations, Vince McMahon and Khan pushed that the total audience that watches WWE is larger than ever before. There are ways to manipulate numbers with all the YouTube views and say that, but the fan base that cares simply isn’t close to as large. Anyone who lives in the real world can tell you that just from friends, kids, or whatever. Pro wrestling has its fan base, but it is not mainstream not in the social conscience. It’s huge with its fans but in the real world, it is not even close to water cooler talk. That said, in a fragmented TV and streaming world, it is a very valuable property that has a consistent fan base. The reality is that with a free tier, only 2.4 million people in the world logged into the WWE network over the three months of July, August and September, two-thirds or more pay for the service, that tells you it has its fans but few casual fans who care enough to check out anything for free on a product heavily advertised on television. Vince said that they were doing everything they can to bring back television viewers, noting the Thunderdome has brought back fans, and the key is better writing, better execution and more talent that registers with the fans ... Regarding moving out of the Amway Center, Khan said they expect usage of the Thunderdome well into 2021, but said there are many arenas that they can move into when they have to move out of Orlando which looks to be sometime in December. When asked about the value of NXT on television and how it has affected the network, Khan noted that network subscribers are up from the same period last year when NXT was a network exclusive. So more people than ever are watching due to television and it hasn’t seemed to hurt subscriber numbers at all. Regarding the WWE Network, Khan noted 2.4 million viewers in total for the quarter. That number would include the free tier. It’s had to ascertain how many people actually watch the free tier. There were 1,690,000 worldwide subscribers on 6/30 and 1,549,000 on 9/30. But there are people who signed up and far more than 141,000 who canceled during the quarter. If we take a rough guess that 1.85 million different people subscribed, that would indicate about 550,000 non-subscribers use the free tier. The addition of the free tier in quarter two led to a huge increase in subscribers. That number is still up over last year because of the big second quarter increase, when it had been declining before adding the free tier and with them allowing people the free month. But that gain was less and the declines were slightly higher than expected, with the 141,000 decline during the quarter slightly ahead of 131,000 for the same period last year ... During quarter four the prior two years, the subscriber numbers dropped 87,000 in 2018 and 77,000 in 2019, so that would indicate about 1,462,000 to 1,472,000 at the end of this year, when it should start the ascent for the Royal Rumble through WrestleMania. In quarter three, and this was mostly pre-Thunderdome, Raw declined from an average of 2,489,000 viewers per show to 1,766,000, a drop of 29.0 percent. WWE listed a decline of 32 percent during that period of the USA Network, from 1,069,000 in prime time to 725,000. But that needs to be clarified because that includes the loss of Smackdown. If you factor out both Raw and Smackdown last year, the non-wrestling USA Network averaged 678,000 viewers in prime time last year in quarter three. This year that dropped to 552,000, although if you take out NXT you are down to 543,000, so the non-wrestling drop at USA was 19.9 percent, or less than Raw. But this shows just how much USA is reliant on Raw to be anything but an also-ran station when for years they were No. 1 and would have stayed No. 1 even if they had lost Raw. Overall cable viewership was up four percent during the year, even with sports gone, because of the huge growth in news channels. Smackdown last year averaged 2,069,000 viewers on USA and this year averaged 2,022,000 on FOX during the third quarter. That’s a disaster since most programming comes close to doubling in moving from cable to network. FOX was down 33 percent and the networks in general were down 24 percent, but that’s a combination of no sports and very little in the way of first run shows due to lack of filming during the pandemic ... The combined WWE Network and traditional PPV revenue increased from $44,199,000 to $47,767,000, or an 8.1 percent increase. Actual subscribers were up from 1,511,000 to 1,604,000 for an average day during the month, but with price changes in different places the 6.2 percent increase led to an eight percent revenue increase. Last year on 9/30, the WWE Network had 1,062,100 U.S. subscribers and 403,300 outside the U.S. On 6/30, the numbers were 1,229,000 in the U.S. and 461,000 outside the U.S. This year on 9/30 the number was 1,136,400 in the U.S. and 412,200 outside the U.S. Last year’s third quarter decline was 105,000 in the U.S. and 26,000 outside the U.S. This year’s decline was 92,600 in the U.S. and 48,800 outside the U.S. so the number of cancellations being up was from outside the U.S. and in the U.S. it was actually less ... The remarkable stat is that last year in the quarter, the company sold $5,624,000 in merchandise on-line and $3,487,000 at arenas for $9,111,000. This year they sold no merchandise at arenas but $9,114,000 on-line, so essentially we’ve learned that people who want to buy merchandise at arenas instead simply bought on-line as the numbers were identical. So the argument for doing house shows to sell merchandise is, almost astonishingly, it really leads to little increase and you save costs of transportation, because the fan base that was buying at arenas spent the money online rather than didn’t spend. A major part of this year’s merchandise numbers were the release of expensive replica title belts. Last year in the quarter the company averaged 1,269 orders per day at a $46.09 average price per sale. This year it was 1,684 orders per sale at a $59.10 average price per sale

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter The one major issue right now with Smackdown is the lack of top babyfaces to challenge Roman Reigns. They were fortunate that even though Jey Uso had never been pushed as a top face, the family storyline with Roman Reigns was a unique story and they were able to get two PPV shows out of it. But from there, where do they go? It’s early for Big E. We’re told there are no immediate plans a hotshot John Cena or Bill Goldberg match right now, which can always be used as a Reigns opponent. With Goldberg, there is even a storyline since it was to be at WrestleMania before Reigns went home, and was to be a major win in Reigns’ career that hasn’t happened yet. But aside from that, Bryan is the best bit in the sense he’s someone Reigns can have a great match with, has the star tenure and can cut the promos to tell a story to build it. But with such a nothing return, Bryan was brought back seemingly as a midcard face in the crowd on the No. 2 babyface tag team on the brand. Who else does Reigns have? Owens can work and talk and there’s Rey Mysterio, but Bryan if he was correctly pushed right now should be more effective as a title challenger than they are. Lars Sullivan is getting the monster push and you can do a heel vs. heel program at some point, but that shouldn’t be for months. The point being is they need to create two or three key babyfaces that are groomed for Reigns, and Bryan is the strongest potentially of all of them for right now, and his return was handled in a way to make him come across the least special.

This was in regards to the section about Daniel Bryan's return and him talking after SD about his current run being his last as an active wrestler.

The 10/25 Hell in a Cell show was built around three Cell matches with two title changes, as Randy Orton beat Drew McIntyre to win the WWE title and Sasha Banks beat Bayley to win the Smackdown women’s title ... Roman Reigns’ Universal title win over Jey Uso was a very slow paced storytelling I Quit match with lots of talking. The nature of the storyline meant there wouldn’t be a clean finish, so they did a deal where Jimmy Uso was in the cage and Reigns put him in a guillotine and was going to choke him out, so Jey said “I Quit” to save him. After the match ended, Afa & Sika came out and declared Reigns the tribal chief. Reigns pushing himself as the head of the family and the guy who takes care of the family leads to a natural storyline with Dwayne Johnson. There is no word that is official but it would make sense if the cards fell into place, regarding Johnson’s schedule, fans being back at shows and Johnson wanting a memorable true final match.

It [Hell in a Cell] is the next to last PPV from this run at the Amway Center in Orlando. The final show, at least as of right now, is Survivor Series on 11/22. It is billed as the only night of the year when wrestlers from Raw and Smackdown face off against each other. Well, except they’ve done that on most of the television shows in recent weeks. If there is significant news, it is that there will be no NXT involvement in the show, with NXT instead building to a 12/6 Takeover show. Given that the NXT involvement both made the show last year, and also led to increased ratings on all three shows in November with the buildup, the decision on paper looks hard to understand. There are really only two explanations. One is Vince McMahon’s wanting to keep the brands separate as much as possible to prevent the potential of COVID spreading. That is the reason they stopped taping 205 Live on Friday night’s, to keep NXT talent away from the Smackdown talent and risk a two brand infection. WWE PPV shows can always risk that, but every WWE breakout to date has started at the Performance Center. The other is simply a mentality to not portray NXT as a major brand on the level of Raw and Smackdown. That coincides with no NXT talent involved in the recent draft. It’s one thing if a minor WWE product loses weekly to a competitor, and a very different story if a major WWE brand does. Survivor Series will be built around non-title matches featuring the respective champions against each other and brand vs. brand traditional Survivor Series matches, one with men and the other with women.

Orton’s title win, clean with an RKO, was really the big story of the show. It’s been known for some time that the WrestleMania plan is Orton vs. Edge, originally an I Quit match although with an I Quit match on this show, perhaps the stipulation will change. Having it be for the title was always discussed and at one point was the plan. But others felt McIntyre should be campion and an Orton-Edge match doesn’t need the title. McIntyre has also been discussed for a major match with boxing world heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, which both have pushed in social media. We were told this week that Fury has not committed to a date for that. With Saudi Arabia not announced for later this year yet, due to COVID, that would have been the most likely place for such a bout.

AAA held a press conference on 10/26 to announce TripleMania. They announced the top matches but didn’t announce when. They said they would like to do a show in December at Arena Ciudad in Mexico City. AAA has also said that with the way it’s business is structured, it makes no economic sense to do TripleMania without a live gate. You can never predict the future, but with the current numbers, fans are not allowed at pro wrestling shows in Mexico City. While not announced, the hoped for date talent has been told is 12/5, but the show won’t happen until fans are cleared to attend. To have the show make sense, the feeling is they need to be able to run with at least 6,500 fans. Kenny Omega vs. Laredo Kid for the Mega heavyweight championship was announced. Also announced was Pagano vs. Chessman in a hair vs. hair match, and with a cross-promotion with Marvel, they are going to introduce young high flyers and put them under masks as Aracno (Spider-man) & Leyenda Americana (Captain America) vs. Terror Purpuro (Thanos) & Venemoide (Venum) ... The four Marvel characters as well as two others is part of a deal with AAA and the Latin American branch of Marvel. It is the first of what, if all goes well, will be a larger group of new masked wrestlers playing Marvel characters. This deal has been close to happening for months and the idea was to debut them this past summer, but the pandemic delayed everything. Marvel reps will be at the show. While the identity of the wrestlers playing the Marvel characters is being kept secret, they are all well-known talent. There will be AAA stars getting new names, and several others will be American stars, including four who either are of have recently been under contract to U.S. promotions. Marvel is even considering if this works at doing a Marvel Wrestling League. Also announced is La Parka going into the AAA Hall of Fame.

New Japan ended up profitable for the 2019-2010 fiscal year that ends on 7/31, with roughly $2 million in profits. The company was on verge of setting its record in January after the two successful Tokyo Dome shows. The company operated in the red from when it shut down events in February and likely still is given the huge declines in live attendance by playing at 30 to 40 percent capacity Takami Ohbari took over this week as President of New Japan. He did media and some say he made a misstep because he was critical of Harold Meij, who certainly had his detractors within wrestling and the office but was popular with the New Japan fan base. In an interview with Tokyo Sports, Ohbari said that Meij was very skilled in fan services (dealing with fans) and described himself as like a setter in volleyball (Ohbari when he was younger was a high-level volleyball player) said the job of the setter is to make the rest of the team look good. He said that he wanted to be seen like a stagehand, a guy that public doesn’t know about or talk about and that the spotlight should be on the in-ring talent

The participants in the Best of the Super Juniors tournament will be announced on 11/2, some 13 days before the tournament starts. The tag league and Super Juniors tour from 11/15 to 12/11 will have every show airing live on New Japan World. The shows will air in Japanese live. Power Struggle will air live from Osaka in English as well. Most likely the 12/11 tag tourney and super juniors finals will also air live in English but that’s not 100 percent

Dynamite will be live every week in November except 11/18, which will be taped on 11/12. All talent will be brought into Jacksonville from 11/4 to 11/12 to do two live Dynamites, one taped Dynamite and the PPV show

Serena Deeb’s win of the NWA women’s title from Thunder Rosa on the 10/27 UWN PPV show was notable for a number of reasons. People were raving about the match saying it was a **** bout. There is interest in both WWE and AEW in her, but she has a significant period of time left on her NWA deal. William Corgan said “into 2021" when commenting. With Deeb, who is under an AEW contract, the title will get national exposure on AEW television. Right now Rosa is still expected to work future AEW dates being booked through Corgan and the NWA. She wouldn’t have to lose the title to work for AEW due to the Corgan/Khan relationship and it’s notable Corgan would put the title on someone under contract to a different company. And he would not have to take it off Rosa, who had gotten over on AEW shows, and was pushed as one of his signature stars, for Rosa to work for AEW. There was also talk that she dropped the title because she is going into training for another fight with Combate Americas and that MMA would be her focus until her contract expires, even doing a couple of fights this next year, which is why the decision was made a ways back for her to drop the title

There was talk over the weekend of moving out of Orlando in December. The contract with the arena right now ends on 11/24, which would be the day after the Raw after Survivor Series. According to WWE officials, that date is fluid and it could be extended and there is no hard out date at the moment. The key issue is if the NBA starts running in home arenas they won’t be able to base there, or at any NBA arena. They are looking right now to have a base arena as opposed to touring as in the past. I think performing in front of live fans would be a priority but I can’t imagine it would be a good idea to do anything but a limited capacity show until there is a vaccine. WrestleVotes noted that WWE was looking at arenas in Illinois, North Carolina and Texas. Another source said they didn’t know anything more definitive than Vince McMahon and Kevin Dunn are looking at different plans. Really this is an issue with so many moving parts, but also decisions that have to be prioritized. They can always go to the Performance Center for a week or two if things don’t work out, but there are major arenas who don’t have teams who, like Amway, would probably offer WWE a sweetheart deal to have them as a full-time tenant. The key would be a major arena that can house all the equipment, but also can’t be an arena that has an NBA or NHL franchise unless the next season for both sports will not be playing in home arenas. WWE officials have said they are currently exploring their options when they leave the Amway Center. Right now the NBA is looking at a 12/22 start and that teams would play in their home arenas and no longer do the bubble, although maybe with no fans. If that’s the case than WWE would have to be out of the Amway Center before that date. The NHL is looking at a 1/1 start. But nothing in the world is certain

There was another COVID outbreak at the Performance Center this past week. The story appears to be that one of the coaches tested positive who was coaching on 10/23, and that everyone who was being coached and around him was told to quarantine for two weeks. There were apparently other positives but they were mostly people new to the system that were around him and nobody that appeared on NXT television. We were told the show was being rewritten but when watching the Halloween Havoc show, all matches went on as scheduled and the only change we know of was that Indi Hartwell was supposed to interfere in the Io Shirai vs. Candice LeRae match. Instead they had someone run in wearing a grim reaper/Scream mask and who never unmasked, who presumably will later be revealed as Hartwell but wasn’t her

Assuming the coach was the actual main source of the outbreak, that would be the second time in a row that has happened at the Performance Center since the last outbreak happened by a coach who was infected but told nobody and then it spread to AEW via a joint party held with NXT talent.

The most-watched shows on the WWE Network this past week were: 1. Hell in a Cell; 2. WWE Untold: The Phenom and the Legend Killer (Undertaker vs. Orton); 3. Uncool with Alexa Bliss interviews Drake Maverick; 4. WWE Chronicle: Bayley; 5. Best of Halloween Havoc; 6. Hell in a Cell kickoff show; 7. Undertaker’s Last Ride episode one; 8. Lilian Garcia’s Chasing Glory with Strowman; 9. Undertaker’s Last Ride Final Tales; 10. Clash of Champions. Raw Talk was No. 13. Talking Smack was on TV so didn’t chart. NXT from 10/21 was only No. 24 while NXT U.K. and 205 Live didn’t crack the top 25. No independent stuff made the top 25 either. There is a real shift in viewing to nostalgia and podcasts and away from current wrestling aside from the PPV shows being the biggest draw and driver

WWE Ratings, AEW vs. NXT Ratings:

SPOILER: show

Raw on 10/26 did 1,732,000 viewers and 0.51 (657,000 viewers) in 18-49, numbers down 2.5 percent and 1.9 percent from last week. The last two weeks were up because of the draft and the first week after the draft. This show was helped coming a day after a Hell in a Cell show where they switched the WWE title. It had a good first hour, but it had a big third hour decline due to not having a main event. The main event segment being pushed was A Touch of Bliss with Randy Orton as the guest, but they did tease the whole show that both Drew McIntyre and The Fiend would be coming out. The other items pushed saved for hour three were the announcement of the Raw women’s team at Survivor Series and Sheamus vs. Matt Riddle. The drops were mostly 50+ and 18-34, but the bright spot was teenage girls which were up 66 percent from last week, but that coincided with a 35 percent drop in teenage boys. Raw did 85,000 in men 18-34 (down 32.0 percent from last week), 81,000 in women 18-34 (down 8.0 percent), 329,000 in men 35-49 (up 20.1 percent) and 162,000 in women 35-49 (down 11.5 percent). Raw beat everything on cable except news shows and NFL-related programming in viewers and most key demos. In 18-49, hour three of Raw beat everything on television except the NFL game on ESPN and The Weakest Link on NBC (and would have beaten that in a fair comparison). The first hour did 1,859,000 viewers. The second hour did 1,752,000 viewers. The third hour did 1,585,000 viewers.

The one Smackdown a year against the World Series and airing on FS 1 on 10/23 did 881,000 viewers (1.37 viewers per home) and did a 0.25 (322,000 viewers) in 18-49. In a sense the numbers are good if you compare them for last year against the World Series, which did 888,000 viewers and a 0.27, because the weekly Smackdown show on FOX was down 12.2 percent in viewers and 20.0 percent in 18-49 as compared to a year ago, which was unusually low, while the week before was a more normal 24.3 percent overall and 32.2 percent in 18-49 drop. So you would figure a much larger drop as compared to one year ago, particularly with the higher political numbers. For a comparison, the World Series game last year on the same Friday did 12,220,000 viewers and a 2.8 in 18-49, while this year dropped to 8,156,000 viewers and 2.0 in 18-49. The World Series was down 33.3 percent in viewers, 28.6 percent in 18-49 and 21.1 percent in 18-34. Smackdown from a year ago was down 0.8 percent in viewers, 7.4 percent in 18-49 and 7.1 percent in 18-34. So the year-to-year-decline was far less than any Raw or Smackdown episode probably of the entire year. The viewers basically holding steady was because of a substantial year-to-year increase in over 50 viewing. Perhaps it’s because the World Series didn’t hurt as much, but the news channels are way up from a year ago ... In looking at the demos as compared to one year ago, the show did a .10 in 12-17 (down 20.0 percent), 0.13 in 18-34 (down 7.1 percent), 0.37 in 35-49 (down 7.5 percent) and 0.44 in 50+ (up 12.8 percent).

Talking Smack, which aired for the first time on FS 1 immediately following the show, did 343,000 viewers and a 0.10 in 18-49, which is likely far better than anything else would have done following Smackdown in that time slot.

NXT’s Halloween Havoc theme was a huge success, including being the most-watched non-news show on cable in Males 12-34. It beat AEW in total viewers and beat Smackdown in the 18-49 demo and nearly beat Smackdown overall, and Smackdown had no wrestling competition. AEW’s show ... did 781,000 viewers and a 0.32 (411,000) in 18-49. It was No. 12 overall for the night in 18-49 ... AEW did beat NXT in males 18-34, but NXT had a huge edge with male teenagers. Halloween Havoc did 876,000 viewers and a 0.25 (326,000 viewers) in 18-49 and No 21 on the charts. Without the overrun it would have been 870,000 and 324,000. It had huge increases across the board from normal NXT programming ... AEW was up 3.7 percent from last week, but this week wasn’t against major sports competition, but much tougher wrestling competition. In 18-49 it was up 5.7 percent from last week. NXT was up 34.6 percent from last week for the Halloween Havoc show ... It was up 53.2 percent in 18-49. A key is that in 18-49, both AEW and NXT with competition, beat Smackdown with no wrestling competition, although Smackdown did go against the World Series and was on an unfamiliar station. But it was also a cable-to-cable comparison. Raw clearly was the No. 1 show of the week, but Wednesday was wrestling night this week, with 128,000 in men 18-34 to 85,000 on Monday, 111,000 women 18-49 compared to 81,000 on Monday, 326,000 men 35-49 to 329,000 for Monday, and 192,000 women 35-49 to 162,000 on Monday. Aside from Raw, AEW was tops for the week in all four key demos. In men 18-34, AEW had 66,000 (up 37.5 percent from last week), NXT had 62,000 (up 158.3 percent from last week) and Smackdown had 55,000. In women 18-34, AEW had 71,000 (up 24.6 percent from last week), NXT had 40,000 (up 33.3 pecent) and Smackdown had 36,000. In men 35-49, AEW had 178,000 (down 12.3 percent), NXT had 148,000 (up 51.0 percent) and Smackdown had 174,000. In women 35-49, AEW had 116,000 (up 43.2 percent), NXT had 76,000 (up 43.4 percent) and Smackdown had 57,000. As compared to the same week last year, and keep in mind last year went against the World Series, AEW was up 2.9 percent in viewers, down 3.0 percent in 18-49 and up 5.3 percent in 18-34. NXT on the other hand was up 51.0 percent in viewers from last year, 38.9 percent in 18-49 and but was exactly the same in 18-34. So NXT’s big increase over last year was older viewers although also strong in 35-49. In the head-to-head main event, Io Shirai vs. Candice LeRae TLC match for the women’s title did 844,000 viewers and 321,000 in 18-49 to Kenny Omega vs. Penta’s 748,000 viewers and 411,000 in 18-49. When AEW went off the air USA Network for the last eight minutes grew to 967,000 viewers and 349,000 in 18-49. In all, AEW won all eight quarters in 18-49, with the second quarter close, and in fact, won every quarter in both 18-34 and 35-49. NXT won seven of the eight quarters with total viewers, losing only the fourth quarter. In the first quarter, AEW with Page vs. Wardlow did 818,000 viewers and 413,000 in 18-49. NXT with Johnny Gargano vs. Damien Priest for the North American title falls count anywhere did 922,000 viewers and 337,000 in 18-49. In the second quarter, AEW with a Jon Moxley interview, an Eddie Kingston interview and Kingston vs. Matt Sydal did 726,000 viewers and 374,000 in 18-49. NXT with the second half of Gargano vs. Priest did 957,000 viewers and 340,000 in 18-49. This was NXT’s 18-49 peak. In the third quarter, AEW with the Young Bucks/FTR segment and the beginning of the MJF/Inner Circle Town Hall did 753,000 viewers and 420,000 in 18-49. NXT had William Regal with Cameron Grimes, the Pat McAfee, Oney Lorcan, Danny Burch, Kyle O’Reilly and Pete Dunne segment and Grimes meeting Michael Hayes and did 892,000 viewers and 334,000 in 18-49. This was NXT’s 35-49 peak. In the fourth quarter, AEW had the bulk of the MJF/Inner Chicle segment that did 867,000 viewers and 466,000, with was the high point in every key demo. NXT had Santos Escobar vs. Jake Atlas for the cruiserweight title and did 780,000 viewers and 290,000 in 18-49. In the fifth quarter, AEW had Cody vs. Orange Cassidy in a lumberjack match for the TNT title and did 830,000 viewers and 437,000 in 18-49. This tied the Town Hall meeting for the peak in 18-34 of the night. NXT had the haunted house version of Dexter Lumis vs. Cameron Grimes and the beginning of Rhea Ripley vs. Raquel Gonzalez and did 850,000 viewers and 324,000 in 18-49. In the sixth quarter, AEW had the Best Friends angle with Miro & Kip Sabian along with Serena Deeb vs. Leyla Hirsch for the NWA women’s title and did 744,000 viewers and 378,000 in 18-49. NXT had the bulk of the Ripley vs. Gonzalez match which did 901,000 viewers and 337,000 in 18-49. This was NXT’s 18-34 peak. In the seventh quarter, AEW had Shawn Spears vs. VSK and the beginning of Omega vs. Penta and did 766,000 viewers and 393,000 in 18-49. NXT had the remainder of the Grimes-Lumis and a Tommaso Ciampa promo and did 812,000 viewers and 310,000 in 18-49. In the eighth quarter, Omega vs Penta lost 18,000 viewers and gained 18,000 in 18-49. Shirai vs. LeRae gained 32,000 viewers and 11,000 in 18-49. AEW did a 0.10 in 12-17 (same as last week), 0.20 in 18-34 (up 30.5 percent), 0.44 in 35-49 (up 3.5 percent) and 0.29 in 50+ (up 3.6 percent) ... NXT did a 0.16 in 12-17 (way ahead of AEW and Smackdown), 0.15 in 18-34 (up 88.9 percent), 0.35 in 35-49 (up 48.3 percent) and 0.43 in 50+ (last weeks’ number was not available.

[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets:

Originally Posted by Observer Raw last night, going against a strong NFL number and with no notable thing that would increase the ratings, did its worst number of the ThunderDome era last night with 1.66 million viewers and an 0.48 in 18-49. Both would rank among the lowest numbers in show history ... Last night's Raw tied the fourth lowest 18-49 number in show history. The decrease came days after SmackDown had its best numbers in 18-49 since March. The key was hour three, which was down 18 percent from the first hour, the biggest drop in a long time and led to the third hour being the least-watched hour in the history of the show. The show was down four percent in viewers and six percent in 18-49 from last week. It ranked ninth for the night in 18-49 and 39th overall. However, Raw remained the number one entertainment show on cable television last night both overall and in 18-49. It was behind three-NFL related shows and six news shows in 18-49. Of the top 40 shows in 18-49, aside from ESPN, there was only Raw, Below Deck on Bravo, The Holiday Baking Championship on The Food Network, and two shows on TLC. ... Another aspect of the drop was the Tampa Bay Bucs being a marquee team as their game with the New York Giants did 11.70 million viewers. As far as the first-to-third hour drops, women 18-49 fell nine percent, men 18-49 fell 17 percent, teenage girls fell 29 percent, teenage boys fell one percent, and over 50 fell 19 percent. As compared to last year, when the same week's Raw did what was at the time the fourth lowest watched non-holiday episode in history, this year was down 22 percent in viewers, 37 percent in 18-49, and 44 percent in 18-34. The three hours were 8 p.m. 1.77 million viewers 9 p.m. 1.75 million viewers 10 p.m. 1.46 million viewers

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Of the modern era data available, the previous record low viewership for an hour of RAW was 1,463,000 viewers in hour three of the July 27th episode this past summer, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

Originally Posted by Observer Anthony Bowens and Max Caster have signed with AEW. AEW President Tony Khan confirmed today via an interview with PWInsider that Bowens and Caster have signed, and will be going forward as a team under the name The Acclaimed. PWInsider also reported that Bowens had WWE interest prior to signing with AEW. Bowens and Caster have appeared on AEW Dark in recent months, with Bowens previously teaming with Lee Moriarity and Caster losing to Shawn Spears in a singles back back in June. The two teamed together on the October 27 edition of AEW Dark, losing to Best Friends.

Originally Posted by WrestleTalk Some more news has come to light regarding new AEW signing Anthony Bowens who has signed with the promotion along with Max Caster. Fightful Select reports that there was interest from WWE in signing Bowens before spring 2019 but the company just hadn’t gotten back to him about it. It was noted that coaches and staff in WWE were “puzzled” and said that he should have been signed by the company. The new contract with AEW was said to have been signed before the start of this month. WWE has been reaching out to a number of talents that have wrestled on AEW Dark, and has signed Ben Carter for NXT UK.

Originally Posted by Observer A new stipulation has been added to the Zack Sabre Jr./Toru Yano match at King of Pro Wrestling. Yano and Sabre will battle in a No Corner Pad match. Yano frequently uses the turnbuckles to his advantage during his matches, undoing them to expose the metal within the corners. This will be for the provisional King of Pro Wrestling title, a championship that is decided via stipulation matches. An angle ran on the Road to Power Struggle event that aired on November 2. Yano, who was on commentary for the IWGP Tag Team title match that took place, entered the ring after Sabre and Taichi successfully defended the titles against YOSHI-HASHI and Hirooki Goto. Yano removed all of the turnbuckles and cut a promo saying that Sabre pisses him off because he always puts the turnbuckles back on after he takes them off. He then announced the stipulation for the match. The show ended with Sabre sending Yano into an exposed turnbuckle, causing Yano to go backstage and complain loudly. The provisional KOPW title match will open Power Struggle, which takes place on November 7.

Originally Posted by Observer ACH is the latest name announced for the MLW "Restart." From the tone of the Tuesday announcement, he will be part of the Opera Cup tournament which MLW announced will be happening this year. He joins Davey Boy Smith Jr., Laredo Kid, Lio Rush, and Shawn Daivari as those either announced or known to be part of their late-October set of tapings in Orlando, Florida. After his very public issues with WWE that resulted in his release, ACH worked a December 2019 tag team match for MLW, teaming with King Mo against Jordan Oliver and Kotto Brazil. He also worked frequently for MLW in 2018 after their relaunch. He has kept a busy schedule since July, working around the country and making appearances for GCW, NJPW Strong, and other indies. New episodes of MLW Fusion debut on Wednesday, November 18th, their first fresh content since a March set of tapings in Mexico.

Originally Posted by Observer Former NWA Women's Champion Allysin Kay is now a free agent. Kay announced overnight that she's now a free agent and available for indie bookings and appearances. Kay thanked the NWA for the opportunities she was given. "As of today, I am officially a free agent," Kay wrote. "Thank you to the NWA for the opportunities, which included one of my favorite matches of my career. I am open for indy bookings & appearances. Let’s get weird. AK"

Originally Posted by PWI Since we have received a few emails about this following last night's Raw, Bray Wyatt and Alexa Bliss are both officially babyfaces on the Raw roster. Wyatt had considered been a babyface on the Smackdown roster but given the nature of The Fiend character, obviously he's not a babyface in the traditional sense. With the addition of Bliss at Wyatt's side, playing roles similar to DC Comics' The Joker and Harley Quinn, the question as to where they stand came up again overnight. Internally, they are considered babyfaces by the company.

Originally Posted by PWI WWE filed for a trademark on the term "Chigona Bomb" on 10/29. There is no clarity for how the term would be used by WWE at this point. The trademark filing is for goods and services, noting, "Wrestling exhibitions and performances by a professional wrestler and entertainer rendered live and through broadcast media including television and radio, and via the internet or commercial online service; providing wrestling news and information via a global computer network; providing information in the fields of sports via an online community portal."

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Last week, NWA President Billy Corgan clarified that former NWA Women’s World Champion Thunder Rosa is under contract through 2021. While appearing on Busted Open Radio, Rosa weighed her options and stated that she’d like to be in a company where she can continue her outside projects such as Mission Pro Wrestling ... Rosa also spoke about the dynamic between herself and Ivelisse. Rosa first clarified that there is no issue with Ivelisse from her side and says she’ll always handle her in-ring work with professionalism. “Well you know, I never had any issues with her [Ivelisse]. I’m just gonna put it out there, never had any issues with her. I worked with her in Lucha Underground, I worked with her in other promotions and I mean, I thought the match was going well and then you guys saw what you saw. We made it work, we finished, nobody got hurt and that to me, that’s the most important part. I am not gonna — like you said, you gotta make it work and that’s what I attempted to do and even to the finish, I made sure my opponent was safe at all times, no matter what happened in-between. So, like I said, like I told you earlier, my promise with anybody that I step in the ring [with], regardless of our relationship inside or outside is to keep my opponent safe. I’m not trying to kill you. It’s not MMA. They’re not paying me a bunch of money to try to kill you. This is a dance and I try to have the best dances possible, so, that’s what happened.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling During his ‘Hall Of Fame’ podcast, Booker T dove into the announcement of Kylie Rae’s retirement from pro wrestling. Rae worked for Booker T under the Reality Of Wrestling banner and she was also trained by Booker T as well. “Man, it’s sad, it really is. Kylie, when she first came to Reality Of Wrestling, she trained for, you know, [it] seemed like a minute and she won the Diamonds Championship her first night she got in the ring, first match, and she was so special as far as being able to make fans feel a certain way and she had the Pikachu character-like and she always smiled and I tell you, I didn’t really gravitate to the gimmick or anything like that, myself personally, as far as the Pikachu thing but she obviously knew what she was doing, because fans picked her out and they loved her more than they loved all the other girls and I was like, ‘Don’t say nothing. If it’s working, let it ride. If it [isn’t] broke, don’t fix it, don’t say nothing.’ That’s the type of guy I am. So, I saw her growing, growing, growing to the point where she got a shot in AEW immediately. She was on the poster in Vegas. Yes, she was on the poster and I was like wow, and then she no-showed the show. She didn’t show up and then everything started kinda going crazy a little bit after that. She went away. I actually called her, I actually talked to her, and after I talked to her, it seemed like she got back on track, she got back in the ring and started doing indies and then boom, she got the IMPACT deal and I was like, ‘Wow, okay boom, she’s back on track’ because you know, everybody goes through something. It ain’t a day that we all [don’t] go through something. That’s just life. So I thought it was just one of those deals and then now, to no-show another pay-per-view with another company and then this [comes out], it tells me, man, she’s in a place to where maybe the last place she needs to be is around a wrestling ring, around a bunch of wrestlers. It could be something that’s maybe not helpful to her right now. But, I do think she should probably concentrate on that more than her wrestling, than anything, just because her health and her well-being is more important than anything else, and obviously she’s dealing with something and I thought about calling her and saying something but, sometimes you just need to take a minute and try to regroup and find yourself. I’m sure I’ll find myself picking the phone up and making a phone call, but it’s sad to see her in this position that she’s in because there again, she is so talented but it’s like that a lot of times too. The most talented ones, sometimes, it might be something. It might be loose wire or something here or there. You never know what it is, or it could be something stemming from their past that you never really [know]. It could be any little thing that triggers so you know, I just want to see her safe, unharmed and happy, whether that be inside of the ring or out of the ring, it really doesn’t matter. I just want to see her well-being taken care of more than anything.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Chris Van Vliet sat down with Lilian Garcia for an interview and Lilian shared that Jake Rogal, producer of ESPN’s ‘The Last Dance’ docu-series reached out to her to be a part of a documentary that he’s co-creating about Stone Cold Steve Austin. Lilian has already filmed for the documentary. “Well, the producer from The Last Dance called me and he was like, ‘Hey, hey Lil –’ actually WWE reached out to me first. They were like, ‘The producer from The Last Dance is gonna reach out to you. They want you involved in a documentary,’ and I was like, ‘Wait, what?’ So I end up getting reached out by them and it was funny because my husband and I were currently watching that documentary as this message was happening so when Jake [Rogal] reached out to me, I was just like, ‘Jake, I’m literally watching your documentary right now. Like this is amazing.’ Come to find out, they wanna do a documentary for Stone Cold Steve Austin and it’s coming out next year, and [he] gave me the biggest compliment. He said, ‘Your interview with Steve that you did on Chasing Glory was what made us realize that we wanted to do a different documentary’ because he’s had a few already but he said, ‘We’ve never heard the story of him being so shy as a kid that he couldn’t even order from the dairy queen, that his sister had to order that’ and to see what he’s become was so inspiring and I was like, ‘Holy cow, that’s amazing.’ So then they said, ‘You had such dealings and you seem to have such a friendship with him, we want you in the documentary’ and I’m like, ‘That’s amazing, totally.’ So immediately I reached out to Steve. He knew they were going to reach out to me and I was like, ‘Dude, this is so special’ and he’s like, ‘Would you really be in it?’ And I’m like, ‘Are you kidding me? Of course I’ll be in it.’”

Originally Posted by Fightful It's been almost 20 months since we've seen Ronda Rousey in a wrestling ring for WWE, but she's been in one a couple times lately for other reasons. Rousey and husband Travis Browne have been spending some time in the ring, with the latter getting some work in ahead of what would be his pro wrestling debut if he so chose. Fightful Select recently broke some news in relation to the details of the training sessions. Originally Posted by Fightful We've heard Ronda Rousey tell Natalya that she hopes they meet in the ring again one day, but Rousey has been training of late as well. She's not alone. Travis Browne has also been getting pro wrestling training in, and actually did some with James Storm as the latter showed off on social media. We've specifically heard that Browne has been working on his timing and selling of late and has impressed people with agility for his size. As of this year, Browne was still in the USADA drug testing pool required for UFC fighters, though he hasn't fought since July 2017. Dana White stated he thought Browne should retire, but he's not officially been released as of yet. Rousey herself has trained at least several times that we know of in California over the past several weeks.

Originally Posted by Fightful Since WWE moved from the Performance Center to the ThunderDome at the end of August, fans have been treated to an over the top television experience. The ThunderDome helps recreate the live event experience with virtual fans, pyro, lasers, drones, and the large scale production WWE has become known for. One complaint regarding the ThunderDome has been the crowd noise, which is a mix of real audio and piped in chants. Some fans have found the audio distracting during segments. Speaking on Token CEO, Stephanie McMahon revealed WWE didn't initially want to use the fake crowd noise in the ThunderDome. "The audio made such a difference. At first, we did not want to pipe in any audio because we thought it would come off as phony and it wouldn't feel real. We didn't like that. When we started experimenting with the mix of real audio with the amplified audio, it made such a difference as a viewer," she said. Stephanie went on to say that now is the time for brands to experiment and that consumers want to become attached to brands that experiment. She also said brands can't be afraid to fail during this times.

They should have canned the idea since their handling of fake crowd audio for the ThunderDome shows has been horrendous at times and seems to be getting worse almost every week. Pretty much took all the wrong lessons from the Orton vs. Edge "Greatest Wrestling Match Ever" and amplified it to the nth degree.

Originally Posted by Observer The company has launched an AEW Games Twitter account and has announced a major announcement on 11/10 at 6 p.m. Eastern time. This is likely the first video game announcement.

Originally Posted by Observer According to Stephanie McMahon, the upcoming Netflix docuseries on Vince McMahon will be four episodes. Talking to Barstool Sports CEO Erika Nardini on her podcast that dropped Monday, the WWE's Chief Brand Officer revealed the news. No release date or relevant information was given. McMahon said she was excited about the project, but a little nervous because it's still her father. WWE President Nick Khan gave the news during last Thursday's quarterly financial call, claiming it's one of the most expensive docuseries the streaming giant has ever done. Bill Simmons (Spotify and HBO) will be an executive producer along with Chris Smith and WWE Studios. Smith will also direct the series with Netflix's Fyre Festival documentary and The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann on his resume. The docuseries won't be the only look at the iconic WWE Chairman's life as a biography by Abraham Riesman via Simon & Schuster imprint Atria is set to come out in 2022.

TPWW Frontpage:

• Various: FTR on Young Bucks Build Issues, Thunder Rosa on Terms for Signing Future Deal, Indies
• NJPW Announces Participants for Best of the Super Jrs & Super J-Cup 2020 Tournaments
• Kylie Rae Says She’s “No Longer a Professional Wrestler”

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Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Tonight’s wrestling programs are expected to be hit by the enormous news coverage coming out of Tuesday’s U.S. Election. For NXT, they are coming off one of their best weeks of the year with Halloween Havoc and has often been less affected by outside events. Here is the current line-up advertised for tonight’s show at 8 pm Eastern on the USA Network: *Tommaso Ciampa vs. Velveteen Dream *Dakota Kai vs. Ember Moon *Toni Storm vs. Shotzi Blackheart *KUSHIDA vs. Cameron Grimes AEW presents its go-home episode for Full Gear this Saturday. Prior to All Out in September, Tony Khan stated that four times per year Dynamite is centered around building the pay-per-view and the other 48 weeks of the year are about solid in-ring action, although he left it open about playing with that philosophy. It’s not to say you can’t deliver a great in-ring show and promote the pay-per-view, but tonight’s show should lean on promos and driving home the key programs. The feud that has been scrutinized most is the FTR and Young Bucks match, which also had the largest expectations. In hindsight, the heavy push of The Bucks going heel, even with their internal justification, didn’t resonate and it’s turned the focus away from a program that was ready-made for its audience to embrace. The best option for this match is to forget all the heel attacks by The Young Bucks and just push this as the match that has been “years in the making” and settling which team is the best. You had that dynamic on day one when FTR showed up at Daily’s Place and delaying the match so long took it off course where the match felt stronger in June than it does in November. Below is the card for tonight’s episode of Dynamite at 8 pm Eastern on TNT and TSN 2 in Canada: *MJF & Wardlow vs. Ortiz & Sammy Guevara *The Young Bucks vs. Private Party *Nyla Rose vs. Red Velvet *Miro vs. Trent *Cody & The Gunn Club vs. Colt Cabana, John Silver & Ten *Face-to-face segment with Jon Moxley and Eddie Kingston *Chris Jericho on commentary On paper, it’s one of the weaker line-ups Dynamite has advertised, but again, tonight is about pushing the pay-per-view first and foremost. The face-to-face segment between Moxley and Kingston should be a strong segment with two of the best speakers in the industry and a feud that has peaked well for Saturday. Of the key matches at Full Gear, I feel Hangman Page and Kenny Omega could benefit from a sit-down interview with Jim Ross or something akin to that presentation to drive home the battle of the former champions and friends.

Originally Posted by Observer During an appearance on Busted Open Radio Wednesday, AEW president/booker Tony Khan said Orange Cassidy vs. John "4" Silver is being moved up to the Full Gear pay-per-view main card. No reason was given, but Khan said a new match for Saturday's The Buy In pre-show will be announced at some point on Wednesday. Cassidy vs. Silver was added last Wednesday after Silver helped cost Cassidy a win over TNT Champion Cody. The current main card for Saturday's PPV as of now: AEW World Champion Jon Moxley vs. Eddie Kingston in an I Quit match AEW Tag Team Champions FTR vs. The Young Bucks (If the Bucks lose, they won't challenge for the tag titles again.) AEW Women's Champion Hikaru Shida vs. Nyla Rose TNT Champion Cody vs. Darby Allin World title eliminator tournament finals: Kenny Omega vs. Hangman Page Chris Jericho vs. MJF (If MJF wins, he joins the Inner Circle.) Matt Hardy vs. Sammy Guevara in an Elite Deletion match Orange Cassidy vs. John Silver Full Gear will air live from Daily's Place in Jacksonville, Florida.

Originally Posted by Observer Both on Tuesday's edition of Impact Wrestling and on Twitter afterward, nearly the full card for Turning Point was announced. In the main event, World Champion Rich Swann will defend his title against former champion Sami Callihan. The two were on opposite teams in the main event of Tuesday's show and had a run-in on the previous week's show as well. In another rematch, Knockouts Champion Su Yung will defend against Deonna Purrazzo in an anything goes match. Their rematch on Tuesday's show ended in a disqualification after Yung hit Purrazzo in the stomach with a chair, helping set up the stipulation. In a Tag Team Title match, champions The North will defend against the Good Brothers. The two teams have been feuding for weeks with Gallows picking up a singles win over Ethan Page on Tuesday's show. The teams went to a no contest on the Bound For Glory go-home edition of Impact. Two other matches announced: Moose vs. Willie Mack and Brian Myers vs. Swoggle. Turning Point will air on Saturday, November 14th on the Impact+ streaming service.

Originally Posted by PWI On 10/30, Cody Runnels expressly abandoned the trademark applications for 'Slamboree' and 'The Match Beyond' with prejudice and WWE have accepted and dropped their opposition for both trademarks.

Originally Posted by Fightful On November 2, WWE filed to cancel its trademark on "Cody Rhodes." Heel By Nature reports that the cancelation was finalized on Wednesday morning. Cody filed to trademark the name on April 13, the day WWE's trademark lapsed, but WWE filed a late renewal, claiming that their filing and payment was delayed due to COVID-19. The late renewal was filed on May 15. In July, Cody's trademark was refused due to WWE's filing. At the time, he said he has no grudge over WWE filing for a late renewal ... In October 2019, Cody said WWE wasn't holding the name hostage and that he could use the Rhodes name without an issue, but he wouldn't. Cody has until January 2021 to file an update on his case.

Originally Posted by PWI All Japan Pro Wrestling star Zeus has tested positive for COVID-19, the company announced today. Zeus will remain isolated in a hotel in Osaka until November 11. He is scheduled to team with Shigehiro Irie in the upcoming Real World Tag League, starting on November 18.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling AEW president Tony Khan spoke with Mike Johnson at PWinsider.com to promote this Saturday’s Full Gear pay-per-view and spoke on several subjects ... On Le Dinner Debonair: "I expected it to be a very polarizing segment and it was very polarizing and I expected it would create a lot of conversation and then the next week, those guys would pull a big number and that’s what happened. I think it worked out well to do the Town Hall segment coming off it because the Town Hall segment was probably more in the context of what people have come to expect from Max and Chris. so I thought the Town Hall was more conventional and probably that’s why I thought it was, you know…obviously it did a really strong number but also made more sense to go closer to the pay per view for the next show."

Originally Posted by PWI Khan also spoke about the increasing length of AEW Dark and the potential of splitting it into two programs, which was a suggestion proposed by Johnson. Khan said if that were to happen, it would be as a streaming option and would have nothing to do with the added hour they are expected to launch on linear television with WarnerMedia.

Seeing as AEW Dark has been growing in length in recent weeks, wouldn't be surprised if they are testing out the waters to see how feasible it is on their end to run an extra hour or two of programming each week. Right now, I'd put it as a mixed bag because the AEW Dark format doesn't really lend itself well to lengthy shows.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Sean Ross Sapp at Fightful reported today that only WWE main roster talent has had to stop streaming on Twitch with NXT talent is exempt for now, which explains why Adam Cole, Jessamyn Duke, and others can continue. Several main roster performers announced last week that they were suspending their Twitch streams or left it up in the air when they would return including AJ Styles, Cesaro, Aleister Black & Zelina Vega. This comes after the edict handed down by WWE in September that talent would have to stop participating with third-party outlets including Twitch, where talent can supplement income. The performer most closely tied to this story is Paige (Saraya-Jade Bevis), who was very emotional discussing the decision she has been tasked with making and unlike the others, her in-ring days with WWE are over because of her neck problems.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Miro was a guest on Talk is Jericho Wednesday discussing his time in WWE, moving to AEW, and the contrast of the two companies. Some of the highlights included: *Noting that people were concerned to be going to work in WWE at the start of the pandemic *He was pitched on the storyline involving Lana and Bobby Lashley by Paul Heyman and told it would be “one of the main events at WrestleMania”, which you can’t fault Miro for not being an eternal optimist *It is difficult with Lana being in a different company because they are used to being together all the time *Jericho noted that when the WWE cuts occurred in April, he asked Tony Khan his thoughts on any of the available talents with Miro/Rusev being the one he named *He confirmed that WWE was furious when photos leaked in 2014 that he and Lana were engaged at the same time they were doing the storyline where Lana was with Dolph Ziggler and Rusev was with Summer Rae. Miro claimed Lana shared the photos with some friends and the photos were leaked and he had been scheduled to win the Intercontinental title and they dropped the storyline. *Miro said he had offers to go elsewhere after WWE, he had no concerns when he got the news he was being cut but said he did get a lot off his chest when he was called and told the news by a WWE official

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling James Romero has a new book coming out on November 29th covering Dwayne Johnson. The book is called Dwayne “The Rock” Johns: The People’s Champion – From WWE to Hollywood and covers his wrestling career and transition to films.

Link for those interested: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08MB5ZV7D

Originally Posted by Fightful Vince McMahon was ready to donate a hospital wing after a pitched storyline that never ended up happening. Former WWE writer Jon Rineman took part in a Reddit AMA on Tuesday and was asked for any crazy Vince stories from his time in the company. Rineman gave the following answer: As far as a crazy Vince story: we had an idea where someone was going to attack somebody in a hospital. And then I had an idea for it that Vince liked, then Heyman had a bunch of ideas Vince liked. So, Vince thinks about it and says: “We’re really gonna fuck up this hospital. How much would it cost to rebuild?” He stops, thinks a second, then says, matter-of-factly, “Hmm. I might have to donate a wing to a hospital. How much does that cost?” So, our writer’s assistant started looking up how much it cost to donate a wing to a hospital. Then later in the meeting, another idea came up that nixed the hospital idea, and Vince said, “Which one is the one without buying the hospital wing? Do that one.” Then he stopped and said, “I should donate a wing somewhere though…” and it got quiet while he thought. Then he took out his pencil and I saw him write “Hospital.” It is unknown if Vince did end up donating a hospital wing or what the original storyline entailed. When asked the best joke he's ever written, Rineman said it came from his time in WWE: “There’s always room for one more…” - Bray Wyatt, Firefly Funhouse. There is no feeling in the world as a WWF fan of the 90s than Vince going, “MMMMMM - that’s some good shit!” and winking at you. The line came from Wyatt's promo against Hulk Hogan back in February.

Originally Posted by Fightful The first round is over and the semi-final matches are set in the UWN World Title Tournament. Last Tuesday, Chris Dickinson advanced to the semi-finals with a victory over Peter Avalon. On the most recent episode of UWN Primetime Live, Fred Rosser, Shawn Daivari, and Mike Bennett all advanced to the semi-finals. Rosser was victorious over Erick Redbeard (formerly Erick Rowan in WWE) via disqualification, Daivari picked up a victory over Rocky Romero, and Bennett defeated Kevin Martinson. The semi-final matchups will see Rosser take on Dickinson while Bennett battles Daivari.

Originally Posted by Fightful United Wrestling Network has announced the lineup for its November 10 event. The night will be headlined by James Storm & Eli Drake defending the NWA Tag Team Titles against Aron Stevens & The Question Mark. This will mark the first title defense for Storm & Drake since March when they faced The Bounces on an episode of NWA Power. Storm & Drake won the titles in January at NWA Hard Times. Also announced for next Tuesday's episode of UWN Primetime Live is Lacey Ryan vs. Vipress, 4 Minutes of Heat vs. Real Money Brothers, and the semi-finals of the UWN World Title tournament. Fred Rosser will face Chris Dickinson on one side of the bracket while Shawn Daivari battles Mike Bennett on the other side of the bracket.

