Wrestling News & Rumors

[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets:

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter The heavily promoted debut of Smackdown on FOX took place on 10/4 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, drawing the largest television audience for the product since the 25th anniversary of Raw ... This time they pushed a higher level than ever before, having Dwayne Johnson, Steve Austin, Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Sting, Undertaker, Bill Goldberg, Kurt Angle, Mick Foley, and many more advertised. That turned into an issue because Johnson was the only one who even had a real role in the show and Undertaker, Austin and Sting were never on the show, while the others were limited to being shown at ringside ... The show did a 2.36 rating and 3,888,000 viewers (we don’t know viewers per home because the rating point covers 120.6 million homes, every television home in the U.S., and FOX is in maybe 107 million home but this week that number was lower because of the Dish Network issue). The key stat for FOX is that it did a 1.4 in the key adults 18-49 demo. In that demo it was among the ten most-watched shows of the past week in all of television, both broadcast and cable ... But on a positive standpoint, sometimes it takes a few weeks to bring your audience to a new time slot and this was promoted so well that they got them there on the first night. That key demo rating for a Friday night, when a lot of people in that age group go out, is particularly noteworthy for the show itself ... The audience was six percent below what FOX did last year for the same Friday, with Last Man Standing (6.34 million viewers), The Cool Kids (4.78 million) and Hell’s Kitchen (2.75 million viewers). But these days, a six percent year-to-year drop is fine and the demo was stronger, although far from double, a key because Smackdown right now is only getting about half the advertising dollars per ratings point of a regular FOX television show ... Sting was there in that setting, and even though he never appeared before the live crowd, which was a disappointment to many, he was in the building and spent the night in the company’s hospitality suite. Undertaker, who had pushed being there in his social media, after the show addressed it by saying that he was told before the show not to come as he was no longer needed. Austin and WWE have said nothing regarding him, but one of the reasons they likely maintained a strong audience throughout the show was people waiting for Austin ... There were AEW and Austin chants as the show ended. When the show went off the air, the chants for Austin were loud and then they turned all the lights on, told the fans the show was over, and gave the date for the next show in December. There were some boos, some AEW chants, and mostly groans from people as they were leaving. While we got a lot of complaints about Undertaker and some about Sting, those live said that nobody leaving complained about either, but it seemed like everyone on the way out was complaining about Austin.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter WWE’s Hell in a Cell show started out strong, and ended with a bang. The wrong kind of a bang ... There were two major problems with the show. The main event, obviously, was the biggest. It’ll go down as perhaps the worst misfire of a main event in company history. The Hell in a Cell match started out with problems, as they did a red tint for the match, making it hard for viewers either live or watching on television to focus on the action ... The story of the match led to Wyatt being cheered more and more. People expected a title change, since it was Hell in a Cell, there had to be winner, and beating Wyatt after all this monster build in his first match made no sense at all ... Finally, Rollins grabbed a sledge hammer from under the ring. Ref Rod Zapata told Rollins he was better than this and not to use it. Keep in mind this was Hell in a Cell and weapons were being used throughout the match. Rollins hit Wyatt with it and Zapata called for the bell. While it appeared Rollins was disqualified in a no DQ rules match, WWE later clarified the finish as the match simply being stopped ... “Cancel WWE Network” was trending on Twitter, for whatever that is worth, and really it’s means little. The last time that happened led to WWE having a big increase in WWE Network orders. Vince McMahon was reportedly, and this was confirmed by multiple people, that he was laughing about the crowd reaction and hardly taking it as a negative. But actions speak louder. It was very clear on Raw the next night that the subject of the match was not to be talked about during the show aside for one package that aired late ... The finish of the match was from McMahon, obviously. His idea was always that he wasn’t beating Wyatt this early, but wanted Lesnar, Rollins, Lynch and Flair as the four champions going into the draft and the new beginnings ... It’s hard to say if they hurt Wyatt long-term by not winning. The only prior example was when Ryback was really hot, and John Cena got hurt, he was put into a Hell in a Cell match with C.M. Punk. Since the long-term plan at the time was in place for Punk to have a long title reign before losing to The Rock, Ryback had to be sacrificed. Ryback never recovered from the wrong loss at the wrong time. And what made it worse was Ryback was so hot that the buy rate for that show was shockingly high, as people figured it was Ryback’s time to win. It was, but they had bigger fans than Ryback, so it went down like it did.