Originally Posted by Fightful In the build-up to their AEW Full Gear match, Eddie Kingston has railed against Jon Moxley for selling out and leaving the Independents behind. Kingston believes that when Moxley left the Independent scene to sign with WWE, he didn't stick to his guns and didn't do enough to boost the Independent scene during that time. Speaking to TSN, Kingston elaborated on his beef with Moxley. "I’m not going to forget where I came from,” Kingston said. “When I go on Twitter and see a guy from the independents doing something different and cool, I’m going to tell people about it. One of my main problems with Mox is that he didn’t use his popularity or social media with all of his followers and everything to put over places that he used to be at or people he used to run with. So I still have that outlaw, independent mindset. To me, that’s what AEW was built on. That’s why I think I would be the perfect champion for them because I have the outlaw spirit, just like [AEW executive vice presidents] the Bucks, Kenny [Omega] and Cody do. They did things their way and now look where they’re at.” Would Eddie have "sold out" the same way Moxley did if he had signed with WWE a decade ago? "No, because knowing me, I would have gotten fired three minutes in if I went when Mox went,” Kingston said. “Again, this is why I have a little bit of beef with Mox, because he started playing the game. I probably would have, at that point in time and especially at that age and what was going on in my life, gotten fired three minutes in because I wouldn’t bend. I wouldn’t have bent like he did.” Kingston had an offer from WWE following his appearance on AEW Dynamite when he answered Cody's open challenge, but took AEW's offer instead.

Originally Posted by Fightful Maven’s memorable Royal Rumble in 2002 was a roller coaster even before the match had begun. Speaking on The Bump, Maven spoke about how he was approached about going to Atlanta, where the pay-per-view was taking place. Maven figured he would be in the Royal Rumble match but didn’t know he would be eliminating Undertaker. At first, Maven thought it was a rib on him when Shane McMahon told him about the spot. “I got the call literally the day before. The day before, they called and said, ‘You’re going to Atlanta.’ That’s where the Rumble was. I flew out the next day, no clue what was going to happen. At that point, I’m not an idiot, I knew I was probably in the Rumble, but I knew I would probably come out, get a quick pop Tough Enough was going to get and then I would be thrown out and got rid of as soon as possible. When I got there and they called me to the ring, there was Shane and ‘Taker. They called me to the ring and at the time, I’m terrified. I’m the rookie, young, in my 20s and here I was with Shane McMahon and with Undertaker, scared to death. Then he tells me, ‘Maven, you’re going to go out there and eliminate [Undertaker].’ I thought he was completely joking. I thought it was the rib of the century. Well then, ‘Taker turns, looks at me and says, ‘Are you effing kidding me?’ At that point, I wanted to run. I just wanted to leave. ‘Taker had his hands with what was going on that day. He helped my career more than anyone on that single day,” Maven said. In regards to the aftermath, Maven said he and Undertaker had somewhat of a bond where Undertaker would acknowledge and respect Maven from that point forward. “He was happy. From that day on, me and him kind of had a bond. He always gave me a smile, that little, ‘Hey kid’’ look and let me know what I did, he was satisfied,” Maven said.

Originally Posted by Thesportster.com It looks like one of the released talents who jumped to Impact Wrestling from WWE is already leaving Impact. His future remains unclear ... EC3 didn't stick around with Impact Wrestling for very long. According to reports on Wednesday, the creative but somewhat controversial performer is already leaving Impact Wrestling after just a short period of time with the promotion. Fightful Select reported today that EC3 has finished up his limited run with Impact Wrestling for the time being. He joined the promotion after the numerous talent releases from WWE and it was with great anticipation that fans were wondering what he might do next. It appears he'll be sticking with ROH for the rest of the year, but beyond that, who knows? The creative former WWE star is consistently posting videos suggesting people create their own narrative and it looks like he's taking his own advice to heart. He's not gone to AEW like many might have expected he would, and he's not sticking with Impact despite a number of former WWE stars finding a good fit there. He's certainly not returning to WWE. He's marching to the beat of his own drum. There’s no word yet on if he's got a plan to jump to AEW or if he's had contact with Impact about returning at some point down the line, but it sounds like the door is open. Fightful did say that there is buzz he might create a new project separate from any major wrestling promotion.

TPWW Frontpage:

• AEW: Anthony Bowens & Max Caster Signings, Changes Made to Medical Team, AEW Games
• Scorpio Sky Pulled From Dynamite Due to COVID Precaution, New Match Added
• WWE: Netflix’s Vince Series Update, More NXT COVID-19 Concerns, Trademark, Updated SD Ratings

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Originally Posted by Observer With coverage of the 2020 election dominating the cable TV charts, AEW Dynamite finished outside the top 50 in the 18-49 demo for the first time ever last night. Last night's Dynamite averaged 717,000 viewers on TNT, topping the 610,000 viewers that NXT averaged on the USA Network. Dynamite was the go-home show for Saturday's Full Gear pay-per-view. Dynamite was down 8.2 percent in overall viewers from last week. In the 18-49 demo, the show finished 56th on cable with a 0.30 rating, down 6.3 percent from last Wednesday. NXT was down significantly from last week's Halloween Havoc episode. Last night's NXT was down 30.4 percent in total viewers from last week and finished 68th in the cable charts with a 0.14 rating in 18-49, down 44 percent from last Wednesday. In both viewership and the 18-49 demo, these were the lowest numbers for NXT since May. The combined Wednesday night viewership of 1.327 million was down 19.9 percent from last week. It's the lowest combined audience since May 20. Detailed demo numbers are not available at this time with both shows failing to chart in the top 50. Year-over-year, Dynamite was down 12.8 percent in total viewers and 14.3 percent in 18-49. NXT was down 25 percent in total viewers and 53.3 percent in 18-49. It's clear that, for whatever reason, the election coverage affected NXT more than Dynamite even though the opposite is usually the case. Taking out the cable news channels, Dynamite was second for the night in 18-49 while NXT finished 13th, which is close to normal levels for both shows. The entire top 50 last night were news shows.

For some reference, Smackdown lost around 275k viewers for its November 8, 2016 episode that went directly against the 2016 Presidential Election news coverage compared to the previous week.

Originally Posted by Observer AEW TNT Champion Cody spent nearly an hour with the media Thursday, answering questions about whether a trilogy match with Nick Aldis will ever happen, why he will stick to the stipulation of never challenging for the AEW World title, Dark, and why the TNT title means so much to him ... Here are some highlights: While he is happy to get the Rhodes last name back, he won't use it in the wrestling space. His real goal was to use it for third party ventures (ex. Go Big Show, acting gigs). He didn't provide any details on the negotiations but said it was a "no hard feelings" type arrangement. He reiterated that he will never challenge for the AEW World title because stipulations matter. He later put over how much the TNT title meant to him, how it's the "ace" title, and that maybe someday, Jon Moxley could challenge him for it. He said that Tony Khan reached out to Billy Corgan about making the Serena Deeb-Allysin Kay NWA women's title match and that the "bridges are down" when it comes to bringing in new talent. He talked about his early comments regarding AEW being more "sports-centric" and that he was referring to his own work. He put over the company's medical and concussion protocols and said the roster was having a meeting with Chris Nowinski today. He added that wrestling is violent and he thinks some fans have forgot that. However, while it's violent, he said it can't be so much that talent is injured. "We do ourselves no favors by running a sloppy shop." He said the credit for the current format of AEW Dark goes to Khan with indie talents in competitive matches. The name came from the Universal Dark Universe monster movies. He said he was "genuinely pissed" about not being no. 1 in the PWI 500 and said if wrestlers tell you they don't care about it, they aren't successful. He had a whole idea that was ruined because he didn't get the honor. He said he and Khan are on the same page with treating legends as luminaries as he didn't like how Dusty Rhodes was treated toward the end of his career. He was asked about whether he and Nick Aldis will face each other a third time and he was very doubtful that it would as he's happy about how the second match turned out.

Originally Posted by Observer Matt Jackson of the Young Bucks has a partially torn MCL and thinning of the ACL, considered a slight tear. Bryan Alvarez reported the injuries on Wednesday's Wrestling Observer Radio, explaining that is why Jackson has been selling an injury caused by FTR Pillmanizing his ankle on a recent Dynamite. Alvarez said Jackson suffered the injury in a July falls count anywhere match he and Nick Jackson had with The Butcher & The Blade. On the match-ending flying elbow spot off the set onto the stage (pictured above), the table leg jammed up his knee. He has been rehabbing it ever since, apparently avoiding surgery. The team has worked in eight matches since the injury. Dave Meltzer noted this isn't the first time Jackson has taken a real life injury and turned it into a storyline, referencing a back injury he had while still with New Japan Pro Wrestling.

Despite the injury, Matt Jackson stated on Twitter that he's been medically cleared for AW Tag title match at Full Gear this Saturday.

Originally Posted by Observer In a post-Dynamite video released on AEW's Twitter account, Tully Blanchard said he is banned from ringside for FTR's Tag Team title defense against the Young Bucks at Saturday's Full Gear. The reason given was that because of Blanchard's repeated interference in past matches and involvement in FTR's attacks on the Bucks, AEW management made the call to bar him from ringside. Blanchard said he is planning a lawsuit if the situation doesn't get fixed, citing that other managers haven't been treated like this. FTR said it was favoritism but that they would win anyway. If the Bucks don't win the titles Saturday, they will never challenge for them again.

Originally Posted by PWI All Elite Wrestling announced they will air a special episode of AEW Dark tomorrow ahead of Full Gear, featuring: *Christopher Daniels vs. Matt Sydal. *Brandon Cutler vs. Michael Nakazawa. *Sean Maluta & Ryzin vs. The Dark Order. *Ricky Starks vs. Trevor Read. *Chuck Taylor vs. Lee Johnson. *Big Swole vs. Tesha Price. *Griff Garrison vs. Ariel Dominguez.

Out of that card, Daniels vs. Sydal and Taylor vs. Johnson have potential of being very good and something I'd recommend if your interested in watching. Also a 7-match card with some potential Full Gear promotion stuff probably means its going to be somewhere in the hour to 90 minutes range for length.

Originally Posted by PWI WWE held a virtual all hands on deck "Town Hall" style meeting for employees this morning with Stephanie McMahon, Nick Khan, Sarah Cummins (Senior Vice President, Consumer Products) and new CFO Kristina Salen, among others, taking part. The major news was that the company is instituting a flexible work policy going forward. Depending on their role for the company, going forward, employees can choose to work from the office or home and will not be required to return full-time to the office. WWE is still moving forward with their new HQ in Stamford, but has obviously delayed that process. They are still going to move the company to the new, much larger HQ, however. Salen specifically stated that going forward, she will be doing presentations on the company's quarterly earnings for employees so she and the company can directly communicate with the employees. The presentations would happen after the company's earnings calls. During a Q&A portion of the town hall, live events were brought up and the company stated that they don't know for sure when they can resume them given the current COVID-19 environment. There were also a lot of questions asking Khan and Salen about what brought them to the company. We are told it was a mostly positive meeting with the company thanking everyone for their hard work and stressing they want to increase communication so that everyone has greater awareness of how WWE is doing.

Originally Posted by PWI Historian Tim Hornbaker is currently working on a biography of former WWWF Champion "Nature Boy" Buddy Rogers. The book, which will be published by Crowbar Press, has been titled Master of the Ring.

Originally Posted by PWI Jaxson Ryker has deleted his Twitter account. He and The Forgotten Sons have not been seen on WWE programming for some time.

Originally Posted by PWI Internally, Ring of Honor believes ROH Champion Rush and ROH TV Champion Dragon Lee will return at next month's TV tapings.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Jake “The Snake” Roberts joined the ‘Nothing Beats Experience’ show on the ‘Premier Live TV’ YouTube channel. Jake was candid about his recent health issues that resulted in him needing a nasal cannula for the interview. Jake mentioned that his health issues arose shortly after Lance Archer contracted Coronavirus which was in late September. Roberts added that he’s battling chronic obstructive pulmonary disease which he’s been open about in the past. Both Archer and Roberts were featured on this week’s AEW Dark. “I’m just gonna hit on it fairly briefly because we’re still struggling with it. About a week ago man, I just couldn’t quit coughing, and couldn’t breath. That’s not good, you know? And wound up having to get to the hospital and stay for a few days and I wish I could say this was COVID, but it’s not. It’s not. What I’ve got is worse than COVID. It’s something that was passed down to me through the bloodlines, hereditary and all that stuff and it’s not your happy camper stuff man. It’s issues with C.O.P.D. (Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease). Of course, me being an ignorant son of b*tch, I smoke cigarettes, you dumb f*ck. Guys, if you don’t ever do anything in life, just don’t smoke and you’ll live much happier. I promise you that, really. I mean it’s the bastard companies that hook us all and get us all into that. Such bullsh*t but… it’s serious, for me. I don’t get the right amount of oxygen into my blood and that’s not good and I don’t know how much it’s going to limit me in my future. We’re testing it today for the first time to try and go do something. I know that without the oxygen, if I talk for about 20 seconds, I’m done. I can’t go anymore. It’s not there. So this is gonna be something I’m going to have to work with and the thing that I’m happy or happiest about is that I’m in AEW and they actually give a damn. It’s really wild. They actually care about the athletes, they actually get us the help that we need, they actually set up protocol so us dumb ass wrestlers don’t say, ‘Hey, I’m okay. I can get in there. I got one arm missing, you know? It’s okay.’ Wrestlers just don’t quit, we don’t quit, we don’t quit. ‘Man I can’t,’ you know? That’s what losers do. But, these guys are smart enough to protect us from ourselves and I am so over the top happy with them. The care that they’ve given Lance [Archer] because he does have the COVID and… it’s so weird man how that all happened. It’s like he went down with the COVID and then I went down the next night with this, and it’s like what? But, that’s just the way it turned out and again, I just, all I want to do is get out there and just do what I do man. That’s all I want.” Jake talked about working on the writing team with Vince McMahon in WWF. He recalled seeing the star potential in Stone Cold Steve Austin early in Steve’s career, even when Vince didn’t think Steve could become a main-event talent. “But, when Steve Austin came to WWF, I was helping write television, and I watched him, and I said, ‘This motherf*cker got it man. He’s got that ‘it’ factor and he don’t even know he’s got it.’ He didn’t. String ass blonde hair, get rid of that sh*t. He ain’t got none left anyway. I know how that feels but anyway, he started talking to me and I started talking to him, he wanted to get better and he was listening. Every night he was on the road, he would call me and tell me what happened in his match and how he dealt with it and how he brought it to the end, and what result it had. Did it make him bigger, smaller, what? So I worked with him. Well at the same time I’m helping write television, I’m starting to scoot him into places. Sort of as an afterthought so nobody was watching. Well then one day I told Vince [McMahon], I said, ‘That guy right there is gonna be your next super, superstar.’ ‘You kidding me Jake?’ He said, ‘That guy, he’ll never make it past fifth, sixth match. He’s not a main-eventer.’ I said, ‘The f*ck he ain’t.’ He said, ‘Do you think so?’ I said, ‘Yeah I think so,’ and we tried the thing and I guess it might’ve worked huh?”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Miro guest appeared on Chris Jericho’s ‘Talk Is Jericho’ podcast to discuss his career in WWE and his aspirations in AEW. Miro reflected on the storyline involving himself, Lana, Liv Morgan and Bobby Lashley. Miro stated that when initially informed about the storyline, Paul Heyman told him that the payoff could be a main event spot at WrestleMania. “And I left and I stayed home for three or four months and I think Paul Heyman called us with that story, and I was like, ‘Where is it leading?’ Of course because this is my first question. Cool, it’s not my favorite story but where is it leading? ‘Main event of WrestleMania. One of the main events of WrestleMania.’ When you hear that, what are you gonna say? There’s plans and this is September, October, whatever it was so it’s a few months planned and it’s very realistic. Cool, I jumped on board and I knew it was a red flag since the beginning. But we still — we did turn it around. I think because the story was good, it was very controversial, but it didn’t turn around once again until I started having fun. I started playing the crazy guy because Paul Heyman was telling me, ‘You don’t care about her, you’re so over it. You just wanna have fun. You’re fine to be away,’ and we got there eventually but the other side, the other camp, Vince is thinking the complete opposite of, ‘Why are you smiling? Why are you [like] this? You’re heartbroken.’ Now, they can’t get it together between each other and I’m stuck in the middle, and at the end of the day, when everything was said and done, they went all for me but during the period, I guess Vince loved Bobby [Lashley] and his heat and decided [for] him to beat me every night or whatnot" ... Further commenting on he and Lana’s real-life marriage being brought into WWE storylines, Miro reiterated that the higher-ups in WWE were not too happy about that. He was supposed to win the Intercontinental Title prior to the news of he and Lana’s marriage becoming public but those plans were scrapped. “I never had heat with anybody. I remember the one time I had heat was about the wedding, but that was not our fault either. When me and CJ [Lana] got engaged, they said that we leaked the pictures which is not true at all, in real life. So we were in an angle. Me and Summer [Rae] against Lana and Dolph [Ziggler], and we did get engaged but she sent that picture to the office and to some of the girls. It’s the happiest day of her life, she’s getting engaged. Somebody leaks that and they blame her, they blame me, I do jobs for six months. Our story gets cancelled that night, that night! We [were] in Chicago, I remember it because I was supposed to win the I.C. Title. We were supposed to get married with Summer. They nixed it that night and when I talked to Vince, he was like, ‘Well TMZ, it’s like CNN, it’s like world news. Everybody knows it’s true.’ I’m like, ‘What?’”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling To promote AEW Full Gear, Tony Khan chatted with Bleacher Report Live to discuss the match card. While speaking about Hikaru Shida and Nyla Rose’s AEW Women’s World Title match, Khan explained Vickie Guerrero and Nyla Rose’s absence from TV and shared that Vickie was unavailable due to personal reasons. “I would have liked — Vickie Guerrero was unavailable. Not because of illness. It was not anything like that, but Vicky had been unavailable to us for personal reasons between her and us, these last couple weeks and I would’ve liked to have seen a little bit more of Vickie and Nyla in the build and that’s because Vickie had said, ‘Nyla’s not gonna be around, not gonna do anything until she gets a chance to challenge for the title.’”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Per ‘TheCubsFan’, CMLL announced that they will not be doing live shows over the next several weeks. Play-by-play commentator/executive Julio Cesar Rivera stated that CMLL had a deal with TicketMaster for September and October shows but not beyond that. They will return to Friday nights on November 27th. CMLL’s TV shows will feature new content.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling On the latest AEW Unrestricted podcast, Tony Khan joined the show to discuss all things Full Gear. During the podcast, Khan revealed that he originally wanted to use David Arquette in the MJF/Inner Circle Town Hall meeting segment on Dynamite. “I also had an idea. I wanted to use David Arquette. I thought he would’ve been good too and David Arquette actually was the original person I wanted to use in Peter Avalon’s spot of the, ‘Can I join The Inner Circle?’ But it would’ve been a very different reaction. It would’ve been a very different reaction. They would’ve considered it maybe a little more with David Arquette as opposed to Peter Avalon.” MJF and Chris Jericho’s Le Dinner Debonair segment aired the week prior to the Town Hall segment. Khan shared that when Jericho pitched the idea to him, he wanted it to be a dream sequence, as in when Jericho came to, he realized that he and MJF’s entire musical number was a daydream he had while at dinner. “This was something where Chris came in and he pitched — the one thing on this little grid of stuff that I really took exception to was he pitched a dream sequence. That it would be a dream sequence where they would start singing and it would be like his dream and I was like, ‘No, we’re not gonna do that.’ We can’t do that and I can’t cannibalize the show like that but I do love the idea of Chris and Max singing. If I could do something again in hindsight and we all agreed on this and I brought this up and everyone thought it was a good point I think. I would’ve done it in the ring. I would’ve rather done it in the ring and I think, it would’ve been challenging to do it live but we could have even taped it in the ring and I think it could have come off great but I think having it between the ropes and in the squared circle would’ve been the way to go. But, hindsight’s 20/20 but I think the idea of it was great. Now I was not gonna do it as the dream sequence but I thought that was — the idea of Chris and Max singing really appealed to me and it still does, and I think there’s a lot to it and so it definitely created conversation around this match.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling The Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling podcast welcomed Arn Anderson onto the show. Arn is in the process of trademarking the ‘Four Horseman’ name for pro wrestling purposes and he talked about what led to that decision and the process of trademarking it. “I came up with it. I came up with the name, and it was on a promo and it just happened generically. It just kind of happened, and it came from the Bible verse and all that stuff. I’ve never trademarked it, I never owned it but I have since, since I’ve been the one constant as far as Horsemen go throughout the years, I thought, ‘Well, I will check into this’ and had a lawyer check into this, trademark lawyer and it hasn’t been trademarked. So, we’re right now in the middle of attempting to trademark that and it’s — I don’t think you can use it just for anything but — and I know you can’t but Notre Dame had some issues with it, obviously. Comes from the Bible, you can’t really fight the Bible nor do I want to. But for wrestling purposes, for appearances or the name of a group or something like that, that’s solely what I’m trying to do. Whatever we do, if anything, the name going forward, I just wanted to make sure it was protected, it’s special. Somewhere down the road, somebody might wanna break it out and use it again, who knows?”

Originally Posted by WrestleTalk WWE reportedly had interest in signing another indie star who will be finishing up on the indies soon, indicating he’s signed a contract. Fightful Select reports that WWE did have interest in Alex Zayne, although doesn’t confirm whether he’s signed or not. WWE has expressed interest in a number of indie wrestlers who have been showcased on the likes of AEW Dark and NJPW Strong recently. Game Changer Wrestling made the announcement today that Zayne’s final indie match would be this Sunday at the promotion’s So Much Fun show.

Originally Posted by 411Mania It was reported earlier this year that the NWA reneged on releasing Zicky Dice from his contract, after it was previously claimed that he was a free agent. Fightful Select reports that his deal with the company expires at the end of the year. Since he was the TV champion, NWA rolled over his deal on September 1 to go until the end of 2020. He then dropped the belt to Da Pope at a UWN Primetime Live show. That reportedly took place “without incident.” According to the report, Dice has also had some heat with Nick Aldis, as well as disagreements that were “well known” in the NWA locker room. If Dice leaves, then he will join James Storm, Ricky Starks and Royce Isaacs as wrestlers whose contracts have expired this year.

TPWW Frontpage:

• Four Matches Announced for Next Week’s Dynamite and NXT

[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets (Observer Newsletter Edition):

WWE also has the 34th incarnation of Survivor Series, the second oldest annual big event on the calendar, taking place 11/22 at the Amway Center in Orlando. The build for this year’s Survivor Series has been unique in the sense the matches are pushed on television, but the two television shows are largely in their own alternate universe with the key stars involved in programs having nothing to do with the matches. There are still two weeks of Raw and three weeks of Smackdown left, but Raw is building some stuff when it comes to tension among the Raw men’s and women’s teams, but not building any angles yet with the Smackdown team. In the “money” spots, Roman Reigns right now has no program. His television time has been around getting Jey Uso to side with him and start a heel faction. He’s scheduled to work with Daniel Bryan, out of necessity it seems, because Bryan wasn’t positioned like a main event title contender at all when he returned. Raw is all about a three-way program with Randy Orton as champion with Drew McIntyre and The Fiend, and an offshoot of Miz in the shadows with the Money in the Bank briefcase. None of the televised feuds except for the internal turmoil on the men’s and women’s teams relate at all to Survivor Series. The decision was made to do a formula show, a men’s and women’s Survivor Series match and battles of the champions on each brand against each other in non-title matches. The winners and losers barely matter and in all cases won’t lead to any rematches. They’ve created a formula and decided to stick with it. They are also advertising that all of these matches could change, which would seem to indicate title matches on television for many of the titles beforehand ... The show also has elimination matches that in both cases should be long, as they should be five to nine falls. There does feel like far less interest without NXT involvement. COVID is a very serious issue, but it was NXT that was the lifeblood of last year’s event and it helped elevate Rhea Ripley and Keith Lee and the overall NXT brand. Granted, it’s tough right now, as while Io Shirai and Team NXT’s could create interest in three matches, the booking of Johnny Gargano in the ring with Bobby Lashley won’t do anyone any favors even if Gargano can wrestling-wise pull it off, and with the injury to Finn Balor, there is no NXT champion in play. Plus the tag champs of Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch would only serve to allow a clean finish in that match without the Street Profits or New Day beating each other.

Regarding the Twitch situation, there are some wrestlers who have been talking to Andrew Yang and a lot more just grumbling about it. As far as people thinking this could be a unification issue where they will try and stand up together or unionize, I don’t sense this or anything will do that. As far as what happens next in the political world, they do have an ally who is a fan and will push for them, but there are still a lot of things that will shake out as to whether or not anything more comes of this. If Trump wins, anything the slightest bit negative to Vince McMahon or Dana White looks to be totally off the table. If Biden wins, there is still the issue of spending time for such a relatively few people, and really, WWE talent, while they should be paid much more based on revenue generated, once you get to the main roster, the pay is very good to excellent. And just because there is existing legislation (The Ali act) for boxing that can be expanded to MMA, and that MMA fighters being real athletes resonates more with public perception, Yang would probably have more luck on that project. In the end it’s very clear WWE made the move because they want to either start something on their own or more likely make a group deal with Twitch or a similar platform and to do that can’t have people having individual deals. They also want to crack down on people using their wrestling names that WWE owns to make outside money. Many have brought up Bruce Prichard, who is an employee, is being able to continue his podcast while talent, not employees, are being stopped from making money on social media and in the case of some women, they can use their fame to make considerable money. It will be notable if they allow any future people who were indie stars like they did Adam Cole, Kyle O’Reilly, Matt Riddle, Walter, Keith Lee, Ricochet and others coming in to use established names that WWE wouldn’t fully own. There had been talk of a meeting taking place on 10/30, but there was no meeting. Talent was made aware of no more Twitch channels and that marketing yourself on YouTube is okay

A photo was released of the people who are there to monitor the fans on Thunderdome with instructions of what exactly are immediate bans and getting the person off the air. The Heel by Nature web site was able to decipher as of this past week what WWE specifically bans: AEW, Impact, New Japan Pro Wrestling (mentions and logos) and names Enzo Amore, Tony Khan, Cody Rhodes, Brandi Rhodes, Marty Scurll, Young Bucks, Chris Benoit, C.M. Punk, Jim Cornette, Alberto El Patron, Ryback, Ashley Massaro, Superstar Billy Graham, Vickie Guerrero and flags of Hong Kong, Taiwan and Tibet. I’m guessing the last three are about offending their partners in China. I mean, Vickie Guerrero is a minor character on Impact but I have no idea what she did that puts her on the list, whereas Chris Jericho, Kenny Omega and Jon Moxley are not on the list. Maybe they aren’t because they were told earlier since we know of issues with people who had worn Dean Ambrose shirts being pulled ad Jericho would probably be the first guy you’d think would be on the list. Really, I can get most of the names for different reasons, Massaro on the Google issue because of the claims she made, but it does really show being spooked by Punk, Cornette, Ryback, Graham and Guerrero at a level they really shouldn’t be concerned about, although Punk was the go-to-protest chant by fans before the pandemic

The original plan for Reigns vs. Uso was just one meeting as the original Hell in a Cell booking was going to be a four-way with Reigns, Fiend, Strowman and a fourth person, which explains the Reigns-Fiend tease that was never followed up on at that time

Kylie Rae (Brianna Sparrey, 28), announced that she was no longer a pro wrestler after disappearing without calling Impact officials prior to the 10/24 Bound for Glory show. This was the second time Sparrey had missed a high–profile show in what were apparently terrible mental health issues. Sparrey would have likely been the top women’s star in AEW. She had a unique likability factor and was a great athlete who took to pro wrestling quickly. When she started breaking through on the Chicago independent scene, we were told that she had the “it” factor that would make her a major star. Struggles like this can be crippling in some cases. These are issues that far more people face than most realize, but obviously in her case it was at the extreme level ... Kylie Rae, as Smilin Kylie Rae, was introduced by AEW at its press conference in Las Vegas in early 2019. At the time, she and Britt Baker were being positioned as the top babyfaces in the promotion. Baker was a good female face of the company for media purposes due to being well spoken and the uniqueness of being a practicing dentist. Rae was the better wrestler of the two and had a unique connection that would have worked big with the nature of the AEW audience. The belief is she could have connected at the Bayley/NXT level, with Cody even getting heat for once making the comparison between the two and saying Rae was the real one of the two. It’s even possible inadvertently that this turned out to be the beginning of problems, as both Cody and Rae got a tremendous amount of horrible tweets from tribal type fans, and while Cody may be able to handle that it went with the territory, not everyone is like that. But it didn’t happen. She missed Fyter Fest with circumstances that were never explained. When we look back, it appeared certain insecurities she had were also what made her likeable and come across as real and authentic in an often-contrived world. At the Las Vegas press conference, she was backstage pretty much sitting by herself and smiling at people. She was clearly nervous when she went in front of the fans, which she pulled off in an endearing way. She got some whistles from the guys in the audience which made her happy. She noted she had just bought a new dress and was concerned how she looked in it and how that reaction gave her confidence. When she got a big reaction before Double or Nothing at the weigh-in event, she was moved to tears. She had uncertainty written all over her face. When she missed Fyter Fest, where she was scheduled for a win over Leva Bates, with no explanation, and nobody was talking about it, it led to the idea of a cover-up, and in hindsight it was an attempt to keep quiet the issues that were plaguing her. In September, after she had not made any public appearances for nearly two months, Tony Khan just said that she had asked for her release, it was given, and the split up was very amicable. Just two weeks later, she was back on the independent scene. She worked a date in Chicago as a surprise appearance and the crowd went crazy and she came across extremely grateful. A month after that, on October 20, 2019, she made a surprise appearance at the Impact Bound for Glory show in an intergender gauntlet match. She continued to work independent dates but didn’t return to Impact until March, just prior to the pandemic, when she signed a deal with the company. She had been a regular on television ever since, and won another gauntlet match at Slammiversary on 7/18 to become the top contender for the women’s title. She was scheduled to face Deonna Purrazzo for the title on Bound for Glory. She was in Nashville the night of the show. She never came to the PPV the next day. Obviously the company, after she didn’t arrive, tried to contact her and those who knew her in the company tried as well with no luck. The company eventually got so concerned they tried to get the hotel to conduct a wellness check. They opened up her hotel room and she was gone without a trace. They called numerous people including her fiancé, independent wrestler Isaias Velasquez. As the show went on, the company clearly did not know how to handle a tough situation. During the show nothing was ever said about her. Before her match was to start, announcer Josh Matthews talked about Purrazzo and Kylie Rae about to start, and they played the video package produced for the match. I’m not sure why they did any of this at that point ... Impact issued a gag order to everyone and none of the company officials, nor any wrestlers, have commented on what happened. All they knew, and this was after the show and the next day, is that she was unharmed and not injured (although she was injured in a match two weeks earlier, but she was said to be fine physically when she came to Nashville for the show). As best we can tell, everyone was sympathetic because of the belief it was a mental health issue that kicked in. Even to this point Impact did not address the situation publicly. Whatever her issues are must be serious, because at least for now, she seemed to make it clear she is not only no longer doing pro wrestling, but is dropping adding anything new to patreon content and removing herself from social media. Social media if a celebrity allows it to be, can be crippling from a mental standpoint due to the trolls. Every celebrity on social media has to deal with it in one form or another. With a woman celebrity, who is judged so much on their looks, it can be really cruel. Once she was upset because she had lost a good deal of weight in the past year, not that she was ever what one would call out of shape, but she got in great shape. Evidently she took criticism from people because of the idea she had dropped weight, almost the exact opposite reaction than you’d expect from male fans, but there will always be trolls. She said she was happier and felt better at her lighter weight and you could tell it was a subject that bothered her, in the sense she had trained and dieted to get in great shape and no matter what, there will always be many people who will harp on women over their looks.

AEW’s Full Gear PPV is 11/7 from Jacksonville, a show that on paper looks to be the strongest lineup in the history of the company. Because AEW’s weakest PPV show in its history from a business standpoint (around 85,000 buys) was last year’s Full Gear, the company is going in with lesser expectations than for its other shows this year. Instead of putting on a lesser show, they’re putting on two matches that have been teased for a long time. Adam Page vs. Kenny Omega was teased from the end of last year and throughout their tag team run, only at that point it appeared Page would be the heel and now Omega is. Young Bucks vs. FTR is an insider rivalry that dates back four years. Whether it was two months since the last show, or competition from college football, or simply less interest in last year’s show even though it was the first one promoted by weekly television are all things this year will help us learn. Last year Tony Khan picked a date with no UFC, but ended up with stiffer competition from the younger audience with a Logan Paul fight. This year there is a UFC, but it’s a weak ESPN 2 show, but has the usual Saturday night college football to contend with. Jon Moxley vs. Eddie Kingston for the AEW title headlines, a match that five months ago would have been looked at as little more than a TV squash match. But the mic work by both has been strong, and the face-to-face on the go-home show was at all-time classic level. As great as Kingston has been, from television, it feels like a Moxley vs. Omega direction right now. Tony Khan confirmed them going on last, which given how strong the undercard is likely to be, is quite the challenge. FTR vs. Young Bucks for the tag titles has two key stipulations. The first is that if the Young Bucks lose, they can never challenge for the titles again. The second is that Tully Blanchard is banned from ringside. The angle where they Pillmanized the ankle of Matt Jackson was the cover because Matt actually has a partially torn MCL and a thinning ACL. He’s doing rehab rather than surgery at this point. So this will be more of a storytelling match, although it no doubt would have been either way. The injury does affect things, but these are two of the best tag teams of the last decade working together for the first time ... Everyone figured Full Gear tickets would sell out instantly when they were put on sale, like All Out did. But with 925 tickets put on sale on 10/30, by the next evening they had sold 841 and at press time there were 45 tickets left, all but six priced at $130 or more. With business partners tickets, they will put slightly more than 1,000 fans in the building which would be the second largest U.S. crowd for wrestling since the pandemic. But this is a great lineup and forget about the local market, it tells you people are not willing to travel in great numbers right now for an AEW show. I don’t think this is a fair sign of anything past the difficulties in selling tickets to a major live wrestling event right now. I don’t take this so much as a representation of the drawing ability of the product but simply just how few people are willing to travel in at this time, and the oversaturation with running live almost every Wednesday night in Jacksonville. My suspicion is when WWE moves out of Orlando if they go to a place and sell tickets, they’ll probably sell out instantly the first week with huge demand and then really struggle by a few weeks as well. If WWE tries to sell even a small amount of tickets in a new market, it’ll be every Monday and Friday, and one Sunday per month, all in the same building. So they may end up with the same issues, which also won’t be indicative of the true market strength of the product as much as the circumstances.

While New Japan gets a lot of credit for the Shibata crew, nobody has the level of young talent that Dragon Gate has right now, with Ishida, Skywalker, Dia Inferno, Kota Minoura, Dragon Dia, Strong Machine J, Kobune, Taketo Kamei and Madoka Kikuta. All are 26 or under and most are 20 to 22. Kobune, Kamei and Kikuta are all legitimate rookies and Kobune is this year’s rookie of the year standout. Dragon Gate also has another ten wrestlers waiting to debut.

AAA: Konnan was on his podcast talking about the Marvel deal. He said the original plan was a stadium show in Monterrey after the very successful TripleMania Regia show where they would debut the new characters. Konnan specifically said Terror Purpura, who will be the Thanos character, will be the dominant character. Everything about the Thanos character I’ve heard indicates to me that if he hadn’t signed with WWE, that Killer Kross would have had a good shot at the role. Plus, Konnan was always singing his praises about being a superstar.. He said Marvel is very detail oriented on this project right down to how the characters walk to the ring. Marvel, AAA and fashion designer Vero Solis will be putting together a Marvel superhero themed clothing line as well

[AAA] They did the drive-in shows at the Hermano Rodriguez race track in Mexico City this weekend. The biggest show on 11/1 aired live on Facebook and got great reviews ... This was the last of the drive-in shows so at this point nothing is on the schedule except TripleMania, and that doesn’t have an official date. This was the last show for the promotion for at least a few weeks During the show Hugo Savinovich talked about the Colon family of Carlito, Orlando “Epico” and Eddie “Primo” were coming to AAA as would be Lio Rush. Konnan has a long friendship with the Colons and he’s a big fan of Lio Rush’s work

Even though he’s not even wrestling on this tour, Jeff Cobb is still in Japan and staying through New Year’s Dash. He’s basically living at the dojo and training. Cobb has no real role unless he ends up in The Empire group which was talked about but the spot went to Great O’Khan. He’s their own trainee and it’s time for him to get a push so he does. It’s just how it works there even though Cobb would have worked out so much better in the spot. But he still could be an addition. He was to be in the tag team tournament but his planned partner (Mikey Nicholls) couldn’t get to Japan

The death of Sean Connery, the original James Bond, at 90 on 10/31, leads to a few notes on Bond/wrestling crossovers. Connery was first discovered after placing third in the 1953 Mr. Universe bodybuilding contest. He had two notable villain opponents in movies who were famous pro wrestlers. In the 1964 movie “Goldfinger,” former Olympic silver medalist in weightlifting, Harold Sakata, who became pro wrestler Tosh Togo, was cast as his villain rival Oddjob, with a magic hat. That role ended up being considered one of the all-time classic villain roles in action movies. After the movie came out, he changed his wrestling name to “Oddjob Tosh Togo” for the rest of his career and was billed as a movie star. In the 1967 movie, “You Only Live Twice,” he had a fight scene with Peter Anderson, who as Peter Maivia, the grandfather of Dwayne Johnson, who went on to become one of pro wrestling’s biggest superstars of the late 60s and 70s. Actually the scene of Maivia, who was known in wrestling as a famed streetfighter, throwing Connery threw a window was reminiscent of the famous 1969 brawl he had with Billy Robinson. Later in his Bond career, British heavyweight star and former bodybuilder Wayne Bridges was used as Connery’s body double at times

Laredo Kid from AAA, ACH, Lio Rush and Davey Boy Smith Jr. were at the last set of [MLW] tapings. They were taping multiple shows daily with no audience and it was said to be a very hard Relations between Court Bauer and Smith are said to be fine. Smith said he’s known Bauer since 2004 when he was a teenager and he’s always liked him. He’s under contract through 12/18. He was going to start as a regular with All Japan at the Champion Carnival tournament and then the pandemic hit. He was at Chris Jericho’s Halloween party this past week and spoke to Tony Khan but they aren’t talking any business until after his MLW deal is up. He’s had interest from WWE, Khan expressed interest, and there is interest from All Japan, Impact and MLW and has no favorite or leaning past saying this decision will be made based on offer and whatever makes the most sense business-wise.

The reason there was no Miro & Kip Sabian vs. Best Friends match on the [AEW Full Gear 2020] PPV is the decision was made to keep that as a long-term Dynamite program, similar to Best Friends vs. Santana & Ortiz and Darby Allin vs. Ricky Starks

Regarding Pac, the issue isn’t as much getting him into the U.S. as getting him back. Every time he goes back he would have to go through two weeks of quarantine. But they do have something in place for him to return

The WWE Network is promoting November around Undertaker so the live feed is featuring tons of Undertaker compilations and documentaries and because of that, it dominates the rankings. Much of the rankings are based on what shows air in the right time slots on the regular streaming feed as opposed to VOD. This week there was also a huge increase for NXT because of the Havoc show and NXT U.K. because of the word of mouth of the Walter vs. Ilja Dragunov match. Viewership numbers for all but the live specials aren’t that large so word-of-mouth can greatly affect the ranking. The top ten this week was: 1. Meeting The Undertaker; 2. Hell in a Cell; 3. Undertaker’s Most Bone Chilling matches; 4. NXT from 10/28; 5. Uncool with Alexa Bliss with Tyler Breeze; 6. NXT U.K. from 10/29; 7. WrestleMania 30; 8. Lilian Garcia’s Chasing Glory with Zelina Vega; 9. Talking Smack on 10/31; 10. Best of WCW Halloween Havoc. 205 Live wasn’t top 25 and there were no other secondary shows in the top 25 nor any independent shows or compilations

WWE Ratings, AEW vs. NXT Ratings:

SPOILER: show

Raw on 11/2 did 1,656,000 viewers and 0.48 in 18-49, making it the fifth lowest total viewers in history and tied for fourth lowest in 18-49, and hour three was the least watched hour in the history of the show. The number was a combination of factors to where you can throw a lot of this out. The show has done notably better since moving to the Thunderdome, but this was the day before the election and that was going to hurt somewhat. In addition, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. New York Giants football game on ESPN did 11,703,000 viewers, 3.54 in 18-49 and 2.46 in 18-34. It was also a game where the outcome was in the balance in the third hour, an hour wrestling numbers plummeted. Hour three had 1,455,000 viewers, breaking the all-time record low of 1,463,000 set by hour three on 7/27, during the dead Performance Center period when the TV was setting record lows. The second-to-third hour drop of 16.7 percent was the third largest second-to-third hour drop in history, trailing only shows this year on 2/17 and 3/30. The hour was built around New Day vs. Shelton Benjamin & Cedric Alexander in a non-title match, Ricochet vs. Tucker and Drew McIntyre in a handicap match against The Miz & John Morrison. The bottom line is that what they were teasing, a Randy Orton comeback on McIntyre and the handicap match, wasn’t something that got people to stay, but the competition was definitely a factor in that. The show did 1,767,000 viewers in the first hour. The second hour did 1,747,000 viewers. Hour three also was the lowest watched ever for 25-54, 50+ and second lowest (behind 9/7) for men 18-49 in the history of the show. Raw was No. 39 overall and No. 9 in 18-49 ... It was down 4.4 percent in viewers from last week and 5.9 percent in 18-49. It was the least-watched Raw show since 8/17, which was when it bottomed out before the comeback in the Thunderdome. As compared to last year, on a show that also did poorly (at the time the fourth lowest non-holiday show in history), it was down 22.4 percent in viewers, 36.8 percent in 18-49 and 43.8 percent in 18-34.

Smackdown on 10/30 did strong numbers with a 1.36 rating and 2,286,000 viewers (1.39 viewers per home, well above normal) and an 0.65 (849,000 viewers) in 18-49. It was the best 18-49 number since 3/27 and viewers were the highest overall number since 9/11, a show which drew big over the novelty of the Thunderdome. It actually beat the draft show in both numbers, although a major key was lack of sports competition as compared to the past two months, not that quality and interest in storylines aren’t the biggest reason. It was up 4.4 percent in households from two weeks ago, 17.7 percent in viewers, 17.4 percent in 18-49 and 25.0 percent in 18-34. The biggest take is they kept the audience throughout the show as this was the first episode of Raw or Smackdown in recent memory where the last segment actually was the highest rated, which tells you that the Roman Reigns/Jey Uso situation resonated in a way that changed usual viewer habits. They’ve been battling constant competition at the level of an NBA or MLB playoff game. The other thing is that on a network station, a large percentage of the homes with network access doesn’t have cable access. Network competition is way down due to the absence of new scripted prime time shows. Aside from Shark Tank on ABC, everything else on network TV were reruns and news. Smackdown tied Shark Tank for first place on television in 18-49 but Smackdown was far ahead with males 18-49 ... Smackdown still had the fewest viewers of any network show except a rerun of America Ninja Warrior that did 1,945,000 viewers, but only 0.3 in 18-49. Smackdown’s total viewer number was so much lower than all the other network shows because it was last by a pretty big margin in 50+. Because Smackdown was on FS 1 last week, any comparisons only show how much different airing on cable and network is, given it rose from 881,000 viewers and 0.25 in 18-49. The same thing happened, actually worse, last year. The combination of no World Series and cable vs. network was worth 2.6 times the number of total viewers and 2.6 times the number of 18-49 viewers. As compared to the same week last year, although last year was against strong network competition, it was down only 9.6 percent in viewers, a far lesser drop than Smackdown or Raw have done as compared to last year in a long time, down 20.0 percent in 18-49 and 33.3 percent in 18-34. Basically that shows even on a very good week the show has “aged up” notably as compared to the same period last year. In the segments, the big news was the final segment with the Sasha Banks/Bayley and Roman Reigns/Jey Uso plus Uso vs. Daniel Bryan match which did 2.34 million viewers. It was the highest segment in recent memory and the first time the last half hour was the highest rated on the show also in recent memory. The first half our with Reigns & Uso plus Kevin Owens vs Dolph Ziggler did 2.32 million viewers The second half hour with Lars Sullivan, Aalyah and Murphy and Bianca Belair vs. Natalya vs. Billie Kay did 2.22 million viewers. The Murphy, Aalyah, Seth Rollins, Rey & Dominik Mysterio segment plus Street Profits vs. Shinsuke Nakamura & Cesaro did 2.27 million viewers.

Due to election coverage leading to the top 54 shows on cable being all news shows on CNN, Fox News and MSNBC, the wrestling shows took a hit. Because of both AEW and NXT being out of the top 50, we don’t have the usual ratings details. AEW was No. 56 doing 717,000 viewers and 0.30 (383,000 viewers) in 18-49. NXT was No. 68, doing 610,000 viewers and 0.14 (181,000 viewers) in 18-49. There are only a few basic takes. As far as the numbers, they are probably indicative of about as low numbers as either show could get based on competition, because they will likely never face another night quite like this, or at least not for four years. But they do show that the AEW audience has changed greatly over the past year. Last year, AEW would be hit hard by sports and big news events, while this year it holds up much better. It was only down 8.2 percent in viewers and 6.8 percent in 18-49 from last week. In particular, the 18-49 number was stunning that it was that high. The other thing of note is that NXT doing the big number for Halloween Havoc, did not maintain any momentum off it. In particular, they had 28,000 viewers 18-34 as compared with 102,000 the week before. The numbers are about what would have been expected against this level of news, maybe older viewers doing a little better, but at 18-49, that would be the worse than expected. They did less than half of AEW in every key demo but women 35-49. But the issue is that the hope was last week with the matches and key angles was good enough to keep at least some of the new audience away from AEW and that didn’t happen. NXT was down 30.4 percent from last week in viewers and 44.5 percent in 18-49, so they did the worst at keeping the fans who checked out last week’s show than the rest of their new viewers ... By demo, in male 18-34, AEW had 56,000 viewers (down 15.2 percent from last week) and NXT had 13,000 (down 79.0 percent). In women 18-34, AEW had 64,000 viewers (down 15.8 percent) and NXT had 15,000 (down 62.5 percent). In men 35-49, AEW had 184,000 viewers (up 3.4 percent) and NXT had 92,000 viewers (down 37.8 percent). In women 35-49, AEW had 79,000 viewers (down 23.3 percent) and NXT had 61,000(down 19.7 percent). In the main event segment, AEW nearly tripled NXT in the key demo. AEW with Cody & Billy & Austin Gunn vs. Colt Cabana & Preston Vance & John Silver did 700,000 viewers and 392,000 in 18-49. NXT with Velveteen Dream vs. Tommaso Ciampa did 551,000 viewers and 149,000 in 18-49. NXT, with its stronger lead-in, actually won the first two quarters but declined throughout the show, losing 34 percent of its 18-49 audience and 23.8 percent overall from start-to-finish, which was worse than a bad Raw does. AEW finished 17.0 percent up from where it started in 18-49, although in total viewers it was down 1.0 percent. The peak of the show across the board was The Young Bucks vs. Private Party match, which also skewed the youngest. AEW skewed slightly younger than usual overall while NXT skewed its oldest to date, with a median viewer nearing 60. In the first quarter, AEW did 707,000 viewers and 335,000 in 18-49 for MJF & Wardlow vs. Sammy Guevara & Ortiz. NXT did 723,000 viewers and 226,000 in 18-49 for Ember Moon vs. Dakota Kai. In the second quarter, AEW did 656,000 viewers and 321,000 in 18-49 for a Tony Schiavone interview with Kenny Omega and the first part of Trent vs. Miro. NXT did 672,000 viewers and 199,000 in 18-49 for the ending of Moon vs. Kai, some promos and the beginning of Kushida vs. Cameron Grimes. In the third quarter, AEW did 707,000 viewers and 366,000 in 18-49 for the end of Trent vs. Miro and the post-match. NXT did 600,000 viewers and 182,000 in 18-49 for Kushida vs. Grimes. In the fourth quarter, AEW did 739,000 viewers and 424,000 in18-49 for an FTR/Young Bucks video package, a Taz & Brian Cage & Ricky Starks promo and the beginning of Young Bucks vs. Private Party. NXT did 632,000 viewers and 180,000 in 18-49 for Killian Dain & Drake Maverick vs. Ever Rise, the Pat McAfee crew beatdown and McAfee promo. In the fifth quarter, AEW did 762,000 viewers and 428,000 in 18-49 for Young Bucks vs. Private Party and the post-match beatdown with FTR, Adam Page and Kenny Omega. NXT did 610,000 viewers and 187,000 in 18-49 for the end of the McAfee crew promo and burning the Undisputed Era banner, beating up Dain in the parking lot, a Johnny Gargano video and the beginning of Shotzi Blackheart vs. Toni Storm. In the sixth quarter, AEW did 711,000 viewers and 399,000 in 18-49 for the Eddie Kingston & Jon Moxley in-ring and Pac video from Japan. NXT did 570,000 and 173,000 in 18-49 for Storm vs. Blackheart and the tank angle with Candice LeRae. In the seventh quarter, AEW did 752,000 viewers and 401,000 in 18-49 for Nyla Rose vs. Red Velvet, the Vickie Guerrero promo and the Omega & Page video. NXT did 522,000 viewers and what may be a record low 140,000 in 18-49 for Thatch-as-Thatch-can with Akeem, and promos by Xia Li and Rhea Ripley. In the final quarter, AEW’s main event lost 52,000 viewers and 9,000 in 18-49 while NXT gained 29,000 viewers and 9,000 in 18-49.

[xrodmuc316]

"Raw on 11/2 did 1,656,000 viewers and 0.48 in 18-49, making it the fifth lowest total viewers in history and tied for fourth lowest in 18-49, and hour three was the least watched hour in the history of the show."