Meltzer gave that match -2 stars and the first negative star WWE match from him in the past 5 years.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter Week two of the Wednesday Night Wars saw both AEW and NXT suffer significant declines. It’s hard to exactly evaluate AEW because it aired on both TNT and Tru TV in a simulcast. Realistically TNT vs. TNT would be the proper comparison which saw a significant 27.8 percent drop from week one. Even adding in Tru numbers, the decline from week one was 19.2 percent. Even though week one saw major increases throughout the show with teenagers, the teenage demo dropped 36 percent from the first week. The key seems to be that teenagers liked week one, but as far as changing their lives to make it a regular weekly part of viewing, that didn’t happen. Some of the decline could be attributed to the Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Washington Nationals game doing 5,856,000 viewers on TBS, but that would not lead to a decline of that magnitude. For TNT over the past few years, the average weekly decline of a new series is 20 percent, but this fell above that figure, and even adding in Tru numbers with the simulcast the decline was nearly 20 percent. AEW did 1,018,000 viewers on TNT and another 122,000 on Tru, for 1,140,000 viewers. The TNT replay at 10 p.m. drew another 360,000 viewers, down 14.9 percent from 423,000 the week before. NXT fell 11.3 percent from last week to 790,000 viewers ... It is still well above the original projections for the show and those at AEW were happy as it more than doubled NXT in the key demo ... But in the ad demo, AEW fell from a 0.68 to 0.46 (or 0.51 including Tru–32.4 percent for the station and 25.0 percent overall ), compared to NXT at 0.22 (a 31.3 percent drop from the big show the prior week). AEW went from No. 2 on cable for the night to No. 8. Still, in its time slot, it was in third place in the key demo, behind only baseball on TBS and Basketball Wives and Black Ink Crew 8 on VH-1. It beat an NBA preseason game on ESPN that did 1,000,000 and a 0.43 in the demo. NXT on USA in the key demo fell behind TBS, VH-1, TNT, MSNBC, Fox News and The History Channel. Because of the bigger decline in younger viewers, the median age for an AEW viewer grew to 42, still the youngest of any wrestling show. Worse, NXT was 55, six years higher than the week before ... AEW on TNT opened with 1,138,000 viewers and ended with 1,036,000. Overall, the end of the Young Bucks vs. Private Party and the Jericho interview, a segment that was the peak in a number of major markets, actually lost 44,000 viewers overall. Darby Allin vs. Jimmy Havoc lost 196,000 viewers. The women’s tag match gained 58,000 viewers. Jon Moxley vs. Shawn Spears gained 27,000 viewers. And the main event and post-match angle gained 53,000 viewers ... NXT opened with 836,000 viewers and the last quarter did 728,000 but after AEW ended, they did grow to 792,000, so they only got 64,000 viewers after AEW ended. Rhea Ripley vs. Aliyah lost 45,000 viewers. Tyler Breeze & Fandango vs. The Forgotten Sons gained 17,000 viewers. Cameron Grimes vs. Boa and Killian Dain post-match lost 29,000 viewers. Roderick Strong vs. Isaiah Scott and the post-match stuff the Undisputed Era and Velveteen Dream gained 47,000 viewers. Bianca Belair vs. Dakota Kai lost 25,000 viewers. Walter vs. Kushida lost 73,000 at the same time AEW gained 53,000, and then Walter vs. Kushida picked up 64,000 for its finish once AEW was off the air ... While the AEW drop is not good, for NXT it’s worse because this is not week one of lots of hype to week two, but week three to four, with all four weeks dropping significantly, and now being well below the USA Network prime time average for a show that will deliver much lower per viewer ad rates. If AEW in week four has those level of drops from week three in the key demos, that would be very bad.