Still more than Dynamite in demos and total viewers

[xrodmuc316]

[erickman]

so with the look like biden win, will yang get to go after vince and the wwe

[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets:

Originally Posted by Observer Last night's Raw opened somewhat strong, and had a big drop throughout the show, but the key demo numbers were overall well up from last week as the episode averaged 1.69 million viewers and a 0.53 in 18-49. The show placed fourth in 18-49, trailing only three NFL related shows on ESPN. The New York Jets-New England Patriots game head-to-head did 9.83 million viewers and a 2.79 in 18-49 and 2.06 in 18-34, which is lower than games in most weeks. The other notable thing was a 17 percent first-to-third hour drop which left WWE with one of the lowest hour threes on record. Last year on this same weekend, Raw set its all-time record low numbers. Last night's Raw was 40th overall, but first among entertainment shows overall and in every key demo except with women, finishing in the fourth spot behind the three ESPN football related shows in 18-49, men 18-49, 18-34, and males 12-34. The show was up two percent in viewers, but up 10 percent in 18-49 as compared to last week. As compared to what was the record low show one year ago this week, Raw was down 18 percent in viewers, 17 percent in 18-49, and 30 percent in 18-34. The drops were much less than the drops have been since March. As far as the viewers leaving last night, it was far more men than women. First-to-third hour drops were five percent in women 18-49, far lower than usual, and 23 percent in men 18-49, much higher than usual. Teenage girls actually gained 13 percent during the show, a demo that rarely fares that well. Teenage boys were down 29 percent, far worse than usual, while over 50 dropped 16 percent. The three hours were: 8 p.m. 1.85 million viewers 9 p.m. 1.69 million viewers 10 p.m. 1.53 million viewers

Originally Posted by Observer A second title match is set for the return of MLW Fusion. MLW has announced that Middleweight Champion Myron Reed will defend his title against Brian Pillman Jr. on the Wednesday, November 18 episode of MLW Fusion. An MLW World Heavyweight Championship match with Jacob Fatu defending against Davey Boy Smith Jr. is also airing on the episode. Fusion will premiere on the fubo Sports Network and YouTube at 7 p.m. Eastern time on Wednesdays. The show will also air on beIN Sports at 10 p.m. Eastern on Saturdays and will be available on demand via DAZN. For the first time since going on hiatus from holding events in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic, MLW held a set of closed set television tapings in Florida last month. Prior to the announcement of Reed vs. Pillman Jr., MLW's Court Bauer had said in an interview with DAZN that MLW would be adding another title match or two to the card for the November 18 Fusion episode

Originally Posted by PWI Deadline.com reported this evening that Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson will be producing a reboot of the film character that launched him in Hollywood, The Scorpion King, but likely won't play the character. Johnson and his partner Dani Garcia will produce along with Seven Bucks Productions’ Hiram Garcia. The Rock first played the character in 2001's The Mummy Returns, a sequel to the Universal film starring Brendan Frasier. A spin-off movie dove into the background of the Scorpion King, starring Johnson in 2002, leading to a series of direct to video sequels that Johnson was not involved in.

Originally Posted by PWI Braun Strowman is once again a babyface, PWInsider.com has confirmed. Although Strowman was flipped to the heel side on Smackdown after being pulled into a swamp by Bray Wyatt and just a few weeks ago, purposely nailed Keith Lee in the nether regions on the 10/20 edition of Monday Night Raw, Strowman is internally considered a babyface for the Raw brand. Strowman will represent Raw during Survivor Series, teaming with Lee, AJ Styles, Sheamus and Riddle.

Originally Posted by PWI There has been a lot of talk internally over the last week that the company will be reviving Tribute to the Troops next month. With the exception of 2019, Tribute has been broadcast since December 2003, the Tribute to the Troops event first began as a USO tour put together by WWE where they would bring a live event over to American troops stationed in the Middle East and tour different bases meeting with servicemen and women. Over the years, Tribute events have been held in Iraq and Afghanistan before moving to domestic locations starting with 2010. Since 2010, the show has evolved into a patriotic event designed to celebrate those who have entered into military service for the United States. The Tribute events have led to WWE being honored by the USO, The Army and Air Force Exchange Program and the G.I. Combat Film Festival and other accolades. Last year's event was not televised but took place in Jacksonville, North Carolina at Marine Corps Air Station New River.

Originally Posted by PWI Vince McMahon was not in attendance at this past Friday's Smackdown taping, the first taping he has missed since the Thunderdome concept was executed. Bruce Prichard oversaw the taping. McMahon was in attendance and running last night's Raw taping.

Originally Posted by PWI WWE filed a trademark for the term "The Way" on 11/5. Could it be someone is a fan of The Mandalorian?

Supposedly this might be for the return of No Way Jose based on a recent report from Fightful.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Pro Wrestling Junkies hosted a virtual meet-and-greet session with AEW’s Miro. Miro praised the young talent that AEW has on hand and mentioned a “young team/two twins from Minnesota” who compete in AEW which would be Air Wolf (Darius Martin) and Angel Dorado (Daunte Martin). Miro stated that the duo is signed. This has not been confirmed by AEW. “We have such outstanding, young talent and I’m talking about the future of this business. I’m talking about these kids. I saw these kids and they’re signed so, these two twins that I saw, they’re from Minnesota I think. I think they’re from Minnesota. One of these kids had like an 80-inch vertical and they’re like 19-years old and they’re moving fluidly and once they find each other, they’re gonna be the future of the tag team division and those are just two guys and we have probably another 15 ready to go.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Alison Rosen welcomed Alexa Bliss onto her ‘Alison Rosen Is Your New Best Friend’ podcast. During the Q&A portion of their chat, Bliss was asked about WWE labeling their talents as independent contractors and if she feels safe working during the COVID-19 pandemic. “WWE takes care of us 100 percent. You know, we all are in a contract and anything that happens inside the ring, WWE takes care of. Our health is 100 percent priority. Our health and safety is 100 percent priority in the company and you know, unfortunately we’re living in the middle of a cancel culture where people try to start rumors and make their assumption of things and there’s never been a time where I’ve ever felt uncomfortable about being in the ring or have ever felt forced [to be] in the ring. Even when I was injured, I had concussions and Vince [McMahon] said, ‘Alright, we’re gonna send you to the best specialists there are’ and he did and I saw a concussion specialist and they went above and beyond to take care of me and I know everyone feels that way.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Dominik and Rey Mysterio sat down with Lilian Garcia to record a new episode of ‘Chasing Glory’. Rey stated that initially, Dominik wasn’t supposed to make his in-ring debut until 2021 but the opportunity with Seth Rollins at SummerSlam came about organically. “We weren’t expecting this opportunity so quickly. We were still giving it about another year of training. We started to negotiate with WWE to potentially sign [a] developmental deal, and we said, ‘Okay, he’ll sign. Go train at the Performance Center, get ready and be ready by 2021, mid [2021].’ This opportunity presented itself. I said, ‘I can’t say yes or no. It’s up to you, however you feel.’”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Dave Marquez was interviewed by Wrestling Inc. Dave reflected on his time as Vice President of New Japan Pro-Wrestling and recalled the company wanting to refer to Finn Balor as “King Devitt: King of the Leprechauns”. “I really like it [NJPW and UWN collaborating]. It gives a lot more opportunity to people that you probably would never see in Tokyo, especially during my time there. I had a hell of a time getting people booked in New Japan and from the dojo. Even Samoa Joe back in the day, they didn’t want him. There’s many others. The whole Fergal Devitt piece, and they wanted to call him ‘King Devitt: King of the Leprechauns’ back then. And I was like, ‘No, no, no, don’t do that. Please don’t do that.’ I pitched the ‘Prince’ name, and luckily, they went with him. I was like, ‘He’s young. He’s exotic-looking, and he’s a very handsome man. He looks like an underwear model. He’s a prince. He’s royal.’”

Originally Posted by Fightful Lance Archer explains several aspects of his character. In an interview with Chris Van Vliet, Archer touched on the "Everybody Dies" catchphrase that he keeps saying on AEW programming. Archer said the phrase is the idea of take advantage of the opportunities presented to you right now and not let it pass by. "There's kind of that underlying meaning to the phrase 'Everybody Dies' that's like everybody's career ends at some point. I've been lucky and blessed over 20 years now and still going strong and at a top level with a top company in the business of professional wrestling but at some point, it will come to an end. I don't know when and I don't plan on it being any time soon, but this has been my biggest and best opportunity and the waves that AEW is making in the whole world of professional wrestling from the very first All In event, I was very supportive of that, simply for the fact that I knew what it could do to change the business of professional wrestling... going back to the mantra of 'Everybody Dies', it's like take your chances now. Don't let anything pass you by. Kick ass now and apologize later if you have to," Archer said. As far as his "Murderhawk Monster" nickname, Archer said it came from his desire to re-define himself as he was getting ready to compete in the 2019 G1 Climax. It included a change in hair and when he described the mohawk he had as a "Murderhawk," the name stuck with him and added the monster at the end. "So last year when the G1 happened it was one of those situations where I took it upon myself, I was like 'This is a big opportunity'. Initially I wasn't even in the G1 for that year, they were starting in Dallas, I was going to be on that show and then I was included into the G1. I had been part of a great tag team, KES, Killer Elite Squad for many years and this was my first real coming out part as a singles wrestler in New Japan since before Davey Boy Smith Jr. had joined New Japan back in 2012 and KES had just gotten started. I just did everything I could to change every part of me that was known to the wrestling world and the G1 was such a huge platform. We were going to be live on AXS TV in the United States of America so it was just one of those situations where I was like I am going to change everything. The initial hair was not the braid, it was more of a crazy poofed up Mohawk thing and we started calling it this crazy Mohawk and this and that and I was like, 'It's not a Mohawk, it's a Murderhawk' and then it morphed into the Murderhawk Monster. Everybody's had their 'monster' monikers in professional wrestling world throughout history but I just thought it was fun to say; Murderhawk Monster," Archer said.

Originally Posted by Fightful Ryu Lee was in Japan, but left in the middle of quarantine. According to Joe Lanza and Rich Kraetsch of Voices of Wrestling, Ryu Lee was reportedly sent home from Japan while in the middle of his quarantine. It is unknown why he left and abandoned his quarantine. Lee was in Japan prior to New Japan Pro-Wrestling releasing its list of participants for Best of Super Juniors 27. Lee was not one of the participants in the tournament. He has competed in the last three Best of Super Juniors tournaments and posted the following tweet on October 8. The Best of Super Juniors lineup was announced on November 2. Lee has not wrestled during the pandemic. His last bout was in February at ROH Gateway To Honor 2020 when he defended the ROH Television Championship against Dak Draper. Lee's contract with ROH expires in December. ROH is back on television, but Lee has not been part of the tapings.

Might be related to recent rumors of him having scheduling issues with his current commitments to ROH and ROH wanting him for their next set of tapings next month. Wouldn't be able to follow through with those ROH commitments if he had been involved with NJPW's upcoming Best of the Super Jrs tournament.

Originally Posted by PWI There have been additional staff let go from World Wrestling Entertainment on Friday, PWInsider.com has confirmed, mostly logistical and behind the scenes staff working out of Stamford, CT. One source believed it was 10-15 staffers in total. The most well known name who has been let go is former ring announcer Tony Chimel, who has been with the company officially since 1991 and was the first announcer for the Smackdown brand. A friend of Gino "Gorilla Monsoon" Marella's family, Chimel got his first break announcing local WWF events in the Northeast and helping at events dating back to 1983.

Originally Posted by PWI SuperLuchas.com is reporting that WWE Spanish language announcer Jerry Soto, 39, was let go from World Wrestling Entertainment on Friday 11/6 as part of the depatures PWInsider.com reported earlier today. Soto was signed by with WWE in October, 2011, after Hugo Savinovich was fired by the company.

Originally Posted by PWI Univision has divested itself of The El Rey Network, it was announced over the weekend, leaving as an investor in the cable entity, which broadcast four seasons of Lucha Underground and currently airs Vampiro Unleashed, a talk show hosted by the lucha legend. This means network founder and film director Robert Rodriguez will continue on, operating the network independently. What this means for the network's current and future distribution remains to be seen.

Originally Posted by PWI Although she has announced she has retired as a professional wrestler, Kylie Rae remains under contract to Impact Wrestling, PWInsider.com has confirmed.

Originally Posted by WrestlingHeadlines.com Last night’s WWE RAW featured a line on commentary where Byron Saxton mentioned WWE Women’s Tag Team Champion Nia Jax vs. RAW Women’s Champion Asuka being “WrestleMania main event worthy.” That line was included in the commentary on purpose, according to Fightful Select. It was noted that the line was scripted and completely instructed to Saxton. There was no ad-libbing on Saxton’s part for that line as it was a total directive from WWE officials. There’s no word yet on if this means they are planning Jax vs. Asuka as one of the WrestleMania 37 matches. We’re still several months away from the big event and plans can obviously change, especially for the women’s division.

Originally Posted by HeelByNature.com WWE is set to exit Orlando’s Amway Center, moving production of its ThunderDome to a new venue in December. While no official announcement on a new location has been announced, WWE has been in discussions with various venues to host its interactive fan experience. In the latest edition of Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer mentioned discussions WWE had on moving the ThunderDome to Tropicana Field in Saint Petersburg, FL. “Believe it or not, Tropicana Field in Saint Petersburg has been talked about, which is a baseball stadium,” Meltzer stated. I mean it’s good that you’re in central Florida. I think everybody wants to run Florida, because so many of the guys live there, it’s cheaper, you’re not going to get shutdown, they they start shutting things down all over the country, you’re pretty confident Florida, because the governor isn’t going to shut anything down, but that’s a big empty building. I know there’s all kinds of other indoor buildings they’ve talked to as well”

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• AEW Announces Three New Video Games with One from Yukes & WWF No Mercy Director
• AEW: More on Elite Deletion Match, Anthony Bowens Signing Update, Countdown to Full Gear Ratings
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Originally Posted by WrestlingInc The Rascalz (Dezmond Xavier, Zachary Wentz, and Trey Miguel) are headed to WWE, Wrestling Inc. has learned. As previously reported, the trio are currently free agents. During a segment on last night's episode of Impact Wrestling, it was revealed that the group were being evicted from The Treehouse because they haven't paid rent in two years. Wrestling Inc. has learned learned that the group has a standing offer from WWE. While they have not yet officially signed the deal, it is just considered a formality and they are expected to join the company. In their final match with Impact, Miguel will team with Rich Swann to face Xavier and Wentz on next week's episode of Impact Wrestling.

Originally Posted by Observer Impact Wrestling continues to add more matches to Saturday's Turning Point event on their Impact Plus streaming service, announcing two more bouts on social media Wednesday. After his successful defense of the title Tuesday in a win over TJP, X Division Champion Rohit Raju is reopening his "Defeat Raju Challenge", opening it up to anyone on the roster to challenge for the belt. The other new match will feature Chris Sabin and newfound partner James Storm against XXXL (Acey Romery and Larry D). Sabin found himself partnerless due to Alex Shelley's recent neck injury, but after defeating Romero Tuesday, XXXL beat him up and left him laying. He asked Storm backstage if he would help back him up against his enemies and the "Cowboy" accepted. The matches round out an already deep card for Saturday: World Champion Rich Swann vs. Sami Callihan Knockouts Champion Su Yung vs. Deonna Purrazzo Tag Team Champions The North vs. Good Brothers Jordynne Grace/Tenille Dashwood vs. Rosemary/Taya Valkyrie Brian Myers vs. Swoggle Moose vs. Willie Mack Eddie Edwards vs. Daivari X Division Champion Rohi Raju open challenge Chris Sabin and James Storm vs. XXXL

Originally Posted by Observer New NWA Tag Team Champions were crowned on this week's edition of UWN Primetime Live. Aron Stevens & JR Kratos defeated James Storm & Eli Drake on Primetime Live last night to win the NWA Tag Team titles. The match was originally announced as Storm & Drake vs. Stevens & The Question Mark, but Stevens came out for the match alone. Kratos attacked Storm & Drake, then Stevens said no one could prove Kratos isn't The Question Mark. Stevens & Kratos got the win after Kratos low blowed Storm.

Originally Posted by Fightful The finals are set in the UWN World Title tournament. Mike Bennett will meet Chris Dickinson in the finals to crown a UWN World Champion. The bout will take place on the November 24 episode of UWN Primetime Live. Dickinson advanced to the finals by defeating Fred Rosser in the semi-finals on Tuesday. Dickinson defeated Peter Avalon in the first round of the tournament. On the other side of the bracket, Bennett defeated Shawn Daivari in the semi-finals on Tuesday after previously defeating Kevin Martinson in the first round

Originally Posted by PWI With MLW Fusion returning next week, this week's episode of MLW Underground will be the last retro episode to air for at least a few weeks as the promotion focuses on its Restart with the 11/19 episode, which will be headlined by MLW Champion Jacob Fatu vs. Davey Boy Smith Jr. and MLW Middleweight Champion Myron Reed vs. Brian Pillman Jr. This won't be the last of Underground as there are plans for it to continue, in some fashion, on BeIN Sport. There are plans to feature Kevin Von Erich in a larger role on MLW programming as part of the Restart. The idea is to feature him as sort of a wise old sage style mentor to the younger talents. Think Luke Skywalker from the most recent Star Wars trilogy. IWA Puerto Rico is working with MLW on Richard Holliday defending the Caribbean title in Puerto Rico, something that has been teased for some time as part of his storyline with Savio Vega. There is interest in Chris and Patrick Voros, who are an identical twin tag team out of Canada. There's also been talk of 27 year old Jon'tae Kieth, who works independents in the Mid-West and Sefa Fatu, the youngest son of WWE Hall of Famer Rikishi, coming in as well.

Originally Posted by PWI More cast members have been announced for the upcoming John Cena "Peacemaker" HBO Max spinoff series. Robert Patrick will play Auggie Smith. Chris Conrad will take the role of The Vigilante/Adrian Chase. Danielle Brooks will play Leota Adebayo. And Jennifer Holland will reprise her role from the James Gunn feature "Suicide Squad" film as NSA agent Emma Harcourt, who works with A. R. G. U. S. to monitor the activities of the Suicide Squad. In September, HBO Max ordered an eight-episode first season for the character starring Cena with James Gunn, the writer and director of Squad and Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy returning to write and direct the series. The series will explore Peacemaker's background before the Suicide Squad film. In promotional material for the film, Cena has described this take on Peacemaker as a "douchey Captain America." Gunn is writing all eight episodes of "Peacemaker" and will be directing many of the episodes as well. Cena's portrayal of Peacemaker is the first ever live action incarnation of the character, a soldier and super-hero who loves peace so much he is willing to kill for it. The character was originally created by Charlton Comics but acquired by DC in the mid-80s.

Originally Posted by PWI WWE announced they are seeking a Talent Brand Manager for the company in what appears to be the first step in the company operating as their own agency and management firm for their talents for outside projects, sponsorships, etc. The listing notes WWE Talent Management Group will deliver best-in-class 360-degree support of Talent across all internal lines of business and key external partners, amplifying Talent brand value and maximizing monetization opportunities for Talent and WWE.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling AEW president Tony Khan recently spoke with TSN.ca on the state of the company throughout the pandemic and looking ahead to 2021. About a possible relationship with New Japan Pro Wrestling, Khan noted he wanted to see NJPW reciprocate after several of his performers have gone over for shows since AEW launched. Khan added that with the removal of Harold Meij, he feels it might be easier: "With New Japan, it’s been a little more one-sided where we’ve sent people there and I haven’t really had people from New Japan show up on my TV [programming] yet. I’d like to see more of a two-sided relationship there because I’m honestly one of the easiest people to work with in wrestling. We’ve worked with NWA, we’ve worked with AAA and we’ve sent people to New Japan. I think with Harold [Meij] being gone, I don’t know if it’s going to be easier, but I have a feeling it might be." Khan added the following regarding the third hour of programming that he says is confirmed for 2021, although the date is not official: "We’ve worked it out with TNT. It’s 100 percent going to launch in 2021. I don’t have the exact date yet, but I would look out for it soon and it’s right around the corner."

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling AEW champion Jon Moxley spoke with Fight Game Media confirming the company adjusted plans for Full Gear after the first match between Moxley and Eddie Kingston on the anniversary episode in October. Moxley stated they had plans involving him and Lance Archer but after the match with Kingston he saw the obvious direction coming out of it: "I had a whole other set of plans for everything I was going to do with Lance (Archer), I had a whole different thing. I won’t reveal it in case I go back to it and do something similar. The thing with Eddie (Kingston), it was just a bridge for the night, like we have this big advertised main event but it’s 2020 and like, as we all know and the fans are sympathetic to – we show up on the day, someone could have been in contact with somebody and now it’s all f—ing scrapped, so you just have to be able to pivot and do something else. I was just focused on that night with Eddie but literally as soon as the match was over, I choked him out, he’s like ‘I didn’t tap, this is bulls—” and I’m like, ‘Oh, it’s so obvious, he didn’t tap’ because he got choked out, so then, I Quit Match – four weeks of promos, easy money. I haven’t handpicked any opponent – whatever they’ve put in front of me for this whole title reign, whatever opponent, whatever style I just try to take on that new challenge every single time but this one I kind of gave a nod, it just makes all the sense in the world because we hadn’t finalized the plans yet for the pay-per-view but I was like ‘he didn’t tap, he didn’t, he was unconscious, that’s why he didn’t tap’. And I instantly saw the whole story in my head, and I knew he did too and Tony (Khan) gave us the confidence ‘Okay, do it’."

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling MLW’s Court Bauer spoke to The Lapsed Fan podcast regarding the intellectual property surrounding War Games, which MLW was able to claim after using the concept during the promotion’s first iteration in 2003. Bauer explained the IP of War Games was not trademarked by WCW and therefore, didn’t transfer to WWE when the company was sold in 2001. MLW used War Games in 2003 and they trademarked the concept, which lasted until WWE and MLW worked out an arrangement following NXT’s adoption of the concept in 2017: "A great assumption is to assume that Turner Broadcasting knew what the f— they were doing. So, when Vince acquired the assets of WCW, what those assets were just were dependent on what they had coming in. So, if they had never filed for trademarks, and had done nothing on that paperwork, well then, they never had them. They had abandoned a lot of trademarks, they had kind of never managed their IP and it was kind of a snapshot of how they ran the operation. They’ve had these incredible IPs; did they ever tend to it? No. That’s the difference between WWE and a lot of its competitors is they go the extra step, they are ruthlessly efficient, they make sure they have a lot of their IPs in place. I mean they kind of go overboard with some of the IPs they make sure they have but I think that’s what makes them different than WCW – they didn’t do that. So, WWE never had ownership of the intellectual property that was War Games – the actual name and rights to do it. We did a War Games in 2003 and filed for the trademark and no one had done it up to this point, we were using the War Games and pursued it and successfully got it in the U.S Trademark and Patent Offices and we established use of it and for years thereafter had marketed DVDs and things, then brought it back in 2018 and right around then, conveniently timing-wise, NXT said ‘we’re going to do War Games’ and I said, ‘uh, guys, we need to have a conversation’ and we did. We had announced ours and then they (NXT) did theirs (in November 2017) right after. So, you know, We had a business arrangement, we re-vamped the concept and brought in back in 2019 and introduced War Chamber in Dallas, same concept and added barbed-wire wrapped around the top of the cage but, I can’t go into many of the details, but it’s good to do your paperwork, that’s the biggest takeaway guys. It’s good to do your paperwork, due diligence and making sure you do your paperwork and it all turned out fine."

The fact War Games was never trademarked by WCW back in the day nor WWE never bothered to get the trademark when they bought WCW was very interesting. Originally thought the War Games trademark was just like almost every other WCW and ECW trademark that WWE owned where they purposely let it become abandoned due to neglect and Vince's lingering hatred over WCW.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Game Changer Wrestling has added Blake Christian, Jordan Oliver, Jacob Fatu, Rich Swann, Chris Dickinson, Chris Bey, Kikutaro, and Rickey Shane Page to the list of talent advertised for “Slime Season” on Saturday, December 5th at Meet Las Vegas (233 South 4th Street) in Las Vegas. Responding to criticism for running these shows, GCW owner Brett Lauderdale has posted a message stating any talent uncomfortable or having seconds thoughts should not feel pressured to the work the show and it won’t affect their standing with the group.

Originally Posted by Fightful The Young Bucks climbed to the top of the tag team mountain at AEW Full Gear when they defeated FTR to win the AEW Tag Team Titles. Many didn't think it would take Matt & Nick Jackson a year to win the AEW Tag Team Titles given their standing in the company both behind the scenes and in terms of popularity, and according to them, they wanted to hold off even longer. Tony Khan Feels Forming Relationship With NJPW Might Be Easier With Harold Meij Gone Related Article Tony Khan Feels Forming Relationship With NJPW Might Be Easier With Harold Meij Gone “If we’d won them right away, there wouldn’t have been a struggle for our characters,” Nick told Sports Illustrated. “We actually wanted to hold back for another year, so winning now was a Tony [Khan] call, but I’m glad it happened at the pay-per-view. It felt special, and winning it from FTR in this rivalry, in a match we never thought would happen, took it over the top." Matt added, "We wanted our story to be painful. So we kept losing, and when you finally thought we’d start winning, we’d lose more. Being fans, we know the feeling of when that pain turns to celebration, and this was the right time for us. We competed in arguably the biggest tag-team match of the last five years and finally won the tag titles in the company we helped start. Does it get any bigger than that?”

Originally Posted by Fightful It's no secret Jim Herd clashed Ric Flair during Herd's time as the Executive Vice President of WCW. Herd famously wanted Flair to cut his hair and become a Roman gladiator named Spartacus, believing WCW needed to create new stars. Obviously, this didn't go over well with Flair and didn't end up happening. Sitting down with Conrad Thompson on AdFreeShows, Herd was asked about Ricky Steamboat beating Flair in February 1989 and whether the company had become too reliant on Flair after Flair supposedly tested negatively with fans "There was a lot of controversy with Ric, he.....I just saw Ric a month ago on some show, what's the guy's name, the bald headed guy [Steve Austin] who has a show on now, he interviewed Ric. I looked at Ric's forehead and I said, 'They must've taken part of his ass and put it on his forehead because all those cuts are gone,' which is great. Ric was a guy that you couldn't control out in public and he did a lot of different things that we didn't agree with, Turner didn't agree with. Believe me, during all this time, if you didn't get a pass from Turner, you got no pass at all because he controlled everything through me. I took the lumps when they came and as long as I maintained his dynamic, which was making it rain dollars, he didn't interfere," said Herd. Flair would regain the NWA World Heavyweight Title in May 1989 and hold it until July 1990, when he lost the belt to Sting. The feud between Herd and Flair peaked when Flair was fired amid contract negotiations with Herd, allowing him to jump to the WWF and take the WCW World Title with him.

Originally Posted by Fightful BT Sport has dedicated next week to The Undertaker, airing various programming on their network to celebrate his career. To hype the upcoming week-long celebration, BT Sport shared a clip of Sami Zayn describing the first time he met Undertaker. "The first memory that I have of really interacting with him was at NXT. It was a television taping, late 2014, right before I'm about to wrestle Neville. That story had a good build-up going into that match. It was maybe the last episode of TV before the match. I cut this really impassioned promo, which I think is one of my better promos as a good guy because the storyline was that we were friends, but he was the champion because he was willing to get his hands dirty and I was too adherent to my morality and that's why I would never succeed like him. We had this heated talking segment where I slap him in the face. When I got back there, Undertaker was fired up. He was like, 'THAT'S HOW YOU DO IT! THAT'S HOW YOU SELL TICKETS! THAT WAS A MONEY PROMO!' That night, I think we did a match for the championship where [Neville] won and R Evolution was the rematch. He also complimented that match. He was like, 'I thought you were just going to go out there and do a bunch of spots, but you guys told a story. That is how you do it!' Undertaker is Undertaker and the fact that he was at NXT was 'Undertaker is here.' For him to be waiting for us backstage as soon as we got through the curtain, and fired up about how good our work was, that was amazing," recalled Zayn. Zayn would win the NXT Championship from Neville (now Pac in AEW), at NXT TakeOver: R Evolution in a Title vs. Career bout.

Originally Posted by WrestleTalk Another name has been added to the list of NXT talents who have been called up to the WWE main roster even though we haven’t actually seen them show up yet. Fightful Select reports that Santana Garrett was called up to the main roster this past summer. Garrett only wrestled on NXT TV a small handful of times, and did have some outings on Raw and Main Event earlier this year before the summer but hasn’t been used since then. The report notes that there were a number of pitches for Garrett including for her to be part of a tag team, but none of them have come to fruition. Garrett joins the likes of Chelsea Green and Vanessa Borne as names from NXT who were called up to the main roster earlier in the year but still haven’t appeared.

WWE's continued botching of NXT call-ups has been way too comical these days. Why bother calling up people if you have nothing planned for them on the main roster.


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• The Bella Twins Tease “One More Run” in WWE
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Originally Posted by Observer Last night's post-Full Gear episode of AEW Dynamite averaged 764,000 viewers on TNT, up 6.6 percent from last week. On the USA Network, NXT was up 3.6 percent in overall viewership, averaging 632,000 viewers. The total Wednesday night viewership was 1.396 million, almost identical to three weeks ago and one of the lowest numbers of the last several months. That's still up 5.2 percent from last Wednesday, where Dynamite and NXT both went against election coverage on the day after last week's presidential election. After failing to chart in the top 50 last week with cable news dominating the ratings, Dynamite was up to 17th on the cable charts in the 18-49 demo while averaging the same 0.30 rating as the show did last week. NXT was up 14.3 percent in the 18-49 demo, averaging a 0.16 rating but failing to make the top 50. NXT finished in 56th place on cable. That's a little higher than last Wednesday, but there still does not seem to have been any audience retention from the strong rating of Halloween Havoc two weeks ago. Year-over-year, Dynamite was down 20.2 percent in overall viewership and 30.2 percent in the 18-49 demo. NXT was down 15.7 percent in viewership and 36 percent in the demo. Detailed demo ratings for NXT aren't available due to it falling outside the top 50. AEW's strongest demo category was men 18-49, where the show averaged a 0.38 rating. That tied for eighth overall on cable in the demo and was first among non-news programming.

Originally Posted by Observer A day after her debut on Dynamite, AEW announced that Jade Cargill is now under a multi-year contract. Cargill, who played basketball at Jacksonville State University, debuted Wednesday to confront Cody Rhodes as an apparent representative of Shaquille O'Neal. Brandi Rhodes then showed up to address Cargill, teasing a mixed tag with O'Neal and Cargill against Cody and Brandi ... Cargill, 28, is a fitness model who offers diet and exercise subscription plans on her website in addition to having a master's degree in child psychology. Cargill was part of a tryout camp at the WWE Performance Center in April 2019, according to WWE.com.

Originally Posted by Observer Lana will be the subject of the next episode of WWE Chronicle. WWE has announced that a Chronicle episode on Lana will premiere on the WWE Network on Saturday, November 21. That's the day before this year's Survivor Series pay-per-view ... On WWE television, Lana has been put through a table by Nia Jax eight times over the last several weeks. Lana, Jax, Shayna Baszler, Mandy Rose & Dana Brooke will be on Team Raw for this year's Raw vs. SmackDown Survivor Series women's elimination match. Bianca Belair and Ruby Riott have qualified for Team SmackDown thus far. WWE.com wrote about the Lana episode of Chronicle: "WWE Chronicle: Lana will take you behind the scenes of the vivacious Superstar’s life away from the ring, including as she spends time with her family. Expect to see a side of Lana that you’ve never seen before when the next episode of WWE Chronicle drops Saturday, Nov. 21, only on the award-winning WWE Network."

Originally Posted by Observer Yoshinobu Kanemaru is out of this year's Best of the Super Juniors tournament. NJPW announced tonight that Kanemaru will be out of action with a knee injury, and thus will miss the tour. As a result, young lion Yuya Uemura will compete in Kanemaru’s place.

Originally Posted by PWI The Undertaker did an interview with The New York Post, discussing his final farewell at this year's Survivor Series, whether he will return for future matches, initial thoughts on his 1990 WWE Survivor Series debut and more. He noted that he knew he was done as a performer when filming his Boneyard match against AJ Styles at Wrestlemania 36, noting, "I realized I have taken every physical gift, tool that I have and have used it up. There’s no water left in the sponge, if I can use that analogy. I’ve rung everything I could get out of that sponge.” Undertaker was also adamant that he wouldn't be using additional cinematic-style bouts to extend his WWE run, stating, "It really doesn't appeal to me because basically what it is, is working around my limitations. It's capitalizing on some of my ability and some of my creative ability to tell a story but basically it's trying to mask some of the lack of my physical abilities at this point" ... On his returns over the years, Undertaker commented, “If Vince feels like there’s still something there, I have a place on the roster, then I had no problem doing it,” he said. “That’s where the internet and all that stuff kind of show up, ‘Just let him retire, just let him do this, let him do that.’ I’m a grown man. I can walk away anytime I want.” Undertaker also noted that he wishes he had a chance to work with the current version of Bray Wyatt, saying their bout at Wrestlemania 31 could have been used as a catalyst for where The Fiend is now.

Originally Posted by PWI AEW began teasing a storyline for Cody Rhodes and NBA legend Shaq tonight, something that Shaq has teased since signing a new deal with Turner Sports. Shaq was at Full Gear over the weekend.

Originally Posted by Fightful If you've ever wondered how AEW contracts work in terms of talent paid to appear on Dark or extras, Cody Rhodes offered some insight. Appearing on AEW Unrestricted, Cody was discussing some year two talent who he expects big things from and listed wrestlers like Ricky Starks, Sammy Guevara, Anna Jay, and Red Velvet. He was slightly confused as to Red Velvet's contract status, which led to the following exchange between Cody and co-host Aubrey Edwards. Cody - I don't even know if Red Velvet works here, yet. Aubrey - She does. That might be breaking news. Cody - She's on an 'agreed to appear,' right? Aubrey - I don't know what tier she's on. She ain't All Elite. She's not getting a graphic. Cody - Jeff is very particular about who gets a graphic. When asked by Tony Schiavone to clarify the contract tiers, Cody offered the following details, "'Agreed to appear' is tier zero, meaning you will get a bonus, and Tony is super generous. If you ask some of these extras what they're making down there...my dad would've lost it. It's the COVID era, they have no other work because there are no Indies. Tier zero is a signing bonus and exclusivity to us in terms of, we get a first option on you and we guarantee you X amount of dates. The exclusivity is case by case. The goal is, you don't want to pay someone who has agreed to appear and keep giving them their weekly versus tier one, which is our base contract agreement. We have tier one, two, three, four, and tier Jericho. Everyone is given a choice of things that are important to them, different pieces of the pie."

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Ryback welcomed David Benoit onto his YouTube show to discuss David’s aspirations in pro wrestling and what he’s enjoying about the current product. David stated that he does not want to go to WWE and would rather compete in other companies/promotions to gain experience. “I don’t wanna go there [WWE]. I’d rather go to New Japan, AEW, IMPACT, AAA, NWA. Get some experience underneath my belt.”

That is the best choice for him since WWE's developmental system under Triple H hasn't had a good track record these past few years when it comes to developing raw talent or those with very limited experience in the indies beforehand. Even William Regal sent his own son to NJPW's LA Dojo to get proper wrestling training instead of at WWE's PC.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Taylor Wilde welcomed Killer Kelly onto her ‘Wilde On’ podcast. Killer Kelly looked back at her time in NXT UK and how she was used on the brand. She feels that she was not used very well although she enjoyed her time in WWE overall. “I’m very grateful for the time I spent in WWE. Like very grateful. I trained with William Regal. Like that’s a dream. I was very, very happy there working with them and training and having promo class with Shawn Michaels. Like what the hell? And I had a lot of good friends there and everything but I wasn’t used very well. I didn’t get to showcase myself like I did on the indies. I was still working wXw and people would see what I would bring to the table and they’re like, ‘Why isn’t Kelly doing that? Why is Kelly just the person who puts over other talent?’ Which, by me, I’m totally fine. I’m totally fine. That means that the company trusts you to put over other people and they trust you to do that. But, at the same time I was like, ‘Okay, I need something more and now is the time to do it.’”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling To promote the next season of Miz & Mrs. on the USA Network, The Miz and Maryse were interviewed by TV Insider. Miz stated that his father George Mizanin owns a food truck called ‘Miz Steaks & Wieners’ and sells ‘Mike’s Little Wieners’. “You’ll see this on the show, but my dad is retired now. He comes in and says, ‘I retired.’ We’re like, ‘Does that mean you’re going to be here more?’ He is like, ‘Yep.’ So we try to find my dad a hobby. His idea of a hobby was buying a food truck. Buying a food truck is not a hobby—it’s a job. What does he call it? He calls it Miz Steaks and Wieners. His hot item that he sells is Mike’s Little Wieners. Yes, he utilizes my name, my brand to exploit me and make fun of me all in the same aspect. That’s what I’m dealing with.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling The latest guest on ‘Talk Is Jericho’ was Jake Hager. Towards the end of their conversation, Hager speculated on the idea of where WWE came up with the name “Swagger” for his in-ring last name. He recalled a time where Vince McMahon stated that he hated his [Jake’s] smile and said fans would hate it too. That somehow led to the name “Jack Swagger”. “It was just from WWE creative. It came after I had a meeting with Vince [McMahon], and I was smiling too much I guess. He was like, ‘See that smile, f*cking pisses me off,’ and so I wipe it off immediately being a rookie and he’s like, ‘No, no, it’s great. It’s gonna piss them off too.’ So I think something from that smile… Swagger came out.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling NJPW hosted a fan Q&A with YOSHI-HASHI and the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Champion stated that the red stripes on his gear are a tribute to Shinsuke Nakamura.

Originally Posted by Fightful Jim Herd has cleared up one of the biggest rumors in WCW history. Herd and Ric Flair famously clashed during Herd's time as Executive Vice President of WCW in the late 80s and early 90s, leading to Flair leaving WCW for the WWF. According to Flair, Herd wanted to change his entire persona, turning him into a Roman gladiator and renaming him Spartacus. Speaking to Conrad Thompson on AdFreeShows, Herd said they pitched a bunch of different gimmicks and characters during meetings, but turning Flair into Spartacus was never under consideration. "When you're brainstorming those things, you get all kinds of feedback from those guys. That's where the lie that I wanted to change Ric Flair's name came from. That came from one of the meetings, but it was never considered. One of the things that was considered, and he didn't like it so it became -- there was a wrestler were going to call The Zodiac Man. Every match, at the end of the match, you could go out the door and they would throw these discs that were redeemable at fast food places. They would catch them and if you could prove you were a Leo after the match, you'd get another disc. It got so complicated, but his name was going to change every month with a different promotion. I think Ric heard we wanted him to be the Zodiac Man. It was just another lie that came out of those meetings. A lot of it was tongue in cheek in those meetings," said Herd. Flair would leave WCW in 1991, taking Big Gold with him to WWF.

Originally Posted by 411Mania Fightful Select has a report with details on the new WWE contracts that were signed by several wrestlers from EVOLVE. The initial “short-term” contracts they were signed to are reportedly worth $60,000 in their downside guarantees. The talents can receive added bonuses in the amount of $500 per each episode of WWE TV they appear on. These contracts are being described as “short-term agreements” that could increase to as high as $80,000 in January 2021. At that time, it’s said that the talents’ bonuses will have significant increases, and they could potentially triple in size for future TV appearances. Additionally, the report notes that several sources within WWE were happy that the company has opted for these type of “shorter-term agreements.” As a result, the shorter-term contracts would serve in helping WWE to avoid the “stockpiling and hoarding” of wrestlers who end up not being used on TV. WWE reportedly signed a number of former EVOLVE wrestlers earlier this year. Some of the signees included Leon Ruff, Anthony Greene, Josh Briggs, Brandi Lauren and Curt Stallion.

Originally Posted by 411Mania As we reported last month, VICE TV officially announced a third season of Dark Side of the Ring, which will premiere next year with fourteen episodes. In the latest edition of Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer noted that he was interviewed for several episodes and said that the producers have only finalized content for eight of them so far. He noted that there are six episodes left that have yet to be decided. He added that they are tossing around ideas but a lot of them “aren’t viable.’ He noted some were ‘cool stories’ but wouldn’t be ‘marketable in the United States.’ So far the only episodes confirmed by those who were interviewed include Brian Pillman, the 1995 WCW/NJPW Collision in Korea supershow and Grizzly Smith’s family: Jake Roberts, Rockin’ Robin and Sam Houston.

Originally Posted by 411Mania As we reported last night, Leon Ruff won the NXT North American title by defeating Johnny Gargano, who tried to defend the belt for the first time. In the latest edition of Wrestling Observer Radio, it was noted that the angle, as it was presented on NXT, was not done in a way to make Leon Ruff a star. Meltzer said that it was done as a joke, complete with the belt falling off of Ruff because he was too skinny and him tripping over it on his way out. It was only set as a shocking moment. It was said that WWE had the idea that while it was meant to be a comedy angle with Gargano, but only saw it as a comedy angle and had no intention to make a star.

SPOILER: show

Originally Posted by PWI As we discussed on yesterday's edition of The We Don't Need No Stinkin' Name Show, Savio Vega won't be alone in attending the 11/22 Survivor Series in honor of The Undertaker's Final Farewell. WWE Hall of Famer The Godfather is also slated to be in attendance at the event. The plan is for Kane, Undertaker's storyline brother and longtime partner/oppponent, will also be at Survivor Series, PWInsider.com has also confirmed.

Spoiler tags used since its related to WWE's plans for Taker at Survivor Series later this month.


TPWW Frontpage:

• Tony Khan Clarifies “Balance of Power” Comments, Talks NJPW Relationship & New AEW Show
• AEW: Moxley vs. Omega Title Match Next Month, Four Matches Announced for Next Week
• NXT Next Week: Finn Balor Returning, Women’s Title Match Announced

[RP]

As we reported last night, Leon Ruff won the NXT North American title by defeating Johnny Gargano, who tried to defend the belt for the first time. In the latest edition of Wrestling Observer Radio, it was noted that the angle, as it was presented on NXT, was not done in a way to make Leon Ruff a star. Meltzer said that it was done as a joke, complete with the belt falling off of Ruff because he was too skinny and him tripping over it on his way out. It was only set as a shocking moment. It was said that WWE had the idea that while it was meant to be a comedy angle with Gargano, but only saw it as a comedy angle and had no intention to make a star.

Hilarious. Great job WWE. I"m laughing so hard. What time does AEW come on?

[Volare]

Just fucking wow. I get WWE being a "name" and all that but why would people want to go there unless they're just money hungry.

[erickman]

Originally Posted by Volare Just fucking wow. I get WWE being a "name" and all that but why would people want to go there unless they're just money hungry.

well the rascals were kicked out of there tree house, an bray offered to let them live in his funhouse.

[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets (Observer Newsletter Edition):

Full Gear got great reviews overall. From a PPV standpoint, early indicators, and since most of the buys they get are streaming from FITE TV and BR Live, the early indicators are more accurate than in the past, it looks to have done about the same as All Out in September and Revolution in February (the Jon Moxley vs. Chris Jericho and Page & Omega vs. Bucks show). Domestic buys were lower than those shows but overseas buys were higher, and it should be around 100,000 when all is said and done. They pushed the replay harder than usual on television. Last year’s Full Gear was the lowest number the promotion has done and the feeling was it was the college football on Saturday nights in the fall makes it the hardest month they do a PPV in. The lineup looked very strong going in. The Countdown show was excellent, but aired in a bad time slot and didn’t draw a big number. Based on UFC patterns, it appears when no sports were going on that more people were willing to buy PPV, hence AEW setting a record for its first show when the pandemic started. Now, with so much economic turmoil and sports back, the last few UFC numbers have been disappointing. AEW was happy with the number since the goal was to beat the show last year which it did handily. The Eddie Kingston-Jon Moxley main event promos were tremendous (then again for last year’s Full Gear, Cody and Chris Jericho’s interview stuff was great and to me the number it drew was a disappointment).

Shaquille O’Neal was shown backstage on the show, and on the 11/11 Dynamite show there was a segment that seemed to start the tease of a Rhodes vs. O’Neal match. O’Neal had, when he signed his new deal with TNT, talked about wanting to do a match with Rhodes. But dealing with O’Neal can be difficult since O’Neal vs. Big Show more than once was scheduled for WrestleMania, only to fall through, with each side blaming the other. Obviously AEW needs publicity stunts like O’Neal and Mike Tyson (which also seems to have fallen through since it was originally planned scheduled for All Out, and there’s been no hints of it ever since). AEW has the largest viewers per home in wrestling, but also the number of homes watching is not growing, so they are very popular and have great appeal to couples or families who are already aware. Expanding awareness and growth, which is far more difficult in a fragmented society, is tough, especially because the perception is still the No. 2 brand in an industry that has historically almost always supported only one brand strong, with shockingly few exceptions ... WWE did get tremendous benefits from Mr. T and Cyndi Lauper in 1984-85, and Tyson in 1998. But a lot was different. Even when Tyson did the angle with Jericho, it did get mainstream pub, and perhaps the actual match would have been big, but the media coverage outside of the people who cover wrestling wasn’t as big as I had expected. It certainly did not have the impact of the 1998 angle with Tyson and Steve Austin. Shaq is a move you have to try if you can because if it works, it is what you need if you can use it, get new eyeballs from it and covert those eyeballs into the core, which sounds easy but is actually really hard. Cody on the AEW podcast said, “In year two, we’re going to make some big moves to expand the audience that are not so much moves that you would think we would make, but I’m excited about them.”

There is talent in WWE that has been told in recent contract negotiations that the old way of touring is not coming back, even if and when the country bounces back from COVID. One more step in the company pretty much admitting that is its mindset came this past week when about a dozen employees who work on the live events side, the most well known name being ring announcer Tony Chimel, were released. The reality is the company is setting record profits without doing house shows, and the house show division had started over the past year plus to often be a money loser. The economics of the business are completely different than they ever have been. If anything the key value of house shows now isn’t in money making, but in giving wrestlers more experience. It was also thought to be good for making a stronger base of fans, and selling merchandise. What they found out is that with no house shows, all of a sudden WWE shop merch numbers skyrocketed and the total merch sales ended up being almost identical to when there were shows, which shocked everyone. In theory lack of house shows will slow the progress of the younger talent, particularly the athlete types WWE has signed who didn’t have years learning in the ring on independent shows. But that’s more an NXT issue. They need to get the newer talent more ring time before fans. At the WWE level, with very few exceptions, mostly some of the women, all of the wrestlers are good workers and are doing just fine in the ring wrestling fewer matches. The pandemic has turned into a learning experience because the less travel, less matches, less exhaustion and wear-and-tear has led to fewer injuries and will likely lengthen careers at the top level. A big surprise this past week was the firing of Derek Casselman, who had headed the arena merchandise division. Casselman had been with the company since 1993 and his official title was Director of Venue Merchandise and Remote Operations. But that firing, as well as that of ring announcer Tony Chimel seems to play into the idea that house show touring as we used to know it is not going to come back at the same level.

The Survivor Series on 11/22 is being pushed as the farewell appearance of The Undertaker. Undertaker is not going to wrestle, so I guess all have agreed at this point that the A.J. Styles match will be his farewell for real, since historically he’s said he’s done many times, and then Vince McMahon calls him prior to WrestleMania. He said he had badly wanted a great match to leave on. It would be virtually impossible for him to top the Styles match presentation, both because of the production involved, the talent of Styles and the graveyard setting. He did get to go out in the most talked about and popular match on a most-unique WrestleMania show. But the way WWE is promoting this appearance, it seems everyone is on the same page that he’s done and won’t play the character again after the show. IWA in Puerto Rico announced Savio Vega coming to the show so it appears WWE is bringing in many of Undertaker’s personal best friends. Many of Undertaker’s other good friends will also be invited, and confirmed names include Mayor Glenn “Kane” Jacobs and Charles “Godfather” Wright ... The women’s match has Nia Jax & Shayna Baszler & Mandy Rose & Dana Brooke & Lana vs. Bianca Belair & Ruby Riott and three more women to be named. The Raw team storyline is that they don’t get along, and Jax feels Lana will hurt the team so continually puts her through a table and wants her out. It’s pretty clear the idea is to get Lana over by her constantly being bullied and not quitting, but the way they book her character without the hope spots and losing quick squashes and not being competitive at all, while continually featuring her, is certainly unique.

AAA: The update on health conditions in Mexico City is such that no fans will be allowed at shows for at least a few more weeks and AAA can’t announce a date for TripleMania. While they have said on multiple occasions they won’t do TripleMania without a crowd and it’s not cost-effective, there was talk when it looked like a crowd in December isn’t going to happen and since the year ends in December and they don’t want to not do TripleMania 2020, that they are more tan open now to the idea of an empty arena show. I don’t know why instead of empty arena they can’t do a drive-in show since they’ve been doing those over the past few weeks El Hijo del Vikingo, who was going to take a long time off after the birth of his child, is expected back soon.

There is no scheduled start date for Dark Side of the Ring. The belief is that the next season will be a set of seven episodes, then some time off, and then another set of seven episodes. Some episodes have become public. There will be a Smith family episode focusing on Grizzly Smith but going into the entire family, which includes Rockin Robin Smith, Sam Houston and of course Jake Roberts.

Joey Ryan started a Go Fund Me for his legal proceedings. He was hoping to raise $100,000. Last we looked he was at $250 and then lowered the goal to $1,500

ROH: The television from this point will be about building for Final Battle. The date is expected to be announced on 11/16, but it will be sometime in December, be from their usual arena in Baltimore and with no audience. It will air live, the company’s first live broadcast since the pandemic and be on PPV as well as Honor Club. The plan is for Rush and Dragon Lee to return for the next tapings and this show to defend their respective ROH and TV titles as things stand right now. All of the Mexican talent that is on the current roster are scheduled for the tapings. The European talent under contract will not be back this year but they hope to get them back early next year. As far as their future after that, given most contracts expire at the end of this year and both may get other offers, it’s hard to say. Rush got a far better deal than WWE offered him. MLW claimed to have offered him a better deal than ROH previously. WWE can always outbid ROH if they choose to, but considering the number of dates he worked, Rush had a great deal this year at a time when everyone else based in Mexico struggled badly. Lee’s deal is that he loves New Japan and his ROH deal allows him to work New Japan. But he hasn’t been back to New Japan and is working here rather than the Best of the Super Juniors tournament.

A few notes on Kylie Rae. She was scheduled to win the women’s title from Deonna Purrazzo at Bound for Glory. She was also going to be one of the two women playing Marvel characters in AAA which was going to be a high-profile mainstream spot, with lots of merchandise in Mexico and the possibility of it opening up in the U.S. as well. As of right now, even though she is no longer wrestling, she has not been released from her contract here

Dezmond Xavier, Zachary Wentz and Trey Miguel have deals that have just expired and will be finishing up with next week’s television show with a match with Rich Swann & Miguel. On the TV show this week, they handled it very strangely. They got a letter they were being evicted form the tree house next week and thus, somehow, must leave Impact so next week’s TV is their final match. The way we heard the story is they got an offer that wasn’t great and they have had interest from WWE for NXT for all three. The belief is they are headed to NXT and will be part of the loaded next class that looks right now to also include Alex Zayne and Benjamin Carter. Miguel has been talked about for NXT but others close to the situation say that either NXT or AEW is still a possibility

Regarding AEW talent and the two Tokyo Dome shows, right now nobody is scheduled to be on either show. That’s not locked in stone, just the situation as of 11/12. In a normal year the entire Dome card(s) would be laid out by now but we’re told they actually have two sets of shows, one with foreign talent they think they can get if traveling restrictions ease and another if they don’t. For Americans going to Japan, to appear on the Tokyo Dome show they have to fly out by 12/20. AEW is not taping on 12/23, as that show will be taped 12/17. They are taping 12/30, so talent would only have to miss that episode since you can work the first day and easily make it back for a live show on 1/6. The only two key guys are Jericho and Moxley, the latter in particular since he’s U.S. champion. But as of press time that’s a no

The woman bodybuilder in the Cody Rhodes segment was Jade Cargill, 28, who was signed to a regular contract. There are different types of deals. All wrestlers where the company announces publicly that they have signed, like Cargill, are on weekly guarantees. For the newcomers, those talents are as a general rule higher paid than NXT talents, but would be lower paid than WWE main roster talent but obviously things vary based on individuals. The wrestlers who are brought in regularly to Dark as opposed to maybe once or twice, often are signed to contracts but they are per-show deals. Benjamin Carter was an exception, but almost everyone who appears on Dynamite has one deal or the other. If they’ve been announced as signing it’s the weekly guarantee. If they haven’t been announced as signing it’s a contract being paid per show booked. Cargill is currently training at QT Marshall’s wrestling school and has also trained at AR Fox’s school and Heath Miller’s (Slater) school.

There was no real political thing behind Don Callis announcing Kenny Omega’s match at Full Gear. The two are super close. All of what Callis said while announcing was true. He’s known Omega since was ten because Omega’s uncle, The Golden Sheik, was Callis’ manager and mentor in the late 80s. Then, when Omega started wrestling, Callis was promoting indie shows and he pushed Omega from the start. Callis considers Omega like his little brother. When the Golden Sheik died in 2007, Omega pushed for Callis to deliver his eulogy. It was also Omega that got Callis, who had been out of wrestling for more than a decade, back in when he got him the New Japan announcing gig. New Japan had wanted Bret Hart for the role but Omega suggested Callis. Omega asked he help call the match and Tony Khan was fine with it even though Callis is an executive for Impact. From what we were told Callis was doing it as a favor for Omega. Ed Nordhom and Scott D’Amore at Impact were also fine with him doing it. Khan did tell Callis at the show that if it wasn’t for Omega vs. Jericho, there probably wouldn’t be an AEW, since Callis was the one who convinced Jericho to do the match

Arn Anderson is trying to trademark the term Four Horsemen for pro wrestling. There has been an issue from Notre Dame University. There was a group of players on the Notre Dame football team decades ago that were known as the Four Horsemen, even though the term comes from Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

Most have believed this to be the case, but we were confirmed to that Alex Zayne has signed with WWE which is why he’s leaving the indies. Zayne is really spectacular and was one of the best guys on the indies. He probably could have used another year there and hopefully he doesn’t get stockpiled. My sense of him was that he had great potential but he wasn’t as ready as Jake Atlas, who is getting TV time but I don’t think has ever come across close to what he was when he had more freedom. But given the state of everything, the impetus to sign an offer early from WWE or AEW is there with so many fewer indies running

We’ve been told that several of the people who left [WWE] and signed elsewhere did get offers to return, but for lower money.

The WWE Network has gone from current to nostalgia for the most part, especially now when all the focus of the network’s feeds are Undertaker shows. The top ten most-watched for this past week were: 1. Mortician: The Story of Paul Bearer (people have told me this one is really good); 2. Talking Smack; 3. Undertaker: The Last Ride episode one; 4. Meeting the Undertaker; 5. Best of Eddie Guerrero; 6. Raw Talk; 7. Undertaker’s Most Bone Chilling Matches; 8. Survivor Series 2019; 9. Uncool with Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross; 10. Undertaker’s Last Ride episode two. NXT for 11/4 placed 18th. NXT U.K. for 11/5 placed 25th. No 205 Live or independent shows or compilations were in the top 25

WWE Ratings, AEW vs. NXT Ratings:

SPOILER: show

Raw on 11/9 started with a good deal of interest and a very strong first hour, but had a big drop as the show went on, finishing at 1,690,000 viewers and 0.53 in 18-49 (689,000 viewers). Raw was fourth in 18-49 behind the New England Patriots vs. New York Jets game (9,828,000 viewers and 2.79 in 18-49) and two other football related shows on ESPN. The news shows were back to normal levels after gigantic weeks and aside from the NFL, Raw beat everything on cable in 18-49 as well as beating CBS (all reruns) and FOX on the network side. It placed fourth in every key male demo under the age of 49. Raw was 40th overall, behind three shows on ESPN and 36 news shows, being first on cable overall among entertainment shows. The key story was the three hours, with hour one at a strong 1,847,000 viewers, hour two falling hard to 1,690,000 viewers and hour three did 1,532,000 viewers, which would be the fifth lowest hour in the history of the show, for Nia Jax vs. Asuka, the 24/7 title skirmish, Ali vs. Ricochet and Miz & Morrison & Randy Orton vs. Drew McIntyre & New Day. The 17.1 percent drop, and heavily male rather than female, was the negative. Raw was up 2.1 percent in viewers but 10.1 percent in 18-49 from last week. The comparisons to the same week last year were much closer than they have been, but last year’s show on the same week was the least-watched show up to that point in the history of the show. The drops from last year were still 17.8 percent in viewers, 17.2 percent in 18-49 and 29.5 percent in 18-34. As far as where the first-to-third hour drops were, they were shockingly low with women (teenage girls actually showed a big increase in hour three) and shockingly high with men. The drops were 4.7 percent in women 18-49, 24.7 percent in men 18-49, but there was an 10.6 percent increase in teenage girls and a 27.9 percent decrease with teenage boys and 16.5 percent in over 50. Women doing well as far as hour three retention looks to be related to people tuning in early to see the first episode of the new season of Miz & Mrs. The show did 111,000 in men 18-34 (down 1.8 percent), 101,000 in women 18-34 (up 27.8 percent), 308,000 in men 35-49 (up 7.3 percent) and 169,000 in women 35-49 (up 15.0 percent). The show did a 0.26 in 12-17 (same as last week), 0.31 in 18-34 (up 10.4 percent), 0.75 in 35-49 (up 8.7 percent) and 0.78 in 50+ (up 9.9 percent).

The Sasha Banks vs. Bayley women’s title match on the 11/6 Smackdown show did a whopping 2.52 million viewers for its entire presentation over the first half. It was the most-watched match and segment on WWE television since before the pandemic. The entire reason for the rating was the women’s title match, and the entire gain over previous weeks was because the show did a monster numbers with women 18-34, likely the best number any wrestling show has done in that demo since the early part of the year. The match led Smackdown to a 1.39 rating, 2,135,000 viewers (1.38 viewers per home, continuing a strong showing for two straight weeks in that category that had been low previously) and 0.67 (866,000 viewers) in 18-49. The 18-49 number isn’t far from pre-pandemic numbers which were around 0.75 and has made a huge comeback in recent weeks. As compared to last week, the ratings was up 2.2 percent, viewers were up 1.3 percent, 18-49 was up 2.0 percent and 18-34 was up the 0.4 in 18-34 was the same as the prior week. Smackdown was first among network shows in 18-49, but 22nd for the night behind 21 cable news shows. And really, with the difference in cable and network homes, it’s realistically closer to about 38 news shows, but you can’t fight the news on election week. Nothing else on network TV topped 0.5 in 18-49. Smackdown beat two prime time network shows although both were at 10 p.m. so they were last in total viewers among the network shows ... In the key demos, the show did 181,000 in men 18-34 (up 2.3 percent), 129,000 in women 18-34 (up 59.3 percent), 355,000 in men 35-49 (down 11.8 percent) and 243,000 in women 35-49 (down 6.2 percent) ... It was notable because the first Banks vs. Bayley match after the split on Smackdown didn’t do well as far as TV ratings went, so it was the continued build and the storyline of whether Banks could retain the title she always loses quickly that was the key. The other thing is the match came off like the blow-off because they are switching to Banks vs. Carmella in the title program. As compared to the same week last year, the show was down 14.7 percent in ratings, 11.3 percent in viewers, 21.6 percent in 18-49 and 33.3 percent in 18-34. Still, in comparison with a year ago, those are far better comparison numbers than WWE television has done in a long time. Because that was the thing that drew the rating, the audience actually dropped significantly during the show, at the level of a worse than usual three-hour Raw. Coming from a week where a segment with the Jey Uso vs. Daniel Bryan match featuring Roman Reigns was the first WWE show in months where the final segment did the biggest number, this week was the biggest drop during a show in recent memory. The half hour breakdowns (we don’t get quarters for Smackdown) told the story. The second half hour, built around the Mysterio family storyline with Seth Rollins & Murphy, and featuring Rey vs. King Corbin, did 2.33 million viewers, a big drop but that half hour does usually fall a little. The third half hour, which usually rises and is often the peak of the show, with the last 5:00 of Rey vs. Corbin, a Natalya vs. Ruby Riott vs. Zelina Vega match and Otis vs. Seth Rollins did 2.28 million viewers. The final segment, the Michael Cole interview with Lars Sullivan and the Jey Uso vs. Kevin Owens match did 2.13 million viewers.

Even though election week is over, the news still dominated the ratings on 11/11 and wrestling ratings were roughly the same as last week. AEW did 764,000 viewers and 0.30 in 18-49 (389,000 viewers), for the No. 17 spot on the night, but the top 15 were all news shows so AEW was third in non-news shows behind two episodes of Real Housewives. Still, that has to be disappointing coming off a PPV. The show was hurt in the sense that none of the draws–Moxley, Jericho, Young Bucks, Omega, Cody or even MJF and Orange Cassidy wrestled on the show. AEW was seventh in Men 18-49 and first among non-news shows since Real Housewives are heavily female skewed . It was only 20th in 18-34 and sixth among non-news shows which is lower than usual. Males 12-34 did poorly by AEW standards, finishing 22nd, and being beaten by six non-news shows as opposed to usually finishing much higher. AEW had more women 18-34 watching than men by a 43-57 split. NXT did 632,000 viewers and 0.16 (210,000 viewers) in 18-49, for the No. 56 spot overall and No. 18 among non-news. The only sports competition was college football on ESPN head-to-head with both that did 722,000 viewers and 0.18 in 18-49. AEW was up 6.6 percent overall and 1.6 percent in 18-49. NXT was up 3.6 percent overall and 16.0 percent in 18-49. As compared to the same week last year, AEW was down 20.2 percent in viewers, 30.2 percent in 18-49 and 58.8 percent in 18-34, which is better in comparison to last year than Raw and Smackdown were doing except in 18-34, but worse than Raw and Smackdown are now doing. NXT was down 15.7 percent in viewers and 36.0 percent in 18-49. AEW doubled NXT in women 18-34 and men 35-49. But in women 18-34, where back in August AEW was winning overall, the comparison this past week was 129,000 for Smackdown, 111,000 for Raw, 56,000 for AEW and 23,000 for NXT. By key demo, AEW did 43,000 in men 18-34 (down 23.2 percent from last week and that was against the monster news numbers) and NXT did 28,000 (up 115.4 percent). In women 18-34, AEW did 56,000 (down 12.5 percent) and NXT did 23,000 (up 53.3 percent). In men 35-49, AEW did 202,000 (up 9.8 percent) and NXT did 95,000 (up 3.3 percent). In women 35-49, AEW did 88,000 (up 11.4 percent) and NXT did 64,000 (up 4.9 percent). In the main event battle, AEW with Penta vs. Rey Fenix and Pac return did 732,000 viewers and 389,000 in 18-49 and NXT with Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch defending the tag titles against Tyler Breeze & Fandango and the post-match did 555,000 viewers and 173,000 in 18-49, so AEW more than doubled NXT in 18-49 in the main event segment. The opening segment saw AEW do 773,000 viewers and 385,000 in 18-49 for the Taz promo and Brian Cage vs. Matt Sydal. NXT did 717,000 viewers and 247,000 in 18-49 for Johnny Gargano vs. Leon Ruff for the North American title and the post-match backstage stuff. The second quarter saw AEW do 764,000 viewers and 387,000 in 18-49 for the Cody Rhodes segment with Jade Cargill and Brandi Rhodes and the Starks & Cage angle with Cody Rhodes & Darby Allin & Will Hobbs. NXT did 666,000 viewers and 227,000 in 18-49 for Santos Escobar vs. Jake Atlas. The third quarter saw AEW do 816,000 viewers and 398,000 in 18-49 for the Omega-Page video and Dustin Rhodes & QT Marshall vs. Butcher & Blade in a bunkhouse match. NXT did 680,000 and 239,000 in 18-49 for the end of Escobar vs. Atlas, a Shotzi Blackheart promo and the Raquel Gonzalez/Boa deal. In the fourth quarter, AEW peaked with 870,000 viewers and 430,000 in 18-49 for the end of Rhodes & Marshall vs. Butcher & Blade for the bloodbath part, a Miro & Kip Sabian & Penelope Ford promo and the beginning of the MJF induction into the Inner Circle. The big thing to me was how a bloodbath street fight match with guys who aren’t pushed at the top would do on national TV, and it was by far the best thing on either show as far as how it did. NXT fell to 609,000 viewers and 199,000 in 18-49 for the Timothy Thatcher/August Gray/Dexter Lumis angle and the beginning of Candice LeRae vs. Toni Storm. In the fifth quarter, AEW did 747,000 viewers and 383,000 in 18-49 for the ending of the Inner Circle induction of MJF & Wardlow, a Young Bucks vs. FTR video and Young Bucks promo and the beginning of Scorpio Sky vs. Shawn Spears. NXT did 641,000 viewers and 213,000 in 18-49 for the end of LeRae vs Storm, the post-match and beginning of Lumis vs. Thatcher. In the sixth quarter, AEW did 716,000 viewers and 374,000 in 18-49 for the end of Sky vs. Spears, a Kenny Omega promo and beginning of Tay Conti vs. Red Velvet. NXT did 617,000 viewers and 197,000 in 18-49 for Thatcher vs. Lumis, the post-match with Cameron Grimes and Gargano with William Regal. In the seventh quarter, AEW did 696,000 viewers and 364,000 in 18-49 with Conti vs. Velvet, an Inner Circle promo and an Eddie Kingston promo, basically doubling NXT in the key demo. NXT did 571,000 viewers and 183,000 in 18-49 for a Tommaso Ciampa promo, a Rhea Ripley/Io Shirai video and a Pat McAfee promo with his group. In the main event segment, AEW gained 36,000 viewers and 25,000 in 18-49 while NXT lost 16,000 and 10,000 in 18-49. AEW did a 0.11 in 12-17, 0.14 in 18-34 (down 17.5 percent), 0.46 in 35-49 (up 10.3 percent) and 0.27 in 50+ (down 6.9 percent) ... Since NXT didn’t finish top 50, we don’t have comparisons past NXT was up 82.1 percent in 18-34 and 3.9 percent in 35-49.

AEW on 11/4 did 1.52 viewers per home. Of course with 717,000 viewers, that means the number of homes watching was only 472,000, much lower than usual due to news shows. The AEW issue is that in the homes where people watch, they are very popular, but that number of homes is not growing. On 11/4, it was way down from usual, but that was expected due to all the news coverage, but that is the biggest issue of growth of somehow getting more homes to know about them. Really, it’s the epitome of a niche product that does well with its audience but isn’t expanding. Which is better than heavy contraction like a lot of television and staying even under these situations is better than most things on television. But as far as trajectory goes, in August it looked like with WWE huge declines and AEW’s steadiness that things would get close in a year or so, and right now the trajectory has changed in the sense WWE is no longer declining, and Smackdown is growing with its three big angles. So the long-term prognosis is very different.

[slik]

WrestleMania update: Source states that while Edge vs Randy Orton has been the long standing plan, and still is at the moment, the idea of Edge vs The Fiend has been discussed a great deal for the show.

— WrestleVotes (@WrestleVotes) November 16, 2020

Bray no-sells for 20 minutes and then gets hit w/ a spear?

[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets:

Last night's Raw averaged 1.78 million viewers, an expected increase over recent weeks due to the Drew McIntyre WWE Championship win over Randy Orton in the main event. As expected, there was no major third hour drop due to that match going on last. On the flip side, the viewers gained from recent weeks were mostly over the age of 50, as the younger demos were down from last week, with 18-49 doing a 0.51 and 18-34 doing a 0.24. The total audience was up five percent, but 18-49 was down four percent and 18-34 was down eight percent. Unlike last week, where the women's audience maintained, this week it was different. From the first-to-third hour, women 18-49 were down 25 percent, showing women not being nearly as interested in the title match. Men 18-49 were up one percent, which is very unusual, but not unexpected. Teenage girls dropped 21 percent and teenage boys were up eight percent. Over 50 only dropped two percent, which is exceedingly low ... Raw beat all entertainment shows on cable overall, losing only to NFL-related programming on ESPN (Chicago Bears vs. Minnesota Vikings did 11.45 million viewers, 3.23 in 18-49, and 2.41 in 18-34) and news shows. But Raw beat all news shows in 18-49, trailing only three NFL related shows on ESPN and Below Deck on Bravo (0.53) ... Raw was down 16 percent from the same week last year overall, 25 percent in 18-49, and 44 percent in 18-34. The three hours were: 8 p.m. 1.87 million viewers 9 p.m.. 1.74 million viewers 10 p.m. 1.73 million viewers

Originally Posted by Observer Marti Belle is no longer under contract with the NWA and is now a free agent. In a tweet posted on Tuesday, Belle (real name Martibel Payano) announced that she's no longer under contract with the NWA. Belle wrote that she doesn't know what's next for her, but she's excited to find out.

UNW's weekly PPV shows and AEW likely helping out financially are the only reasons why the NWA hasn't collapsed by now due to the coronavirus pandemic. Even with the money coming in, they still are in a very rough shape out of the notable indies in the US.

Originally Posted by Observer Ring of Honor's first pay-per-view of the pandemic era is set for next month. On this week's episode of ROH Week By Week, it was announced that Final Battle 2020 will take place on Friday, December 18. It was noted that more information regarding the PPV will be revealed on ROH Week By Week and ROH's website in the coming weeks.

Originally Posted by Observer Matt Sydal has officially signed with AEW. The company confirmed this afternoon that Sydal has signed with the company. He made his debut for the company at Double or Nothing as a surprise, entering last as the Joker wildcard. There was a spot in the match where Sydal botched a shooting star press, landing on his head. He was able to continue working the match, however, until he was eliminated by Eddie Kingston. Since Double or Nothing, Sydal has mostly worked matches for AEW Dark. However, he has appeared on a couple of recent episodes of Dynamite, losing to Kingston and Brian Cage.

Originally Posted by Observer Drew McIntyre told Fox Sports that the sword he carried during his entrance on last night’s Raw belongs to Vince McMahon. McIntyre said it was a gift to Vince from Triple H and Stephanie McMahon.

Originally Posted by Observer Following her appearance in The Mandalorian, Sasha Banks responded to a question from USA Today about whether or not she has the itch to do more film and TV acting: “Absolutely. I have so many goals and so many things that I would love to do in Hollywood, and so many things that I would love to do outside of WWE that I'm making possible. So keep on watching in 2021. I’m going to keep on killing it and crush all my dreams.”

Originally Posted by Observer All three members of The New Day are now available as playable DLC characters in Gears 5.

Link: https://twitter.com/AustinCreedWins/...66714289512448

Originally Posted by Observer Renee Paquette announced that she’s launching a podcast called Oral Sessions. Paquette wrote that the podcast is “about cool ass people having a great conversation. Unfiltered and unscripted!” Paquette said the goal is to release a new episode every Tuesday starting on November 24.

Originally Posted by Observer The 2300 Arena (ECW Arena) in Philadelphia has started a GoFundMe campaign to help save the venue amid the COVID-19 pandemic: “It is with a heavy heart that the 2300 Arena is asking for help from our friends, family, and supporters, with our hat in hand when it counts the most. We need your support to stay afloat this winter and continue our 13-year legacy. This has obviously been our most difficult year – Covid-19 has hit us extraordinarily hard due to the nature of our business.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Vicente Beltran conducted an interview with The Undertaker and during their conversation, the topic of Roman Reigns and Jey Uso’s storyline came up and Undertaker mentioned talking to Bruce Prichard recently and telling him how much he has enjoyed the storyline. “I was actually talking with Bruce Prichard on the phone a couple of days ago and I mentioned to him how much I’ve enjoyed the Roman Reigns/Jey Uso program, because that’s kind of an old school program, you know? It was very easy to understand, especially if you’re familiar with the Samoan legacy and heritage and how proud that Samoan bloodline is, especially in the wrestling world. To understand that and to have these cousins that grew up and now they’re fighting, it was so — there was so many layers to it. I thought that was the closest thing to really old school stuff that we’ve done in a while, and obviously they delivered. It was an amazing match too.” Undertaker was asked how he would like to be remembered as an individual and as a professional and here was his response: “I’d want to be remembered as someone who loved this business and gave everything that they had, not only to do well while I was there but to move the business forward. I wanna be remembered as somebody that was always willing to help somebody who wanted to get better, and those are the things that are most important to me is being able to go out there and know that my fans were gonna get what they paid to see. I never mailed it in, I always went there no matter how bad that I felt, whatever physical condition I was in, I gave ‘em everything that I had, because I always looked at it as, ‘They’re paying their hard earned money to come and see me. I gotta give them what I have,’ and hopefully they know that and appreciate that and then on the professional side of it, always trying to pay it forward and help the next guy along to kind of miss some of the bumps that I had to take and some of the lumps and the learning process. Those I think are the most important things I want to be remembered for.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Yahoo! Sports Canada caught up with The Undertaker to promote his ‘Final Farewell’ at Survivor Series. With WWE’s Survivor Series show emanating from the Amway Center, Undertaker thinks it’ll help him get through his ceremony because fans are not there live and he thinks it’ll be less emotional in that sense ... The multi-time WWE World Champion looked back at the storyline between himself and Glenn “Kane” Jacobs. Undertaker feels that it is the greatest storyline WWE has ever put together. “Although I had wrestled some giants up until that point and I had these dragons that I had to slay, none of them really matched up like Kane did. You have this over-the-top character in the Undertaker, but now he has a brother? It was over the top, but there was a real kind of connection that people could identify with. If you have a sibling, you understand sibling rivalries, but now it’s on an entirely different scale. You have one who throws lightning and the other creates fire. It was part reality, part supernatural, almost comic book story. I will always say it is the best story that WWE has ever told.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Ax of the 3-time WWF Tag Team Champions Demolition was interviewed by Bill Pritchard of WrestleZone. Ax was asked about FTR (Dax Harwood & Cash Wheeler’s) first names being a tribute to Ax and Smash. He had the following to say about the tribute and Dax also reacted to Ax’s comments via Twitter. “Well, I’ll tell you what, that’s the first time I heard that and I’m really… normally I have a lot to say but I’m at a search for words. I really appreciate that and if you talk to them — I mean I never get a chance to, either Barry or I, unless it’s some kind of convention, but if you’re talking to them and that’s truly the situation, please tell them thank you very much for us. I really do appreciate that and tell them that we both appreciate that. That’s a fine tribute because they’re one of the teams — The Young Bucks — there’s four or five teams that I know, or have been around together for some time and I honestly think that they are one of the few teams that work as a team. They remind me a lot of The Andersons and Arn and Tully [Blanchard] as well so, they do a good job.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Kota Ibushi shared a video of himself eating a sparkler.

Link: https://twitter.com/ibushi_kota/stat...14397929877504

Originally Posted by WrestleTalk A former WWE talent has commented on the reason why they were able to keep their controversial ring name during their time with the company. As we’ve already covered on the site, Killer Kelly recently spoke with Fightful Select regarding her time in WWE and her departure. WWE more often than not gives wrestlers new names, but Killer Kelly was able to keep hers. This is potentially even more confusing given that her name includes “Killer” and Karrion Kross had to change from Killer Kross. Kelly said that she believes the reason she was able to keep is simply because WWE forgot about it. She did, however, say that she was relieved when she saw “Killer Kelly” written on the contract as she didn’t want to lose the name.

Originally Posted by PWI Ethan Page's current Impact deal is up at the end of December. There is no word whether he and the company have come to terms on a new deal, but Page is already teasing his future The other big deal that is believed to be up by the next month is Taya Valkyrie.

Originally Posted by Fightful Details on Brodie Lee's absence from AEW television. According to Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer, Brodie Lee is currently dealing with an undisclosed injury, which is why he's been off television. Meltzer said Lee is dealing with a "possible ankle injury," but there was no confirmation on the injury. Lee hasn't wrestled since losing the AEW TNT Championship to Cody Rhodes in a Dog Collar Match on the October 7 episode of AEW Dynamite. It is unknown when he will return to television.

SPOILER: show

Originally Posted by PWI WWE Hall of Famer and Olympic gold medalist Kurt Angle is scheduled to be in attendance at the Survivor Series this Sunday, PWInsider.com has confirmed. It is likely that Angle is being brought in for the Undertaker's Final Farewell. As previously reported, Kane, The Godfather and Savio Vega will also be in attendance at the PPV. Whether any of them will appear on camera remains to be seen. It's entirely possible they are being brought in to film WWE Network content or additional material related to Undertaker that will be released down the line. Angle was released by WWE from his position as a Producer this past April as part of their cost-cutting in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since that release, WWE offered Angle a chance to return to manage Raw star Riddle, an overture Angle turned down ... WWE is not the only company that has shown interest in Kurt Angle, PWInsider.com can also confirm. At one point, there was a strong pitch made by Impact Wrestling to bring Angle in with the idea that he would return at Bound for Glory, but for whatever reason, the talks faltered.

Spoiler tag used since its related to current Undertaker plans for Survivor Series.


TPWW Frontpage:

• WWE: More on Zelina Vega’s Release, WrestleMania 37 Plans Update, Updated SD Ratings
• Mandy Rose Legitimately Injured, Pulled Off of Survivor Series Team
• Powerful Labor Union Seeking to Help Pro Wrestlers
• Seth Rollins Reportedly Taking Some Time Off From WWE Soon

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Originally Posted by Fightful Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler, known together as FTR, may no longer have the AEW Tag Team Title, but they now have a claim the Young Bucks will never have. PJ Black Reveals Leg Injury After Falling Down Stairs Related Article PJ Black Reveals Leg Injury After Falling Down Stairs FTR was listed as the top tag team in wrestling by Pro Wrestling Illustrated in the first-ever PWI Tag Team 50. Tag teams were evaluated between October 1, 2019 and September 30, 2020. The criteria used for rankings included momentum, win record, chemistry, creativity, overall activity, and “it” factor. FTR won the AEW Tag Team Titles over the past year and took on some of the top teams in wrestling including Hangman Page & Kenny Omega, SCU, and The Lucha Bros in AEW. In WWE, FTR (known as The Revival in WWE) held the SmackDown Tag Team Titles and had a feud with New Day to cap off 2019, plus a well-received match against Undisputed ERA (Bobby Fish & Kyle O'Reilly). Omega & Page finished second in the rankings. Fans can see the top five teams below. PWI Tag Team 50 Top 5 1. FTR (Cash Wheeler & Dax Harwood) 2. Kenny Omega & Adam Page 3. Golden Role Models (Bayley & Sasha Banks) 4. The North (Ethan Page & Josh Alexander) 5. Street Profits (Montez Ford & Angelo Dawkins)

Link: https://twitter.com/OfficialPWI/stat...67505374523398

Originally Posted by PWI AEW issued the following: Award-Winning Director X Creates “Boundless” Ad Campaign for TNT’s “AEW DYNAMITE” LOS ANGELES – November 18, 2020 – Today, TNT announced a new ad campaign to promote its popular All Elite Wrestling program, “AEW Dynamite,” which is currently the number one wrestling show on Wednesday nights. The new ad is part of AEW’s “Boundless” campaign and was created and directed by Director X (Julien Christian Lutz), who is an award-winning music video and movie director best known for his visually distinctive videos for popular artists including Drake, Kendrick Lamar, Rihanna, Jay-Z, Kanye West, Usher, John Mayer and many more. Director X’s accolades include winning Video Director of the Year at the 2016 BET Awards, Best Hip Hop Video at the 2020 BET Hip Hop Awards and Best Video at the 2020 MTV European Music Awards. Celebrating the world-class roster of diverse male and female wrestlers, “Boundless” tells the underdog story of the stars of AEW, who, with a true passion for the sport, bet on themselves and created a new kind of wrestling league, drawing millions of fans to their dynamic, action-packed TNT “AEW Dynamite” weekly events. “Director X is the perfect partner to showcase the AEW brand with his distinct visual style that uniquely speaks to a new generation,” said Melissa Chambless, EVP of Marketing, TNT, TBS and truTV. “His ability to bring these wrestlers’ incredible stories to life in such an authentic way thoroughly manifests our Boundless campaign.” “Like me, I think a lot of people will relate to the stories shared in this video,” said Director X. “I know what it’s like to be doubted, being told ‘you can’t do this,’ but AEW is proof that by believing in yourself and not listening to what the world is saying you can and will do it. This isn’t B.S. It’s real.”

Guess the new AEW documentary wasn't just a one-off special and instead part of a larger ad campaign TNT currently has for AEW Dynamite.

Originally Posted by PWI USA Today has an interview with The Undertaker discussing his 1990 debut, the decision to raise the veil on the character and more. On letting fans in to see Mark Calaway and breaking the facade of the Undertaker character, he commented, " It's been challenging opening up and lifting the veil, because for 30 years that was unheard of. You just don't do it. There's some days I'm thinking, “It's really cool that I've given people a peek on the inside” and then there's other days where I'm like, “I don't know if I should have done this or not.” On whether he can enjoy professional wrestling as a fan, Undertaker said, "I can to a certain degree. But a lot of times I catch myself talking to the TV like they can hear me. It's hard to be just a straight fan, because I want everybody to succeed and to develop into their potential. So I’m kind of like, "Oh man, don't do it. It didn't make sense. Don't do that. Why would you do that?” You would actually laugh if there was a camera watching me watch wrestling. I have these conversations and it's pretty amusing, I'm sure." On whether he'd been able to process how much he's meant to so many fans, Undertaker said, "I can't tell you how many times now that I'm getting out and doing more personal appearances – well, obviously pre-COVID – the amount of people that come up and tell me their story and thank me. It's humbling to know how your work and what you do can affect people that you'll a lot of times never meet or never see."

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Chris Van Vliet released a clip from his interview with JTG. The late Shad Gaspard became the topic of their conversation and JTG agreed that Shad should be the next recipient of WWE’s Warrior Award that is presented at the WWE Hall Of Fame ceremony. “He definitely should. I don’t know what’s a bigger heroic [thing] than putting your life on the line, for his son but honestly, he would have done it for — if it was another child. If it was probably me, he probably would’ve done the same exact thing.”

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQy5XopbYFQ

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Ring of Honor talent PJ Black shared on his social media pages that he recently fell down some stairs and is currently recuperating in a hospital. Black competed in the ROH Pure Title tournament and lost in the second round to Josh Woods. Since that ROH taping, he has been working on the NJPW Strong show and most recently wrestled Tama Tanga in singles competition.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling AEW President Tony Khan spoke with Jim Varsallone of the Miami Herald. Tony was asked for his thoughts on the growth of AEW Dark and he stated that he views Dark as AEW’s developmental project and is happy with how things have progressed during the COVID-19 pandemic. “It started early in the pandemic [longer episodes of AEW Dark]. I didn’t have any fans and I wanted to bring in lots of people to — first of all, to be able to develop more wrestlers but also, so we had fans at ringside, and I’m bringing these people in and it’s like, ‘Well, I’d like to take a look at these people and get them in matches and really build up a developmental system’ where we’re taking a look at all these indie wrestlers and also giving them a chance to work in a pandemic which is something I felt really good about because you know, through March, April, May, June it’s like, gosh, the pandemic just slapped everybody in the face and independent wrestling had become a non-entity, so for a lot of people their best chance of working in the wrestling business if they weren’t signed anywhere was to come work on Dark, which was great and we found some really valuable people in AEW through this program and so it’s our developmental system and we continue to develop wrestlers and we’ll have more new talent in this Wednesday and I’m sure we’ll find some more people that we have interest in and it’s really fun and I think it’s great for the fans to see the next generation of big wrestlers but also to see some of the top stars in AEW getting a chance to develop their move-set, getting a chance to tell their stories and we got great commentary with Excalibur and Taz and we have guest hosts. Ricky Starks is kinda the permanent guest host, and then we have other people who have come in and done a great job like Veda Scott and Anthony Ogogo and others.” One of the talents to get signed by way of his AEW Dark performances was Will Hobbs. Tony Khan talked about his decision to sign Hobbs and working closely with Hobbs on several occasions. “There’s some great stories out of [AEW] Dark and Will Hobbs, he’s a great example of somebody who I’d worked with on Dark and I decided, ‘Okay, well I’m gonna put him on Dynamite and then I actually agented his match with Darby [Allin] on the Saturday Night Dynamite and he did a great job and I really like Will and I decided I’m gonna sign him and push him, and then we had the All Out Battle Royale right after that. I agented that too and Will was a guy I earmarked for a big push, and so he’s a good example of somebody who came in to work on Dark and he’s gotten to do a lot more things and has become a contract wrestler here. So it’s a great opportunity for people to come in and make an impression on everybody here, but especially me and that’s the best way to get the contract.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling WWE is looking to move the lawsuit filed by Candy Cartwright against the company, Matt Riddle, Gabe Sapolsky, and EVOLVE from municipal to federal court. HeelByNature obtained court documents filed on November 17 which include consent forms from Riddle, Sapolsky, and WWN owner Sal Hamaoui. The consent forms were required from all defendants in order to move the case. On October 8, Samantha Tavel, professionally known as Candy Cartwright, filed a lawsuit in the Circuit Court of Cook County Illinois alleging that Riddle began sexually assaulting Tavel in April 2017 in the parking lot after an EVOLVE event. The lawsuit also alleges that Riddle bragged about this to former EVOLVE owner Sapolsky and that those two entities and WWE tacitly approved of Riddle's alleged sexual violence towards Tavel. The lawsuit also alleges that Tavel had bookings with WWE and EVOLVE on or about January 31, 2020, and that prior to that Riddle had forced her to perform sexual acts under the threat that she would lose bookings if she did not. David Bixenspan reported that an email was sent to Tavel by NXT senior official Drake Wuertz canceling an appearance she was booked for on January 31, the same date mentioned in the lawsuit, citing issues with an NXT talent that “would not make for an ideal environment.” According to the documents, Tavel is seeking $10 million per defendant. On October 26, WWE was officially served a summons by Tavel’s legal counsel.

Link: https://heelbynature.com/wrestling-n...federal-court/

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Ahead of his match against Jacob Fatu in the main event of the 11/18 episode of MLW FUSION, Davey Boy Smith Jr. spoke with Sports Illustrated. Smith Jr. will be a free agent soon and he believes that a return to WWE is possible. “I think it’s definitely a possibility. In addition to the WWE Hall of Fame, I was also supposed to be touring regularly with All Japan Pro Wrestling. I had a big opportunity with their Champion Carnival tournament in April, but I couldn’t travel to [Japan] with the pandemic. “I have a lot to think about and a lot of options to weigh, but I’m looking forward to seeing what transpires in my future. A return to WWE is very possible.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling TNT Champion Darby Allin was interviewed by Scott Fishman of TV Insider. Darby detailed how he began working with the likes of Steve-O and Tony Hawk for content that ends up airing on AEW Dynamite. “They just started following me on Instagram. I hit them up. I said, ‘Yo, this is what I want to do. I want to bring my world into wrestling instead of just wrestling into wrestling.’ I was inspired by names like Tony Hawk, Steve-O and Bam Margera. I want to bring that world into wrestling because I feel there are a lot of fans that fell out of love with wrestling. Now they can see all these cool people collaborating and doing stuff. I’m at Bam’s house right now filming stuff. I’m trying to do as much as possible.”

Originally Posted by WrestleTalk It is not always a good thing to be given a new name in WWE. While most of the changes made in NXT are inoffensive, almost every name change on the main roster has been met with backlash from fans. Now, it is being reported that another WWE star was nearly given a ridiculous new name last week. Fightful Select (subscription required) is reporting that Chelsea Green was almost called “Victorious” for her debut. Green made her debut last week on SmackDown where she promptly broke her wrist and disappeared from the match. The report says the new name was on internal documents on last week’s show and Green would have referred to herself as her new name in her post-match promo. Of course, she was injured and plans changed to Liv Morgan winning the match and thus the promo never happened. It remains to be seen in the name Victorious will spring up again when Green returns from injury. She had been out of action prior to her debut and will now be out once again as she recovers. It was also reported earlier today that Vince McMahon met with Green prior to her debut. Paul Heyman was reportedly high on her and thought she could be a top women’s star.

Originally Posted by Fightful Undertaker would love to work a program with "The Fiend." Drew McIntyre Reveals Vince McMahon Gave Him The Sword For WWE Raw Entrance Related Article Drew McIntyre Reveals Vince McMahon Gave Him The Sword For WWE Raw Entrance Although Undertaker has worked a WrestleMania match against Bray Wyatt in the past, he has never done a full program with this version of Wyatt, which has The Fiend. Speaking on The Bump, Undertaker said he wanted to see how his character would fare against Wyatt's character. In fact, Undertaker said there were a number of different matches that the two of them could have. Undertaker said they could have a Buried Alive Match, a Swamp Match or even a match at Alcatraz. "This iteration now, the possibilities are endless. He's really taken his character to the next level. It's original and so different from what everybody else does. It's so thought provoking and it draws emotion from people. I would love to work a program with The Fiend. My goodness, there's no telling what kind of matches we would come up, just due to the strength of his career and obviously The Undertaker character, it would have been something else. It might have been a Buried Alive, Swamp Match, Alcatraz, the possibilities would be limitless with those two characters," Undertaker said. Undertaker will be at Survivor Series on November 22 when he has his Final Farewell. Fightful will have live coverage of Survivor Series.

Originally Posted by Fightful Fans can continue to celebrate the WWE career of The Undertaker with a new limited edition collector's box. The collector's box includes a t-shirt, figures, a cosplay set, and more. Only 1,500 are available for the price of $66.60. From WWE Shop: Straight from Death Valley comes a collector’s box 30 Years in the making! This limited edition box has been crafted to celebrate the unparalleled career of The Undertaker, and it is absolutely filled to the brim with exclusive items including: Exclusive T-Shirt Classic Fit 24x36 "Evolution of the Deadman" Poster Undertaker & Paul Bearer Vinyl Figures - Ooooh Yessssss! "Ministry of Darkness" Enamel Pin Cosplay Set Replica Undertaker Tie Replica Undertaker Gloves Rubber Undertaker Mask For three decades, Undertaker has loomed over the WWE landscape like a menacing shadow, spelling out doom for those who dare cross him. Imbued with seemingly mystical abilities and preternatural in-ring skill, The Deadman is a WWE great in a class by himself, and no list of Legends would be complete without him. Don’t miss out on this one of a kind opportunity. Only 1,500 of this Limited Edition box will ever be sold, so get yours before they’re gone forever.

Link for those interested: https://legendsshop.wwe.com/products...collectors-box


TPWW Frontpage:

• AEW: Brodie Lee Possibly Injured, Kenny Omega Explains “North Carolina” Reference
• AEW Dynamite & NXT Cards for Tonight + AEW Rankings

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Originally Posted by Observer Despite competition in the form of the NBA Draft on ESPN, AEW Dynamite averaged 850,000 viewers last night on TNT, its highest number since September. WWE NXT was up slightly from last week but trailed Dynamite distantly, averaging 638,000 viewers. That was NXT's best number since Halloween Havoc. The gap of 212,000 viewers was the biggest between the two shows since July 22. Dynamite finished seventh in the cable TV charts which measure the 18-49 demo. The show averaged a 0.37 rating. That's tied for the second highest total in that category for Dynamite in 2020, just trailing the January 15 episode of the show. Dynamite was up 23.3 percent from last week in the 18-49 demo and the overall viewership was up 11.3 percent. NXT failed to chart in the top 50, finishing 56th in the 18-49 demo with a 0.14 rating, down 12.5 percent from last week. The overall viewership for NXT was up 0.9 percent. The 18-49 number was the second lowest NXT has ever done on USA, only beating the May 20 episode that did a 0.13 ... Other individual demo numbers for NXT are not available due to it failing to chart in the top 50 ... Year-over-year, Dynamite was down 4.8 percent in total viewers and 5.1 percent in 18-49. NXT was down 30.4 percent in total viewers and 53.3 percent in the demo. NXT was featuring wrestlers from Raw and SmackDown in the buildup to Survivor Series last year, which explains why those numbers are down so much.

Originally Posted by Observer WWE's foray into new third party partnerships has begun as they announced Thursday that the Undertaker will be joining Cameo for a limited run of 30 "personalized video messages which he will fulfill at Survivor Series." Requests are being taken now with a cost of $1000 per message. Undertaker has been doing the media rounds again this week as he prepares for what is being billed as a "Final Farewell" at Sunday's Survivor Series, celebrating 30 years in WWE. WWE made news recently after they changed their policy and forbade talent from having their own separate third party deals with Cameo and Twitch. Part of the rationale is to establish broader partnerships with revenue being counted against the talent's yearly downside guarantee vs. going directly to them. Since Undertaker isn't an active talent, it's unknown how his compensation for the potential $30,000 in revenue will work. WWE talents that have Cameo accounts recently have seen the company logo added to their profile, but neither WWE or Cameo has yet to formally announce a partnership.

Originally Posted by Observer MLW followed through with thier promise to bring back the Opera Cup this year, announcing the full brackets and a date for the first two matches on this week's Fusion. Eight men will compete for the Cup, an homage to a trophy that existed for 50 years dating back to 1948. After 71 years of inactivity, MLW revived it last year. On the left side of the bracket, "Filthy" Tom Lawlor will face Rocky Romero while ACH will take on AAA Cruiserweight Champion Laredo Kid. On the right side, former MLW World Champion Low Ki will face last year's winner Davey Boy Smith Jr. with Carribean Champion Richard Holliday facing the returning TJP. Lawlor vs. Romero and Holliday vs. TJP will kick off the tourney on next week's Fusion. MLW also announced a slew of alternates (Gino Medina, Jordan Oliver, Hijo de LA Park, King Mo, Dominic Garrini, and Daga) but didn't explain how that process would work.

Originally Posted by Observer WWE has revealed the premiere date and released the trailer for their upcoming Liv Morgan documentary: "Liv Forever" will premiere on the WWE Network on Sunday, November 29. Morgan noted that she documented her life behind the scenes for 16 months. "For 16 months, I documented my life behind the scenes as a WWE superstar," Morgan wrote. "Not everything is what it seems... but now you can finally see it all. On November 29th, you get to learn the truth and I get to LIV FOREVER @wwenetwork"

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvzHSd_0h6w

Originally Posted by PWI The official Twitter for the SAG-AFTRA union tweeted that they had sat down with former WWE star Zelina Vega following Vega's release last week: Powerful conversation with Thea Trinidad @Zelina_VegaWWE today. We support her and others as they work to protect and empower themselves. — SAG-AFTRA (@sagaftra) November 19, 2020 Zelina Vega responded: Very powerful indeed, thank you all for the pleasant conversation and insight. https://t.co/wnvH8mAXMj — ???????????????????????? ???????????????? (@Zelina_VegaWWE) November 19, 2020

Link: https://twitter.com/sagaftra/status/1329251002533310465 , https://twitter.com/Zelina_VegaWWE/s...63665514770432

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Former multi-time WWE Women’s Champion Alexa Bliss is currently involved in a storyline on-screen with Bray Wyatt. The duo have been in the mix with the likes of Randy Orton, Drew McIntyre, Nikki Cross and The Miz over the past several weeks. Recently, Bliss got engaged to her significant other Ryan Cabrera and she appeared on Maria Menounos’ ‘Better Together’ podcast to discuss all things surrounding the proposal. Bliss was asked about the idea of Cabrera wanting children and where she stands on that. She stated that she’ll see where they’re at on that decision when her contract with WWE is up in “three and a half years”. “Well we discussed we would see, you know, once my WWE contract is over where we’re at, and that’s in about I think three and a half, three and a half years and he’s like totally fine with that. He’s like, ‘Yeah, I’m good. I just want to be –’ he’s like, ‘I just don’t want 45 to be my first kid’ and I’m just like, ‘Cool, we’re good.’”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling The Acclaimed (Anthony Bowens & Max Caster) of All Elite Wrestling were guests on Busted Open Radio. Tommy Dreamer, who works with the IMPACT Wrestling creative team told the duo that there was interest in them from IMPACT and that interest began with Brian Myers pitching their names. “You know, I’ll tell you this, I’ll let you in on a little inside. We were losing The Rascalz and wrestling, we know when contracts are coming up [in] IMPACT Wrestling and Brian Myers pitched both you guys to come to IMPACT and we’re like, ‘Yeah, we’ll probably look at them for the upcoming year.’ So, it’s cool to go from having nothing and I’ll tell you this because not only did you have AEW interested, you had IMPACT interested in you. That [didn’t] happen and everything happens for a reason but just the fact that you go so long in wrestling and then all of a sudden, the doors open up for you and to tell you a quick story, Scotty 2 Hotty was the next Shawn Michaels. He looked just like Shawn Michaels, and he was plugging away for the business for a long, long time and in the same week, he had job offers from ECW, WCW and the WWF, and from doing it for like six-to-eight years and then for the same week to have all these people clamor for him, it’s pretty, pretty cool so you guys, I know at least had options where I didn’t even know if you guys knew that other people were plugging for you and it was based upon your talent.” Bowens was supposed to work with AEW in some capacity prior to the pandemic. He stated that he was supposed to be at their Blood & Guts event in New Jersey. “Right after we spoke [Busted Open Radio in January], from what I understand, I was supposed to doing something at the Blood & Guts show or at least be there so I was like, ‘This is my moment, this is my time’ and then 30 minutes later, ‘All shows cancelled’ and I was like, ‘No! No, not again’ and then something similar happened in June then finally I was able to get down here and then a couple weeks later the good news came.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling John Arezzi tweeted out that Sylvano Sousa passed away due to complications from COVID-19. Sylvano competed for the NWA, Stampede Wrestling and the WWF. He also was a regular in All Japan Pro Wrestling in the mid-70s. Below is Arezzi’s message: "Sad news. RIP to the man who was my partner on January 10, 1979 when we took on the American Dream, Dusty Rhodes. We will miss you Sylvano Sousa, who died today from complications related to COVID-19."

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Jason Powell welcomed MLW founder Court Bauer onto the Pro Wrestling Boom podcast. MLW’s Restart kicked off on 11/18 on the organization’s YouTube channel and fubo Sports. Bauer stated that he originally wanted FUSION to air on Thursdays instead of Wednesdays, but the network wanted to slot MLW on Wednesdays and originally wanted them at the 8 PM EST spot ... Bauer said there have been plenty of conversations with All Elite Wrestling when he was asked about the idea of a talent exchange. He explained that it has to be mutually beneficial for all sides in order for it to happen. “We’ve had plenty of conversations with folks over there [AEW], including Tony [Khan] all the time and every conversation is kind of a different discussion about a different thing so, we’ve had very positive experiences with them and I think you look at 2021 and all the possibilities, I think there’s a lot of interesting opportunities with AEW or with other places even, to do some form of a shared ecosystem. Now I don’t wanna get too specific but there’s always a possibility. I think there just has to be a realistic balance of the transaction of all sides and how it has to be mutually beneficial to your fans, your business, their fans and their business and if it is, great. That’s what you hope for. It’s easier said than done in general because of the state of wrestling, right? Things can get very complicated but I think there definitely could be a pathway to that for sure.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling The TNT Champion Darby Allin was interviewed by Comicbook.com prior to the 11/18 episode of AEW Dynamite. Darby talked about his daredevil-style vignettes and stated that he normally doesn’t tell those at AEW about his filming plans until it is filmed and ready for television. “No, because sometimes I just don’t tell them until I show them the vid. So a lot of times people can’t see what I’m up to. Like when I jumped off the bridge. It’s like, ‘Hey man, I’m here. I’m alive. I’m walking around now. So hopefully we can use these.'”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Jimmy Traina welcomed The Undertaker onto the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast to promote his appearance at Survivor Series. Undertaker stated that he does not know what he’ll be doing on the show other than making an entrance and addressing the fans who’ve supported him throughout the years. “You got about as much knowledge as I do. Only thing I can safely say is at some point, I will make an entrance and go to the ring and address the WWE universe and that’s about as much as I know right now [to] tell you the truth. We got no details other than… November 22nd to the day is my 30-year anniversary. Obviously, it has been 30 days of The Undertaker, it’s been quite a bit, it’s been humbling but I honestly, I’m dealing with Vince McMahon here and there’s no one that Vince McMahon loves to play a practical joke on or rib more so than The Undertaker so, I’m going in with crazy expectations of what potentially could happen to me on Sunday.”