Originally Posted by WrestlingInc In other news on this week's AEW viewership, the Dynamite replay that airs at 10pm ET on TNT drew 363,000 viewers, according to PWTorch. Last week's 10pm replay on TNT drew 423,000 viewers, so it dropped 14%.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter New Japan announced the annual junior heavyweight tag team tournament lineup this past week, and the biggest news was that Dragon Lee was out. Lee & Titan were scheduled, but not announced, but posters in some cities listed them on the tour. CMLL has this past week forced promotions in Mexico to choose between either using Rush or Dragon Lee, or their own talent, even going to so far as to pull four wrestlers off sold out Crash show on 10/5 in Tijuana because the promotion wouldn’t pull Rush and Lee off the card. Other promotions have pulled Rush & Lee off shows ... New Japan said that they wanted Lee and CMLL to sort out their differences. For Lee, things become interesting. ROH also has a strong affiliation with CMLL. However, what was key here is Lee teaming with a CMLL wrestler. Perhaps if CMLL wrestlers weren’t in the same ring the situation would be different, although CMLL has pushed promoters with the idea that they would not send any talent to a show that Lee or Rush are on ... Losing New Japan would change Lee’s mentality, where before he had no interest in going anywhere that would preclude him from working with New Japan. This could open the door to MLW, which is working with Crash and Lee will be working regularly with Crash ... With no New Japan, Lee would also be open to individual deals with either AEW or WWE. Paul Levesque is said to be high on Lee, and who wouldn’t be, as he’s a very special talent. Still, as Gran Metalik shows, a Luchador of Lee’s level does not have great career prospects in WWE at his size. Rey Mysterio was already a huge name before he went to WWE, and Andrade was bigger and even he’s struggled on the main roster when you consider his push vs. his talent level and how well his act with Zelina Vega got over in NXT. Lee would probably do better in AEW, and Lee would be a gift-wrapped present that they never expected. And with AEW, it would not close the door to New Japan forever, where WWE likely would.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter The look and feel of NWA Power was to bring you back to the early 80s ... One of the throwbacks was no music, and lots of interview time between matches. But the interviews were completely different from WWE. They were clearly unscripted past bullet points, and free flowing. The personalities came through and you didn’t have wording that felt insincere. About 15,000 people between YouTube and Facebook watched the show “live,” as in first run as it was going on. The number was impressive when you consider AEW Dark the same night did 25,000, Impact has been doing about 3,500 and when WWE did Mixed Match Challenge, immediately after Smackdown and heavily promoted, an average week might peak around 60,000. For total viewers, which is a horribly misleading stat because of how they compile them, the show at press time had 168,000; as compared to 419,000 for AEW Dark the same night, 31,000 for MLW on Friday, 60,000 for CMLL on Friday (anniversary show did 294,000) and the last four minutes of the first AEW show did 2,048,732 and Scarlett Bordeaux’s debut in AAA is at 32.7 million. With the average viewer watching 13.9 minutes of the NWA show, the 168,000 viewers, if it was a television rating, translates not to 168,000 viewers but to 39,000 viewers.

The last paragraph is pretty interesting since it gives an idea of what the potential conversion rate of Youtube viewers to TV viewers likely would be not just for NWA's new show but other promotions as well that have a big focus on Youtube.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter Tyler Bateman, who debuted on 9/28 in Las Vegas by beating Jake Atlas, will be a regular for ROH. Jake Atlas is also expected to be working more dates in ROH. Atlas had already turned down deals from Impact and MLW

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter MLW taped TV on 10/5 at The Crash show in Tijuana with their biggest crowd in their history, a sellout of more than 4,500 fans at the Auditorio. They noted that WWE was in San Diego, which is the next city over, head-to-head, and they outdrew WWE.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter There is a lot of talk regarding taking NXT on the road every Wednesday and looking at 5,000-seat buildings, similar to AEW. The target seems to be January, because WWE has inquired about buildings of that size to shoot television on Wednesday nights. Even before the first week ratings came out, there was talk that Full Sail was only running weekly because they had no time to set things up and that a move to different arenas would take place in early 2020. As noted, once week one ratings came out, with NXT having such a strong show on 10/4 and having spent two weeks building it, the location was more likely to get the blame

Originally Posted by PWI AEW Dynamite will have replays this weekend on the following cable stations and times: * Sunday 10/13 on TNT at 1 AM. * Sunday 10/13 on TruTV at 2 AM. * Sunday 10/13 on TruTV at 10 AM. * Sunday 10/13 on TBS at 11 PM. * Tuesday 10/15 on TNT at 2 AM. * Tuesday 10/15 on TruTV at 8 PM.

Originally Posted by PWI The majority of CM Punk shirts have been removed from ProWrestlingTees.com, replaced by a "CM Punk Sucks" t-shirt. I am sure someone will find a conspiracy theory in all that!

Originally Posted by PWI We've had some emails asking about WWE touting that FOX and the USA Network were involved with tonight's Draft and what it means. We are told that WWE consulted with the Networks to make sure each side was happy with what talents they ended up with as the plan is to keep the rosters separate as much as possible after the Draft is completed. So, execs from the networks were involved but WWE made the final determinations. The company is keeping the Draft plans heavily under wraps

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Former wrestler Nick Mondo is working with All Elite Wrestling and is listed as a director. Mondo got into film after his pro wrestling career ended and directed the spots involving Jon Moxley escaping prison earlier this year that were released after Moxley left WWE.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Fight Network in Canada will be moving Impact Wrestling to Tuesdays at 8 pm eastern to coincide with the move to AXS TV on Tuesday, October 29th. The move will also include Fight Network’s international feeds, including in Greece and Portugal. Impact will continue to air on Game TV in Canada each Saturday at 7 pm eastern, which is also a property of Anthem Sports and Entertainment.