Originally Posted by Fightful The final live episode of AEW Dynamite in 2019 finished with the Dark Order throwing phantom punches against The Elite. The episode was criticized by fans and pundits and forced Tony Khan and company to rethink things during the break. "Getting back to our bread and butter wrestling was good. We were beating up some of our big stars too much. We put a lot of resources into people and had to re-look at our stories and where we were at with them," Khan said about the "reset" coming into 2020 when appearing on The Pro Wrestling Torch podcast. Khan continued, elaborating on how some focus has shifted in 2020. "For me, a big focus -- I try to look at other sources peripheral to AEW like Being The Elite for ideas. I saw Hangman on Being The Elite doing his drunk character. He had never done that on Dynamite. I was like, 'That's Hangman from now.' We're almost a year into it and it's completely changed him and he connects with people in a different way, he's a more three-dimensional wrestler. There was a connection between him and the crowd that he still needed to get. We found it and now he has everything he needs. It was already within him. It's similar to John Silver, when I saw his character on Being The Elite and I said, 'This is what you need to do on Dynamite, this is going to connect with people.' There are things like that where we need to change the presentation of people," he said. Hangman was arguably the most popular wrestler in AEW at the start of 2020 with the live crowds. Silver has become the focal point on Dark Order in recent months and even won the Being The Elite Championship this past Monday. Khan said that he was happy to establish some long-term programs at the beginning of the year and pointed to the May 6 show as being a big turning point.

Originally Posted by Fightful Three names appear on this week's NXT Injury report. Wednesday's NXT was headlined by an NXT Women's Title Match pitting champion Io Shirai against challenger Rhea Ripley. The champion walked away from the bout victorious, but neither came away unscathed. Rhea Ripley suffered multiple contusions and abrasions on both ears after having five earrings ripped off during the match. Doctors had to remove pieces of skin from her ear to "make her ear look normal again."

Originally Posted by Fightful The Undertaker is known for a variety of special matches he has competed in, but one particular match was a big part of his early career. One of the signature matches in the former WWE Champion's career was the casket match, which he says was very influential in the Undertaker's character development. In an interview on The Bump, Undertaker explains why the casket match has been a major part in his early WWE career, saying it was such a unique and shocking thing at that time. "I think those early casket matches were so pivotal to the character because they were so, you're talking about the early 1990s and nothing like that was being done. Just the concept of putting your opponent in a casket and everybody has their ideas of caskets and some are very squeamish about them. Other people aren't bothered by them, but the fact that you're taking your opponent and locking them up in a casket kind of reiterated that the Undertaker character is on a whole other level of what wins and losses looked like. I think those casket matches and the body bag matches were crucial to the development of the character and setting it apart from every other character out there because nobody else was doing it. There were cage matches. There were No DQ matches, but to lock your opponent in a casket, it really caught people off guard considering the time period in which we did it," Undertaker said.

Originally Posted by 411Mania Fightful Select has a backstage rumor on a match that was apparently planned to air on last week’s episode of Friday Night SmackDown but was scrapped at the last minute. Per the report, WWE had planned to have a qualifying match that would see Big E join Team SmackDown at Survivor Series. However, the match was ultimately pulled from the FOX Network broadcast for November 13 due to time constraints. WWE’s creative team had reportedly planned to add Big E to Team SmackDown for the Survivor Series match some weeks ago. Additionally, a lot of the decisions on who would fill in the teams for the Team Raw vs. Team SmackDown elimination matches were reportedly set weeks before Sunday’s event. If this is the case, there’s still time for Big E to win a qualifying match for this week’s episode. WWE Survivor Series 2020 is slated for Sunday, November 22. The show will air live on the WWE Network. It will be held at the Amway Center in Orlando, Florida.

TPWW Frontpage:

• WWE ThunderDome Officially Moving to a New Arena Next Month
• AEW: Four Matches Announced for Next Dynamite, AEW Announces “Winter Is Coming”
• NXT Announces TakeOver: WarGames, First Matches Announced

[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets (Observer Newsletter Edition):

WWE’s firing of Thea Trinidad Budgen (Zelina Vega) over its new social media policy was something that was, given the circumstances, both inevitable and unavoidable. But what it leads to is an entirely different story, that could have significant ramifications. Budgen, 29, was fired for refusing to get rid of her Twitch platform, and, when WWE performers were directly told to get rid of money making social media platforms, doubled down so to speak and started an Only Fans account. As soon as WWE came down with the doctrine the issues were inevitable since some of the women, Budgen being one of them, was earning more money through those platforms than she was as a WWE performer. It made no sense for her to give up her platforms. And WWE had no choice but to fire her for doing so. There is the big question as to whether, without the exposure on WWE television, she can continue to make the level of money she has from those platforms. At the same time, when her 90 day non-compete is up on 2/11, she will no doubt have some, if not plenty of offers to return to wrestling to make up some if not all of that lost income and be back on television with exposure, although not WWE-level exposure. After being told on 11/13 that she was being let go, but about 15 minutes before it was announced, she tweeted that she was in favor of unionization. That made WWE’s announcement of her firing immediately after the worst possible timing for the company, particularly since the social media ban had already opened up the company’s independent contractor vs. employee status to major discussion. Andrew Yang, who talks to several WWE talents and is very aware of the situation, had vowed to use his political influence on that status once the Biden administration takes office on 1/20. Yang tweeted shortly after Budgen’s firing “I haven’t forgotten about Vince McMahon.” Her plight that night also drew the attention of Gabrielle Carteris, the President of SAG AFTRA, the union for actors in the U.S., which provides a tremendous benefits package. A number of pro wrestlers who have done acting gigs are members of that union. The ramifications are tricky, because some of their bylaws would be a positive for wrestling but not all would fit in well ... Budgen spoke to SAG-AFTRA personally on 11/19. In an official statement by the union, they wrote on Twitter, “Powerful conversation with Thea Trinidad (Zelina Vega) today. We support her and others as they work to protect and empower themselves" ... There was some talk of her willingness to take down her Twitch account, and she had even said on Twitch when the story first broke that her account may not be up longer. According to one person in the company with knowledge of the situation, she was told about it by Mark Carrano, asked to talk to Vince McMahon and Carrano told her that he doesn’t want to talk to you and he was escorted out of the building. Wrestlers and unionization has been a topic spoken of for decades. There had been places where there were unofficial unions. In Japan, union benefits are simply part of working for the company and wrestlers are considered employees. Mexico has had a wrestlers union for decades and has wielded power at times but for probably 30 years has not been considered significant. Like with fighters, there has always been talk of unions by U.S. wrestlers, and almost all, after their careers are over, come to the idea that there should have been. As compared to those who compete in real sports that drive similar revenue, wrestlers have no benefits, most notably no pension plan and no collective bargaining and non-union UFC performers are paid 40 cents to the dollar of what they generate as compared to those in other major sports, while in WWE, that figure is closer to 16 cents on the dollar if not less with the new TV deals. While salaries are the highest in history, as a percentage of gross revenue, WWE salary figures are the lowest since talent’s percentage was still based on house shows and PPV revenue long after those were no longer the two key revenue drivers, and talent didn’t share in these new television deals. The only reason the salary structure did increase in recent years was new contracts had larger downside based on the fact there is real competition now for top talent. As far as how this plays out, it will be interesting. Privately wrestlers are hoping for Yang to be able to pull something off, but there is a question is if they will stand with him in a fight, which ultimately they will probably need to do. That was the key in salary increases and benefits gained in other sports decades ago, the threat of a strike, but also having the interest of powerful organizers, which nobody has taken the interest in pro wrestlers to do, and nobody powerful enough has taken the interest in fighters either ... The difference is the mentality of the performers. Even 50 years ago, while talent in “real sports” could be and were guilt tripped into thinking that they shouldn’t complain and how much better they have than the Average Joe, there was still an ego of believing in worth because they were elite level athletes. With wrestling, even elite level performers have a weird loyalty to an industry that, except in rare cases, has no loyalty back ... The Saudi Arabia flight situation and the way talent backed down when put on the spot has given management the belief that from an internal standpoint, the talent will not band together. And they are likely correct. Even here, while many talents talked privately about the situation, few addressed it publicly and none said anything publicly against management ... The independent contractor vs. employee issue is very different, because there are questions regarding classification and WWE talent are very clearly employees treated as independent contractors. They are the only ones not allowed to work anywhere else on their off days, although AEW and ROH does limit its top talent in doing so, they can with approval or in the case of ROH, do so outside of the U.S. and Ontario. They are the only ones limited in ways to promote themselves, and as limited in making money on outside channels. Historically, pro wrestlers have been independent contractors, but since the era of exclusive contracts, that has not been the case. An investigation leading to either changes or a re-classification of status is very possible. The odds of talent banding together to join SAG AFTRA and using them for muscle in a united front has lower odds of happening. The background is that WWE has felt that its performers should not be able to make money using their character names outside WWE. There is a strong argument in their favor ... WWE months ago saw that talent had found a way to make significant money in social media. This led to the company wanting to make that money. From a company standpoint, the idea would be to have WWE negotiate with the social media channels for deals, and having individuals with their own deals would undercut WWE’s plans. So from that standpoint, it’s understandable. Where that falls apart is that as independent contractors, and not employees, WWE arguably has the right to limit talent working for other wrestling companies in their field, but they should not have the right to limit them earning money outside working as a pro wrestler. Independent contractor status is meant to be for someone like a plumber or a contractor to build a fence or a home. The person hiring them doesn’t have the right to not allow them to ply their trade elsewhere, let alone make money doing side gigs in other fields. WWE itself is looking for its own deal with Twitch. In fact, just this past week, they started listing for a Motion Graphics Designer to work in their Advanced Media Group, the department responsible for social media platforms, original short-for digital series and the WWE Network. The listing said that the job is specifically for Twitch, indicating the obvious, that the WWE’s move was that they wanted to make a deal and have company exclusivity. They are also looking for on-air hosts to be the faces of this new project. While there have been reports that the new policy regarding Twitch and Cameo and Only Fans is from new President Nick Khan, the idea dates back long before Khan was in the company. The guy people backing Vince on it were Bruce Prichard and Brad Blum, with Prichard being notable because not only is he an employee and not an independent contractor, but he is still doing outside stuff, his podcast with Conrad Thompson. He made it clear he wouldn’t give up the podcast when Vince hired him and that was agreed upon. But that makes talent even more unhappy because they are not employees and being forced to give up outside money-making opportunities. There have been few serious attempts at unionization over the years and most were quickly squashed.

There were a few key changes in the 11/22 Survivor Series, based on injuries and a WWE title change. Drew McIntyre beat Randy Orton to win the WWE title on the 11/16 Raw show, and moved into the top singles spot on the show where he faces Roman Reigns, with neither title at stake. The change was seemingly telegraphed on 11/13 when McIntyre did a show-long angle with Reigns, including beating Jey Uso in the television main event. All the key players involved prior to McIntyre beating on Raw were of the impression it was Reigns vs. Orton for the show. It is possible Orton was tipped off, but the belief among many in the company is Orton likely figured it out when he found out McIntyre was on Smackdown doing an angle with Reigns. It’s more interesting, not just because you have a face vs. heel dynamic, but the belief was Reigns would beat Orton, while with McIntyre, you have the two most protected guys on the roster facing each other. Of course with no title at stake and a high chance of interference, the result isn’t all that important. Two other injuries over the last two weeks have changed the show, both in the women’s match. Mandy Rose suffered a shoulder injury when her leg got tangled in the ropes as she was being thrown out of the ring by Nia Jax on the 11/9 Raw show. The injury was kept quiet, although we did report it, but they found out she wouldn’t be able to do the show. On 11/16, they did a storyline cover in a trios match where Shayna Baszler, her scheduled teammate, stomped on her elbow to “injure” her. Then the decision was made to take out Dana Brooke and do a worked injury, leading to Peyton Royce & Lacey Evans as a new tag team replacing them. This came just days after Royce on Twitter claimed she was not going to be part of a tag team with Evans or anyone. When the team with Billie Kay was broken up, the idea from Vince McMahon was for Royce and Bianca Belair to both get singles pushes. A third change was made when Chelsea Green broke her wrist on the 11/13 Smackdown after being dropkicked off the apron by Liv Morgan. Green had not been announced for the match, but she was scheduled to win the four-way that night.

WWE officially announced its move to Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, FL for all Raw, Smackdown and PPV shows starting with the 12/11 Smackdown show. The company had to move from the Amway Center in Orlando due to the building being needed for other sports starting on 12/5, so the last show will be the 12/4 Smackdown show. It is believed the 12/7 Raw show will be from the Performance Center, where NXT runs. It would appear the domed baseball stadium would house WWE tapings until March, if needed. The first date for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays baseball team is 3/30. WWE officials told us that right now there are no plans for allowing spectators, even with the size of the facility, which holds 42,735 fans for baseball. We had reported Tropicana Field as the frontrunner for the new location for television two weeks ago. It will likely be the home of the Royal Rumble, while plans at this point are still for Raymond James Field in Tampa to host WrestleMania on 3/28, but any plans that far off depend on things completely out of everyone’s hands in relation to the virus.

A story by Sportico and John Wallstreet examined an issue that, in hindsight, could be a key going forward with either WWE or UFC, and perhaps even AEW. The story regarded the economics of a media company buying a major sports league and thus owning its broadcast rights. This was actually the mentality of when Bellator was purchased by Viacom in 2011. At the time Kevin Kay, who at the time was the head of Spike TV, spoke to us and noted that they were the station that built UFC, but that with every contract negotiation, the price went up, and FOX’s $100 million per year deal was something a station of their size couldn’t afford to match. The idea was that by owning Bellator, they would not have to pay rights fees, and if they made it popular, wouldn’t have to worry about losing it to a competitor. The Sportico story noted that for a major sports league that has individual owners, such a deal would be impossible, but it would make sense for UFC, noting that the $300 million per year ESPN paid for UFC television rights in 14 years would have made up the price they could have bought the entire company for. In actuality, because of the purchase of the PPV rights as well, ESPN pays UFC about $500 million per year. Of course in 2016, when UFC was put on sale, the economics were different. ESPN did have interest in buying it, but wasn’t willing to match the $4 billion purchase price Endeavor came through with. Today, ESPN would pay UFC that much money over eight years and end with no ownership rights ... ESPN, if it were to make an offer for UFC now, would be well above $4 billion since UFC is still incredibly profitable. But long-term it may be worth their while ... Had ESPN had the foresight to make this deal for $4 billion in 2016, they would have full ownership for life and be in far better shape on the deal. Of course at that point UFC was in the middle of a contract with FOX, which would have complicated things. Had FOX made the purchase at that time, they would have retained the rights for life and also earned the PPV revenue and international rights. In combat sports, we’ve already seen two examples of this, the Bellator deal which hasn’t been as positive given Bellator’s television ratings have declined greatly and Bellator just hasn’t taken off as a big sports property ... The other example is WCW, owned from late 1988 to early 2001, by Turner Broadcasting. The entire mentality is different now. With today’s economics, WCW may not, even likely would not have been a worthless organization at the end even with the giant losses of late 1999 to its expiration date ... You can also say that Impact and ROH fit into this as smaller groups, owned by Anthem Media as flagship programming for AXS, and Sinclair, for syndicated programming. Neither company would exist today under the old circumstances, nor would Bellator with outside ownership. Of all products from a business standpoint, the one that approximates UFC the most is WWE. They are similar sized businesses, both very profitable with the key to each being television rights fees carry the company and there is also a lot of money in streaming. The object of both is the creation of stars. It used to be in each case the goal was to create matchups that people want to see, although both have pivoted more to a model of being able to fill hundreds of hours per year of content for television and streaming platforms. While some believe the declining ratings will hurt WWE when their current deals expire in late 2024, most analysts still believe their rights fees numbers will increase significantly. The feeling is as television weakens and entertainment fragments, wrestling may and likely will decline, but there will be fewer things that can guarantee decent weekly television numbers twice a week. Even if WWE gets a 40 percent increase across the board, if you include NXT, you’re talking $693 million just on U.S. rights in 2025. And the numbers I’ve seen for expectations are a lot better than a 40 percent increase. In ten years, that’s $7 billion, a price one could buy it for today easily, and that wouldn’t include never having to bid for the content again, and the ability to sell rights in other countries, and all the merchandising and network revenue. Of course it is a gamble. Tastes change and who knows if WWE will be around at this level of viable entity in the 2030s ... The other thing is that with AEW being so much more popular than Bellator, it could have value as well to a network. I think it would need at least another year or two at this level because they aren’t a name brand ... There is also the idea of partial ownership, which is a completely different issue. The problem with that is the key for ownership is to not have to worry about escalating rights fees and bidding wars, but with partial ownership that wouldn’t be the case. But more-and-more, the economics of FOX or NBCU owning WWE make more sense than they ever have in the past.

AAA: With COVID cases on the rise in Mexico City, the odds of TripleMania with fans happening this year continues to decrease. The original date for the show was 12/5, and they were considering 12/19 as a backup date, but Canelo Alvarez, who is Mexico’s biggest boxing star, may fight that night although with attendance a non-issue perhaps that means it’s contingent on getting a television deal. From what we understand, they will be running a show soon and given the conditions in Mexico, it will likely be with no fans.

New Japan and Rizin were the key companies in a multi-partisan meeting with governmental officials regarding running shows under the current conditions. The meeting was held on 11/19 headed by pro wrestling Hall of famer Hiroshi Hase of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, Akihiro Oota of Komeito, Kazuya Shinba of the Democratic Party for the People, and Yoshihiko Noda of the Constitutional Democratic Party. Also present were Seiko Noda of the LDP, independent member of the House of Councilors and former fighter Genki Sudo, as well as Eriko Imai of the LDP, who has a son training to be a pro wrestler ... Hase said the Japanese government has several fans who are proud supporters of professional wrestling and martial arts, that are happy to support in any way they can ... Nothing was confirmed but one of the things both companies were hoping for was to get the government to allow them to bring in foreign athletes to shows without them having to quarantine for two weeks in a Japanese hotel before being allowed out

Crackle, a new streaming network, is launching a series called Heroes of Lucha Libre. All that is said is that it will be a new series with a fictitious promotion based out of Mexico City and it debuts on 11/25. The 11-episode scripted show will be based around the characters of Rey Misterio Jr., Mil Mascaras, Tinieblas Jr. Alushe, Dragon Lee and Blue Demon. There will also be a live match product that has been in production for nearly two years. Sam Adonis, Pirata Morgan, Oriental and Ruben Zamora are producers of the wrestling itself

The Young Bucks were at a virtual Comic Con and knocked about [AEW] doing a world tag league like they do in Japan using international teams and non-AEW teams competing for a trophy. Matt said they’ve talked about doing a tournament like New Japan does and that they would be open minded about using outside tag teams but also feel they have enough talent to do it without using any outside teams

Jon Moxley (Jonathan Good), 34, and wife Renee Paquette, 35, are expecting their first child. On Dynamite in the middle of a promo, Moxley casually mentioned having a pregnant wife at home which is the first anyone had been told of it. She has actually been pregnant for some time and she was about to announce it publicly. His first idea was that it’s nobody’s business but then he realized that the reality of being in the public eye is that you have to at some point acknowledge it. He was shown instagram notices on how celebrities have done it and found them gross and pretentious but never even considered the idea of announcing it in a wrestling promo. Then at 2 a.m. before the show, he came up with the inspiration to do a promo about his dad, which, by the way, was 100 percent real. On the morning of the show, when he woke up in Jacksonville, he decided he could tie it in, texted her at home and told her about it and that her phone would be exploding that nigh

The 11/25 AEW show, a taped show, may do a low rating since the show on the night before Thanksgiving last year did a bad number, and then did one of the best DVR numbers in the history of the show. The younger audience clearly went out on what is traditionally one of the two biggest bar nights of the year. NXT did 810,000 viewers and 0.24 the night before Thanksgiving while AEW did 663,000 and 0.26. That may be different this year because the bar scene will likely not be as prevalent ... For December, they will be going every other week. The 11/25 show was taped on 11/19. Last year’s night before Thanksgiving show did a terrible number, so if that happens again this year it may not mean much, because last year went on to do some of the best DVR numbers they had ever done. They will go live on 12/2 with the Winter is Coming show with the Jon Moxley vs. Kenny Omega title match. They then will tape 12/9 on 12/3, go live on 12/16 and tape the 12/23 show on 12/17, and go live on 12/30 and again live on 1/6 ... The Inner Circle Las Vegas promos were filmed at The Cromwell, formerly known as The Barbary Coast Hotel, which was Zane Bresloff’s weekend home when he’d be gambling in Las Vegas. The guy in the dragon costume was Piff the Magic Dragon, a Vegas entertainer who became a name on “America’s Got Talent ... They are also now doing retro 70s/early 80s style Mid Atlantic Championship Wrestling promos on Twitter. Tony Schiavone is in the role he had at the start of his career running down the card and where to get tickets and then interviews one of the main eventers who does a promo. This has been fun to watch for nostalgia reasons, but as far as the actual goal, getting people to buy tickets, it doesn’t appear to have made any difference. . Ticket sales for 11/18 were really weak. With about 650 seats for sales, they had less than 180 sold as of 11/16. They tried to push ticket sales by saying that the people with tickets to 11/18 will get the first shot at tickets to 12/2, which would be the next show with Jon Moxley vs. Kenny Omega for the title. They also added a non-contact autograph session for ticket holders to the show. They ended up with 450 in the building with 400 paid and 50 sponsor tickets

Regarding Nick Khan, one person in the [WWE] company who knows everyone at the top level said, “Nick is the sharpest, most street smart person in that position in quite some time. (George) Barrios understood Wall Street. Michelle (Wilson) had a long list of connections and tremendous market knowledge in terms of the TV landscape, emerging companies and distribution portals. Donna Goldsmith, Stu Snyder, none of these people have Nick’s common sense understanding of the true dynamic and bottom line street business.” “On the flip side, he’s used to calling his own shots Now he answers to a monarch, a dictator. The dynamic will be interesting to watch.

WWE advertised a one-time only cameo appearance by Undertaker where only 30 fans would get to have a personalized conversation with Undertaker at the price of $1,000 each. As it turned out, as of last word, 11 signed up

There were reports Aleister Black asked to go back to NXT and was turned down. That’s basically true as far as smoke and fire but not exactly true. We were told he didn’t directly ask and get turned down, but he did float the idea around and nobody seemed interested when he did so

The day of the 11/13 Smackdown show was stressful because on Thursday night or Friday morning, Vince McMahon completely rewrote the show so that none of the writers nor the producers knew anything that was going to happen until McMahon came in with the finished product. One person there told us that every week these days is kind of like this nowadays

Paul Levesque is going through budgets trying to find a way to implement some type of a show that would get more NXT talent ring time and exposure. They aren’t going to do house shows but they may add something in some form

Jax, in response to the idea a vaccine is coming, indicated she wouldn’t be taking it because “God made my immune system and I trust him most.

The most-watched shows of the past week on the WWE Network were: 1. Brothers of Destruction; 2. Raw Talk on 11/16; 3. Mortician: The Story of Paul Bearer; 4. Best of Survivor Series; 5. Day of Hell in a Cell 2020; 6. Talking Smack from 11/14; 7. Undertaker’s Last Ride episode one; 8. Uncool with Alexa Bliss and Taylor Harrison; 9. Chasing Glory with Lilian Garcia and Cesaro; 10. Survivor Series 2019. NXT on 11/11 finished 11th for the week. NXT U.K. on 11/12 finished 24th

WWE Ratings, AEW vs. NXT Ratings:

SPOILER: show

Raw on 11/16, built around the Drew McIntyre WWE title win over Randy Orton, held the audience well, which was to be expected. The good news is the 1,779,000 viewers was the best the show has done since 9/28, and the 1,728,000 viewers in hour three was the best since 8/24. It was the lowest third hour drop from second hour since September 24, 2018, and before that you’d have to go back to October 2016 before you’d get such a strong third hour holding onto the audience. But a rare WWE title match advertised for a week featuring a contender who has been booked strongly and people saw as having a chance to win, particularly after Friday when it was heavily telegraphed, should have done well. The bad news is the gain from the last few weeks was mostly over 50 viewers. The 0.51 in 18-49 tied for the second lowest since 9/28. The audience was up 5.3 percent from last week, but 18-49 was down 3.8 percent and 18-34 was down 7.7 percent. Raw finished 27th overall on cable, better than it has been doing more because news channels were going back down to more normal levels ... Raw was fifth in 18-49, behind three NFL-related shows on ESPN and Below Deck on Bravo ... The first hour did 1,868,000 viewers. The second hour did 1,740,000 viewers. The third hour did 1,728,000 viewers. Unlike last week where the women saved the third hour, this week was the opposite, as it was the men who stuck around and women didn’t. In the first-to-third hour movement, women 18-49 dropped 25.0 percent, men 18-49 increased 1.5 percent, teenage girls dropped 20.4 percent, teenage boys increased 11.9 percent and over 50 dropped only 2.3 percent. The latter is very unique because that audience often falls in hour three just because of the nature of older people not staying up as late to watch television and even under the best of circumstances that will drop ... As compared to the same week last year, Raw was down 16.4 percent overall, 25.0 percent in 18-49 and 44.2 percent in 18-34.

Smackdown on 11/13 did a 1.40 rating 2,234,000 viewers (1.32 viewers per home) and an 0.63 in 18-49 (825,000 viewers). The show was actually up 0.7 percent in households, but down 3.5 percent in viewers due to the decline in viewers per home, from last week’s show headlined by the Sasha Banks vs. Bayley title match. Really, for this show to only drop that much from the big number that match drew is a strong showing. The 18-49 number was down 4.7 percent. The show did 173,000 viewers in men 18-49 (down 4.4 percent from last week), 118,000 in women 18-49 (down 8.5 percent), 340,000 in men 35-49 (up 1.5 percent) and 194,000 in women 35-49 (down 13.9 percent). The women’s drops were expected since the women’s number was way up from usual likely due to the Bayley vs. Sasha Banks match ... FOX placed second to ABC in 18-49 and was last of the four networks in total viewers and last among all network shows in viewers, but tied for second in 18-49 with 20/20 and behind Shark Tank (0.8) ... The rise in Smackdown combined with less new network competition has led to this being the closest any show has done to the prior year, as it’s only down 4.7 percent in household ratings, down 3.2 percent in viewers and down 8.0 percent in 18-49 and the same in 18-34. Usually these drops are 20 to 40 percent from last year depending on the age demo, more younger than older. Last year’s show was a taped show and did a little less than usual.

In a surprise, particularly since Raw had its biggest match of the year, this was the first week where AEW beat Raw in both males and females 18-34. There were several weeks prior to Thunderdome where AEW beat Raw, and even Smackdown, in women 18-34, and even overall, but it was the gap with women being higher and not winning with men. Smackdown, with the network edge, was tops in 18-34 with both men and women. AEW did 98,000 men 18-49 for 95,000 for Raw, and did 87,000 women to 70,000 for Raw. It was also the biggest 18-49 head-to-head gap on Wednesdays of the year, as AEW did its best opposed mark since 1/15 (477,000 viewers) and NXT tied its second worst (178,000 viewers). The other big note is The Young Bucks vs. Top Flight, the debuting brothers Darius & Duante Martin, did 526,000 viewers (0.41) in 18-49, the best mark for anything on Dynamite since the 3/4 show in front of fans where Chris Jericho & Sammy Guevara vs. Jon Moxley & Darby Allin did 528,000 viewers in the key demo. Just behind it was the return of Pac vs. The Blade at 523,000 viewers. Overall, AEW Dynamite on 11/18 did 850,000 viewers and 0.37 (477,000 viewers) in 18-49 to NXT’s 638,000 viewers and 0.14 (178,000) in 18-49. If you go head-to-head and take over the overrun, the NXT numbers decline very slightly to 634,000 viewers and 175,000 in 18-49. AEW ranked No. 7, but really No. 4 since the NBA Draft was split into three shows and was clear No. 1 for the night. It was the No. 1 entertainment show since the other three shows beating it were news shows. AEW beat everything but the NBA draft in men 18-49. It beat everything but the NBA draft and Sports Center in 18-34 overall. NXT was No. 56 in 18-49 and No. 17 in the entertainment category. The NBA draft was split up into three shows on ESPN, 7:30 p.m. show that did 1,508,000 viewers and 0.68. The 8-11 p.m. show that went against AEW and NXT and did 2,587,000 viewers and 1.10. And the 11 p.m. to 12:24 a.m. show that did 998,000 viewers and 0.39. AEW was up 11.3 percent in viewers and 22.6 percent in 18-49 from last week. The keys look to be more interest in the show than the past few weeks which would be the various key segments, far more interest in 18-49, and news shows getting back to normal levels after weeks of blow away numbers form the election. NXT was up 0.9 percent in viewers but down 15.2 percent in 18-49. As compared to the same week last year, AEW was down 4.8 percent in viewers, 5.1 percent in 18-49 but up 8.0 percent in 18-34. NXT was down 30.3 percent in viewers and 53.3 percent in 18-49. AEW doubled NXT in every key demo except women 35-49 and beat NXT nearly four-to-one in men 18-34, nearly seven-to-one in women 18-34. AEW did 98,000 in men 18-34 (up 127.9 percent from last week) to 25,000 for NXT (down 10.7 percent). AEW did 87,000 in women 18-34 (up 55.4 percent) to 13,000 for NXT (down 43.5 percent). AEW did 199,000 in men 35-49 (down 1.5 percent) to 83,000 for NXT (down 12.6 percent). AEW did 93,000 in women 35-49 (up 5.7 percent) to 57,000 for NXT (down 10.9 percent). In the main event battle, AEW with Cody Rhodes & Darby Allin vs. Brian Cage & Ricky Starks did 722,000 viewers and 428,000 in 18-49. NXT with Io Shirai vs. Rhea Ripley did 675,000 and 182,000 in 18-49. It should be noted that was the closest NXT came in total viewers and NXT gained 80,000 viewers and 32,000 in 18-49 for its main event while AEW lost 100,000 viewers and 37,000 in 18-49 for its main event, and those numbers being so close indicates most of the movement in the main event segment was from AEW to NXT to see the women’s title match. NXT went five minutes long and after AEW ended with Finn Balor and Pat McAfee’s crew and the Undisputed Era and they were able to get 73,000 new viewers and 68,000 in 18-49 to finish at 748,000 and 250,000. When NXT always had an overrun people patterned things and it could grow 200,000 viewers, but now it was basically most people didn’t know and didn’t switch over, but a number did. AEW doubled NXT in every quarter in 18-49 and tripled NXT in quarters five and six. AEW opened with 975,000 viewers and 526,000 in 18-49 for Young Bucks vs. Top Flight. NXT opened with 692,000 viewers and 194,000 in 18-49 for Johnny Gargano vs. Leon Ruff. In quarter two, AEW did 882,000 viewers and 474,000 in 18-49 for the Inner Circle in Las Vegas part one, the Director X video and a Jon Moxley promo. NXT did 643,000 viewers and 196,000 in 18-49 for Cameron Grimes vs. Dexter Lumis in a blindfold match, a Shotzi Blackheart promo and the beginning of Candice LeRae & Indi Hartwell vs. Kacy Catanzaro & Kayden Carter. In quarter three, AEW did 812,000 viewers and 432,000 in 18-49 for Orange Cassidy vs. Kip Sabian. NXT did 638,000 viewers and 179,000 in 18-49 for the ending of LeRae & Hartwell vs. Catanzaro & Carter and Kushida vs. Arturo Ruas. In quarter four, AEW did 892,000 viewers and 507,000 in 18-49 for the contract signing that didn’t happen and part two of the Inner Circle Las Vegas trip. NXT did 618,000 viewers and 176,000 in 18-49 for Dakota Kai & Raquel Gonzalez vs. Toni Storm & Ember Moon. In quarter five, AEW did 899,000 viewers and 523,000 in 18-49 for Pac vs. The Butcher and the post-match. NXT did 600,000 viewers and 155,000 in 18-49 for the ending of Kai & Gonzalez vs. Storm & Moon and the post-match, and Timothy Thatcher vs. August Gray, In quarter six, AEW did 794,000 viewers and 463,000 in 18-49 for Thunder Rosa vs. Serena Deeb. NXT did 595,000 viewers and 150,000 in 18-49 for the Thatcher/Tommaso Ciampa confrontation, a Ciampa interview and a three-way brawl with Ruff, Priest and Gargano. In quarter seven, AEW did 823,000 viewers and 465,000 in 18-49 for the end of Rosa vs. Deeb and the post-match. NXT did 608,000 viewers and 167,000 in 18-49 for the beginning of Shirai vs. Ripley for the title. AEW did a 0.16 in 12-17 (up 45.5 percent), 0.27 in 18-34 (up 86.9 percent), 0.47 in 35-49 (up 0.7 percent) and 0.27 in 50+ (same as last week) ... NXT wasn’t in the top 50 so we don’t have as detailed a breakdown as usual, but the show did 65.8 percent male in 18-34 and 59.3 percent male in 35-49 to 60.7 percent in 18-49.

[Damian Rey 2.0]

Lol Nia Jax

[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets:

Originally Posted by Observer The Survivor Series boost led Raw to its best numbers since the October 12 draft episode, averaging 1.81 million viewers last night. The rating in the 18-49 demo was a 0.57. The number was the usual pattern with a lower than average third hour drop, but it didn't have the big third hour of the week before. The number has to be a positive even after the PPV considering the Tampa Bay Bucs vs. Los Angeles Rams game went down to the wire and averaged 21.61 million viewers, 3.62 in 18-49, and 2.51 in 18-34. Raw was fourth in 18-49, behind only NFL related shows on ESPN ... As compared to last week, Raw was up two percent from the show headlined by Drew McIntyre's WWE Championship win over Randy Orton, but more importantly, up 12 percent in 18-49 and 21 percent in 18-34 ... The show was down 14 percent from last year, a lower drop than has been usual, as well as down 20 percent in 18-49 and 37 percent in 18-34. The three hours were: 8 p.m. 1.90 million viewers 9 p.m. 1.83 million viewers 10 p.m. 1.69 million viewers

Originally Posted by Observer WWE and Omaze have launched a sweepstakes where the winner will meet The Undertaker at the WWE Performance Center and tour the facility with him. The sweepstakes is to benefit Make-A-Wish.

Considering the amount of coronavirus outbreaks that have happened there and the place still is being investigated as a potential outbreak hotspot in the state, probably not a wise idea to hold a tour there. Link for those interested: https://www.omaze.com/products/undertaker-wwe-orlando

Originally Posted by Observer ROH uploaded a post-show interview with Mike Bennett and Matt Taven from after Bennett’s ROH return. When asked if he’s here to stay, Bennett answered that he never should have left ROH. Bennett returned on the latest episode of ROH TV and saved Taven from Vincent Marseglia and Bateman. ROH has announced that former Pure Champion John Walters is also returning to the promotion.

Originally Posted by Observer Renee Paquette’s new podcast Oral Sessions made its debut today with Jon Moxley appearing on the premiere episode. Here’s the description for the show: “This week I sat down with the AEW World Champion, my husband, baby daddy, and all around fascinating human being: Jon Moxley! We talk his childhood, amateur wrestling, his first Boston crab, an arrest, public fornication, and narcotics fueled trips to the library!” During his appearance on Oral Sessions, Moxley discussed his in-ring future: “It’s the life we live and it’s part of the job or whatever. If I just kept on doing that at the same pace, I wouldn’t have lasted long. I can feel my physical window. Not that it’s closing, but I can feel the distance now. I’m not gonna say I can feel it closing but I’m aware of it now and I wanna keep it open and extend and I wanna be able to wrestle as long as I possibly can. I would like to be 50 and wrestle. If we had kids, I would like them to be able and come see me wrestle and I like to do physical stuff. So, over the next year or two, I’ll make a — I’ll just kind of see where I’m at physically and make a decision. This whole pandemic situation really changed the year and made it a lot less busy for me. But also, I’ve been having super physical matches and [I’ve] been going back and forth to Jacksonville which is a b*tch. Jacksonville’s a great town, Daily’s Place is a great venue, it’s perfect for what we’re doing and I’m glad that we have it. It’s a blessing that we have such a great venue to run safely in, but getting to Jacksonville to Vegas and back and back and forth is a b*tch. Like the west coast guys are like, ‘Aw man, this is a b*tch’ because it’s a full day of travel.”

Originally Posted by Observer The NWA is returning to its Tuesday night slot on the wrestling fan's calendar, although not with new episodes of Power. The organization announced today that starting next Tuesday, a show called Shockwave will debut on YouTube featuring "matches produced in collaboration with the United Wrestling Network" including some that have never been seen anywhere and never seen on YouTube. Subscribers to their Patreon are able to get the show a day early. The talent listed includes Nick Aldis Thunder Rosa, Eli Drake, Aron Stevens, and Kamile. Given the NWA's recent association with the UWN on their weekly Tuesday night pay-per-views that have featured both NWA title matches and title changes, it's possible some of those matches will be part of Shockwave. Aldis, Rosa, The Pope, Zicky Dice, and others have been featured on UWN thus far. The NWA hasn't aired a new episode of Power since May 12th and have not run Power tapings since the pandemic began.

Originally Posted by PWI WWE FILES FOR NEW TRADEMARK...ON AEW STAR On 10/8, WWE applied for a new 'Dean Ambrose' trademark for goods and services in the realm of "Entertainment services, namely, wrestling exhibitions and performances by a professional wrestler and entertainer rendered live and through broadcast media including television and radio, and via the internet or commercial online service; providing wrestling news and information via a global computer network; providing information in the fields of sports and entertainment via an online community portal; providing a website in the field of sports entertainment information; fan club services, namely, organizing sporting events in the field of wrestling for wrestling fan club members; organizing social entertainment events for entertainment purposes for wrestling fan club members; providing online newsletters in the fields of sports entertainment; online journals, namely, blogs, in the field of sports entertainment." WWE had a registered Dean Ambrose trademark but it was cancelled in August 2020 because they did not file a declaration under section 8 to maintain the registration.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling IMPACT Wrestling announced the return of the Knockouts Tag Team Championships and the tournament has already begun. One of the teams eliminated thus far were Tenille Dashwood and Alisha Edwards. When the brackets for the tournament were revealed, former Knockouts Champion Jordynne Grace did not have a partner and on tonight’s episode of IMPACT on AXS, it was revealed that former two-time WWE Women’s Champion Jazz will be teaming with Jordynne. Jazz last wrestled in August for the SWE Fury promotion in Texas. She later told Chris Van Vliet during an interview that she is retired from pro wrestling and would be transitioning to a coaching role. Jazz and Thunder Rosa are working together to open a wrestling school for women. Jazz has been in the wrestling business for over twenty years and is now making her debut for IMPACT Wrestling and is on the chase for the Knockouts Tag Titles. The finals will take place at IMPACT’s ‘Hard To Kill’ pay-per-view in 2021.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling The latest episode of Arn Anderson’s podcast was Q&A based. Arn opened up about the segment in-which Stone Cold Steve Austin “urinated” on him during an episode of RAW. According to Arn, both Steve Austin and Blackjack Lanza, who was a producer at the time were turned down by Vince McMahon when they tried to alter the idea. Arn feels that it may have been some sort of revenge on Vince’s behalf for Arn leaving the WWF in the late 80s. “Yeah and two people that were heavily involved in it was Jack Lanza who was like the backstage producer and [Steve] Austin himself. They both told me that they went to Vince [McMahon] individually and collectively and said, ‘You know this guy’s really highly respected in the business with the boys and the audience as well. This is really demeaning. Can’t we do something else?’ Both got turned down, flatly. Do I suspect foul play and a reason in his mind to be doing it? Yes. Will it be very easy for his case to be, ‘Well, we don’t wanna do it to Ric [Flair]. It’s the same thing as if you went out, put Austin over and got him ready for Ric the next big pay-per-view. You put him over clean in the middle. Same concept, it’s just a different way to do it, to go about it,’ would be his argument. Could be punishment for leaving the way I did in ‘89. He waits a long time. When he feels betrayed, he feels like you’ve wronged him and we were the very first guys to turn our notice in during that era and I know he didn’t like it and you couple that with some other things but, do I think that’s a possibility? Yup. I know that he waits a very, very long time if he feels like you have screwed him and I could possibly see that. It was just so degrading and demeaning. If you looked at it on the outside in, I’m a guy that — hey, you wanna know what popped up in my head when they told me about it? ‘We want Austin to pee all over you –’ my wife and kids. Yeah, their picture popped up right in my head but that’s the reason I did it and did it smiling, because they’re the ones I’m responsible for and people may think that-that’s not true but everything I’ve done in this business, every sacrifice I’ve made, every time I’ve had guys come to me I respect and go, ‘Don’t do that, you’re Arn Anderson. Sh*t, you don’t have to do that bullsh*t. Just tell him no.’ I went ahead and did whatever was requested, take care of my family, that’s my responsibility on this earth and hopefully I will be able to see it through and make sure that I keep taking care of them for a while but I honestly believe that could have happened because it was just so personal.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling As first reported by ‘PR Week’, WWE has formed a working relationship with the PR agency ‘The Romans’. The agency is working directly with WWE’s Vice-President of International Communications, Dan Humphreys. ‘The Romans’ helped WWE promote The Undertaker’s ‘Final Farewell’ on the lead up to Survivor Series. Undertaker’s appearance on Good Morning Britain was set up through the agency as well.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Former Ring of Honor talent Pelle Primeau (Pelle Tsichlis) is seeking a dismissal of the lawsuit that was brought against him by Joey Ryan before a District court in California (via PWInsider). Ryan, real name Joseph R. Meehan is seeking millions of dollars from Tsichilis for his comments about Meehan on public platforms as Meehan’s name was circulating during the #SpeakingOut movement. Tsichilis and his attorneys are arguing that the state of California has no jurisdiction over him since he does not reside in the state and has never worked there.

Originally Posted by Fightful There have been plenty of wrestling to Hollywood success stories over the years. The Rock went from the top star in wrestling to the top draw in Hollywood, following in the footsteps of Hulk Hogan and Roddy Piper, who successfully crossed over to film with some success. Kevin Nash has found good work in films over the years, appearing in Magic Mike, John Wick, and more. Speaking to the Miami Herald, Nash discussed wrestling's influence on Hollywood. "Stallone was bigger than life then and I had no idea who Hulk Hogan was. He was really the first one to open the door. Wrestling was still the red-headed stepchild. I don't think it was until Dwayne, everything he did with opening number one at the box office, Dwayne is the one that really has made it sheik to be a pro wrestler or ex-pro wrestler and be in this field. A guy like Dave Bautista, he's a lead but he also does smart things. He did the role in Blade Runner. He reads the script and realizes that the character is intricate to the story. When I read the first Magic Mike, I was like, 'Tarzan doesn't really have much to say or do, but if you look at the arc, if Tarzan doesn't smoke weed, The Kid doesn't dance and the movie doesn't get made. In John Wick, Francis doesn't have that big of a scene but he's memorable because he's the only person that walks away alive. When I read a script and something is offered to me, I look at it and say, 'It's not much, but if handled right, it's a nice piece of work,'" said Nash. In discussing his acting career, Nash also brought up the Screen Actors Guild, which he is currently a part of. "I've been on SAG insurance since my son was born. I've always had really good insurance with SAG and it's nice to be part of a union," he said. Unionization and SAG have been a big topic in wrestling in recent months with former Presidential candidate Andrew Yang speaking out on the topic and SAG-AFTRA speaking to Zelina Vega following her release.

Originally Posted by Fightful England remains under lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic but will switch to a tiered system on December 2. Sports and Performance Arts, which includes pro wrestling, in Tier 1 and Tier 2 will allow a number of fans into its arenas. Arenas in the Tier 3 zone must remain closed ... Arenas in Tier 1 are open to the public, but limited to 50% capacity or 4000 outdoors / 1000 indoors (whichever is lower) while those in Tier 2 are open to the public, but limited to 50% capacity or 2000 outdoors / 1000 indoors (whichever is lower) ... It is unknown if wrestling promotions will begin to welcome fans back to arenas following lockdown, permitting they are Tier 1 or Tier 2. Some promotions have run empty arena shows while others have been on an indefinite hiatus due to COVID-19 and Speaking Out.

Originally Posted by WresylingInc Impact Wrestling reportedly has plans for Swoggle (Hornswoggle) to spoof WWE RAW Superstar AJ Styles soon. Impact World Tag Team Champions Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson have recently started teasing a return for "The Phenomenal One" in Impact, but these are obviously not for the real Styles as he is under contract to WWE. In an update, Fightful Select reports that the teases are actually for Swoggle. The current plan is for Swoggle to appear in full Styles gear and wrestle matches under a new satire gimmick. This is all part of the feud between The Good Brothers and The North. There was a segment on last week's Impact where The North's Ethan Page asked Scott D'Amore for a rematch for the titles. D'Amore shared the request with The Good Brothers, but Anderson said Page should have to face a "phenomenal" opponent first. Page accepted the stipulation and was confident that he will defeat the "phenomenal" opponent, and then go on to win the rematch for the titles. The Good Brothers won the Impact World Tag Team Titles for the first time by defeating The North at Turning Point on November 14. Swoggle has made recent appearances for both AEW and Impact.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Longtime WWE commentator Michael Cole chatted with James Delow on the Gorilla Position podcast. Cole has spent 24 years in the WWE as a commentator and he’s hoping to make it to 25 years. As far as how much longer he wants to continue working his current on-screen position, he says he plans to for at least a few more years. “That’s the one thing. I’ve been able to evolve over the years and just stay steady and listen, I wanna do this, at least for a few more years. I’d love to make it to 25 years on the air in the company. I think that would be tremendous, and I think it would be something that has never been done before and I still have a love for what I do and until that goes away, you’re gonna be stuck with me. For better or for worse.” Cole talked about Vince McMahon being active in commentator’s headsets during shows. He feels that some of that is overblown by individuals that were not happy with their respective performances behind the desk. Overall, Cole says it’s Vince’s company and he can do what he pleases. “You know, it’s so funny how this myth has taken on a life of its own, over the past two decades. Listen, Vince [McMahon] runs the company. He’s the boss, he’s the chairman. He turned a small regional wrestling promotion into a multi-billion-dollar conglomerate. It is his sandbox. He can do with it whatever he wants. I’m his lead play-by-play guy, he gives me a lot of leeway, he allows me to do a lot of things because he believes in me after so many years. But he’s the boss and just like any producer on any television show, he’s going to tell me what he wants. I may not agree with that direction a lot of the times, but I have to do it. He’s my boss. Yes, he’s very active in your ears certain weeks. WrestleMania season, he is very, very active. But, I’ve got a great relationship with Vince. He believes in me or else I wouldn’t have been here for as long as I have. I think a lot of that stuff, the Vince screaming and yelling in your ear gets really blown out of proportion. I think there are a few people that, you know, say that because they wanna try and save face because they weren’t successful in what they did. But hey, he’s emotional just like all of us are when it comes to this product. He’s so close to it. It’s his family, it’s blood and he wants what he wants. Certain days, you’re going to draw the ire of the man and other days, he’s going to tell you that you’re the greatest thing in the world and that’s just the way that Vince is and I wouldn’t trade my working with Vince and what he’s meant to my family, my career for anything.”

Originally Posted by WrestlingInc Aleister Black has been off WWE TV since his loss to Kevin Owens during the October 12 episode of Monday Night Raw. Since then, he has been moved from Raw to SmackDown in the 2020 WWE Draft, but has yet to make an appearance on the blue brand. According to Dave Meltzer on the latest Wrestling Observer Radio, Black "being forgotten about" by WWE brass has nothing to do with the recent release of his wife, Zelina Vega, or with Black's reported interest in returning to NXT. Meltzer noted that ever since Paul Heyman was fired as Executive Director of Raw back in June, "the people in charge don't see anything in Black" and have been unable to find a meaningful place for him on the card. In fact, Black was among the two choices to defeat Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania earlier this year, according to Meltzer. "When it came down to who should beat Lesnar, who was leaving after Mania, the two choices in Heyman's eyes were Drew [McIntyre] and Black," added Meltzer. Although McIntyre got the main event nod, Heyman intended to "protect Black" and book him like a top flight star after WrestleMania, revealed Meltzer. Meltzer said that while it's possible for Black to resurrect his WWE career, "it doesn't look good right now" for the former WWE NXT Champion and the fact that Black wasn't a part of the Dual-Brand Battle Royal at last night's Survivor Series Kickoff show was another sign that WWE had "forgotten about him."

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Kenny Omega is scheduled to challenge to Jon Moxley for the AEW World Championship on the 12/2 edition of AEW Dynamite that is being tagged as ‘Winter Is Coming’. This will be Moxley and Omega’s second singles match in AEW as they first met at the Full Gear pay-per-view in 2019 in a Unsanctioned ‘Lights Out’ match. Omega recently joined Wrestling Observer Radio with Dave Meltzer and Garrett Gonzales and was asked how he’s feeling physically after what he’s put his body through over his career. Omega stated that he is currently working with a torn labrum and explained that he’s always working with AEW’s head trainer Bryce Ready to stay on top of the injury. Omega is hoping to avoid surgery. “So, torn labrum as you know is no laughing matter. That’s a surgery. But you know, I’ve got a very talented and unbelievable trainer and our doctors of course are always monitoring and making sure that we’re doing okay. But our trainer Bryce Ready, next-level kind of guy. He’s kept me together and in a condition where I’m able to perform. As long as I make sure that I see him two, three times a week, I can lift, I can do full range of motion. I just need to make sure I look after it and I can avoid that surgery. Of course I can’t afford having that time off. If things get worse, of course that’s an option I’ll have to consider but when I have problems with my neck, my shoulder, my back, my knees and there are days when it’s all of ‘em. Every single thing is hurting. I go to the trainers, they kind of patch me up and I go out there and perform.”