Originally Posted by Fightful Ronda Rousey will be back in WWE, at least according to Triple H. Rousey, a decorated MMA star-turned-pro wrestler had an impressive showing in the WWE over her year-long run from WrestleMania 34 to WrestleMania 35. However, since headlining the latter, she's been completely absent from the ring. On Friday, WWE hosted a press event to announce matches for the upcoming Crown Jewel show. Afterwards, Triple H participated in a media scrum, where he reportedly stated "she's coming back," per Ryan McKinnell, who was in attendance.

TPWW Frontpage:

• WWE’s Original Idea for Wyatt vs. Rollins Also Wasn’t Very Good
• Cain Velasquez Signs “Lucrative” Multi-Year Contract With WWE
• Sasha Banks Injury Update
• AEW Is Now the Most Watched Wrestling Show in the UK + Impact Beats Raw

[Mr. Nerfect]

I can see some bigger things happening to NXT in 2020.

[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets:

Originally Posted by Observer After the weak draft special on Friday night, combined with a monster NFL game, Raw fell to 2.28 million viewers for the second part of the draft This compares 2.67 million viewers the last time Raw had a draft-type special in April, and 3.62 million viewers for the 2018 version of the shake-up. One can clearly say that Friday ruined whatever drawing power the draft gimmick had left. On the flip side, if the draft meant nothing and SmackDown can maintain next week the number it got on Friday, that would be a great sign going forward ... As far as where the audience fell off, women 18-49 fell 21 percent from the first to third hour, men 18-49 fell 24 percent, which is almost unheard of, teenage girls fell 35 percent and teenage boys fell 34 percent. The teenage boy drop is also pretty much unheard of. Over 50 dropped 11 percent, which is a normal figure, so the turnoff of this show was with the 49 and under crowd. The three hours were: 8 p.m. 2.52 million viewers 9 p.m. 2.32 million viewers 10 p.m. 2.00 million viewers

Originally Posted by Observer The firing of Eric Bischoff, which was not a shock to those close to the situation, happened this morning. Both Bruce Prichard and brand head writer Ed Koskey will be the main people in charge of the show going forward. What was interesting is that Bischoff was brought in partially on the recommendation of Prichard and the two had been working together on the show.

Originally Posted by PWI We are also told that since he was an executive, not a talent, Bischoff likely does not have the usual 90 day no compete and could pop up somewhere else if he desired. It should be interesting to see if someone decides to tap him for an on-air talent role as he's always been excellent in that regard.

Originally Posted by Observer In other WWE news, regarding the Crown Jewel show, Seth Rollins at this point is only scheduled to work one match on the event, his falls count anywhere Universal Championship match with Bray Wyatt. Rollins was originally set to be the captain of Team Hogan in the five vs. five Team Hogan vs. Team Flair match. As of right now, he is no longer scheduled for the match and his removal will likely be addressed on television over the next week.

Originally Posted by Observer Regarding The Usos, after Jimmy's most recent arrest for a DUI in late July, The Usos and Naomi were all taken off the road. While they were at a recent television taping backstage, there is right now no creative for them nor return date, nor a decision regarding which brand they will be with. Because of that, they weren't involved in the draft.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling There was a screw-up with the list of talent available for Friday’s draft. It was told to us at POST Wrestling that the WWE.com side was supposed to list the available talent in alphabetical order but instead, the list went according to the actual picks for the first half of the draft. It was also said to us that the WWE.com site didn’t use the final version.

Originally Posted by Observer The reason Jon Moxley wasn't on the New Japan show and travel issues was legit. Zack Sabre Jr. also missed the show, and Kevin Kelly barely made it in time for the show. We'd heard some concern about the guys coming from Australia, Will Ospreay, Robbie Eagles and Gino Gambino, but they all made it. The worst of the typhoon is over although it did a lot of damage to the bottom floor of the New Japan Tokyo dojo.

Originally Posted by Observer Coming out of King of Pro Wrestling, the main event of Wrestle Kingdom 14 night one is set. IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada will defend his title against G1 Climax winner Kota Ibushi at the Tokyo Dome on January 4, 2020. Night two of Wrestle Kingdom 14 will then take place at the Tokyo Dome on January 5.

Originally Posted by Fightful Also announced for Wrestle Kingdom 14 is Jushin Liger's retirement bout. Liger will team with Tatsumi Fujinami, The Great Sasuke & Tiger Mask to take on Naoki Sano, Shinjiro Ootani, Tatsuhito Takaiwa & Ryusuke Taguchi in eight-man tag team action. El Samurai will corner Team Liger while Kuniaki Kobayashi will be in the corner of Team Sano. Norio Honaga will be the special guest referee for the match. Liger will compete in a second retirement match on Jan. 5 at night two of Wrestle Kingdom 14. His opponent has not been announced. A retirement ceremony for Liger will be held on Jan. 6 at New Year Dash.

Originally Posted by Fightful If there's one thing Eric Bischoff understands it's how to sell a wrestling product in the best way possible with the assistance of the TNT Network. On the latest episode of the 83 Weeks podcast, see above, Eric Bischoff talks about AEW on TNT and The major positive they have working in their favor, their passionate audience. "I think the takeaway for me the biggest thing that I saw that I liked was the crowd," said the former WCW President after admitting he watched the weekly program twice. "I've always believed that the crowd, you know, if there's two women or two guys in a match with a referee as the third person in the ring, the fourth person in the ring is the audience. They're as much a part of the show as anything in my opinion. And I think what I saw Wednesday night from AEW was a crowd that was just intensely engaged in the product in the ring and in the show. And from a production value point of view, you could see it the lighting made the audience a part of the show and that to me was that was my biggest positive of that show."

Originally Posted by Observer Cain Velasquez on Ariel Helwani’s show mentioned that WWE is allowing him to work one more AAA date.

Originally Posted by Observer Roman Reigns spoke to Forbes about how fans reacted to the finish of Seth Rollins vs. The Fiend at Hell in a Cell: “I think you should express your opinions, but it doesn’t hurt anybody if you have a shred of respect. Have a little respect for the performers who were out there killing themselves for you. I didn’t like the Hell in a Cell finish either, but I wasn’t about to cuss some guys out who got hit in the head over and over. Bray Wyatt put his health on the line to entertain some fans to the best of his ability. I didn’t like it, but I respect Bray’s effort and willingness to go out there and do what you have to do. So, if you can, just a little bit of respect.

Originally Posted by PWI California-centric pro wrestling website SoCalUncensored are reporting Tyler Bateman has signed an exclusive deal with Ring of Honor and will officially start there next month. Bateman debuted at last month's TV Taping in Las Vegas, being put over strong with wins and an angle where he attacked and laid out Lifeblood's Tracy Williams. Bateman, who has been wrestling since 2001, has been a long-time California mainstay, holding the Championship Wrestling from Hollywood TV title several times as well as the AWS title. Bateman had WWE and Impact Wrestling tryouts last year.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling MLW has released producer Alex Greenfield, who was notified of their decision on Monday. There was no comment from MLW regarding the decision, but it was confirmed that he was let go on Monday. Greenfield had been associated with MLW prior to the re-launch of the wrestling promotion being a figure within their podcast space and then brought on as a producer for the weekly Fusion series. Greenfield had recently traveled to Tijuana for the MLW show with The Crash earlier this month. The departure comes several weeks before MLW’s first pay-per-view on November 2nd at Cicero Stadium in Illinois.

Originally Posted by Observer Jim Crockett will be appearing at Starrcast IV this November.

Originally Posted by PWI Q - Does WWE have same contract as other shows on fox? Can they be cancelled or not brought back due to low ratings or are they guaranteed 5 yrs on fox regardless of ratings? A - Their deal is like when sports leagues sign with networks, in that they sell rights fees. They are not like entertainment programs.

From PWI's weekly Q&A articles.

Originally Posted by Fightful On Tuesday's episode of NWA Powerrr, the promotion announced they will return to pay-per-view on Dec. 14 with an event entitled Into The Fire. The event, named after the NWA Powerrr theme song performed by Dokken, will emanate from Atlanta, GA. No venue was announced ... The last NWA pay-per-view was held on Apr. 27. On that night, the promotion brought back The Crockett Cup and crowned new NWA Tag Team Champions. The event, held in Concord, NC, was headlined by Nick Aldis defending the NWA World Heavyweight Title against Marty Scurll.

TPWW Frontpage:

• Alexa Bliss & Nikki Cross Traded to SmackDown
• Maria Kanellis Comments on Mike’s Release Request
• Eric Bischoff Gone From WWE, Replaced by Bruce Prichard (U: Bischoff Comments)
• WWE: Rollins vs. Wyatt Dark Match After Raw, RIP Ramblin’ Rabbit, Main Event Results

[Mr. Nerfect]

Greenfield being released is a bit surprising, given that he's buds with the MLW guys. He showed up as a producer in a segment once and looked super into it. He seems like a highly strung guy at times though, so I wonder if it just turned into a tiring fit?

[Mr. Nerfect]

Don’t know the credibility of the source, so take this as rumor or whatever, but apparently Greenfield was shopping himself around to other promotions and using information about MLW as a bargaining tool. MLW found out and Greeny got capped.

[Emperor Smeat]

If that's true, nobody is going to sign him without risking a serious lawsuit.