SPOILER: show

Originally Posted by Observer Drew McIntyre vs. Braun Strowman for the WWE title is right now the scheduled main event for TLC on 12/20. Right now regarding Roman Reigns vs. Daniel Bryan for the Universal title, that match is scheduled to take place at some point, it could be TLC, but it's leaning toward a later date.

Spoiler tag used since its related to current WWE title plans for RAW and next month's TLC PPV.


TPWW Frontpage:

• Various: Chris Jericho on MJF’s Ideas for AEW Segments, Impact Contracts Update, MLW News
• WWE: Survivor Series 2020 Notes, Another High Level Executive Departure, New Icons Series
• Interview: Ricky Starks on Comparisons to The Rock, WWE Contacting Him After AEW Debut, More
• AEW Signs Top Flight

[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets:

Originally Posted by Observer Bob Ryder, who was one of the founders of TNA Wrestling and still worked for Impact Wrestling more than 18 years later, was found dead today by police at his home in Nashville. Ryder, who has battled cancer for years, had not attended a live show in a long time due to intense chemotherapy. Ryder suffered a fall yesterday and was unable to get up, but apparently texted people that he was okay. But after that, no phone calls or text messages to him were answered. The company sent someone who knew him to his home and knocked on the door and got no response. They then called police and found that he had passed away. Ryder was a pioneer of websites with 1wrestling.com in the 90s, and did web radio and worked for WCW where he was close with Eric Bischoff. After the folding of the company in 2001, Ryder and Jeff Jarrett, who were not hired by WWF, convinced Jerry Jarrett to start TNA Wrestling with the idea of it being a PPV-exclusive promotion. The initial idea didn't work and both Jarretts were close to filing for bankruptcy when Dixie Carter, who they had hired as their publicity director, informed them she was from a wealthy family and got her father to buy the promotion. Eventually the company was sold to Anthem Entertainment. Ryder worked handling the travel along with numerous other duties for the company.

Originally Posted by Observer Xavier Woods is officially a G4 host. The former cable television channel announced that Xavier Woods would be part of the network going forward. During G4's Holiday Reunion special tonight on YouTube Live, a video was shown showing highlights of his YouTube gaming channel Up Up Down Down. WWE posted an article on their website highlighting the announcement. G4, which at one point focused on video games, went off the air in 2014. However, it was announced earlier this year that the brand would relaunch in 2021, though under what format has not been confirmed. Woods had campaigned for a hosting spot since the announcement, with the hashtag #Creed4G4 trending at one point on Twitter.

Originally Posted by PWI Shane Helms was backstage at Survivor Series this past weekend and was working as a Producer for WWE at Raw. Helms had been let go during the COVID-19 cutbacks in April. He made a cameo at AEW's Full Gear during the Hardy Compound footage.

Helms revealed in a recent interview that the reason why he was released and not furloughed like other producers/agents in WWE was due to his contract being a talent based one and not an employee based one.

Originally Posted by PWI Since we had a few people ask about The Undertaker Farewell segment at Survivor Series, that was all Vince McMahon, who was hands on with that segment all day. Triple H is also likely to have had some input as well. In an update on our Survivor Series production notes from Monday AM, Chris Park aka Abyss handled the WWE 24/7 segments. In a correction from the original post, I inadvertantly forgot to mention that Adam Pearce and Park produced the Men's Elimination Match. One story that has made the rounds the last 48 hours is that the ten count during The Hurt Business vs. New Day on Raw was a legitimate count and that WWE had to scramble during the commercial break to decide how to get the match restarted by the time they came back on the air. The ten count happened, we are told, because there has been a renewed push on enforcing the rules of the matches as if they are legitimate. Brian Kendrick of late has been working as a Producer for the WWE NXT brand.

Guess that confirms the double countout from the tag title match on RAW and the awkwardness afterwards was a legit botch after all.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Dan Matha welcomed former WWE talent Cezar Bononi onto his ‘Spark In The Dark’ podcast. Cezar was released from WWE back in April as a part of the company’s mass furloughs/releases. Cezar dove into a plethora of topics during the two-hour interview including WWE not wanting to help him with the process of obtaining a Green Card. Cezar got fired from the WWE so he had to find another route to stay in America. “Of course I had talked to WWE before about applying for a Green Card. They never wanted to help me out with that. They said my case wasn’t strong enough, that it was better for me to stay on [a] P1 visa, which my wife cannot work any place. I can only work [for] WWE. If they fire me, I gotta go back [to Brazil] so there was a little bit of interest [for] them having me on that instead of a Green Card. So I called this attorney, he said this, ‘So, there’s two options. You got an EB2 visa which is an exception of abilities which applies to you. You got exceptional abilities on sports and arts, or we can just apply for a student visa then you gotta go to study English and you just can stay here and work part-time.’ Of course I don’t want that. So I go, ‘Okay, let’s go for this EB2.’ ‘There’s one problem. This EB2 is closed, nobody can apply for it and we don’t know when it’s gonna open,’ and I was [like], ‘Okay, I knocked on the [proverbial] door.’ I knocked on the door, right? But still, there’s this student visa stuff. So, I’m there, waiting two, three more days. Then I wake up one day, pick up my phone. First email, email from the attorney: ‘I don’t know what happened, but EB2 is open. You can apply for it right now.’ Like that. We had no idea. Then my wife wakes up and I, ‘Hey baby, you want some good news? EB2’s open’ and she [said], ‘Oh, you got news? I got news too’ and she showed me the test that she’s pregnant and we’d been trying for four years.” Cezar moved from Brazil to Florida in 2015 to be a part of the WWE. He talked about the money he was making via his developmental contract and how difficult it was for him and his wife to adjust to life in America with the amount of money that he was bringing in. “It was hard to adapt. It was really hard adapting. It’s just me and my wife and it’s nobody close. Everybody told us, ‘Don’t get close to Brazilians [in Florida] because Brazilians are gonna scam you,’ and we really believed that, even though we did not need to work with Brazilians so there’s no way we could get scammed by other Brazilians. We believed that so — that was a mistake that I did, because we were feeling alone. We did not have money to do anything. It took me two and a half years to go to [an] amusement park, living in Orlando, because money was so short that I could not do anything like that. It took them [WWE] a long time for them to help me out a little bit. Like, ‘Hey, here’s a raise.’ It took me almost two years. So, I was getting $600 for like six months [per week] then, when I finally got paid off, it felt like a raise because I was getting $750. Oh cool, I can buy a TV right now, but I cannot get cable and that’s how it was. It was hard in the beginning but that also helped me build my character even more" ... Dating back to September, Bononi has worked four matches for All Elite Wrestling on their ‘Dark’ program. During the pandemic, Bononi trained at the ‘Flatbacks’ school which is ran by Shawn Spears and Tyler Breeze. Bononi is unemployed and did not have a way to pay for training but Spears and Breeze allowed him to train anyway and Bononi stated that he still owes both of them. “So, as you asked me as well, I never stopped [wrestling]. Of course I never stopped. Even before I got my papers, I went back to training. As soon as [the] Flatbacks school which is Shawn Spears, Tye Dillinger and Tyler Breeze’s school got open again after the pandemic, I hit them up. ‘Hey man, I wanna train.’ They don’t know me and I said, ‘I know you don’t know me. I wanna train, I wanna know how it works,’ and they said, ‘Man, this may be too novice to you because we’re getting people that never got experience’ and I told him, ‘I don’t care. I want to get ring time, I need to know people, I need to know you guys, I need you guys to know me. I need connections because I wanna work and I don’t know anybody outside of WWE. This is what I want’ and they told me their price and I told them, ‘I have no idea how to pay that because I’m unemployed. What can we do?’ And they [said], ‘You do whatever you want, however you want’ and I still owe them money. But, I’ve been working there. They have like an eight-week course. I did the first eight-week course, it was great. I learned so many things that I never learned at the WWE. So many things. Like I never learned how to do a false finish. Over there in eight weeks, I was doing matches with three, four false finishes. I learned so many things, I [met] so many people. I met Billy Gunn and his sons over there because one of his sons is learning. The other one is pretty good as well so we train together. Billy Gunn’s been like a mentor to me as well because he’s got [similar] size, lot of experience, Hall Of Famer.” It was Shawn Spears who helped Cezar get the AEW Dark spots. He recounted what it was like backstage at Daily’s Place and feeling like he was in a completely different environment from what he experienced at WWE. “Whenever I got my papers, first thing, just hit up Tye Dillinger, Ronnie and he got me in contact with the guys from AEW, they invited me over, I went there. They treated me so good, different environment that I had no idea how to behave. I was like [how] I was in the WWE. Looking, not much looking people in the eyes, I had no idea what to do until one point, one of the refs just came to me and said, ‘Look, you’re not at the other place anymore. Just relax, talk to people, everybody’s cool’ and it’s true. Everybody’s cool, everybody [will] talk to you. Tony Khan called me by my name from far away, ‘Hey Cezar! How are you?’ And I was… like such a different environment.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling WWE Chief Brand Officer Stephanie McMahon took part in Forbes’ CMO Summit Virtual Series. She dove into WWE’s ratings since the pandemic started and talked about the decline up until their move to Amway Center where they’re presenting the ThunderDome setup. Stephanie mentioned that WWE was hoping to return to arenas with fans by the Fall. “And without them [the fans], it’s just not the same. Our ratings fell off. We tried bringing in our developmental talent to see if that would help in terms of some type of audience but it just wasn’t enough, and ultimately we had hoped to be back in arenas in the Fall but when we realized that wasn’t gonna happen, we doubled-down and invested with a new partner called The Famous Group and we now have nearly one thousand virtual fans.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling The Young Bucks were guests on Wrestling Observer Radio and during the conversation, both Matt and Nick Jackson talked about the signing of Top Flight (Darius & Dante Martin) and how Top Flight reacted the news of the contract offer ... Nick Jackson went on to speak about how the COVID-19 pandemic has made AEW change up plans that they had and alter plans as they formulate storylines during this period of wrestling. He initially wanted to wait until fans were back in arenas to do the match against FTR (Dax Harwood & Cash Wheeler) but Tony Khan insisted that they not drag it out. “You don’t want to save everything. Especially in this pandemic-era. We were trying to save things. For instance, the FTR match. We were trying to milk that until we got fans back in the building but at one point, we were like, we don’t know when the world’s gonna get back together, so we can’t hold this anymore and Tony [Khan] actually said, ‘You know what? We’re doing it. We have to do it.’ So we booked it for Full Gear. So there’s points where you just have to go balls out but there’s sometimes you have to have patience if that makes any sense.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Yuke’s Senior Vice President and Producer Hiromi Furuta spoke to ‘Video Game Chronicles’ via email and discussed the creation of AEW’s console video game. She mentioned that she does not see this as a rivalry with WWE, as Yuke’s is no longer creating WWE video games but just views it as creating something fresh with AEW. “My goal is simply to create high-quality pro-wrestling games that are loved by the community. I do not think of it as being a rivalry with WWE, but rather as us creating a new product with AEW. I still love the WWE and respect its talent.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling TSN conducted an interview with AEW’s Ricky Starks. Starks reflected on his time with the National Wrestling Alliance, how he was planning to depart from the promotion regardless of the pandemic and what led to him making that final decision. “I didn’t plan to stay there for a long time. I gave myself a six-month or eight-month plan to really stay and then use that as a jumping-off point for me to get things going. I wasn’t getting paid a lot in NWA, so I was barely making it by off the salary that I was on. On top of that, once the pandemic hit and they weren’t really trying to increase my pay, they were going with a new TV show called Carnyland that I didn’t necessarily agree with. That was really just the writing on the wall for me to step away from it and try something else. It was a bit scary to try something else, especially because of the fact that we just started in the pandemic, so the timing [wasn’t great.]”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Ken Shamrock was a guest on the ‘Scheduled for Two Falls’ podcast and discussed some of the highlights from his MMA and pro wrestling careers. Shamrock recalled WWE wanting to do an incest storyline with Alicia Webb, who was known on-screen as “Ryan Shamrock”. Ken mentioned that Ryan is the name of his real-life son so having Alicia’s on-screen name be “Ryan” was off-putting to him. “Here is this beautiful young lady who’s interested in me and just felt comfortable and next thing you know, we’re in a relationship and she’s my sister supposedly in this wrestling thing, and that was the actual next storyline that they wanted me to do was they wanted me to have this incest with my sister. That’s why I was running around trying to save her and all these other things and I was like, ‘The World’s Most Dangerous Man, wants to have sex with his own sister?’ And by the way, my son’s name is Ryan. My legitimate son’s name is Ryan and they made her Ryan and I’m like, people are gonna go, ‘Isn’t that his kid?’ Way too close to home, and I was like, ‘No. I’m not doing that.’”

Originally Posted by Fightful Every Thursday the viewership and rating numbers come out for AEW Dynamite and fans endlessly debate their importance. While some fans may not put as much stock into the numbers as they did in the 90s as television has changed over the last 20 years, AEW President Tony Khan uses the data as a barometer to see who and what works, and who and what doesn't. "They matter a lot. Every Friday, I go through them extensively," said Khan on the PWTorch podcast when asked about the ratings. "I'm really digging into the minute-by-minute. One slot, one match, one minute isn't going to make or break my opinion on anything, but consistent performance will. I'm starting to get a pretty good beat a year in on who the audience really likes to see and who they don't like to see. Then there are people who haven't posted the biggest ratings yet but I believe in them and will give them chances. It's something I look closely at every week and it's a work in progress. I won't just look at one week's data, I'm looking at months worth of rolling data and patterns. The people that are doing the biggest ratings this year aren't necessarily the people doing the biggest ratings in 2019, which I think is interesting." AEW Dynamite has consistently outperformed NXT every Wednesday in terms of overall viewership and demographic rating.

Originally Posted by Fightful Lucha Libre AAA's biggest show of the year has a confirmed date. AAA President Maricela Pena revealed on social media that TripleMania XXVIII is taking place on December 12. There will be more details revealed at a press conference on November 30 airing on various digital platforms that AAA is on. The show will take place at the Arena Ciudad De Mexico. The event has faced multiple date changes as a result of the ongoing pandemic and AAA attempting to hold the show at some point in 2020. AAA previously announced that Kenny Omega will defend the AAA Mega Championship against Laredo Kid at the event. Chessman vs. Pagano in a hair vs. hair match and Aracno (Spider-Man) & Leyenda Americana (Captain America) vs Terror Purpura (Thanos) & Venenoide (Venom) in a Marvel tie-in match were also announced.

Originally Posted by Fightful WWE Stats & Info gave an interesting stat regarding R-Truth capturing his 45th 24/7 Championship. Due to the sheer abundance of title reigns he has had with the belt, R-Truth is a 50-time WWE titleholder.

Link: https://twitter.com/WWEStats/status/1330686621444870145


TPWW Frontpage:

• AEW Dynamite & NXT Cards for Tonight + AEW Rankings

Smeat's note: Not 100% sure yet but might not bother doing a sheets report post tomorrow because of the Thanksgiving holiday and being busy with other stuff. If anyone else wants to do it, be my guest.

[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets (Observer Newsletter Edition):

The last PPV of the year, TLC, on 12/20, will be the first of the run from Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg. McIntyre vs. Braun Strowman was the only match settled on for the show going into Raw, and we’re still not sure what the story is on that. There was a story going around that Strowman was said to have been injured in the Survivor Series and they did a suspension angle on Raw to write him off, but he was not on the internal injury list and many believe McIntyre vs. Strowman was still set even though the company did follow up Raw with an announcement of a suspension for him attacking Adam Pearce. He also said something about a title match so seemingly no matter what, that title match is coming at some point and that strong angle would make you certain of it. There was a knee injury of some sort, believed to be from the Survivor Series match. because he was at the gym getting his knee worked on, but wrestlers are always working hurt and with a PPV main event, the injury would have to be pretty significant for him to miss it. Still, a tournament for the shot at McIntyre, coming down to Keith Lee vs. A.J. Styles vs. Riddle, on Raw on 11/30, is supposed to determine the new contender. So if Strowman is okay, they’ll have to create a storyline to get him the title match. If not, the three-way winner would likely be getting the shot. Roman Reigns vs. Daniel Bryan may be the Universal title match. As of early in the week, the decision was leaning toward that match at the Royal Rumble and something else at TLC, but at this point there’s nothing else set up. Bryan being in the TLC main event was very much part of conversations. Big E has done nothing in recent weeks and it’s too early to go with him in a title match. Kevin Owens has been booked as just a guy. They can always throw Rey Mysterio in as a sacrificial lamb, and Mysterio always comes through in these scenarios, but it would come out of nowhere. There is an interesting note regarding the piped in and fed crowd noise which is used for every match. We’re told this is exactly what management has always wanted, complete control of the crowd noise so it looks like everyone they want to get is over is and everyone they don’t want to get over doesn’t look like they are getting over.

Very quietly, WWE settled a multitude of different lawsuits regarding Securities Fraud and Insider trading related to Saudi Arabia, the Middle East TV deal and the October 31, 2019, Crown Jewel show and the alleged hostage situation for $39 million on 11/18. It would be the largest lawsuit settlement in the history of the pro wrestling industry, more than doubling the prior $18 million record set in the settlement of Martha Hart’s wrongful death lawsuit against the company over the death of Owen Hart. The City of Warren Police and Fire Retirement System, who owned stock in WWE, were one of a number of parties who filed what were essentially identical copycat lawsuits against WWE, Vince McMahon, George Barrios and Michelle Wilson, the latter who were the co-Presidents of the company at the time when they claimed were deceptive statements being made. Both Barrios and Wilson sold a large amount of WWE stock after saying an imminent television deal would be reached in the Middle East with the government of Saudi Arabia. Such a deal today, more than a year later, has not been finalized. The company expects that the entire $39 million settlement will be paid by its insurance carriers. In a release to investors, WWE wrote, “The company believes that resolving the matter is the right business decision and that it is prudent to end the protracted and uncertain class action process.” The City of Warren as well as other law firms representing other stockholders filed a variety of suits starting in June. WWE attempted to have the lawsuits dismissed in August through pleadings by Jerry McDevitt. However, in August, Judge Jed Rakoff of U.S. District Court in the Southern District of New York wrote sternly in response to McDevitt’s claim to throw out the suit, “Ultimately, none of defendants’ (WWE, McMahon, Wilson and Barrios) numerous arguments succeeds. Basically, this is because the complaint, while not a model of clarity, adequately alleges an overall claim of securities fraud that is not only plausible, but also complies with the relevant heightened pleading requirements applicable to this kind of action. While defendants have trotted out a virtual herd of objections to the (lawsuit), on close inspection, none is a winner.” The key is the claim by in the lawsuit that WWE misled investors by claiming a new Middle East television deal was close and forthcoming. The other regarded the large amount of stock sales shortly after that statement came out from key executives, most notably Barrios and Wilson. When Rakoff kept the case going, most with knowledge of the lawsuit and one person with knowledge of the judge felt a settlement had to happen. There was no way to risk allowing a jury to hear evidence, plus it would create a situation where name wrestlers would have to testify against the company related to the situation in Saudi Arabia and what really happened with the grounded flight ... Obviously when it comes to the arguments in the lawsuit, it is the television negotiations that were the key. If there was trouble after the October show, it’s been quelled since WWE has gone back and has been paid for shows they’ve done since. The lawsuit surrounds the idea that WWE misled shareholders and inflated the stock price based on statements without informing stockholders and the market that there were problems in the Middle East. While the situation from the October show was a news story at the time, the fact the deal is still ongoing means that it led to no long-term economic harm or changes in the lucrative live event deal, although there is still no television deal. A willingness to settle based on that would seem to indicate attempting to make sure actual details aren’t made public, or fear that testimony could likely lead to an even larger verdict.

AAA: TripleMania is now official as an empty arena show on 12/12. Space listed it as having an 8 p.m. Eastern time slot. Broadcast details aren’t available but the only way it makes economic sense to do the show is having sponsorships and a paying broadcast deal. It is set at this point to be at Arena Ciudad, which is its usual location, but that’s a 21,000-seat empty arena. Kenny Omega vs. Laredo Kid for the AAA Mega heavyweight title was one of the key matches on the show. We know that both sides were trying to make it happen but there are obvious issues regarding COVID. At this moment AEW and Omega have agreed to the date but the reality is in this world that could change on a moment’s notice. A few Americans are scheduled including Taya and some who are scheduled to debut as Marvel Comic characters. At one point they were looking at 12/19 but decided against it due to the Canelo Alvarez fight.

NJPW: What seemed almost a sure thing is now official, in that Fantastica Mania, the joint shows with CMLL that take place every January are out. The company released its schedule up through 2/3 and the tour is gone. After New Year’s Dash, they will return on 1/17 at Korakuen Hall for the New Beginning tour, which usually starts about two weeks later. The dates that were scheduled for Fantastica Mania will be part of that tour. They announced the first major show after the Dome shows as 2/1 in Nagoya, as New Beginning in Nagoya. There will likely be other major shows on that tour in early February but have not been announced yet CMLL had been telling talent as recently as two weeks ago that the tour was happening even though with the restrictions it seemed difficult to impossible. That’s a huge blow to the top CMLL stars since they earn their biggest paychecks of the year during this tour and they are augmented by sponsor money and huge merchandise sales that the top talent can garner

Masahiro Chono in Weekly True Story magazine explained in detail about his not working as a color commentator at the 2019 G-1 Climax was due to Harold Meij and portrayed him as a CEO who knows nothing about pro wrestling. It’s very rare for a Japanese wrestler to publicly criticize the head of the company in public and was the first wrestler to do so regarding Meij at that level. What he actually said, translated to English, was, “I worked as a commentator at this year’s G-1 final. Last time was 2018. I didn’t do it last year that was caused by Meij’s intervention. Back then there was an issue between TV Asahi and New Japan and he complained to TV Asahi about using me who was TV Asahi’s choice. TV Asahi tried to protect me, but I accepted not working because I didn’t want to cause trouble to TV Asahi. Because Meij quit, I had no reason not to work at G-1 this year. It’s said he made more wrong decisions that’s another story. He was same as Seiichi Kusama who was New Japan’s president circa 2004. Meij is a professional but seemed not to fit pro-wrestling that is different to normal business. Meij didn’t understand the value of New Japan’s history. He may be only well aware of New Japan since they were acquired by Bushiroad. I think the staff at New Japan understand both New Japan's pre-Bushiroad history and me and made me an offer this year because they thought 'when it's G-1, it must be Chono.’” One person very close to the situation explained this to us as, “When Meij joined New Japan, Chono worked as a commentator and expressed on air his concern about Westernization of New Japan by Meij that was legit. He wasn't used since then until this year’s G-1. Though he didn’t refer to it, it’s apparent what he said led to Meij’s unwillingness to work with Chono. Chono describing Meij same kind of businessperson as Kusama is a huge insult from insiders’ perspective because those who are old enough still remember Kusama as the worst president in New Japan’s history.” The column was posted online but later taken down without explanation and is now available only in the printed issue that led to natural speculation of another intervention from somewhere, but it would not have been Meij

David Hill, a labor organizer who is Vice President of the National Writers Union, was on Kenny Herzog’s Outside Interference podcast talking about pro wrestlers unionizing. “Wrestling is a part of the entertainment industry in the United States. The entertainment industry is probably the most unionized industry in the United States. It is one of our biggest exports around the world. It's highly unionized across the board, and the people who work in that industry who belong to the unions are incredibly well compensated.... The fact that wrestling already exists in that sector of the American economy is good for its ability to get organized or become unionized at some point, versus the tech industry or a lot of the gig economy.... We have a very clear and obvious model for how, if wrestling was going to become unionized, what it would probably look like. What does it take to bring a completely non-union industry organized? Well, it would be a fight because in the early going. The employers will resist it tooth and nail. In this case, the centerpiece of the industry -- WWE -- run by kind of avowed conservative Republicans, anti-union folks who beat back attempts.... But it's not a fight that's unwinnable, and it's a fight that -- if it was won -- the end product would look a lot like the film industry, where unions have been really good for labor, both above the line and below." One of the fears expressed is that a wrestling union due to costs would kill independent wrestling and smaller companies and thus limit opportunities to wrestle. “I understand that they're saying we couldn't pay higher standards because we're at the bottom rung here. We couldn't afford to pay better, or we can't afford to uphold a standard that a bigger company can. That makes sense. But what does having a union ultimately mean? This is just about the workers having some agency, right? It just means some democracy at work, that the people at that workplace have the legal right to negotiate collectively with the employer over the terms of their employment. That's all it means. Now what comes out of those negotiations could be anything. For an employer to say, 'We couldn't have a union here,' what they're saying is if we had to actually allow our employees to negotiate with us, we would lose the ability to do business because our business model depends on our ability to kind of screw over our employees at will. I don't think that's an argument that holds much water. What has to be discussed is: What are the standards that people are looking for? In a perfect world, the best paid wrestlers would unionize first and all these benefits might trickle down, but it doesn't have to happen that way. There's no reason at all why an independent company who would like to set a good example [couldn't] allow their employees to have some small degree of agency. And if more independent companies did that, those standards wouldn't immediately go through.... So it would actually be good to see some of the smaller companies thumb their nose at the big companies and say, 'If we can do this with as little money as we're bringing in, why can't you with all the sort of truckloads of money you're making?'" It should be noted that Pro Wrestling EVE in the U.K., an all women’s promotion, was not only behind its talent joining the entertainers union, Equity, in the U.K., but financially helping the deal be put together. The holdback has been scared talent who believe that if they are part of a union, it would kill their chances to work in WWE. There had been a lot of union talk in the U.K., but it fell apart because the most outspoken advocate, David Barsky (David Starr) is out of the business due to allegations against him in the Speaking Out movement. "Another example that might be more applicable to the way that professional wrestlers see themselves is professional athletes, who also are unionized in the United States. Even if you're a lower-rung player, you make a lot of money outside of your job through endorsement deals and public appearances and, you know, your brand is also real, probably useful to you.... How much a player is able to do that is a function of having a strong union that can work with the leagues to make sure that the players individual rights are retained and protected." Regarding SAG-AFTRA talks of late, “Unions aren't these outside third-party entities that come in and advocate on your behalf. If wrestlers formed a union, the wrestlers would run the union. It's really up to the workers to decide that they're going to do this, and then workers who already have formed unions in the same space can bring some of their resources to assist.... I think it's probably a mistake to have gone to SAG-AFTRA and to try to do this under that umbrella. It will raise a lot of unnecessary questions among wrestlers and wrestling fans to say, 'We're not actors. Why are we doing this?' It probably would have been smarter to try to figure out how to form a union that's just a union of wrestlers. Kind of charter a brand new organization, maybe get another union to seed it with some seed money or bless it some in some other way, but really try to build something new. [They] could sidestep all those inevitable questions that will come up about, 'Is this the right union for us?' and wrestlers could say, 'We know it's the right union for us, because we're going to build it. We're going to define what it is we're fighting for and how we're going to fight for it.' I think that's the path they should take. If they are serious about this." Personally I would be a lot more comfortable with wrestlers being part of a large union like SAG-AFTRA that has power and is successful than trying to start their own. The question of whether wrestlers are actors is moot, since stunt men in are in that union. Wrestling are entertainers and stunt men who are athletes as well. There are a lot of issues with unionization and the obvious reason why there never has been one past some territories in the past would have all the wrestlers contribute a small percentage of their weekly pay into a fund that would then benefit injured wrestlers out of work. I know people who have been in wrestling their entire lives as both management and talent and have been adamant to me that there will never be a union in the U.S. because talent will never band together. Historically, that has been proven accurate

IMPACT: There was a COVID test positive from the last tapings. A few wrestlers were notified to get checked due to a positive, but were not told who it was. Others in the company were not notified. One wrestler noted to us that most of the wrestlers were not told and were very hot having to hear the news through gossip. The wrestler was believed to be part of a group of several people who all traveled together and were tight. The company has been lucky up to this point with no positives, since they had only done temperature checks and not testing, a practice that should have been changed to testing once it became clear that WWE had major problems from the same policy. One wrestler noted to us that they were the only major company not testing which they felt was very irresponsible

AEW: What is being pushed as the biggest match in AEW television history, and that’s probably the case, Jon Moxley vs. Kenny Omega for the AEW title headlines Winter is Coming on 12/2 in Jacksonville. The rest of the show has a Battle Royal for a Diamond ring, the same thing they did last year with MJF winning, Chris Jericho vs. Frankie Kazarian, Cody Rhodes & Darby Allin vs. Ricky Starks & Powerhouse Hobbs and Britt Baker vs. Leyla Hirsch Tickets for 12/2 went quickly as far as the origin allotment of 650 first day with the Jon Moxley vs. Kenny Omega match. So they’ve increased from TV seating to the PPV seating of more than 1,000. There were 156 tickets left at press time so it’ll be the largest paid, including Full Gear, since the pandemic started I know that there is a story going around that Moxley loses the title so he can quarantine and go to the Tokyo Dome. I don’t know the finish but IF he was going to the Tokyo Dome show, he wouldn’t have to lose the title. But at press time he’s not going to the Tokyo Dome show. If conditions change regarding Japan allowing athletes into the country without having to quarantine that could change, but I have my doubts they’ll let that happen right now with Americans. But either way, that’s immaterial to the result of the match

Ryan Barkan at Pro Wrestling Tees told Chris Van Vliet that the top five best selling T-shirts of the year thus far have been Orange Cassidy shirts at No. 1 and No. 2, Owen Hart at No. 3 and Chris Jericho shirts at No. 4 and No. 5. Jericho put out a ton of shirts over the year and was by far in total the biggest seller with Cassidy second

A clarification from the first thing we’d written in the print edition last week. WWE’s final night at the Amway Center in Orlando is the Raw on 12/7 in Orlando and not Smackdown on 12/4. So they go directly from Orlando to Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg for the 12/11 Smackdown show and all Raw & Smackdown shows and PPVs for the foreseeable future. Regarding Tropicana Field, what we’ve been told is the stadium is huge and the sound is awful, although WWE can pipe stuff in and control that aspect. There is also a colony of pigeons who live in the Dome’s roof

The Bella Twins did a video and clarified the point about coming back and going for the tag titles. They both said they were looking to do so but not until their new babies are about two years sold, which would be about 21 months from now. Brie did say maybe next year but probably two years

According to Ringside News, and confirmed, the reason the Wobbly Walrus character was dropped from the Firefly Funhouse is it was an obvious spoof on Heyman, and was to lead to the Reigns vs. Wyatt title program which was then nixed when the decision was made to move Wyatt to Raw to work with Orton and keep him away from Reigns. There are forces who are working at protecting Reigns from bad booking and the idea that a feud with Wyatt will do him no favors

The WWE Network was all about Undertaker in viewing this past week. Most of the top 25 shows were related to Undertaker including seven of the top ten. 1. Survivor Series 2020; 2. Broken Skull Sessions with Undertaker; 3. Survivor Series kickoff show; 4. Best of Survivor Series; 5. Brothers of Destruction; 6. Undertaker’s Last Ride episode one; 7. Break it Down with Undertaker; 8. WWE Chronicle: Lana; 9. Survivor Series 2019; 10. Mortician: The Story of Paul Bearer. The only new wrestling show in the top 25 from the past week was NXT at No. 18, so 205 Live, Main Event and NXT U.K. didn’t place, nor did any independent related shows

WWE Ratings, AEW vs. NXT Ratings:

SPOILER: show

Raw on 11/23, with the post-Survivor Series bump, averaged 1,808,000 viewers and 0.57 in 18-49, the best numbers the show has done since the 10/12 draft show. The first two hours of the show were the best 18-49 numbers since 8/31. The show placed 24th overall and fourth behind three NFL-related shows in 18-49. It also went against one of the biggest Monday night games of the season, a Los Angeles Rams vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers game that did 12,612,000 viewers and a 3.62 in 18-49 and 2.51 in 18-34. The show was up 1.6 percent from the prior week which got a big boost from the Drew McIntyre title win over Randy Orton. More important, it was up 11.8 percent in 18-49 and 20.8 percent in 18-34 from last week. The drop from last year was also less than the show has been doing most of the past year, being down 14.3 percent in viewers, 19.7 percent in 18-49 and 37.0 percent in 18-34. The first hour did 1,904,000 viewers. The second hour did 1,826,000 viewers and the third hour did 1,694,000 viewers for an 11.0 percent first-to-third hour drop, which is normal level ... The drops were 17.8 percent in women 18-49, 13.2 percent in men 18-49, but stayed even in girls 12-17, had a 1.1 percent increase in teenage boys and 10.3 percent drop in over 50. The show did a 0.29 in 12-17 (up 16.0 percent from last week), 0.29 in 18-34 (up 17.2 percent), 0.85 in 35-49 (up 9.0 percent) and 0.83 in 50+ (down 2.4 percent).

Smackdown on 11/20, featuring the influx of Raw talent like Drew McIntyre and New Day, as the Survivor Series go-home show, did a 1.46 rating and 2,326,000 viewers (1.32 viewers per home) and 0.67 in 18-49 (867,000 viewers). The viewer number was the best since 9/11 and second best since April. As compared to the big rating two weeks ago for the Bayley vs. Sasha Banks match, 18-49 was almost identical (up 1,000) and viewers were pretty much the same, but for whatever reason, this show had far more homes watching. Smackdown was second to Shark Tank on ABC in 18-49 and 18-34, but FOX won the night overall since 20/20 did lower numbers taking down the ABC average. CBS only ran reruns so the competition is still weak for this time of the year. Smackdown was the most watched show on television Males 18-49. Of the big for networks, even with CBS in reruns, Smackdown had by far the lowest audience, as the second lowest, a Magnum PI rerun from last year on CBS, did 2,816,000 viewers. There were no cable shows that came close it the key demo. As compared to last week, the show was up 4.3 percent in homes, 4.1 percent in viewers and 5.1 percent in 18-49. As compared to the same week last year, which had far tougher competition, the show was down 8.2 percent in homes, 8.6 percent in viewers, 13.9 percent in 18-49 and 20.0 percent in 18-34. But those drops are far less than most wrestling programming has been doing. The half hours were the usual pattern and don’t tell a big story. It opened at 2.42 million viewers for The Street Profits-New Day stuff leading to them teaming up against Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode & Sami Zayn & King Corbni. The second half hour was the weakest at 2.21 million viewers with the Daniel Bryan interview, Natalya vs. Tamina and Roman Reigns video. The third segment did 2.35 million viewers for the McIntyre-Reigns contract signing and Murphy vs. Seth Rollins. And the final half our did 2.33 million viewers for Banks and Asuka’s in-ring plus the Bryan vs. Jey Uso main event.

AEW on 11/18 did 1.63 viewers per home, among the biggest in its history. It was tops in the category for the week among all sports shows. The number of homes watching on 11/11 and 11/18 was virtually identical (520,000) but the big 18-49 number and overall increase had to do again with people watching together at a higher rate than usual. It also had the second youngest viewing audience by median age of any sports television show of the week and second highest percentage of viewers 18-49, behind a U.S. vs. Panama soccer game on FS 1.

[screech]

There is an interesting note regarding the piped in and fed crowd noise which is used for every match. We’re told this is exactly what management has always wanted, complete control of the crowd noise so it looks like everyone they want to get is over is and everyone they don’t want to get over doesn’t look like they are getting over.

lol I believe this a hundred percent

[Volare]

Perfect opportunity for Discord servers hosting "custom" broadcasts...mute the TV and let some people do play-by-play...never know could be a few future greats.

[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets sponsored by Nia Jax's brain fart moment on RAW last night:

Originally Posted by Observer Final numbers are in for Friday night's Thanksgiving weekend edition of SmackDown -- and the show averaged 2.141 million viewers on Fox. That's down eight percent from the previous week's final number. Overnight numbers for the Thanksgiving weekend show had SmackDown below two million viewers for the first time in a couple of months, but -- as has been the case for a while now -- the final number ended up about 10 percent higher. SmackDown was the least viewed show on the major networks on Friday, although it was just below a CBS News program that did 2.2 million viewers. In the 18-49 demo, SmackDown averaged a 0.6 rating, down 14.3 percent from last week. That beat everything on the networks except a couple of holiday cartoons on NBC. The 18-34 rating for SmackDown was a 0.3, down 25 percent from last week. That finished in the middle of the pack in that category with the two cartoons as well as ABC's Shark Tank all beating that number. Year-over-year, SmackDown was down 7.9 percent in viewership from the Thanksgiving weekend episode in 2019. In 18-49, SmackDown was down 14.3 percent from the same week last year.

Originally Posted by Observer Ratings for last Wednesday's wrestling shows, which had been delayed due to the Thanksgiving holiday, saw WWE NXT top AEW Dynamite in total viewers. NXT averaged 712,000 viewers to Dynamite's 710,000. Despite TV viewership in general being down on Thanksgiving Eve, NXT was up 11.6 percent in overall viewership from the previous week. Dynamite was down 16.5 percent. Overall Wednesday night viewership was 1.422 million viewers, down 4.4 percent from the previous week. In the 18-49 demo, Dynamite averaged a 0.26 rating, down 29.7 percent from the November 18 show. Dynamite finished seventh on the cable charts in that category and was third among non-news programming. NXT averaged a 0.20 rating in the 18-49 demo, up 42.9 percent from the previous week. NXT was 25th on the cable charts, which is much higher than it had finished in recent weeks. It was 12th among non-news shows. In the individual demos, Dynamite doubled NXT in people 18-34 and nearly tripled NXT in men 18-34. NXT had a huge advantage in people over 50, averaging a 0.38 rating to Dynamite's 0.29. That propelled NXT to the overall viewership win. As compared to Thanksgiving week last year, Dynamite was actually up 7.1 percent in overall viewers and had the exact same 18-49 demo rating. NXT was down 12.1 percent in viewers from last year and 16.7 percent in the demo. Overall Wednesday viewership was down 3.5 percent.

Originally Posted by Observer The first match has been announced for next month’s ROH Final Battle. Jay Briscoe will face EC3 in a singles match, ROH confirmed today. EC3 made his debut for the company during their latest tapings, first appearing in a match against Briscoe two weeks ago. EC3 repeatedly refused to look Briscoe in the eye and extended his hand to adhere to the Code of Honor. This caused Briscoe to get upset, and was eventually disqualified after refusing to take his foot off of EC3’s throat. EC3 said after the match that he has come to ROH to find out “if honor is real”, and said that Briscoe attacking him after extending his hand proved that it isn’t. The feud has become heated enough that Mark Briscoe is looking for another tag team partner, as Jay has become too obsessed with EC3. Final Battle is scheduled to take place on December 18. It will be held without an audience.

Originally Posted by Observer WWE has revealed the lineup of new content coming to the WWE Network this month. On this month's episode of Broken Skull Sessions, WWE Champion Drew McIntyre will be Steve Austin's guest. WWE hasn't confirmed the premiere date for the episode, but it's listed before TLC on the list of new programming. McIntyre is defending his WWE Championship against AJ Styles at TLC on Sunday, December 20. Styles defeated Riddle and Keith Lee in a triple threat match on Raw last night to become the number one contender to McIntyre's title. The most recent edition of Broken Skull Sessions premiered after Survivor Series and featured an interview with The Undertaker . It was the second time Undertaker has appeared on the show. Though further details haven't been revealed, the 2020 Slammy Awards are listed among the new content premiering on the WWE Network this month. This will be the first time WWE has given out Slammy Awards since 2015. A "WWE Superstar Gaming Series" is also listed as coming to the WWE Network.

Originally Posted by Observer On a small session press conference this afternoon, AEW president and booker Tony Khan pushed tomorrow night's Dynamite show as the biggest in the show's history and hopefully one of the best wrestling shows ever on TNT, As reported in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, he confirmed that AEW World Champion and New Japan U.S. Champion Jon Moxley would not be wrestling at the Wrestle Kingdom shows on January 4th and 5th. Somehow, people had tied the idea of Moxley losing Wednesday so he could quarantine and to go to Japan. Whether he wins or loses was always immaterial to whether he would do the Tokyo Dome show as he is not on the schedule for that show. Here's some additional notes: He is seriously thinking of implementing trios championships, given all the talent in the company. It is under consideration for 2021. He pushed that his previous statement about "the balance of power changing" on the show where PAC returned would play out more tomorrow and in the weeks to come. He said that for a pure startup company to do as well in both the wrestling and television business was a great accomplishment. He intimated the idea that tomorrow would be the start of a number of big things. He said that with television as their biggest revenue stream and that while you have to give people special stuff for four $50 PPV shows per year, the plan is to put many of the company's biggest matches on television. He positioned Moxley vs. Kenny Omega as the company's biggest match of 2020 and they would have 60 minutes if needed. It will go on last but be given a lot of time, if not the full 60 minutes. He hinted at an overrun if needed. He intimated that "Winter is Coming" would be a regularly themed annual television event and is looking for more ideas like that, noting he has major shows planned around Christmas, New Year's and Beach Break in January. He noted that WarnerMedia owns the rights to the name (Game of Thrones) and while he doesn't watch the show, he was aware of it because his mother loves the show. He explained that the benefit of WarnerMedia being their broadcast partner is he could ask for the ability to use the IP for his show and they gave him permission. He said there will be a real crowd of more than 1000 fans tomorrow night, the same as for Full Gear, and brought up ECW One Night Stand being a great PPV with a similar number of fans in the audience. He said the show would have more wrestling than a usual Dynamite and will be constructed closer to a two-hour PPV show than a usual episode of Dynamite. When asked about Miro, he said that are developing his character and hopes he can become a crossover star in both the wrestling and gaming industry next year. He said the idea is to start him working with Best Friends, who he called some of their best guys, and to build his record to where next year he can be a title contender or main event player. He said this while noting he did give Brian Cage a title shot right away from winning a battle royale with a title shot going to the winner and that Eddie Kingston got an title match quickly because Moxley offered it to him after he had beaten all the top contenders. He said they were the exceptions and the rule is that guys work their way up from consistent winning of matches to get world title shots. The only talk of last week's rating was that he was happy with it and that AEW was the No. 1 show on cable in males 18-49. He also said that when you add so much new talent under contract, normal business practices are that you would get rid of people. But, we're in a pandemic and it's difficult to get new work in wrestling and did not want to let people go at this point in time. He conceded doing that in all sports sucks and at some point, you have to, but he felt this isn't the right time.

Originally Posted by PWI The opening segment of Raw featuring Randy Orton, Bray Wyatt and Alexa Bliss was 100% Vince McMahon's vision. We are told that several argued against the segment, feeling it was a weak opening segment and needed to overhauled, but you can't overrule City Hall. The current creative for WWE right now falls directly in the hands of Vince McMahon and Bruce Prichard. In fact, there are some who have described Prichard to PWInsider.com as the most powerful person in WWE right now other than a McMahon family member. Creatively, everything flows through Prichard at the moment and his word has been described as "very much the Gospel" for Vince McMahon, which as you might imagine, being in that position translates into a lot of frustration and heat towards Prichard among talents privately. Triple H was at last night's Raw while Prichard was not, which was described to us by several as breath of fresh air. One edict that has been strictly enforced of late is the time cues for the broadcasts. There were actually a number of talents who were reprimanded for going over time in recent weeks at the Survivor Series PPV and subsequent TV shows. There is also heat falling on some producers if their segments end up going over. The new Drew McIntyre entrance with the sword was something Vince McMahon was completely on-hands with recently, spending what was described to PWInsider as "a lot of time" blocking out exactly how he wanted McIntyre to handle the sword and use it to set up his pyro ... Shane Helms was back producing last night. Sonjay Dutt is now working full-time on the WWE NXT brand.

Originally Posted by PWI Major League Wrestling today announced CONTRA Unit's unknown masked mercenary will step into an MLW ring for the first time tomorrow night, Wednesday December 2 at 7pm ET on MLW's flagship weekly series, FUSION, available on YouTube, Fubo Sports, Pluto TV ... After the shocking ending to the restart edition of FUSION (watch for FREE), CONTRA revealed a masked soldier never before seen in Major League Wrestling as the international cabal unleashed their latest attack. While details about this massive masked man remain unknown, it is certain CONTRA’s tarted attack on Hammerstone is likely due to the #1 ranked wrestler’s pursuit of a title versus title showdown with CONTRA kingpin Jacob Fatu. Who is this massive masked mercenary? Tune in Wednesday night at 7pm ET to find out!

Originally Posted by PWI Kevin Quinn, former Sr. Editor, Director of Editing, Technical Director, Director and VP of TV Technology for WWE was recently let go from the company. He hosted an A.M.A. on Reddit and one of the questions asked of him was what was the craziest thing he’s had to edit from a show and here was his response: "Jerry Lawler was accused of statutory rape and we had already shot 3 hours of program. We had to remove him from every show already shot. It took 2 over-nights" ... When asked who was one of the more polite wrestlers, Quinn named Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. The Rock got a plaque made for the production crew to thank them for advancing his career. The Rock made a plaque that still hangs this day in the TV Production facility thanking all of the people behind the scenes that helped make him what he is.

Originally Posted by Fightful RevPro Wrestling announced that it will be revealing the status of the RevPro British Tag Team titles soon after Great-O-Khan went to NJPW as part of Will Ospreay's The Empire stable and Rampage Brown went to NXT UK.

Originally Posted by Fightful Keith Lee made history at NXT Great American Bash when he defeated Adam Cole to become NXT North American and NXT Champion. Two weeks later, Lee relinquished the NXT North American Championship. At NXT TakeOver XXX, one month after giving up the NXT North American Championship, he lost the NXT Championship to Karrion Kross. Lee was then called up to Raw two nights later. Speaking to Sports Illustrated, Lee discussed dropping two NXT titles and being called up just over a month after Great American Bash. "Most definitely," Lee said when asked if he preferred a longer reign. "As monumental as it’s been to go to the main roster, I’m not sure it was so important to end that [NXT championship reign] as abruptly as it happened. I watch NXT, and obviously I have some friends there, and one that I’m fairly close to is Mr. Damian Priest, and I watch often to see how he’s doing. Kross went down in our match, then to have Finn [Bálor] as the new champion and he hurts his jaw, it’s hard. I like those guys, and I feel like I abandoned them. It’s difficult to think about. I’m proud of everything I’ve done, and I’ve hung with the top guys from Raw and some of them from SmackDown, but it’s been difficult to see the injuries." He continued, "I don’t know what would have happened if I had stayed a little bit longer. At the end of the day, we’re not always in control of our journey, and that’s just how it goes. The main roster wanted me, and that’s where I ended up. All I can do right now is root those guys on and be there for them in whatever capacity I can be, while still focusing on what I’m doing."

Didn't help that NXT basically did the title change just to try and spike their ratings for a week with no thought put into any actual long term plans for his reign. Shame since him and NXT's Women's division were the biggest benefactors of NXT getting an extra hour of tv time each week. Prior to NXT's getting that extra hour, Lee was pretty much just floundering on the brand compared to the huge hype he had coming in from the indies.

Originally Posted by Fightful New York Daily News reports Ronnie Massaro, the brother of Ashley Massaro, was stabbed to death in Midtown in a random knife attack.

Originally Posted by Fightful NWA Director of Operations Maureen Tracy announced on Twitter that December 1 is her last day with the company.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling WWE’s 2005 Survivor Series pay-per-view was the focus of the latest Something to Wrestle with Bruce Prichard podcast. The current WWE Executive Director commented on the segment during which Vince McMahon referred to John Cena as his n-word. Prichard was also asked if Booker T and Sharmell Huffman’s thoughts about the segment were factored in as they were a part of it ... Elsewhere during the podcast, Prichard discussed WWE attempting to put a restraining order on Brock Lesnar’s future matches in 2005 when he went to go work for New Japan Pro-Wrestling. As WWE and Lesnar were putting together the documents for his release from the company, it was noted that Lesnar could pursue a career in the NFL but could not compete for another pro wrestling promotion/company until 20 months after his WWE departure. "Yeah, because again, we made the investment in training him initially and getting him to the popularity that he was at. Brock was unhappy, wanted to do other things. That’s fine, you can try other things. However, we had made the investment in him in the sports-entertainment category and wanted to protect that so, just strictly business.”

Think in recent years, only Alberto Del Rio had a longer non-compete clause by WWE that was later dropped because Del Rio threatened to sue due to its ridiculous length.

Originally Posted by Fightful Kimberly Benson(Piper Niven) along with Lee Greig (Jack Jester, who is not with WWE) have joined together to start a charity group called WrestleKind, to help disadvantaged and vulnerable groups through wrestling, starting with a winter fundraiser. They are looking to raise money to purchase socks, underwear, toiletries, jackets and waterproof backpacks for the homeless.

Link for those interested in donating: https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/wrestlekind

Originally Posted by Observer The Pittsburgh Steelers vs Baltimore Ravens game originally set for Thanksgiving,and expected to be tomorrow, will be delayed until Wednesday due to COVID spread. However it will not go against AEW and NXT since NBC insisted on a 3:40 p.m. start time and will be airing the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree lighting ceremony in prime time. AEW has its biggest match in Dynamite history, Jon Moxley vs. Kenny Omega for the AEW title, scheduled as Wednesday's main event. NXT has announced Shotzi Blackheart vs. Raquel Gonzalez for the man advantage for Sunday's War Games match.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling A GoFundMe has been set up for Duane “Gillberg” Gill who suffered a heart attack recently. James Ellsworth shared a photo on social media of him visiting Gill who is now out of the hospital.