Not even WWE would want that legal mess on their hands considering what happened when ROH accused them of having insider access to their contracts and I think a similar situation regarding sensitive Impact info.

[GD]

Didn't expect that from Alex.

[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets:

Originally Posted by Observer According to PW Insider's Mike Johnson, Luchasaurus has an injured hamstring and is out of Wednesday's tag team championship tournament match on AEW Dynamite. Filling in to team with Jungle Boy is fellow Jurassic Express member Marko Stunt. The duo will face the Lucha Bros (Pentagon Jr and Fenix) in a first round bout.

Originally Posted by Observer Maria Manic, who was most recently a part of Ring of Honor, is at the WWE Performance Center this week for a tryout. Fightful was the first to report the news. According to a report from PWInsider, she signed a six-month contract with ROH earlier this year that had recently expired. As recently as two weeks ago, there had been pitches for her to become involved in a storyline that would eventually lead to an intergender bout.

Originally Posted by Observer On the day after it was confirmed that he's no longer with WWE, Eric Bischoff was announced for the next Starrcast convention. Bischoff will be appearing at Starrcast IV, which is being held in Baltimore, Maryland from November 7-10. Bischoff previously appeared at Starrcasts I and II.

Originally Posted by PWI With Major League Baseball postponing games due to the inclement weather in the Northeast tonight, the natural question from wrestling fans is whether Friday Night Smackdown's third episode on FOX would be preempted or moved. The answer to that is no. MLB coverage will take place this Friday on FOX Sports 1, so Smackdown will air as scheduled this Friday on FOX itself.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling The November 4th edition of RAW is emanating from Long Island at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum and the arena is advertising Seth Rollins versus “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt for the Universal Title in a Steel Cage match.

Originally Posted by PWI WWE Network News is reporting the October 2019 Classic Content Drop will be more Midsouth television. Those episodes will make it to the service this Monday 10/21.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Dave Meltzer stated on the latest edition of Wrestling Observer Radio that WWE wanted to purchase Pro Wrestling NOAH but the deal fell through. Meltzer added that WWE has talked to several companies in Japan and has attempted to purchase those companies as well.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling ScreenGeek chatted with Jon Moxley recently and asked Moxley if he has ever thought about how different his career would be had he left WWE in 2015 which was the last time he signed a contract with the sports-entertainment company. “That’s an interesting question. I’ve often thought, and wondered, what would have happened if I left in September of 2015, which was when I signed my last contract with WWE. But, at that point, I was still kinda like, still trying to do things their way and I just kinda like… It never occurred to me to leave really back then. It felt like I wasn’t, like I hadn’t completely… I never really bought into their bullsh*t kind of thing, but I was trying to be optimistic. Like, be grateful for the opportunity and try to make the most of it and, you know, save money and so forth. But, I often wonder what would have happened if I had the foresight to just leave back then. I don’t know,” he said. “It could have been worse, it could have been better, but, ultimately, everything’s supposed to work out how it’s supposed to be. The timing of, like, leaving at just the moment that AEW came into existence and just merging at the same time, that feels like a historical thing that I’m very grateful that it happened. Hopefully, it’s historical. We look back in five years and maybe it didn’t matter at all. But, you know, we’ll find out.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling NJPW1972.com published an open letter from Shota Umino who is set to embark on excursion soon. Here’s a portion of the letter in-which Shota talks about working with Jon Moxley: “I want to start again. Put myself in a new environment, in new circumstances. Nobody to help me, nobody to show me what to do. Square one, from scratch. That’s why I never once thought to follow Jon Moxley. I want to do this by and for myself, to study and search for that ‘something’. When I was with Moxley during the G1, he didn’t give me any advice. If I asked for some he would just give some vague praise. ‘Good job, like that’. If I asked him for anything more concrete, he’d tell me to be more confident. What makes him who he is isn’t moves, style, technique. It isn’t ‘heart’. It’s… ‘something’. That something is a stance toward professional wrestling. Teaming with Moxley, I don’t know if I can say I learned any new moves, or that I showed any more heart than normal. What I learned was something important about attitude and stance toward a match. I did nothing but grow underneath him.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling WrestleZone’s Bill Pritchard chatted with AEW co-Executive Vice President Cody Rhodes ahead of AEW’s show in Philadelphia. Cody revealed that on the Friday before Full Gear, AEW will release their top five W/L records for singles competitors and tag teams. “So not to scoop it, but I don’t think anyone will mind this bit of news: On Friday before Full Gear, the Friday before Full Gear, I think we’re going to put out our first ever top fives, and the top five should become a weekly thing, and this isn’t just broadcast, this is also social,” Rhodes revealed. “Just like with college football and the AP poll. You get your top 20, and sometimes a guy who’s 5-0 is not ranked in the top three because of the quality of the wins, the softness of the schedule and it’s fun because in college football, people argue, especially when we get near the playoffs, should they, should they not. PAC right now, has these great wins over Hangman Page and Kenny Omega. He’s essentially Ohio State for us at this point. There’s got to be a title shot in his future, and there is if he keeps winning and keeps going. But I believe before Full Gear, we’ll have our top five for women, for tags and for singles and now that we have more and more — every week this helps us so much from data. I’ve expanded… to be fair, Kevin Sullivan’s expanded the lower thirds on talents so you can see their records. We want their records to be more present because Jim Ross is talking about them, Tony Schiavone is talking about them but once we get a few more wins, a few more losses, a few more draws, whatever they may be, it really helps create that tapestry for us, which is something we promised and it wasn’t just a campaign promise. Sports-centric, the guys winning the matches are the guys in the title matches.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling talkSPORT interviewed Matchroom Sport founder and chairman Barry Hearn and asked him about Tyson Fury’s current run in WWE. Hearn stated that what Fury is doing is “a bit cringey” but Tyson needs the profile. Hearn added that on the publicity front, Fury needs people to buy the pay-per-views that he’s on. “Tyson Fury has a big problem in terms of – not enough people know him in America. He’s looking for the big payday obviously against Deontay Wilder. He needs a higher profile to make that attractive and he’s doing what he does best. It is a bit of a circus, of course it is, it’s a rehearsed nonsense, but this is the world we’re in. Today’s world commercially, I hate to say this because I love sports, it’s probably more important to be famous than good,” Hearn expressed. “That’s the social media world we’re living in. What Tyson Fury’s doing in a funny old way is making himself famous. It is a big cringey I know, but bless him, he needs the profile. He’s not the most exciting boxer but he’s very, very good. In other words, he’s not attractive in his style, but he’s difficult to beat. That’s ticking the box on the boxing front. On the publicity front, he needs people to buy pay-per-views, he needs people to recognize him in the street. If you dress up like he’s dressing up or go on WWE or whatever and slap a few people around, it’s hilarious to start with, then it’s a bit cringey. But in the American market more people probably know him from that than any of the fights he’s had so far in America.”

Originally Posted by WWE Network News As we exclusively revealed yesterday, more Mid-South Wrestling is coming to the WWE Network this Monday. Normally, WWE waits for the bulk content to land before spotlighting it with Hidden Gems. On this occasion, however, it appears that our treasure-hunting archivists were too excited to wait. With that in mind, we have a full card from New Orleans. If that isn’t enough, WWE has sprinkled in some Houston and Central States action. Let’s take a look: Dated 04/02/1977, we have a little over 6 minutes of highlights of an NWA World Heavyweight Championship bout between Dick Murdoch vs Champion Harley Race. WWE’s description refers to this as footage from Mid-South’s predecessor, NWA Tri-State ... Next up, we make our way to Houston as Kerry von Erich battles Gino Hernandez for the Texas Heavyweight Championship. While Houston Wrestling was a separate entity, Cowboy Bill Watts and Mid-South had such a close working relationship with Paul Boesch that Watts received a copy of any shows featuring Mid-South talent. Thus this was part of WWE’s purchase of the library and WWE often lumps both together.

More details: https://www.wwenetworknews.com/2019/...-orleans-card/

Originally Posted by Pro Wrestling Sheet WarnerMedia has confirmed an official All Elite Wrestling podcast hosted by Brandi Rhodes is currently in the works. The media company made a slew of podcast related announcements today at an upfront for advertisers and one of the things mentioned was an official AEW podcast. According to WarnerMedia, who we reached out to for more information, the podcast is currently in development with the wrestling promotion’s Chief Brand Officer as host and targeted to launch by the end of the year.

Originally Posted by Observer Radio via r/SquaredCircle Dave: "We knew this was going to happen the day it started". They hired him to be a scapegoat. He wasn't involved in creative, they just needed someone to take the fall when Fox became unhappy. Vince was writing the scripts and running Smackdown as usual, nothing changed Hasn't heard of Bischoff having ever had any creative input or influences on the show Bischoff obviously didn't, but Dave says that even Heyman didn't have anything to do with how the draft was booked or presented on TV (even if he did get some input as to who he wanted to end up on Raw). Nobody they bring in will be in control. They're just scapegoats for Vince's fuckups. The ones that do get a bit of input are basically just there to give advice to Vince, not actually run the show or have control. Bischoff is completely gone, knew it was temporary going in. Dave thinks Bischoff probably thought it was going to be a bit longer, but knew it was only a temporary stage in his life. Prichard was the one who brought Bischoff in. Dave & Garrett speculate it was a bit strange, and that he probably did it because he likely was offered it first, but didn't want to be the fall guy.