Link of the photo: https://twitter.com/realellsworth/st...720668680?s=20 , Link for those interested in donating: https://www.gofundme.com/f/27isxyrtc0

Originally Posted by Fightful Chyna made history multiple times in WWE as the first-ever female entrant into the Royal Rumble and Intercontinental Champion. She was set to make even more history according to her former manager Anthony Anzaldo, who claims the company wanted to put the WWE Championship on her at one point, but Playboy got in the way. “They offered her the WWE Championship belt, but Vince said, ‘But you can’t do Playboy’ because she got offered to do Playboy. She chose Playboy over the belt. She went and got her boobs done one week and didn’t tell Vince, and when she came back, he was f***ing pissed," Anzaldo told Wrestling Inc. "Vince says, 'If you do Playboy, you don't get the belt.' She said f--k the belt. I'm doing Playboy. Highest selling out of the box Playboy, first week Playboy, in the history of Playboy, more than Kim Kardashian. It's top three of all time behind Kardashian and Marilyn Monroe. So she does Playboy." In a 2015 interview with Bell 2 Bell, Chyna gave a similar story, saying she was told by Vince that if she ever did Playboy, she couldn't be WWE Champion.

TPWW Frontpage:

• WWE: Monday’s RAW Notes, Rhea Ripley on Losing Confidence in Wrestling, Updated SD Ratings
• AAA Announces Full Card for Triplemania XXVIII

[Damian Rey 2.0]

Chyna should've just taken the beltsince I think she did playboy twice anyways

[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets:

Originally Posted by Observer Raw on Monday night averaged 1.74 million viewers and did a 0.53 rating in 18-49, down from the special shows the last two weeks and pretty normal for this football season. They had a strong Seattle Seahawks vs. Philadelphia Eagles game head-to-head that did 11.38 million viewers, a 3.40 rating in 18-49, and a 2.51 rating in 18-34. Raw placed fourth for the night in 18-49 behind three NFL related broadcasts on ESPN ... Raw was down four percent from last week, which is good considering last week was the Raw after Survivor Series. It was down seven percent in 18-49 and seven percent in 18-34. As compared to the same week last year, Raw was down 21 percent in viewers, 23 percent in 18-49, and 40 percent in 18-34. The first-to-third hour drops were 13 percent for women 18-49, 11 percent for men 18-49, a one percent increase in girls 12-17, a nine percent decrease in boys 12-17, and an 11 percent decrease in people over 50, so nothing too unusual or noteworthy past teenage girls holding up better than usual and doing an usually large number. The three hours were: 8 p.m. 1.83 million viewers 9 p.m. 1.76 million viewers 10 p.m. 1.63 million viewers

Originally Posted by Observer All these years later, Mike Tyson can still draw on pay-per-view. Boxing Scene's Dan Rafael reported that Saturday's Tyson vs. Roy Jones Jr. exhibition match brought in 1.2 million buys on linear/satellite TV and through Fite.TV. MMA Fighting reported that number could end up being even higher -- a massive win for Triller, a new social media platform that promoted the show. The year's biggest combat sports event in terms of PPV buys is July's UFC 251, headlined by welterweight champion Kamaru Usman vs. Jorge Masvidal topping an overall strong main card. The ESPN+ exclusive brought in a reported 1.3 million buys which means the Tyson-Jones Jr. fight is in striking distance of surpassing it. It also would make it the biggest boxing PPV of the year ahead of Tyson Fury vs. Deontay Wilder II that did in the range of 800,000-850,000 buys. The fact the 54-year-old Tyson is still a draw decades after he routinely drew over 1 million buys with the likes of Lennox Lewis, Evander Holyfield, Frank Bruno, Bruce Seldon, and even Peter McNeeley in his first fight after getting out of prison is impressive. Following the draw with the 51-year-old Jones Jr. Saturday, he promised he would do more exhibitions and has frequently talked about a third fight with Holyfield. It was his first time in the ring since June 2005. On the pro wrestling front, Tyson appeared to be building toward an AEW match with Chris Jericho as they got into a pull-apart brawl in May. Since then, the angle hasn't been revived but AEW could be waiting until fans can be in attendance at shows again.

Only included it in the sheet news because it quickly reminded me of how that draw decision by the judges was wrestling tier worthy in terms of shenanigans.

Originally Posted by Observer Former WWE star John Cena will return to the literary world this spring. The Hollywood Reporter reported Wednesday that Cena will release two books in April 2021 based on his steady stream of inspirational tweets. One book ("Do Your Best Every Day to Do Your Best Every Day") will be for readers between 8-12 years old while another version ("Be A Work In Progress") is intended for all audiences. Cena is already a published author with the Elbow Grease series for kids, which hit number one on the New York Times bestseller list. The books will be part of a busy year ahead for Cena on the pop culture landscape as he is set to appear in several big movies (F9, The Suicide Squad) and TV series (Wipeout, The Peacemaker) in addition to other projects. All are in various forms of production with release dates to be determined due to the pandemic.

Originally Posted by Observer The Ring of Honor World Championship will be on the line as Rush defends against Brody King at Final Battle. ROH confirmed today that Rush vs. King for the ROH World Championship will take place at this year's Final Battle pay-per-view. The event is being held on Friday, December 18 and will air on PPV and HonorClub. In a matchup of top contenders to the World title, King defeated Shane Taylor in the main event of this week's episode of ROH TV. King then did a post-show interview where he issued a challenge to Rush for Final Battle.

Originally Posted by PWI The WWE Network has added a collection of Pat Patterson matches and moments in honor of his passing. The collection includes Patterson's WWE Hall of Fame acceptance speech, a video of his career highlights, Patterson discussing the creation of The Royal Rumble, Patterson winning the 24/7 title, his legendary Boot Camp match against Sgt. Slaughter at Madison Square Garden, episodes of WWE reality series Legends House, episodes of WWE's Legends of Wrestling series, Patterson vs. Angelo Poffo from Championship Wrestling from Florida, Patterson bouts from WWWF television, Bobby Duncum & Ken Patera vs. Patterson & Andre the Giant, material from his run as one of Mr. McMahon's Stooges and more.

Originally Posted by PWI United Wrestling Network President Dave Marquez announced that the UWN Primetime Live PPVs will be taking a break after tonight's PPV. Marquez, citing the pandemic and not knowing where things may go in California where UWN produces the live weekly broadcast show, noted that they suspend PPVs for the remainder of 2020. He stated they would be taking a break over the holiday with plans to return in 2021. Marquez stated they want to give the viewers the best product possible and he doesn't want to keep changing lineups at the last minute as they have had to do numerous times due to COVID. He thanked everyone who has supported the series over the last 12 weeks as well as all the different promotions who have assisted them as well as Thunder Studios, where the show is produced. He said the time off would give them a chance to work on plans going forward. The planned UWN title match between Mike Bennett and Chris Dickinson will still take place in 2021 with Marquez promising, "We'll be back."

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Chris Jericho welcomed QT Marshall onto his Talk Is Jericho podcast. QT recounted a period of his career when he was doing extra work for WWE. While working with the NXT brand, QT stated that there was a time when he turned down the chance to work with The Authors of Pain (Akam & Rezar) who were released from WWE in September. Marshall didn’t want to work with them because he remembered Akam powerbombing another wrestler onto the head of AEW’s Anthony Bowens. “After they [WWE] told me the tryout was gone, I went and got my neck fixed, so I had my surgery on my neck. I had two of my discs taken out and fused up and stuff, and then I went back to do more extra work because I was like, ‘There’s nothing else. What am I gonna do?’ And then I spoke to Regal again and he was like, ‘Listen, you’re kind of a liability’ and what happened was I got [in] as an extra at NXT and they wanted me to work with The Authors of Pain and I said no, because I didn’t have anything to lose except my life and my career. Super big [guys] and it was two-on-one. It was like me and another extra versus this one guy and I remember Scotty 2 Hotty came up. He was the agent. He was like, ‘Hey, it’s gonna be you two guys’ and I’m looking around and I asked the guy — he’s a nice guy too but I could see he had already hurt somebody. Actually, he hurt the guy that we just signed, Anthony Bowens. Yeah, because he powerbombed one guy onto Anthony Bowens’ head. [It was] the shorter one [Akam]. So I said to him, I was like, ‘Hey, what moves do you think you’re gonna do to us?’ And he was like, ‘Well what does it matter?’ I was like, ‘Well I was just curious.’ I was trying to politic but I’d also like to know what you’re — he was like, ‘Oh, we’ll I’ll probably powerbomb, then powerbomb the other guy on you and then I’ll DVD you guys.’ So the short of it was like, I literally just looked at him and I was like, ‘Oh, okay.’ I looked at Scotty 2 Hotty, ‘Nope, not doing it’ and he was like, ‘What do you mean?’ ‘So I had this neck surgery’ and it turned into like, ‘Hey, don’t take the booking then’ which I was like, ‘You don’t even have to pay me. I’ll drive back to Atlanta now. I’m okay with it. Don’t ever book me again. It is what it is. We tried and I’ll get in the ring with anyone else. Put me with Bobby Roode, put me with these guys that aren’t gonna hurt me’ but, the kid who took my place got hurt. Yeah, he put him in a side headlock and he just picked him up and threw him into the aisleway. He didn’t mean to do it but he’s just so strong and I remember telling Albert [Matt Bloom], because he said, ‘We specifically choose you for this spot because you can sell’ and I was like, ‘Well I really appreciate it but here’s what’s gonna happen: I’m gonna take these moves and I’m either gonna get up and be okay and I’m gonna make two hundred dollars, or I’m never gonna walk again and I’m gonna make two hundred dollars.’ So to me, it’s just not worth it.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling The Great Khali joined a farmer’s protest in India. The protest was to stand against farm laws in the country. The protest has been going on for seven days and talks between the farmers union and the government have been inconclusive.

Link: https://www.mensxp.com/social-hits/n...ri-border.html

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Fightful learned that NXT’s Robert Stone and his significant other purchased the F45 Training center in Baldwin Park, Florida. The two plan to open the facility in 2021. Social media pages including a website are already set up for the facility.

Originally Posted by PWI With Wrestle Kingdom 15 looming next month, New Japan’s young foreign star Karl Fredericks announced on Twitter he is leaving Los Angeles. Saturday I’m also gonna play a set on twitch because I’m leaving LA and it’s my last weekend in the house so I hope you guys come check it out pic.twitter.com/sjCHPSijNj — Karl Fredericks - ?????????? (@karlfredericks_) December 1, 2020

Originally Posted by 411Mania According to a report by Fightful Select, a top NXT Superstar recently tested positive for COVID-19. Currently, the identity of this talent is unknown, but it’s said that the concern around this talent was not as heavy as the previous talents involved for the recent outbreak where multiple people tested positive. Also, this talent was described as a “top star” for the brand. Per the report, the talent who tested positive is said to not be in large crowds very often, especially when it comes to NXT. Additionally, the status of this talent is not going to impact NXT TakeOver: WarGames scheduled for this weekend. The WWE developmental brand has recently received criticism, including from sources within the brand, for how NXT schedules COVID-19 tests, training sessions, and overall safety of the roster. This issue is reportedly not as big of a concern for talents on the main roster since they are now tested before each appearance.

Originally Posted by Fightful Gerald Brisco fondly remembers being on WCW Nitro's final tapings representing WWE. In an interview with WrestlingInc, Brisco was part of a select group of people who were in Florida on the final episode of Nitro back in March 2001, a group that included Shane McMahon. Brisco spoke about the night and how WWE was in a celebratory state over its definitive win over WCW, but felt bad for the WCW wrestlers who feared that they lost their jobs. "It was an exciting night. It was a celebration. We'd gone to Pensacola, FL or Panama City, FL [for] the last taping of WCW where we're taking over, and I felt so rewarded because it wasn't WCW, but I was there for Georgia Championship Wrestling when we took over that. So I kind of came full circle. Then when WCW went out of business, I was a part of that takeover too. We were there. We're getting ready to do the deal with Shane where Shane bought WCW. We're cutting in. I was running Gorilla, and they needed somebody there to make sure that Shane wasn't going to get shorted on the time somehow mysteriously. Those guys were completely professional on the transition, and I didn't think anything would happen, but I was pleased to be there. So of course, when the show was over, it had been a highly, extremely uncomfortable day, and a day where the stress level was just sky-high. There are guys crying they've lost their job. They're begging, and they're yelling. You don't like to see stuff like that, especially when we're not too long ago, you were those guys in the exact same positions. You had the emotion for them, but also on that same deal, the tremendous accomplishment that we just pulled off," Brisco said. When it came to the celebration after Nitro and Raw, Brisco said he, Bruce Prichard and Shane drank all of Vince McMahon's wine that was supposed to be consumed once they picked up Vince. The trio was flying to Cleveland where that night's Raw took place to pick up Vince and they all decided to drink Vince's wine, which put a sour note on the night. "We got on the plane, and we rushed because we were in the panhandle of Florida. We had to go, I believe it was, to Cleveland to pick up Vince and the rest of the crew that was doing RAW and then take the plane and go over to Chicago. Well, we knew Vince kept his wine, that is special. It's Vince's wine that he loved, so we got on a plane. We didn't have time to stop and get our own refreshments because we knew the plane had them, but we didn't know we were going to be drinking this wine. So Shane, Bruce and myself, we can consume some adult beverages. So anyway, we got on a plane. We consumed our lot. Then all of a sudden, we're thirsty, and we're still about an hour from Cleveland. And Shane said, 'That old man's got his wine here,' and so we asked a flight attendant, 'No, that's Mr. McMahon's wine.' Shane said, 'Well, I'm Mr. McMahon, and I'll take responsibility.' Pop, pop, pop. So we're all drinking and toasting each other, having a hell of a time. We ask for another drink. She said, 'Sorry, the wine's gone,' and all of a sudden, Shane said, 'All the old man's wine gone too?' And she said, 'Yes sir, Shane. All of Mr. McMahon's wine's gone too. Now we know we're in trouble because he's gonna get on the plane, and he's gonna be happy and celebrating. And there ain't nothing to celebrate with. That was the longest 30-minute flight from Cleveland to Chicago and the quietest, and of course Bruce, I don't know if you have been around Bruce and Shane when they've had a few, but they're kind of noisy, and I get a little boisterous too. So we're wrestling in the plane. I think they're going to kick us off in midair after a while," Brisco said.

Originally Posted by Fightful Josh Barnett's Bloodsport has become a staple of major GCW event weekends. The event is a hybrid of MMA and wrestling with matches taking place in a no roped ring and with no pinfalls, only knockouts, submissions, or decisions. The first Bloodsport was under Matt Riddle's name in April 2018. After Riddle joined WWE, Barnett took over the enterprise and has held three events since April 2019. Speaking with Renee Paquette on Oral Sessions, Barnett discussed Bloodsport and how other companies have tried biting the look and style. "There's so much 'fluffy' wrestling, so, to have something that's not that, that is stripped down and raw, it stands out. It becomes something that is unique. Also, what makes it even more unique, is when people try to steal the gimmick, bite it, rip it off. The one major one isn't really the first, either, not at all. I understand why they want to do it but it only helps us at the end of the day. I've seen other organizations try and rip the idea off. It's fine. What it does show is, people, think, 'I'll just do MMA moves in a match. I'll just take the ropes down.' No, that's not it. You can try and look like the packaging all you want, but you will not be the product. We are even on an evolution with what we are doing because it's been so long since wrestlers were trained to wrestle this way or put together shows like this. It's of a past that has been neglected or doesn't exist. It's from the ground up, which a lot of people don't realize," he said. Many compared Raw Underground to Bloodsport when it first debuted, noting the similar look and style. Renee's husband Jon Moxley was set to face Barnett at Bloodsport on multiple occasions but Moxley suffered a staph infection in August 2019, canceling their Bloodsport bout in September and COVID canceled their rematch set for April 2020. When asked about the bout against Moxley, Barnett said, "There is a plan for early next year to make the reality come true."

Originally Posted by Fightful Select Liv Morgan's recent WWE Network documentary was praised and criticized within WWE over the past week. Morgan is well received as always, but the stop-start creative, changing of plans and broken promises were something that multiple WWE main roster stars from the top to the bottom of the card highlighted to Fightful when speaking about the feature this week. One wrestler said that they fear missing any time because they're concerned they might not get on the show, and if you allow yourself to be booked poorly one week, that's the direction your booking is usually going to go in the weeks that follow it. Another longtime wrestler said that they're shocked that WWE was willing to put something like that on display that paints them in such a negative light considering how carefully they craft things in other regards.

Originally Posted by Fightful WWE won a Cynopsis Media Model D Award for "Best Covid-19 Awareness Campaign."

Wonder how much that cost WWE considering the only awareness award they should have won is how not to handle a coronavirus pandemic considering the stuff that's gone down at their Performance Center these past several months.

Originally Posted by Fightful GCW has announced that its December 5 show, which will also serve as a fundraiser for the wrestlers on the show, will be streamed for free.

Link: https://twitter.com/GCWrestling_/sta...89619935944709

Originally Posted by Fightful KENTA out here with the tease about Wednesdays, given that he is holding the IWGP U.S. Heavyweight Right To Challenge briefcase for Jon Moxley's title that he holds for NJPW. Moxley will also defend the AEW World Title tonight against Kenny Omega on AEW Dynamite.

What’s gonna happen on Wednesday.

— KENTA aka Lil’K (@KENTAG2S) December 2, 2020

TPWW Frontpage:

• Dezmond Xavier, Zachary Wentz, Alex Zayne and More Sign With WWE
• Three Matches Announced for Tribute to the Troops This Sunday
• Pat Patterson Passes Away at Age 79

[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets sponsored by Sting's arrival in the War of the Wednesday Night Rasslin:

Originally Posted by Observer Last night's Winter is Coming special edition of AEW Dynamite averaged 913,000 viewers on TNT. The show featured a heavily promoted AEW World Championship match with Kenny Omega winning the title from Jon Moxley in the main event. Winter is Coming also included the surprise AEW debut of Sting. WWE NXT averaged 658,000 viewers on the USA Network last night. The episode was the go-home show for Sunday's NXT TakeOver: War Games event. Dynamite was up 28.6 percent in total viewers from last week. The show also did a 0.42 rating in the 18-49 demo, the best number Dynamite has done in that category since October 2019. The 18-49 number was up 61.5 percent from last week. NXT was down 7.6 percent in total viewers and 20 percent in 18-49. The overall viewership for Dynamite was the highest on a night when NXT was also airing since March 18, the first show of the pandemic era that featured the AEW debuts of Matt Hardy and Brodie Lee. Combined Wednesday night wrestling viewership this week was 1.571 million, up 10.5 percent from last week and the highest since October 28, which was the night of NXT Halloween Havoc. The combined 18-49 demo rating of 0.58 beat Raw this week by 10 percent and Dynamite on its own came within 14 percent of tying the third hour of Raw in that demo. Year-over-year, Dynamite was up 7.3 percent in overall viewers and 31.3 percent in the 18-49 demo. NXT was down 44.8 percent in overall viewers and 22.1 percent in the demo.

Originally Posted by Observer Paul "HHH" Levesque conducted his traditional pre-TakeOver conference call Thursday, discussing the card and answering questions around NXT and WWE as a whole. He opened the call talking about the passing of Pat Patterson and how difficult Wednesday was for everyone. He put over Patterson's influence on WWE and the wrestling business which he said is only second to Vince McMahon. He talked about Patterson a lot on the call including a few quotes and said that during a Wednesday camera break, they showed the Sgt. Slaughter-Patterson street fight match inside the Capitol Wrestling Center and that both talent and personnel all stopped to watch. Here are some of the highlights from the call: He put over the NXT UK Heritage Cup as spectacular and put over A-Kid. He loves what they are doing and urges people to watch WALTER vs. Dragunov. He is looking forward to when talents can travel and forth post-pandemic. He was asked about his previous statement about Charlotte Flair's WrestleMania win over Rhea Ripley being part of a bigger plan and whether things are still going according to plan. He said COVID basically changed all plana and talked about how growing as a performer with up and downs, relating it to his own career. He still thinks there are some valuable lessons Ripley learned through that process and that she is a "way better performer" which came through that process. He was asked about whether they would be open to crossovers with other companies. He said "we're open for business" and that perceptions of their business from others are often incorrect. If it's the right thing and meaningful, he thinks Vince is open for anything. He put over Pat McAfee's desire to be a WWE wrestler, his athleticism, and dedication. He talked about critiques on "outsiders" when athletes come in and try to become wrestlers, but that McAfee has always wanted to do this. "It's a testament to him that he's doing this better than some who have done this their whole lives," he said. He said NXT being left out of Survivor Series was likely due to the pandemic and trying to keep the brands as separate as possible. He loves the current pacing of the product and continued to beat the drum of planning for the long-term.

I'd laugh if WWE started to be more genuinely open to other promotions or even their own partners as a result of the AEW & Impact partnership. Before, WWE pretty much treated their affiliates like dirt in the sense of seeing them as nothing more than just weapons to use against their competition in the US and UK. At times, they even treated their affiliate's worse than their enemies considering all the times they yanked big names stars away from their affiliates to use for their NXT brands with little care if they had already been booked for their affiliates big shows taking place around at the same time.

Originally Posted by Observer Ring of Honor has revealed how Television Champion Dragon Lee's challenger for Final Battle will be decided. It was announced today that Tony Deppen, Dak Draper, LSG, and Josh Woods will face off in a four-way match at Final Battle. The winner will go on to challenge Dragon Lee for the TV title later in the show.

Originally Posted by PWI As reported earlier this week, Dave Marquez's United Wrestling Network announced they were suspending PPVs going forward due to, in part, uncertainty brought on by the continuing COVID-19 pandemic. As it turns out, the promotion dodged a bullet with that decision as Thunder Studios, where the shows emanated from, has been shut down for the next 2-3 weeks due to the local Stay at Home order in Los Angeles, CA. By pausing the PPVs themselves, the promotion staved off having the shows canceled for them. UWN has announced they intend to resume PPVs in 2021, including a United Wrestling Network Championship match between Chris Dickinson and MIke Bennett.

Originally Posted by PWI Jon Moxley's promo last night on Dynamite closed with the line about driving the crowd "banana", which was a tribute to the late Pat Patterson that Moxley wanted to make sure was heard as the final word of the promo in honor of Patterson. The new AEW Sting shirt broke company history, selling more shirts in 24 hours than any other AEW shirt to date. Since we have received questions on this, Kenny Omega did not work the most recent slate of Impact tapings. He and Don Callis will be filming content that will be inserted into Impact on AXS this Tuesday.

Originally Posted by PWI Warner Bros. announced today that their entire 2021 movie slate, which includes The Suicide Squad featuring John Cena and Dune featuring Dave Bautista, will debut on HBO Max on the same day as their scheduled theatrical release date. The Suicide Squad film is slated for a August 6, 2021 release and is the second Squad film, based on the DC Comics series with the premise of the United States government forcing incarcerated super-villains to go on suicide missions under threat of death. Cena will play Peacemaker, the first ever live action incarnation of the character, a soldier and super-hero who loves peace so much he is willing to kill for it. The character was originally created by Charlton Comics but acquired by DC in the mid-80s. HBO Max will also feature a spinoff series that tells Peacemaker's tale leading to the film. That series is shooting now in Canada. In Dune, an adaptation of the classic science fiction novel, Bautista will be playing Glossu 'Beast' Rabba, the nephew of the leader of the Harkonnen, who once lorded over Dune. The character (if they maintain it as it was presented from the original novel in this feature film adaptation) is a sadist and cruel warrior. The role makes Bautista one of the top four characters in the film, which reunites him with Blade Runner 2049 director Denis Villeneuve. The film will release on October 1, 2021. The films will only be available for the first month of their release date before leaving the streaming service.

Originally Posted by PWI Be advised, WFLD-TV (FOX 32) in Chicago will have Bears postgame coverage on Sunday, so “WWE Tribute to the Troops” will air on WPWR-TV (My50 Chicago), instead at 3:30 pm central.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Tony Schiavone and Aubrey Edwards welcomed Wardlow onto the AEW Unrestricted podcast. Prior to joining All Elite Wrestling, Wardlow had a tryout with WWE. He feels that he did immensely well at said tryout and even went to the lengths of selling his home and committing to moving to Orlando. He did not get the job but that led to him training with Kurt Angle. “I think [WWE was an option]. I know people know that I did have a tryout, and I smoked that tryout. I mean, I was literally the only dude there in a suit, speaking of suits. It was mind blowing. Dudes are there in shorts and t-shirts. That’s because they’re not recruiting wrestlers, they’re recruiting ex-NFL athletes or college wrestlers, people that have never watched wrestling, don’t care about wrestling. Like the comments these people were making made me sick to my stomach that they were there getting an opportunity. Of course my roommate, he’s like, ‘Man, I’ve never even watched wrestling. I don’t even like it.’ I’m just like, ‘Get out of my room. Like why are you here?’ And it was his second tryout. These people are getting multiple chances. So I smoked that tryout. I’m like, ‘I have this in the bag’ and so much so, I literally sold my motorcycle, sold my house. Like literally got rid of everything because I’m like, ‘I’m gonna put everything into moving into Florida.’ So when the email came in that I was not, man I remember I actually had to pull over on the side of the road because I just couldn’t believe it and then I started training personally with Kurt Angle, when he was getting ready to make his comeback for his final couple matches and me and Kurt just clicked in the ring, really well, and him and I talked a lot and he expressed that he had-had a conversation with a certain somebody there about bringing me in and he told me, ‘It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when" ... He reflected on some of his favorite matches that he’s had and he looked back at the bout against Hangman Adam Page in the AEW World Title Eliminator tournament. He went on to detail the style of wrestling he prefers and that Hangman match matched up with Wardlow’s mindset. “Now that’s my favorite style of match. The bigger and harder you hit, the better. Wrestling for me, you know, this is what I do, this is what I know, this is very real to me. When I go out there, I am competing, I’m an athlete, I’m a wrestler. I’m not an entertainer, I’m not an artist. When I’m out there, am I entertaining? Absolutely. Do I create art? Art of war, sure. I’ll create a painting with their blood, but I like hard hitting wrestling, beat the sh*t out of each other and that’s what I had with Adam.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Powerhouse Hobbs was in the ring along with Ricky Starks, Taz and Brian Cage when Sting made his AEW Dynamite debut. While appearing on Busted Open Radio, Hobbs talked about the moment and what it was like to see Sting in-person. “I’m very happy. Sh*t shocked the hell out of me… it was almost unreal. Like, I’m standing there, ‘Oh my God, oh my God.’ I almost felt like I had an out of body experience but… growing up watching Sting over the years, I saw him come out, we gotta bounce. That sh*t was just unexpected.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling The pro wrestling career of the late Edward Fatu (Umaga) was the focus of Jim Ross’ latest podcast. Back in 2003, Fatu was released from WWE after an incident he had at a bar. Ross recalled having to deliver the news to Fatu about his firing ... Elsewhere during the podcast, JR spoke about the mentality in WWE internally when it came to utilizing older talents who were out of their prime years during the early 2000s. Here’s what he had to say: “Well, we believed in my run as the Head of Talent Relations that we can not continue to keep recycling older talents. They had a place, but they’re not the building blocks that they were when they were younger. They can contribute to the success of the brand, but they don’t need to be the focal point entirely. You gotta build youth and new and things of that — wrestling fans love new ideas, they love new characters. They love all that stuff.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling In a December 3rd SEC filing, it’s noted that WWE Executive Producer Kevin Dunn sold $1 million worth of his shares in WWE. Dunn remains with over 70,000 shares.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Longtime WWE official Charles Robinson joined Corey Graves on the After The Bell podcast. Robinson dove into his brief in-ring career and said that an injury caused by ‘Macho Man’ Randy Savage put an end to the wrestling portion of his time in the business. “But a week later, Ric Flair and I, we teamed up to take on Madusa and [Randy] Savage. They called it a mixed tag match. I think they were saying I was part of the other mix. I don’t know what they were trying to say. But of course, Savage and Madusa, they were going over, they were gonna be the winners and Savage was gonna do the elbow on somebody and Ric Flair looked at me and said, ‘It ain’t gonna be me’ so I was volunteered to take the elbow drop from Savage and unfortunately he landed on me and he put me in the hospital for a couple weeks. Yeah, he collapsed my lung, cracked some vertebrae in my back and my wrestling career was over.”

Originally Posted by Fightful In a recent media call, MLW's Court Bauer addressed a number of topics, including MLW's next big event. That will be Kings Of Colosseum and more info will be revealed next week. "That will be Kings of Colosseum. We’ll have more on that on next week’s FUSION," Bauer said. - In addition, Bauer spoke about MLW's viewership and noted that its Restart episode "destroyed" the show's previous episodes in terms of viewers. Here is what he said. "Fubo is very happy and we were once again at the top (of the ratings) for beIN. On YouTube we’re way up compared to where we left off in the Spring. We’re waiting on DAZN data for episode 111 but the restart episode destroyed all of our prior episodes in terms of viewers. In a nutshell: we’re growing and getting more eyes on the product. But I’m never satisfied with what we just accomplished. I want more, which is why we’re continuing to talk with different networks and services about expanding our programming footprint domestically and abroad. More eyes, more awareness. This is my mantra," Bauer said

Originally Posted by Fightful The Inner Circle was one member short on Wednesday's AEW Dynamite. Fans may have noticed that Santana was absent during the Chris Jericho vs. Frankie Kazarian matchup and post-match segment where the Inner Circle began to unravel. According to Cassidy Haynes of Bodyslam.net, Santana was not in Jacksonville, Florida, and missed the show due to personal reasons. Haynes reports that Santana’s absence was not health-related, as he was said to not be sick. Haynes goes on to report that Santana was not at the Dynamite tapings on Thursday, meaning he won't be on next Wednesday's show.

Originally Posted by Fightful Christopher Daniels gives an update on a potential AEW comic book. Speaking with Wrestling Inc, Daniels spoke on the possibility of an AEW comic book being worked on and if such a thing would ever come to fruition. Daniels said there hasn't been much movement on it given that AEW's TV product takes precedence. Last year, AEW collaborated with DC Comics for new art pieces featuring Chris Jericho, Awesome Kong and Jon Moxley. DC Comics is owned by Warner Media, which also owns TNT, the home of AEW Dynamite. The pieces were drawn by Justice League and Flash artist Howard Porter. "Yeah, because TNT has ties with Warner Bros. who also has ties with DC Comics. We did a little bit of a thing especially because we did our Revolution PPV earlier this year. It was a part of C2E2, which is the big comic book convention in Chicago. It was great. We had some DC artists, Ramon Villalobos and Howard Porter, did some great cover art of some AEW stars. There was some great shots of Cody, and Chris Jericho, and Nyla Rose and they did an SCU piece that I really dug. It was very cool. Because we've got that tie, we're looking into doing an AEW comic book I'm sure. I don't think there's been any movement on that just because of the stuff that we're doing with the television show right now that takes precedence, but we're always in the market to sort of find new ways to get new fans to get their eyes on the AEW product," Daniels said. Wrestling is no stranger to comics/manga. WWE has had comic book tie-ins in the past and NJPW recently unveiled a manga centered on Tetsuya Naito.

Originally Posted by 411Mania Tribute to the Troops films this Friday, and Vince McMahon was very gung-ho on making sure the event went down according to a new report. Fightful Select reports that the WWE Chairman was insistent on doing the show this year, even with an altered format. WWE is filming the special on Friday, and it will air on FOX in different time zones on Sunday depending on NFL schedules. The site notes that talent apparently have a very early call time, and as we already know, the lineup includes both Raw and Smackdown talent. The card is as follows: * Daniel Bryan, Rey Mysterio, Jeff Hardy & The Street Profits vs. King Corbin, Elias, Sami Zayn, Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode * Drew McIntyre vs. The Miz * Sasha Banks & Bianca Belair vs. Bayley & Natalya

TPWW Frontpage:

• Impact Wrestling on AXS TV Ratings – Dec. 1, 2020
• Davey Boy Smith Jr. Done With MLW, Now a Free Agent
• New Match Added to NXT TakeOver: WarGames – Updated Card
• Six Matches, Two Segments Announced for Next Week’s AEW Dynamite
• Kenny Omega Wins AEW Championship, Will Appear on Impact on Tuesday

[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets (Observer Newsletter Edition):

Kenny Omega turned full-blown heel, beat Jon Moxley for the AEW title, and appears to be paired with Don Callis as part of an AEW vs. Impact storyline, while Sting returned to TNT television for the first time in nearly 20 years as the headlines of the “Winter is Coming” episode of Dynamite on 12/4. The two angles were key parts of the tweet sent out on 11/11 on how the balance of power was changing, with the idea the return of Pac, something of a disappointment as the end result given the nature of the tweet, was just the first of several steps. Moxley vs. Omega, outdoors in 40 degree weather, still had a great big fight feel live according to those there. It’s very difficult to get a good response from a freezing crowd, but they were on their feet a lot. The show was set up for 750 paid and the rest being sponsors and those in Jacksonville who had associations with the football team or other connections to the family, and there were just over 1,000 in the building. The story of the match is that Omega made a gentleman’s agreement with the idea that there would be no weapons used, and they would win or lose on their own merit ... Moxley got out of the One Winged Angel twice. Moxley used a paradigm shift into the heaters at ringside. They teased that Omega was badly burned, or knocked out. The doctor came out. Callis, who was announcing ran to ringside to check on Omega. Moxley waited but finally threw Omega into the ring and threw punch after punch from the mount, basically the idea from an MMA standpoint that the ref had to stop it, which he didn’t. Callis said over the mic that Omega was hurt. Moxley shoved down Callis. In doing so, he dropped the mic. Omega picked up the mic, and hit Moxley with it, violating the gentleman’s agreement about not using a foreign object. Moxley was bleeding and Omega hit four straight V triggers and got the pin with the One Winged Angel at 28:27. Callis got up and he and Omega ran off, with the idea that they stole the title and were leaving, not having the in-ring celebration, which would have made Omega a babyface since the crowd celebrated his victory big at first. They ran past Tony Khan, as well as all the wrestlers backstage, and into the parking lot. Alex Marvez went to interview Omega & Callis, Omega said nothing and Callis said that he would explain everything on Tuesday. Marvez said Dynamite is Wednesday, and Callis said, no, on Impact on AXS TV. There was a lot of controversy regarding the nature of the finish, both with the idea of doing a promotional feud with Impact, which has some good talent but no buzz and a relatively small audience. In addition, Impact runs on Tuesday, the same as AEW Dark. Clearly this angle makes Impact relevant, which builds up a competitor. The promotion vs. promotion angle done correctly is usually good and AEW was looking for something to jump start business going into the new year. Sting and a promotion vs. promotion war were the key ideas. AEW’s attitude right now is to work with everyone, whether it be Impact, New Japan, AAA or NWA. Khan has been speaking to Rocky Romero regularly of late to try and open doors to New Japan, feeling the odds are better to do something with Harold Meij gone. Omega did a Kazuchika Okada tease with a rainmaker pose, which the announcers talked about. The door is open for matches like Young Bucks vs. Doc Gallows & Karl Anderson. Whether the storyline will be that Omega has “jumped” to Impact while holding the AEW title with Callis being his Bobby Heenan to Omega’s Nick Bockwinkel isn’t clear. We only know there will be interaction of some sort ... The build of the show as the biggest episode of Dynamite to date led to 912,000 viewers, of which 547,000, or an 0.42 rating, was in 18-49. The latter was by far the company’s biggest number of the year, and that’s the number that counts. Most important, this was the youngest median age of a Dynamite broadcast this year and highest percentage in 18-49. On the surface, a 912,000 number I’d consider a double and not a home run, but the most important number, the 0.42, is very much a home run. But whatever it did is far less important than the trends that follow. If this angle and Sting leads to regular shows beating 425,000 in 18-49 viewers, that’s a success. If the shows do 400,000 to 425,000 going forward, it is what it is, and it’s not bad in that the angle didn’t suck and Sting’s return wasn’t a flop. But it would not be a success either. Under 400,000 regularly would be a bad sign, although one would expect next week, with interviews with Sting and Omega scheduled, will do well above normal. If not, that would be a disappointment. In Canada, the show did nothing out of normal range with 108,500 viewers and 57,400 in 25-54. Sting arrived after a Cody Rhodes & Darby Allin vs. Ricky Starks & Powerhouse Hobbs tag match ... When the word got out a few weeks ago that Sting hadn’t signed a new contract with WWE, my gut was that, given his deal only entailed him having to make merchandise money without having to do much else, that not signing meant he was looking at another deal. Logically, this was the only place. With AEW trying to find a way to bring back the lapsed WCW audience, Sting was the only choice. Sting, who turns 62 in March, has signed a multi-year deal. With the face-paint, you can somewhat hide his age. Having seen him a few times over the years, he does look younger than his age, but he has also aged noticeably in the last few years. He has spinal stenosis and had neck issues that basically forced his retirement from the ring after his match with Seth Rollins. WWE had no interest in him as a television character. Khan wants to make him a regular television character, although he very clearly has to be protected when it comes to not taking bumps. Still it is known Sting wanted to do a Cinematic match with Undertaker, and for whatever reason, while fans have clamored for Undertaker vs. Sting for years, it has never been a match that appealed to McMahon. There are certainly questions. People would have rather the promotion vs. promotion angle be with New Japan, but the pandemic made that impossible. The Callis idea dates back before Callis first showed up for the Adam Page match. Sting’s appearance was the No. 10 most searched topic on the Internet on 12/3, but it was also just 20,000, but nothing from AEW television since the first week has ever trended, and nothing on Raw or Smackdown virtually ever does either. Pat Patterson was No. 7 the day before, but that was 200,000 searches. But it’s tricky. Sting’s debut was very much designed to be there for Christmas season merchandising. Good signs on 12/3 was that the Impact web site crashed and Sting set a Pro Wrestling Tees all-time record for one day sales of any T-shirt in its history. The Sting debuted did 1.2 million views the first day on YouTube, which is excellent for AEW and along the lines of a strong WWE angle, and keep in mind WWE has the huge YouTube advantage of popularity in India that AEW doesn’t really have at close to that level, and that’s where most YouTube wrestling views come from. In wrestling, the rule usually is that nostalgia works once. Sting had a long run with TNA and they were never able to really turn the corner with him. But he’s also not going to be portrayed as the top babyface in the ring. It’s another addition to a payroll that is largely fixed income based on television revenue. If Sting sells merchandise, or if somehow he can help facilitate selling international television deals or help consistently boost the 18-49 number, since AEW does share in ad sales and those are directly based on the 18-49 number, then it make sense. In the end, it will probably work for a few weeks and after that, it really depends on storylines, as does everything.

It is confirmed that Braun Strowman’s knee injury will keep him out of the TLC match, and that Drew McIntyre vs. A.J. Styles, who won a three-way over Keith Lee and Riddle on the 11/30 Raw, will headline. It’s only announced match right now, but the tentative lineup also includes Randy Orton vs. The Fiend, Shayna Baszler & Nia Jax vs. Lana & Asuka for the tag titles and Roman Reigns vs. Kevin Owens for the Universal title.

AAA officially announced a seven-match TripleMania card for 12/12 from Arena Ciudad in Mexico City, the home of the show since 2011. The show will be without fans. The promotion felt the show would work better in its usual home as an empty arena as opposed to the drive-in outdoor shows it had been doing in Mexico City. The show is scheduled for an 8 p.m. Eastern time slot, meaning it will go head-to-head with a UFC PPV show and the seven matches are scheduled to air live throughout Latin America on Space TV in a four-hour time slot. It will also air in Spanish live on the AAA Facebook and YouTube pages, but not on the AAA’s Twitch Channel, which is notable since the Twitch Channel is the paid service and the others are free. TV Azteca, the leading network in Mexico, will air the top matches of the show starting at 10:30 p.m. Multimedios, another TV Network in Mexico, will air the show on the next day. There will also be some Cinepolis movie theaters in the U.S. airing the show, but only on the day after and not live. At this point there is no English language announcing, only Spanish. The main event is a hair vs. hair match with Chessman facing Pagano. As noted here last week, Kenny Omega will be defending the AAA Mega heavyweight title against Laredo Kid in the No. 2 bout on the show. Given the situation with COVID and traveling, this is subject to change up until the day of the show but everyone is going with the idea it’s happening. Omega is the only U.S.-based wrestler announced for the show, but there will be some Americans and some Mexicans playing the Marvel characters in a heavily pushed cross-promotion. The identities are not clear but the belief is that the characters will be played by AAA stars, and at least one AEW wrestler and one MLW wrestler. One Impact wrestler, Kylie Rae, was originally going to be on the show but she will have to be replaced since she has left wrestling. With no fans, plans are scaled down somewhat as AAA originally wanted to be able to book Jon Moxley and other AEW talent, as well as Taya Valkyrie and the Colons ... During the press conference Dorian Roldan noted that Rush was unavailable on that date due to ROH television tapings going on that weekend and he’s world champion there. The same would go for Dragon Lee, who was not asked about, but is TV champion for ROH and on those tapings.

DRAGON GATE ... Boku R Shimizu, formerly Big R Shimizu, has changed his name again, and how he’s Bokutimo Dragon, doing an Ultimo Dragon parody. He sings his own version of Dragon’s entrance music

The weekly UWN PPV shows are no more for the time being. The show on 12/1 didn’t happen and it was said to be due to the new COVID restrictions in the state of California. That was also where NWA Showcase was being taped, so for the time being, that show is off as well. After they made the call, a few days later Thunder Studios in Los Angeles, where both shows are taped, shut down. The They are planning to return when restrictions ease for the Mike Bennett vs. Chris Dickinson final of the UWN championship tournament

Duane Gill (Gillberg) was released from the hospital over the weekend after his heart attack and is doing better

Kevin Nash is listed as the star of a movie called “COVID-19: Invasion” and is the face of the movie poster. The story of the movie is that Chinese bats invade the U.S. and it’s up to Navy Seal Team Six to stop them. It’s listed as being in post-production and being filmed in Longview TX with a $3 million budget

While this got no media attention regarding the death of David Prowse, who played Darth Vader in the first three Star Wars movies, Prowse claimed to have been a pro wrestler in the U.K. during the 60s and 70s. The story was that it was a way to make money when he was competing in bodybuilding and weightlifting. Historian Bradley Craig noted to us over the weekend about Prowse having wrestled and I recall stories from the early 80s where Prowse talked about being a pro wrestler. Craig said that Johnny Kincaid had said Prowse did some matches and he was definitely at a British Wrestlers Reunion in 2012. But another U.K. historian, Tony Earnshaw, said that was an issue that came out when he became famous as Darth Vader and talked about it, but claims those stories are not true. It definitely became a controversy in pro wrestling in the U.K. in 1981 as Prowse basically claimed that pro wrestling was fake. Prowse was quoted in the Daily Mail on July 1, 1981, saying he was in tournaments and talked about instructions being chalked on a blackboard for the matches. Wayne Bridges, who was the world heavyweight champion at the time, then said, “Come off it, Dave. You are talking out of the back of your head. If you know as much about wrestling as you claim, what about taking me on at any venue you care to choose, at any time. I say that Prowse has never even been a wrestler for the promoters have no record of him ever appearing in the ring before the public and certainly his claims bear no relation to any of the tournaments in which I have appeared over the years.” There is nothing that can authenticate Prowse doing pro wrestling such as advertisements for cards with his name on them past his claims. He did play a character called “Charles the Wrestler” in a 1978 BBC adaption of the Shakespeare play “As You Like It.” Pat Roach, who was a major U.K. wrestling star, auditioned for the role as Darth Vader but Prowse got it.

Tony Khan, in promoting the Jon Moxley vs. Kenny Omega title match, talked about a lot of different subjects in a press call ... The idea is one show would be the tryout/developmental show where younger wrestlers would be featured and the other would be a show with the talent that isn’t wrestling on Dynamite that week. But if they are adding a one-hour TV show on TNT next year, you probably wouldn’t want two Dark shows per week

There is still no official start date for the second [AEW] show on TNT. Late first quarter would be an educated guess but there is nothing in place

Jon Moxley was on his wife Renee Paquette’s podcast and talked about an idea he and Josh Barnett had regarding shooting an angle for their Bloodsport match at a Bellator show in Honolulu, which would have been one year ago in December. It never happened because Barnett ended up getting sick and not fighting. “We were going to go to Honolulu, for a vacation, and it just so happened that Josh was fighting in Bellator. We were going to have dinner with Josh the night before and everything was fine. At this point, I'm scheduled to wrestle Josh at Bloodsport in April. This is December. This is an advantageous opportunity to get some press behind this thing. Josh is like, 'After the match, I'll do a promo. You jump in the cage, we do our business and promote Bloodsport. We'll make sure everyone is aware and you don't get arrested.' I was assuming (he wins). The details weren't clear, but I wasn't going to be a wuss. If I said I was going to follow through, I would follow through, even if I got arrested. I was set to jump in the cage at Bellator and start talking shit. Security or cops be damned. I was just hoping the whole Bellator locker room didn't empty and beat the f*** out of me,

Most of the key younger talent that they [AEW] are high on are being signed to five-year deals

Regarding Tessa Blanchard, who has still not surfaced anywhere since being released by Impact and only wrestled once since the pandemic started, which was a loss to Kylie Rae on Warrior Wrestling, as things stand right now, this [AEW] is not going to be her destination. Based on what we were told, when her name came up, the feeling was that while nobody will deny her talent and from that standpoint they know she’d be very valuable, especially with the nature of their women’s division, the decision was made to not pursue her

If there are more travel bans and quarantines within the U.S., it may not affect WWE and AEW because the state of Florida has now deemed all pro wrestlers in both companies as essential workers

Paul Levesque on a conference call for Takeover noted that when he said how the Rhea Ripley loss to Charlotte Flair would make sense down the line, and now it doesn’t, that COVID simply changed plans. I don’t know exactly what that means, because the banning of NXT talent going on main roster shows and keeping main roster guys off NXT because of COVID came months later. He also said the reason NXT wasn’t part of Survivor Series this year like it was last year was due to COVID and Vince McMahon’s decision because of outbreaks at the Performance Center to not have Performance Center talent interact with the Raw and Smackdown talent at this time, which does make sense given the timing of everything

NXT also had enough of a window after Mania to tie up whatever lose ends were left in the Ripley vs. Charlotte feud considering Charlotte didn't take her break from wrestling for medical reasons until a little over 2 months later. That was well before Vince's ban on NXT and main roster talent mixing together was issued.

The WWE filed for a motion to dismiss the claim against the company in the lawsuit filed by Samantha Tavel aka Candy Cartwright against WWE, Evolve Wrestling, Matt Riddle and Gabe Sapolsky. WWE’s argument is that it shouldn’t be part of the lawsuit because the Northern District of Illinois is not a valid venue as they had no involvement in anything regarding her that took place anywhere in Illinois. They also claim that her complaint fails to plausibly allege that WWE personally encouraged or assisted Riddle’s alleged acts of gender violence. They argued that even if the complaints against Riddle were true, courts have ruled that for the company to be tied in implies the company being in a conscious active role and not merely failing to act on a situation. They also claim that the defendant claimed Riddle was an employee of WWE, and they say he is not (the independent contractor deal) but even if he is, he wasn’t during the time she alleged the acts took place in Illinois. The lawsuit claims incidents following Evolve events in April 2017 and May 19, 2018, the latter being in Summit, IL, for jurisdictional purposes. They noted Riddle wasn’t even working for WWE at the time. They noted Riddle signed his first contract with WWE on August 8, 2018. They also said they had no involvement in the Evolve show and thus nothing ties anything related to this case to WWE within the jurisdiction of the Illinois court. They said the complaint has nothing that plausibly suggests WWE encouraged Riddle to sexually assault Tavel; or that WWE tried to convince him doing so would be a good idea. There wasn’t even an allegation that WWE knew about it. There was also a signed declaration from Mark Carrano, the Vice President of Talent Relations for WWE. He said WWE had no involvement in the Evolve shows in question. He said the claim in the suit that WWE provided rules for which Evolve had to comply were “Simply false.”

The top ten most watched shows of the week on the WWE Network were: 1. Liv Forever (special on Liv Morgan which many called a total expose of how badly disorganized WWE booking is); 2. 2020 Survivor Series; 3. Best of New Day; 4. Stone Cold Steve Austin’s Broken Skull Sessions with Undertaker; 5. Takeover War Games 2017; 6. NXT from 11/25; 7. Takeover War Games 2019; 8. Smackdown from 10/23; 9. Undertaker’s Most Bone Chilling matches; 10. Takeover War Games 2018. NXT U.K. was No. 11, much higher than usual, for the finals of the Heritage Cup. No. 13 was the 1991 WCW WrestleWar show. I’m not sure the reason why but maybe a podcast pushed it this week or WWE just decided to put it in rotation. The Best of NXT in Progress, a show airing matches with wrestlers in Progress who went on to NXT, was No. 15. 205 Live still didn’t crack the top 25

WWE Ratings, AEW vs. NXT Ratings:

SPOILER: show

Raw on 11/30 did 1,741,000 viewers and an 0.53 in 18-34, both of what should be considered good numbers, all things considered. Raw was down from the past two weeks, but that was the Drew McIntyre vs. Randy Orton-led show and last week was the day after Survivor Series. The story of the night was the teenage girl audience, and women in general. Just based on the men’s audience, this would have been the lowest number for Raw in history, as everything else was at the level for a show at record low levels. If women viewers were at normal levels, the audience for the show would have been 1,501,000, the record low. In 18-49, men were down 17.0 percent and women were up 9.4 percent from last week. In teenagers, boys were down 11.1 percent from last week while teenage girls were up 12.4 percent from last week. It was among the lowest numbers for male viewers in the history of the show, but for females 18-49, it was the best number since the day after WrestleMania, and for teenage girls, the best since the pandemic, even beating the day after Mania. Raw was fourth in 18-49, behind the NFL-related programming on ESPN, including the Seattle Seahawks vs. Philadelphia Eagles game that did 11,376,000 viewers, a 3.40 in 18-49 and 2.51 in 18-34 ... The first hour did 1,828,000 viewers. The second hour did 1,763,000 viewers. The third hour did 1,632,000 viewers. Overall the show was down 3.7 percent from last week in total viewers, 7.0 percent in 18-49 and 6.9 percent in 18-34. As compared to the same week last year, the show was down 21.2 percent in viewers, 23.2 percent in 18-49 and 40.0 percent in 18-34. However, in males 18-49 it was down 36.2 percent from last year while women 18-49 were even. In teenagers, boys were down 47.3 percent from the same week last year while girls were also identical to the same show last year ... The show did 77,000 viewers in males 18-34, 115,000 in women 18-34, 308,000 in men 35-49 and 180,000 in women 18-49. The first-to-third hour declines were 12.8 percent in women 18-49, 10.9 percent in men 18-49, 1.0 percent in teenage girls, 8.5 percent in teenage boys and 10.8 percent in over 50.

Smackdown on 11/27 did a 1.27 rating, 2,141,000 viewers (1.39 viewers per home, well above usual which indicates over Thanksgiving weekend that even though the viewers were down, people gathered together more to watch it with their families) and 0.60 (779,000 viewers) in 18-49. The decline of 13.0 percent in ratings, 8.0 percent in viewers and 10.1 percent in 18-49 was probably more related to Thanksgiving weekend and consistent with what the show did last year on the same weekend. At 0.6, Smackdown was tied for third place with Santa Claus is Coming to Town and Frosty the Snowman, but behind How the Grinch Stole Christmas and Illuminations the Minions Holiday show that both did 0.7s. Smackdown had the fewest viewers of all shows on the big four networks even though most were reruns. Smackdown also finished behind College football on ESPN which did 2,801,000 viewers and 0.78 ... Smackdown was only down 11.8 percent in ratings, 7.9 percent in total viewers from last year in total viewers, 11.3 percent in 18-49 and 40.0 percent in 18-34, the latter showing that the audience has aged up considerably over the past year. The show did 146,000 viewers in male 18-34, 77,000 in female 18-34, 347,000 in male 35-49 and 209,000 in female 35-49. In 18-49, the audience was 63.3 percent male. The first 30 minutes with Jey Uso, Roman Reigns and Paul Heyman out, Uso beating down Otis with a chair and Street Profits vs. Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode non-title did 2.23 million viewers, which was the high point. A Daniel Bryan interview, the Mysterio family/Murphy/King Corbin segment, an Undertaker video package and Bryan vs. Sami Zayn non-title did 2.11 million viewers. Kevin Owens confronting Uso and Reigns, Bianca Belair vs. Natalya and Murphy vs. Corbin did 2.21 million viewers. And the final segment with Big E, Crews and Zayn, Carmella interview and Uso vs Owens main event did 2.00 million viewers.

The one thing that it seems AEW can’t fight is the night before Thanksgiving, as for the second year in a row, that night had huge drops from the week before and was the first time since Halloween Havoc (Io Shirai vs. Candice LeRae for women’s title; Damien Priest vs. Johnny Gargano North American title; Rhea Ripley vs. Raquel Gonzalez), that AEW didn’t win with total viewers. While the early numbers had NXT up by a slim 712,000 to 710,000 margin, including the overrun, the final numbers had both shows at 712,000 viewers. The head-to-head numbers for 11/25 were 712,000 for AEW (1.51 viewers per home) and 709,000 for NXT. As would be expected, families watching together led to the Fox Thanksgiving afternoon football game doing 30,333,000 viewers and 2.08 viewers per home, both numbers the biggest of the season. AEW won in 18-49, by 0.26 (340,000 viewers) to 0.20 (253,000 viewers; 251,000 head-to-head), which was the closest since an AEW win on 6/24 of 0.22 to 0.19 (when NXT had Finn Balor vs. Johnny Gargano vs. Keith Lee where the winner was to get a shot at Adam Cole’s title). It was really the night that was the key, as AEW was No.7 in 18-49, trailing four news shows as well as a Hallmark Movie aimed at women (0.31) and Real Housewives of Orange County (0.28) ... AEW skewed older than usual, likely with a lot of its audience out on Wednesday, and maybe the oldest to date. But NXT skewed far younger than it has been doing. The median age of AEW and percentage of viewers in 18-49 were better than every sport event of the week on national television with the exception of seven soccer games, with the youngest skewing sports audience being the Seattle vs. Los Angeles MLS game on ESPN ... Last year on the night before Thanksgiving, AEW with its reliance on a younger audience on the biggest bar night of the year, fell greatly while NXT, with its key audience being older, did not. Still, NXT did far better than it has done in a long time in 35-49, although did not do well with 18-34, although still up from last week. With the loss of young viewers, AEW had its oldest audience to date and NXT was far younger than usual. There was some thought that AEW, which had its strongest key number since January for a show with head-to-head competition the week before, would hold up better between momentum and the idea that bars would not be as crowded this year. But that didn’t prove to be the case. But it was more the AEW viewership leaving because their biggest losses with the exception of Males 35-49 were in places NXT did not do well. NXT had more viewers throughout hour one, up 729,500 to 680,300, winning all four quarters when it comes to viewers. AEW had more viewers in hour two, up 739,300 to 689,300. AEW won in 18-49 in every quarter, with the closest being quarter four at 304,000 to 258,000 and the biggest gap being quarter six at 376,000 to 239,000. NXT did win quarter four in 35-49, by a 220,000 to 210,000 but lost the other seven in 35-49, and 18-34 saw AEW double NXT in the last five quarters and tripling in two of the five. AEW’s numbers were basically understandable for the two hours given everything else in television was down due to the night. But NXT did very well, better than in recent weeks even though the bad night. One would think it was the ladder match, but the ratings patterns say otherwise. NXT opened at a good level with the lead-in, but the post-match with Toni Storm turning on Ember Moon drew attention and Kushida vs. Timothy Thatcher held the audience as did the Kevin Owens segment with Johnny Gargano, Damien Priest and Leon Ruff. They lost some in other spots, but not a lot. The lesson is AEW was hurt by building the future, giving Jack Evans & Angelico vs. Top Flight and then a Powerhouse Hobbs match in a row. With new characters, the reality is they aren’t going to be over until getting the opportunity, but giving them that opportunity often doesn’t work that night. The turnaround with a 106,000 viewer increase and 60,000 in 18-49 came for Chris Jericho & Jake Hager vs. SCU, and then they continued to grow for the Omega-Moxley contract signing. They did drop for the women’s title match and the main event, beating NXT, but not by nearly the margin that has been the case of late. AEW did 74,000 in men 18-34 (down 24.5 percent from last week) to 28,000 for NXT (up 12.0 percent). AEW did 32,000 in women 18-34 (down 63.2 percent) to 20,000 for NXT (up 53.8 percent). AEW did 163,000 in men 35-49 (down 18.1 percent) and NXT did 141,000 (up 69.9 percent). AEW did 71,000 in women 35-49 (down 23.7 percent) and NXT did 64,000 (up 12.3 percent). AEW was down 16.5 percent in viewers and 29.1 percent in 18-49 from the prior week. NXT was up 11.6 percent in viewers and 42.1 percent in 18-49, with the key being the ladder match. As compared to last year, AEW was up 7.1 percent in viewers and up 0.9 percent in 18-49. NXT was down 12.1 percent in viewers and 16.7 percent in 18-49 as compared to the night before Thanksgiving last year. AEW took a major hit across the board, particularly with women, as compared to recent norms, but was up in over 50. In the main event battle, AEW with Butcher & Blade vs. Pac & Fenix did 703,000 viewers and 325,000 in 18-49. NXT with the Pete Dunne vs. Kyle O’Reilly ladder match for the man advantage did 682,000 viewers and 241,000 in 18-49. In the first quarter, AEW had Adam Page vs. John Silver and did 702,000 viewers and 345,000 in 18-49. NXT had Candice LeRae vs Ember Moon and did 805,000 viewers and 237,000 in 18-49. In the second quarter, AEW had a Kenny Omega promo, a Darby Allin video, Will Hobbs vs. Lee Johnson and the Taz promo with Cody Rhodes out and did 692,000 viewers and 336,000 in 18-49. This was AEW’s high point in 35-49. NXT did 721,000 viewers and 260,000 in 18-49 for the LeRae vs. Moon post-match and Toni Storm turning heel, plus a Legado del Fantasma interview and an Undisputed Era in-ring promo. This was NXT’s high point in 18-34. In the third quarter, AEW had 677,000 viewers and 318,000 in 18-49 for an Eddie Kingston promo with Jon Moxley out and the beginning of Jack Evans & Angelico vs, Top Flight. NXT had 697,000 viewers and 263,000 in 18-49 most of Timothy Thatcher vs. Kushida. This was NXT’s high point in 18-49. In the fourth quarter, AEW had 650,000 viewers and 304,000 in 18-49 for the ending of Evans & Angelico vs Top Flight, the post-match with the Yong Bucks, Nyla Rose & Vickie Guerrero and an FTR interview. NXT had 695,000 viewers and 258,000 in 18-49 for the ending of Thatcher vs. Kushida and a Rhea Ripley video package. In the fifth quarter, AEW had 756,000 viewers and 364,000 in 18-49 for Chris Jericho & Jake Hager vs. Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian. NXT had 706,000 viewers and 262,000 in 18-49 for the Kevin Owens show with Leon Ruff, Johnny Gargano and Damien Priest, as well as William Regal. This was NXT’s high point in 35-49. In the sixth quarter, AEW had 788,000 viewers and 376,000 in 18-49 for the Omega/Moxley in-ring, an Inner Circle promo and the beginning of Hikaru Shida vs. Anna Jay. This was the high point of the show for AEW as well as in 18-49. NXT had 682,000 viewers and 239,000 in 18-49 for Cameron Grimes vs. Jake Atlas, Dexter Lumis coming out, a Rhea Ripley interview with LeRae, Storm and Dakota Kai doing a beatdown an angle. In the seventh quarter, AEW had 710,000 viewers and 339,000 in 18-49 had Shida vs. Jay, a Matt Hardy interview and Ricky Starks, Will Hobbs and Brian Cage were there. This was AEW’s high point in 18-34. NXT had 687,000 viewers and 250,000 in 18-49 with Boa & Xia Lee, The Grizzled Young Veterans beat down on Ever Rise and LeRae and the beginning of the Kyle O’Reilly vs. Pete Dunne ladder match. In the eighth quarter, AEW had Butcher & Blade vs. Pac & Fenix and lot 7,000 viewers and 14,000 in 18-49. NXT lost 5,000 viewers and 9,000 in 18-49 for the ladder match. After AEW ended, the overrun gained 141,000 viewers and 84,000 in 18-49 ending at 823,000 and 325,000 in 18-49 for the end and post-match of the ladder match. AEW did a 0.09 in 12-17 (down 43.8 percent from last week, 0.15 in 18-34 (down 42.7 percent), 0.37 in 35-49 (down 20.5 percent) and 0.29 in 50+ (up 7.4 percent). Its audience was 70.1 percent male in 18-49 and 71.8 percent male in 12-17. NXT did an 0.05 in 12-17 (we don’t have comparisons with last week since NXT wasn’t in the top 50), 0.07 in 18-34 (up 26.3 percent), 0.33 in 35-49 (up 31.7 percent) and 0.38 in 50+. NXT was 66.8 percent male in 18-49 and 41.7 percent male in 12-17.

The Winter is Coming episode of AEW, built around the Jon Moxley vs. Kenny Omega match did the company’s best demo numbers of the year, including beating Raw in male 18-34 and beating Smackdown in women 18-34. But it didn’t beat either show overall in 18-34, with Smackdown at 223,000, Raw at 192,000 at 181,000. We don’t have complete details due to the Thanksgiving holiday delaying numbers, such as rankings. AEW did 913,000 viewers and 0.42 (543,000) in 18-49, the latter figure being the company’s best of the year. Seven of eight quarters beat the prior Wednesday night pandemic record of 526,000 viewers set by the Young Bucks vs, Top Flight match two weeks earlier. Omega vs. Moxley actually peaked in the first 15 minutes of the match, doing 952,000 viewers and 588,000 in 18-49, and the final quarter did 945,000 viewers and 581,000 in 18-49. The last 15 minutes of the show did do the high point of 210,000 viewers in 18-34. The NXT main event, Raquel Gonzalez vs. Shotzi Blackheart in a ladder match did 689,000 viewers and 221,000 in 18-49. NXT did 658,000 viewers and 0.16 (210,000 viewers) in 18-49. AEW was up 28.2 percent in viewers and 59.7 percent in 18-49, with a far younger fan base than usual. NXT was down 7.6 percent in viewers and 16.3 percent in 18-49. AEW more than doubled NXT in every key demo except women 35-49, and did seven times as many males 18-34 and 4.6 times as many females in 18-49 than NXT. AEW did 103,000 viewers in males 18-34 (up 39.2 percent from last week) to 14,000 for NXT (down 50.0 percent). AEW did 78,000 in females 18-34 (up 143.8 percent) to 17,000 for NXT (down 15.0 percent). AEW did 252,000 in males 35-49 (up 57.1 percent) to 109,000 for NXT (down 22.7 percent). AEW did 106,000 in women 35-49 (up 49.3 percent) to 70,000 for NXT (up 9.4 percent). AEW was 66.1 percent male in 18-49. NXT was 58.6 percent male. As compared to last year on the same week, AEW was up 7.3 percent in viewers and 31.3 percent in 18-49. NXT as compared to last year was down 22.1 percent in viewers and down 44.8 percent in 18-49. So the AEW audience was much younger this year and the NXT audience was much older. With the exception of the first quarter, AEW doubled NXT in 18-49 in every quarter. AEW opened with the Battle Royal doing 844,000 viewers and 451,000 in 18-49. NXT opened with a Pat Patterson tribute, plus Leon Ruff & Damien Priest vs. Santos Escobar & Raul Mendoza, which did 718,000 viewers and 252,000 in 18-49. In the second quarter, AEW did 899,000 viewers and 528,000 in 18-49 for Chris Jericho vs Frankie kazarian, which was a big 55,000 gain in viewers and 77,000 gain in 18-49. NXT did 701,000 viewers and 224,000 in 18-49 for the ending of Priest & Ruff vs. Escobar & Mendoza, and an Undisputed Era video. In the third quarter, AEW did 940,000 viewers and 553,000 in 18-49 for the ending of Jericho vs. Kazarian, the post-match, The Young Bucks angle and beginning of Britt Baker vs. Leyla Hirsch. NXT did 668,000 viewers and 206,000 in 18-49 for a Team LeRae interview and Cameron Grimes vs. August Gray. In the fourth quarter, AEW did 874,000 viewers and 522,000 in 18-49 for the post-match of Baker vs. Hirsch with the Thunder Rosa run-in and the beginning of Cody Rhodes & Darby Allin vs. Ricky Starks & Powerhouse Hobbs. NXT did 647,000 viewers and 199,000 in 18-49 for Jake Atlas vs Tony Nese. In the fifth quarter, AEW did 942,000 viewers and 558,000 in 18-49 for the bulk of Rhodes & Allin vs. Starks & Hobbs, the post-match wit Sting and a Hikaru Shida promo. NXT did 642,000 viewers and 194,000 in 18-49 for that Pat McAfee team promo and a Boa and Xia Li vignette. Quarter six saw AEW do 911,000 viewers and 559,000 in 18-49 for a preview of next week and the intros and opening minutes of Omega vs. Moxley. NXT did 619,000 viewers and 197,000 in 18-49 for Fabian Aichner & Marcel Barthel vs. Zack Gibson & James Drake. Quarter seven saw AEW do 952,000 viewers and 588,000 in 18-49 for Omega vs. Moxley. NXT did 577,000 viewers and 199,000 in 18-49 for the Tommaso Ciampa vs. Timothy Thatcher angle, War Games rundown and Thatcher interview. Quarter eight was a surprise in the sense that for the end of Omega vs. Moxley, while it was second highest (behind the prior quarter) demo number of the year, AEW did lost 7,000 viewers overall and 7,000 in 18-49 for the last 12 minutes of Omega-Moxley and the post-match. NXT gained 112,000 viewers and 30,000 in 18-49 for the Gonzalez vs. Blackheart ladder match, so the ladder match visual still helped them a lot, but they are totally burning ladder matches out.

[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets:

Originally Posted by PWI WWE Raw star Matt Riddle filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit brought against him by Samantha Tavel (who wrestles as Candy Cartwright) before the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division on 12/3. Tavel filed a lawsuit in October against Riddle, World Wrestling Entertainment, the now-defunct EVOLVE promotion and Gabe Sapolsky, seeking $10 million from each defendant, stemming from Tavel's allegations, which initially became public during the Speaking Out movement online during the summer of 2020, claiming Riddle allegedly choked and forced her to perform oral sex on him in May 2018. Tavel's lawsuit stated the incident took place on a bus that was leaving EVOLVE 104 in Summit, Illinois, hence the lawsuit was being filed before Cook County Court. It also alleges that Riddle effectively prevented her from being able to be booked for WWE dates. In the filing, Riddle stated that he and Tavel entered into an extra-marital affair in April 2017 after meeting while performing for EVOLVE at an event in New York City. They continued to maintain that relationship until Riddle's wife learned of it, at which point, Riddle claims he ended his relationship with Tavel. In his filing Riddle alleges, "Ms. Tavel had a hard time accepting the end of the relationship, and Mr. Riddle changed his telephone number more than once to avoid her calls. Mr. Riddle had no control over any employment relationship Ms. Tavel had with Evolve or WWE" ... In regard to Tavel's accusations, Riddle's filing, as you might imagine, denied any wrongdoing on his part, stating, "Mr. Riddle emphatically denies Ms. Tavel’s torrid tale. He and Ms. Tavel had a nearly three-year affair during which they engaged only in consensual sexual activity. In July 2019, Mr. Riddle ended the affair after his wife learned of the relationship. In June 2020, Ms. Tavel tweeted an accusation that he sexually assaulted her in a van while other wrestlers were asleep." Riddle's motion claims that Tavel's lawsuit should be dismissed because it fails to establish that the Circuit Court of Cook Count has jurisdiction over Riddle to begin with and that Tavel's specific allegations also fail to meet federal pleading requirements that bring them beyond speculation. Riddle's attorneys argue that the lawsuit fails to claim that Riddle's, "allegedly tortious activities were purposefully directed at residents of the forum" as Tavel is not and has never been a resident of Illinois. Riddle's attorneys also argued that since he does not live or own property in Illinois, he cannot fall under their jurisdiction. The motion to dismiss also argues that while Riddle was in Illinois performing for EVOLVE and that the alleged incident happened "on a bus leaving" the venue, therefore those duties would have been completed by the time he was alleged to have assaulted Tavel, so any professional connection to the State of Illinois had been completed. It also claimed that Tavel cannnot claim any connection to her "alleged injuries" (from Riddle's alleged sexual assault against her) and the State of Illinois. For all those reasons, Riddle's attorneys are claiming the lawsuit against him should be thrown out, as they are not strong enough under Illinois law to move forward and that neither party should fall under Illinois jurisdiction in court ... Riddle also specifically responds to Tavel's allegations that he assaulted her on 5/19/18 in Illinois following the EVOLVE 104 event. In response, Riddle stated that he did perform that evening at EVOLVE 104 in Illinois and that Tavel was at the event as well. Riddle stated that a videographer named Joseph M. Ranta transported numerous performers from the venue to their hotel in Michigan in his van (Tavel's claims have made reference to a bus, but her initial Tweet referred to a van with sleeping EVOLVE wrestlers), as there was another EVOLVE event in Livonia, Michigan the next day. Riddle's response featured an affidavit filed by Ranta as well as photos of the exterior and interior of his van ... Riddle is seeking a dismissal of the case.

Originally Posted by PWI Vice TV announced the following: VICE TV’S “DARK SIDE” FRANCHISE EXPANDS WITH TWO NEW DOCUSERIES FOCUSING ON FOOTBALL AND ’90s CULTURE “Dark Side of the Football” and “Dark Side of the ’90s” are in production and will debut on VICE TV in 2021 DECEMBER 8, 2020 - BROOKLYN, NY - VICE TV announces it is expanding its record-breaking docuseries Dark Side of the Ring into a franchise with two new series: Dark Side of the Football and Dark Side of the ’90s. Building on the meteoric success of Dark Side of the Ring, VICE TV’s highest-rated show, which was recently renewed for a third season, the two new Dark Side spinoffs are currently in production and will debut in 2021 ... Dark Side of the Football shines a light on stories that live in the shadows of America’s favorite sport. Gripping and compelling tales about the sometimes flawed men behind the face masks; the coaches, teams, and leagues who control their fates; and the untold story behind bizarre and tragic off-the-field events — facts that have been hidden to shield fans from discovering unsettling truths about the game they love. All told from interviews with the people who were there and know what really happened. The series is produced by 44 Blue Productions for VICE TV. Dark Side of the ’90s will reveal the soul of the decade through its most captivating pop-culture moments, trends and personalities, through interviews with people who studied the time period. Each episode will dissect the nostalgia, uncovering the surprising dark truths underlying the glitz, the glamour and the headlines. The series is produced by Railsplitter Pictures and Insight Productions for VICE TV.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Major League Wrestling’s first special since their ‘Restart’ began is scheduled for January 6th and it’s their ‘Kings of Colosseum’ show. In the press release about the event, it was noted that this event was originally slated to air on pay-per-view but it’s going to air for free on YouTube, Fubo Sports and Pluto TV as a thank you to the fans. “Times are tough for a lot of folks and we are so grateful for the incredible support from our fans,” said Court Bauer. “So, we decided to take this event originally slated to be a Pay-Per-View and give it to fans for free as a gift. We’re going to stack the card with title fights, top-ranked wrestlers, and make it a true tentpole for the league.” The first match for the event will be revealed on the 12/9 edition of FUSION that premieres at 7 PM EST. Thus far, MLW has presented World Heavyweight and Middleweight Title defenses on their FUSION show. They are currently in the mist of the Opera Cup tournament.

Originally Posted by PWI Joseph R. Meehan, known professionally in the world of pro wrestling as Joey Ryan, filed a request for a summary judgment against Impact Wrestling parent company Anthem Wrestling LLC before the Circuit Court of Davidson County, TN on 11/27, alleging that Anthem took too long to respond to his lawsuit alleging that the company breached his contract when they released him in the wake of a number of allegations voiced against him on social media. In a filing dated 11/27, Meehan requests judgment in his favor, citing that Anthem was officially served with the lawsuit on 9/24, later requested and received an additional 30 days to respond, but failed to do so in a timely manner. Anthem responded to the lawsuit on 12/4. In their response, Anthem denied all of Meehan's allegations against them, arguing that his contract indeed ran through August 2021 "unless earlier terminated", claimed that Ryan "misstates" the contents of his exhibits including his Impact contract, that Impact commented publicly about Ryan's exit "so that Anthem's audience would not expect immediate appearances by Plaintiff at wrestling events produced by Anthem", denied that they breached the terms of his deal. However, claiming Anthem ran over thirty days past their extension before filing their response, Meehan's attorney is arguing that since the company is "not an incompetent or a minor" but "failed and refused to answer" the lawsuit in a timely fashion, therefore Anthem is in default under the Tennessee Rules of Civil Procedure and there is "no reason to delay in entry of a Final Judgment" under those rules ... As noted, Meehan is seeking a judgment of ten million dollars against Anthem due to damages "he has suffered, which were caused by the Defendant's actions." He is also requesting he be "awarded reasonable attorney fees for the prosecution of this cause" and that the all costs be covered by the Defendant, Anthem Wrestling. He is also asking for any other "further and general relief" the Court may rule he is entitled.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Renee Paquette welcomed CM Punk onto her ‘Oral Sessions’ podcast ... CM Punk was asked what would it take for him to return to pro wrestling. He weighed both options that AEW and WWE could possibly give him and he leaned towards AEW because of the fresh matchups that are there. He also believes that if AEW was around when his fallout with WWE happened, the sports-entertainment company would’ve handled things differently. “Well, I think the landscape is currently much different than when I left, right? You could play the game where you’re like, ‘Oh, if AEW was an option, you would have gone right after you left WWE.’ If you’re gonna play that game, there’s no way they would have handled it the way they handled it with suspending me for two months and nobody contacting me and then, the next thing I know, I get release papers on my wedding day. That wouldn’t have happened if there was an AEW because then they probably would’ve approached me and been like, ‘Hey, your suspension’s up. Ready to come back to work? Like let’s work this out,’ you know? Or handle it like any other sports organization would’ve handled star pitcher f*cking going home. They’re not just gonna let him leave the team, they’re not gonna let him go to a rival organization. What would it take? Oh gosh. Without wanting to insult anybody on either side of the fence, any WWE talent, AEW talent, it would take, above all, an interesting scenario. A story that would be fun to tell. Also, just the stupidest amount of money. But they could save themselves a whole lot of money if they just presented a fun storyline. Now what that is? I don’t know. I’m a pretty picky guy, especially at this point. I think there’s more interesting people on the AEW side of things for me to wrestle but that’s just because I’ve never wrestled them before. Young Bucks, Kenny Omega, talking about your husband [Jon Moxley], I look at that and I go, ‘Well I wrestled him already, so it’s just less interesting than something new’ and on the WWE side of things, I don’t know that there’s anybody there currently that I haven’t wrestled that I’d be interested in wrestling.” While on the topic of WWE’s third-party edict, Zelina Vega being released and Xavier Woods signing to G4, Punk recalled stories of WWE keeping opportunities away from certain talents and funneling those to their selected top stars. “They would literally take every single request that came through and they would funnel it to the one person that they wanted to be the face of the company. I went — this is awesome. I went on a — it was a bachelor party for my buddy Jensen. We went to Pinball Factory here in Chicago, where they make a lot of the pinball games and a lot of people don’t know that Midway — is it Midway? Maybe, I don’t know. But anyway, so we were there and so the guy giving us the tour, the guy who owned the factory and all these pinball machines and this company, he was like, ‘Yeah, we wanted you on our WrestleMania-WWE pinball machine. They said no,’ and I was like, ‘What do you mean they said no?’ They were like, ‘No, don’t put him on that. We want this guy on it’ and we were like, ‘Oh whatever and we just did it.’ Still to this day, I’ll hear stuff like that, where people will be like, ‘Well we reached out. We had this offer for you,’ and they either never get back — it was like when THQ wanted me on the cover of the video game. I was forwarded the emails where they said, ‘No, no, no. Sheamus, Miz or John Cena.’ To their credit, Bryce [Yang], who is their head of all that stuff, he was like, ‘No, no, no. We want CM Punk. He’s like literally the guy right now and that might change in six months but we don’t care. He’s the popular guy.’ So, you know…”

Originally Posted by Fightful CM Punk is one of the few people who have worked with Dana White and Vince McMahon during his combat sports career. Both Dana and Vince have similarities in their mindset and have successfully turned their respective businesses into billion-dollar companies while facing the criticism that comes with being the public face of those companies. Speaking to Renee Paquette on Oral Sessions, Punk was asked to compare the two headstrong leading men. "There are levels to it. They're both right-wing 'weirdos' because they obviously vote based on what's good for their pocketbook. I would say Dana is more generous. He does a lot of stuff for the fighters behind the scenes. There's a lot of locker room money thrown around that people don't know about. He gets a lot of flack. That being said, I do think fighters should be paid a lot more. A lot of that time when he lashes out when people complain about pay and unionization, it's because he knows, 'I just gave that guy $250,000 under the table but can't talk about it.' They should still get paid more and the fighters should get together and unionize anyway. Just like the wrestlers," he said. Following up on Punk's reply, Renee asked Punk if wrestlers will ever get together to unionize. He responded, "There's no such thing as 'the boys.' It's a trope. Once you're out of the bubble, you don't hear from anyone anymore. There will always be a handful of people that will undercut everyone just to get ahead. There are people who, by nature, are bootlickers and they love the taste. You're supposed to lick the boot, not eat the entire thing."

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Bertrand Hebert, co-author of Pat Patterson’s biography titled ‘Accepted: How The First Gay Superstar Changed WWE’ was a guest on David Penzer’s ‘Sitting Ringside’ podcast. Pat unfortunately passed away last week and Hebert came on the podcast to discuss Pat’s life and in-ring career ... Patterson is known as the mind behind the Royal Rumble concept. An idea Pat had was to present a trophy to the winner of the Royal Rumble and that trophy would have the names and images of past winners on it. “Because in the book, Pat tells the story of the last idea he had about the Rumble. He wanted them to create the Pat Patterson Cup, and give the trophy, like the Stanley Cup in Hockey. A trophy that kind of looked like that where you could put champagne and put all the names of all the winners and all the participants on the ring. He wanted something like that for the Royal Rumble so I think it’d be amazing to create the Pat Patterson Cup for the winner of the Rumble and go back to the past winners and add them to the bowl and add the pictures and I think it’d be an amazing, amazing homage to Pat.” Pat was not as involved in the creative process over the past several years as he once was but one talent he was fond of was Chad Gable, according to Hebert. “I remember the last wrestler he was very high on was Chad Gable. He had just seen him and he was like, he had an idea about what moves, the way he should work and all that. But like, once again, he was not involved enough to have any kind of influence but, he had become a huge fan of Chad Gable and nobody can deny, except for the fact that he’s short and they made a whole gimmick out of it. But he’s an amazing talent.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling On the most recent episode of Tama Tonga’s ‘Tama’s Island’ podcast, he dove into why he cut his hair off and shaved his beard. Tama feels that he was trying to appeal to the American audience while wrestling in Japan and once he made the change in appearance, he noticed more fanfare from the Japanese fans. “I wanted to grow. I wanted to evolve. I didn’t wanna stay the same. I felt like the look and everything was coming to an end, and… I knew it was cool. I didn’t wanna cut my hair, but at the same time I wanted to cut my hair. I didn’t wanna shave my beard but at the same time I wanted to shave my beard, and I came to a realization one day, this whole time, because I lived in America, because I watch American wrestling, because the people I associated with was all American wrestling, I was catering to the American fans. The look and the everything was an American style. It’s a badass, it’s what everybody wanted. It’s not, ‘Oh, you’re not badass if you don’t look badass,’ and finally I was like, ‘Yo…’ it took me so long and I was like, I live in Japan. I need to cater to Japanese fans and they don’t have the same taste as the American fans. So then I was like, ‘You know what? I need –’ I remember when I first came here to Japan, clean cut and everything and I was instantly over. I was instantly over and I was in magazines and I remember they did a spread on me and I was like what the f*ck? And I just didn’t get it. I thought they did this to everybody.”

Originally Posted by PWI WWE has offered a discounted rate for the WWE Network for the first time since eliminating their first month free promotion earlier this year. WWE Network is currently offering a month of the streaming service for 99 cents at this link.

Link for those interested: https://www.wwe.com/99offer

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling NXT is promoting their first episode of 2021 as “New Year’s Evil” on January 6th. Levesque indicated they will be doing more specials after the success of Halloween Havoc in October. This will be an interesting trend to watch in 2021 with both AEW and NXT building towards television specials periodically and attempting to replicate the success seen for Havoc and Winter is Coming. For AEW, the objective is clearly growing its audience and willing to take risks to do so. NXT has the task of figuring out its goal for 2021 whether it be taking chances and making changes to its presentation, or strictly maintaining its audience with its current product.

Originally Posted by Observer Former WCW wrestler Leonardo Carrera, better known as Damian 666, as well as his wife, are both hospitalized with COVID-19.

Originally Posted by Fightful Triple H says The Undertaker will soon be working with him to develop the future of WWE. Triple H is the mastermind of NXT, where he furthers along the future of WWE alongside such names as Shawn Michaels and The Road Dogg. Now that Undertaker's retired, Triple H says he and Undertaker are talking more about "The Phenom" working with NXT. "Well, you know I can tell you this that anytime Undertaker is involved here, anytime he's walked through these doors, everybody that's here is better for it," said Hunter on the post-show media call following NXT TakeOver: WarGames. "They all come out of here with a different perspective a fresh viewpoint and you know, he's one of the most knowledgeable guys in and that has ever been in the business. I believe, you know, myself I learn from him every time I'm around him." Hunter continued, "He is looking now, I believe to move into the next phase of his life. We've talked a lot about it. It involves being here. It involves the future. It involves getting more into that. I would like to believe he has earned the right to take a breath off of his retirement for a moment and we've actually just touched base in the last couple of days and that is something that, coming out of the holidays, we will certainly be talking about in 2021, which is just one more reason to be excited about next year with everything else that's happening is having him involved. I just can't stress enough how impactful that will be to everybody."

Originally Posted by Fightful GCW's December 5 show, which also served as a fundraiser to the wrestlers who competed there, raised more than $15,000.

Originally Posted by Fightful With AEW and IMPACT forming a partnership, many fans are wondering where AEW stands with NJPW. Dave Meltzer reported in the Wrestling Observer, "[Tony] Khan has been speaking to Rocky Romero regularly of late to try and open doors to New Japan, feeling the odds are better to do something with Harold Meij gone." Romero is heavily involved with NJPW US as a talent liaison and more for the company. Speaking on Talk N Shop, Romero clarified the report and just how often he speaks with the AEW President. "I guess Meltzer reported that me and Tony Khan are having calls all the time, like every week, which is not true. I'm not talking to Tony weekly. I've talked to Tony in the past, of course. No, [I haven't talked to Tony since AEW/IMPACT relationship]. I talked to Tony maybe a month ago. Maybe more. It's misleading in the fact that 'Rocky and Tony are having weekly phone calls,' which is not true, and who gives a fuck if I talk to Tony? What if he's my friend? No one knows the situation," he said. Earlier in the podcast, when Romero and Karl Anderson were discussing AEW and IMPACT working together, Romero commented, "My name is brought up like I'm part of this. People are excited and want to see the possibilities. 'Will New Japan join this situation?' I guess there's a lot of want for New Japan to be involved." Anderson expressed his excitement over the new partnership but said he doesn't know where it's going as of yet.

Originally Posted by Fightful Sting made his AEW debut last Wednesday on Dynamite and he could be more than just a personality on the show. According to Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated, there are plans for Sting to have a match in AEW. Specifics of what the match could be were not revealed but Barrasso notes cinematic matches and tag team matches are a possibility. Sting has not wrestled since WWE Night of Champions 2015 when he suffered a neck injury after taking a bucklebomb from Seth Rollins. He announced his retirement during his WWE Hall of Fame speech in 2016. Barrasso notes that the partnership between Sting and AEW President Tony Khan will be "collaborative" and that Sting was impressed with AEW's professionalism, long-term planning and compensation. Moments after his return to television, AEW announced Sting had signed a full-time, multi-year deal with the company. Sting is listed on the AEW roster page as an active member with a record attached to his name and not as a coach like Arn Anderson or Tully Blanchard.

Originally Posted by Fightful According to a report from WrestleTalk, a number of names are being discussed for a potential match against Roman Reigns for next year's WrestleMania from Goldberg to Drew McIntyre to Big E in case The Rock can't make it to next year's show.

Originally Posted by Fightful WWE talent will reportedly have Christmas day off this year. According to Gary Cassidy of Inside The Ropes, WWE will not tape SmackDown on Christmas. December 25 falls on a Friday and instead of doing a live episode of SmackDown, WWE will reportedly tape the show beforehand. WWE has run live each week since entering the ThunderDome to allow virtual fans to enjoy and react to the on-screen product as it happens. It is not confirmed as to when WWE will tape the Christmas Day episode of SmackDown. It is also unknown if fans will be able to watch the show live via the ThunderDome or if WWE will use pre-recorded virtual fan footage like they've done for NXT events. WWE went live on Christmas Day in 2017 and one week later was live on New Year's Day in 2018. It is unknown if SmackDown will air live on New Year's 2021.

Originally Posted by Fightful To say that Chelsea Green has had a stop and start WWE career would be an understatement. Green made her WWE main roster debut -- again -- last month, only to sustain a broken wrist on Smackdown. After reports of a call-up from NXT as far back as May, Fightful learned that there were big plans for her with a former WWE Women's Champion, Mickie James. Fightful Select recently reported the following: We've been digging even more about Chelsea Green and her not being used prior to her ill-fated Smackdown debut, and a pitch that was going around about her. Originally, a big push was made and plans were put in order for Chelsea Green to almost emulate Mickie James' 2005-2006 "obsessed fan" storyline with Trish Stratus. The story had a pretty solid plan and we're told that several in creative were very excited about it, but it inexplicably got scrapped. The story that we've heard would have had Mickie James put in Trish Stratus' shoes from 15 years ago. It went a lot further than a pitch. We're told that Mickie James and Chelsea Green had actually filmed content to start the angle. Everything was a go, and plans were abruptly changed only hours before it was set to air. Green didn't appear on TV for months after. In addition, Fightful learned of several other tentative plans for Green over the course of the last six months that didn't come to fruition.

Originally Posted by Fightful The wrestling landscape was changed on last week's Dynamite, when it was revealed that Kenny Omega would appear on IMPACT wrestling. We've seen how things have unfolded with dream matches being discussed, but Fightful Select was able to report some initial reactions: Lots was made about IMPACT Wrestling working with All Elite Wrestling after Kenny Omega and Don Callis announced the former would be appearing on Tuesday's IMPACT show. Some within IMPACT Wrestling had heard of the news, but were told there wasn't much to it when they'd asked management about it at the most recent set of tapings. Several in AEW had also heard that Don Callis would be coming in to work an angle, but weren't sure the extent of it. Almost nobody that we spoke to expects a "full crossover" to come from it, but wrestlers in IMPACT are happy about the buzz cast on their show. This was not the first pitch between the companies, which we hope to have more on in the coming weeks. Omega was not at the most recent set of IMPACT Wrestling tapings, and most expect him to film his segment on Monday or Tuesday. IMPACT has some names flying in to do some work early in the week.

Originally Posted by PWI Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss are filming scenes for an episode of the revived Punky Brewster series for Peacock. The original version of the series featured a young girl and her dog, who were abandoned by her mother, taken in and cared for by Henry, an older man. The revived version of the series will see the grown-up version of Punky, played again by Soliel Moon-Frye now in the position to do the same for another girl. WWE Producer D-Von Dudley is also on set for the series, which likely means there will be some physical action involved. The series will debut in 2021 for NBC Universal's Peacock streaming service.

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• Full Card for NJPW World Tag League & Best of the Super Juniors 2020 Finals
• WWE: Mauro Ranallo on Leaving WWE, Rumored Charlotte & Andrade Plans, Update SD Ratings
• WWE Moving ThunderDome to Tropicana Field This Friday – Photos and Video of Set Construction
• Eva Marie WWE Update
• Jaxson Ryker Returns on WWE Main Event
• WWE Announces Nominations and Opens Voting for the 2020 Slammy Awards
• Shaquille O’Neal to “Address AEW” This Wednesday

[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets:

Originally Posted by PWI The 12/8 episode of Impact Wrestling on AXS TV, headlined by AEW Champion Kenny Omega appearing, brought in 221,000 overnight viewers, up from last week's 166,000 overnight viewers. That was up 33% from last week. The episode brought in 0.08 in the 18-49 demo and was 96th for the evening on cable and was the only AXS TV programming to hit the top 150 cable broadcasts that night. It just about doubled the demo.

Originally Posted by PWI As reported earlier, Impact Wrestling on AXS TV's audience rose 33% from last week based on the strength of AEW Champion Kenny Omega appearing. PWInsider.com can also confirm the episode's live-stream on Twitch peaked at 55,396 with an average of 42,953 viewers for the two hour stream. That would be over 13x the usual Twitch audience for Impact and was the 4th largest Twitch audience for anything yesterday. In comparison, yesterday's live NFL stream peaked at 30,000. The Impact on AXS repeat broadcast brought another 189,000 viewers on YouTube with 56,200 watching via Impact's Facebook page in the first twelve hours since the repeat was posted at 10 PM EST last night The company trended number one in the United States and number five in the UK yesterday. Impact TV doesn't air in the UK until tonight. The online segment of Josh Mathews interviewing Omega and Don Callis itself has over 140,000 views on Facebook and over 240,000 views on YouTube. On Instagram, the interview segment brought in 118,326 views (and climbing) while on Twitter, it has been seen 204,166 time (and climbing), so needless to say, last night was a big night for Impact.

Originally Posted by PWI WWE have applied to trademark "Karen Kwan" ... They actually applied for this back in October at the same time when they applied for a series of new names for their NXT talent, but this one just showed up in the USPTO database recently. It looks to be a new name either for NXT talent Karen Yu, or for the character being teased in the Xia Li/Boa storyline.

Originally Posted by PWI A number of the lawsuits filed by Joseph R. Meehan, known professionally in the world of pro wrestling as Joey Ryan, have been all been referred to the Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald and Magistrate Judge, Charles F. Eick under the United States District Court, Central Division of California; Western Division, Los Angeles. As previously reported by PWInsider.com, Meehan has filed numerous lawsuits in recent months, all denying any claims of sexual assault against him and alleging that the women who made the claims used social media postings to defame him, hurting his ability to make money as a professional wrestler through his performances, merchandise, Patreon account, the loss of his Bar Wrestling independent wrestling promotion, his Twitch channel and Cameo video messaging. In many of these lawsuits, Ryan is seeking sizable monetary damages. On 12/7, the court ordered Meehan to show why the legal actions should be continued and not dismissed for "lack of prosecution", which basically means a lack of movement in the cases. In many of the cases, but not all (former ROH star Pelle Primeau being the exception), there has been no response from the defendants or even a court record that the defendants have been successfully served. Meehan's attorneys have until 12/29 to file pleadings in an attempt to convince the court the lawsuits should continue. Should the defendants respond in court, that would also provide the court with a reason to allow the lawsuits to continue. Meehan could also file for a default judgment, which should the court grant it, could allow Meehan to legally go for whatever damages the court rules in favor of. If none of that happens, Meehan's lawsuits before the court could be dismissed.

Originally Posted by PWI WWE held another all hands on deck virtua meeting for employees yesterday out of Stamford, CT. We are told the majority of the meeting was focused on introducing Nick Khan and allowing employees to know more about him and what brought him to the company. Employees were also told that the new HQ location is moving along slowly but surely.

Originally Posted by PWI WWE announced they are seeking fans with rare memorabilia to share their collections and stories: WWE is on a quest to find lost, but not forgotten, wrestling memorabilia! It’s time to unearth your collection of prized wrestling possessions. Email memorabilia@wwecorp.com with a photo and tell us about your memorabilia. The rarer the treasure, the better the story! — WWE Universe (@WWEUniverse) December 8, 2020 One would think this is in relation to their forthcoming A&E reality series.

Link: https://twitter.com/WWEUniverse/stat...85053908217856

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling This week’s viewership figures for AEW Dynamite, and to a lesser extent IMPACT, will be two of the more noteworthy television statistics in recent memory. The goal of AEW appears transparent – to take greater chances to improve its overall viewership. The combination of an inter-promotional angle, the arrival of Sting, and the celebrity involvement of Shaquille O’Neal all point to a big number for Dynamite on TNT. Last week was all about the Kenny Omega vs. Jon Moxley match whereas this week will be an indicator of the buzz generated coming out of that show. The early signs on the AEW vs. IMPACT front appear to be strong with the most-discussed episode of IMPACT, possibly in years. While we don’t know how the show performed on AXS TV yet, the Twitch live stream figures blew away past IMPACT numbers. It was noted that IMPACT typically do around 3,000 live viewers for a Tuesday night airing with the final segment on Tuesday surpassing 50,000. While many see the one million viewership average as the next milestone for AEW to achieve on a weekly basis, the 0.42 demo number (543,000 viewers) in the 18-49 category was tremendous and will be graded with the most weight. To get over the hump and consistently average one million viewers, the most likely category that will need to gain traction is the over 50 audience, which is the one demo that NXT has owned since the two properties began airing weekly. The combination of Sting and Shaquille O’Neal would, in theory, be attractions that would cater to that demographic. The problem is that the over 50 audience has shown an aversion to the AEW product, at least when it comes to where most of those wrestling fans are going to spend their two hours on Wednesdays. The occasional novelty may draw curiosity but ultimately, it’s the totality of the product that will retain those viewers. The key to these “stunts” for lack of a better term is attracting new or lapsed eyes onto the AEW product with the hope that the shiny new toys in the storefront window will bring people into the store to discover all the others. A big reason for the surge in the WWF’s popularity was in 1998 was that when Mike Tyson garnered all the attention leading to WrestleMania 14, it was already a strong product with many rising stars that kept those eyes on the product beyond Tyson’s involvement. By WrestleMania 15 in 1999, there was no need for an outside celebrity because the regular crew, led by the Austin vs. McMahon program with The Rock in the middle was enough to outdraw the previous year’s WrestleMania based on its self-sustained popularity. The handling of Sting will be a test as he’s a performer that comes with pros and cons. The first hurdle was cleared instantly with a genuine surprise appearance met with great fanfare given the history of the character and a belief that there was juice left in the character when WWE opted to stop using him. The negatives include the reasoning behind that usage being halted as his neck problems are very concerning when coupled with his age of 61. In this era, there are enough creative ways to involve Sting where the risk is mitigated but typically, the “legend” role he would be assuming is best suited to 1-2 performances per year that require any physicality. As proven from his TNA tenure, he’s a tremendous speaker and can be utilized in a non-wrestling role. AEW has built a solid core audience that does exceptional for its place in the television landscape and relatively short existence. In that time, they’ve scored a renewal deal with TNT that allowed them ample cushioning throughout the pandemic and displayed a long-term commitment from their network partner. The struggle is now growing its audience – in an era where maintaining your audience has been something, we’ve been more focused upon. Short-term, it feels that AEW’s prime focus is directing people to Dynamite and putting must-see elements on the show as consistently as possible, and going outside its box with unique hooks for those not watching. While pay-per-view is a significant generator for the company, they have built a comfortable foundation of 80-100,000 homes that are conditioned to purchase a quarterly event. I don’t subscribe to the idea that one has to be sacrificed for the other – if the company presents a hot television product that drives viewership up, in theory, that should only amplify interest when a big pay-per-view is on the horizon. 2021 will only solidify that television is the most influential factor for all companies with other revenue sources serving as complementary ones. It’s still a way off before WWE and AEW are discussing television renewals but the foundation for those renewals are built today and ultimately, it’s best for the industry that both companies are sought after properties by television outlets.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Dorian Roldan spoke with Mas Lucha for an extended chat promoting TripleMania. thecubsfan at Lucha Blog recapped the interview. Roldan stated that AAA’s deal with Twitch ended earlier this year at the start of the pandemic believing that the promotion can have greater reach through YouTube and Facebook (which will be carrying TripleMania this Saturday). Due to streaming, it has led to theme songs being altered to avoid strikes against their account and videos being de-monetized.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Dave Meltzer is the guest on today’s Talk is Jericho discussing the life and legacy of Pat Patterson. Chris Jericho added that every year moving forward they will have a Pat Patterson Karaoke Night on future Jericho cruises. They released a clip from the interview regarding Patterson’s involvement in the Montreal screw job. From all accounts, Patterson was not aware of the plan, although the spot involving Shawn Michaels putting Bret Hart into the sharpshooter was attributed to Patterson. It was discussed by Jericho and Meltzer that the belief was Vince McMahon didn’t want any of the heat to transfer to Patterson, and he was protected from the fallout of the Survivor Series. Patterson was also instrumental in Michaels and Hart rising to become main event stars in the company, and there was the possibility that if Patterson was informed of the decision, he might have gone to Hart to warn him. To me, while it’s hard to imagine, I can buy that the idea of the sharpshooter spot and knowledge of the screw job could be separate. After all these years and the story being rehashed from every solitary angle, I feel it would have come out if Patterson had known. Not to mention, Hart forgave Earl Hebner all those years ago, he did business with Vince McMahon and ultimately, he would have forgiven Patterson too, so I don’t buy Patterson holding that secret all these years if he had been in on it.

Originally Posted by Fightful WWN Live is debut a new series entitled League Wars on December 20. The series is season based and will feature an independent wrestling promotion, or promotions, on each episode. Each season will consist of eight episodes and a finale, which will feature talent from all promotions that participated in the season in a one-night tournament to crown a League War Season Winner.

Originally Posted by WrestleTalk A former WWE star and IMPACT World Champion could be joining the promotion long-term after a brief return run earlier this year. EC3 was release by WWE this past April and returned to IMPACT at Slammiversary, had a pre-recorded match with Moose at Bound For Glory, then headed for Ring of Honor. Fightful Select is now reporting that EC3 has indicated to them that he’ll be “freed up” again when 2021 comes around, and he’s been on good terms with IMPACT and there seems to be interest from them in bringing him in long-term. According to the report, despite the good terms, he wasn’t sure whether he wanted to be put in a long-term deal or not. EC3 will be on the upcoming ROH Final Battle pay-per-view in a match against Jay Briscoe.

Originally Posted by Sportskeeda If you thought the creative issues surrounding Charlotte Flair's run with the NXT Women's Championship seemed a bit off, you would be correct. It seems as though there has been an internal struggle within WWE this year on how to book Flair. It now appears that all the heat that the WWE Universe placed on the NXT creative team for Flair's title run this year was absolutely misplaced. It's coming out that the RAW creative brand was to blame for most, if not all of it. Looking back on everything, this explains a lot. According to Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful Select, it's being reported that the original plan for this year's WrestleMania was actually for Rhea Ripley to retain the NXT Women's Championship. However, the RAW creative team changed their minds and overruled the black and gold brand. So, whatever creative plans the NXT brand came up with for Charlotte, they were consistently being overruled and changed by RAW's creative team instead. If you thought going into WrestleMania that NXT was trying to force Bianca Belair into that title match to make it a triple threat match, you would also be correct. The idea was being pitched so Ripley could retain the title without Flair being pinned.

TPWW Frontpage:

• Goldberg Says Roman Reigns Is “Next”
• Packed AEW Dynamite Card Tonight + AEW Rankings
• Kenny Omega, Tony Khan and Tony Schiavone Appear on Impact (Videos)
• WWE Raw Ratings – Dec. 7, 2020 – Slightly Down

[slik]

WM: Source stressed nothing is close to official or concrete, but as a working idea the following is what’s being considered:

Reigns vs Goldberg, Edge vs Orton & an interesting twist: McIntyre vs Lesnar vs Keith Lee. Lots of variables in play, especially the attendance factor.

— WrestleVotes (@WrestleVotes) December 10, 2020