TPWW Frontpage:

• Ratings: WWE Backstage Preview on FS1, Total Divas
• 13 More Wrestlers Drafted
• Various: AEW Dark and NWA Powerrr Episodes, Another AEW Dynamite in Texas
• AEW Is Now Listing Wins and Losses on Their Website

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The Sheets:

Originally Posted by Observer Despite the lack of baseball competition due to a rainout of the Yankees/Astros ALCS game that was scheduled to air opposite both shows, AEW and NXT each saw their audiences fall for the second straight week. AEW Dynamite averaged 1,014,000 viewers last night, nearly identical to last Wednesday's 1,018,000 average on TNT, but it was down four percent in the 18-49 demo with a 0.44 rating. Dynamite was also simulcast on truTV last week, drawing 122,000 viewers on that channel. NXT averaged 712,000 viewers last night, which was down 10 percent from the previous week. The rating in the 18-49 demo was a 0.20, down nine percent from last Wednesday. With no major sports competition, AEW was up to fifth place for the night on cable in 18-49. In their strongest demo, males 18-49, AEW finished second on cable with a 0.65 rating, trailing only a preseason NBA game. NXT came in at 30th for the night in 18-49 and trailed AEW in every demo once again except for people over 50, where they had a 0.35 rating to a 0.33 for AEW.

Originally Posted by PWI On this week's edition of NXT UK, it was officially announced that Spain's A-Kid has signed with World Wrestling Entertainment: .@AKidWrestler is coming... #NXTUK pic.twitter.com/R6VRv0Xsai — NXT UK (@NXTUK) October 17, 2019 Although only 22 years old, A-Kid has been wrestling since 2012 and received several WWE tryouts earlier this year.

Originally Posted by PWI The Camden New Journal in England published an article today noting that an investigation into the passing of lucha libre legend Silver King, real name, César Cuauhtémoc González Barrón, 51 years old this past May while performing for a promotion named Lucha Libre World at the Roundhouse Theatre in Camden in North London blamed "multiple faillures" in the minutes after Barron suffered a heart attack in the ring. The St. Pancras Coroner's Court's Senior Coroner Mary Hassell stated that an ambulance not being called for five minutes after Barrón suffered cardiac arrest as well as "ineffective" CPR being performed on him before EMTs arrived meant the lucha star "lost the opportunity to have the best treatment possible and lost the opportunity of survival that otherwise would have been afforded to him" ... Hassell stated, "When I'm talking about failure in first aid, I'm talking about a whole raft, the whole context of the first aid that was offered. In every way, there was a failure properly to plan that everybody knew what they were doing, that procedures were in place so that first and foremost a person who would became unwell would be identified in the ring immediately" ... The inquest's Dr. Alan Bates also determined that Barron had likely suffered a previous heart attack in the months or even years before his passing, but noted that there would have been a greater likelihood of Barron surviving if he had been given mouth to mouth resuscitation immediately, but would not state it would have been probably that he would have survived. Another factor that delayed EMTs getting to Barrón by several minutes was that after the ambulance arrived at the front of the building, a security guard brought EMTs around and had them enter from the back of the venue, which delayed them in getting to and providing aid for Barrón. Paramedic Cara Mitchell stated that she would have liked to have gotten to Barrón quicker and that when they arrived at the ring, the person provided CPR was doing it in a "fast" and "ineffective" manner. There was also confusion in the moment as the first responder who was on hand at the event, Katharine Locke, was not made aware of what the issue was when she was asked to come to the ring and initially believed it was for an issue in the crowd. She did not bring a defibrillator with her initially and did not provide CPR as someone who had claimed they were a Doctor was already in the ring doing it. That person was not identified in the report. Locke did not see Barrón's collapse and was initially worried there was a spinal injury. Promoter Ruben Cordero admitted there were no pre-show medicals and that Barrón had not volunteered any information regarding any health issues. Cordero also stated that in hindsight, the procedures they had in place were not adequate and that there was a question of whether he or the venue were in charge of the medical aspect of the show - and that he wishes he had pushed to be in charge and oversee that aspect.

Originally Posted by PWI Last night's AEW Philadelphia taping ended with Cody cutting a promo putting over the fan with the giant cut-out Ted Turner head before putting over a young fan dressed as Orange Cassidy ... Cody worked the show last night despite being sick with a 102 degree fever the night before. He was given the option of not performing but refused to stay out of the ring ... There's no word yet how long Luchasaurus will be out of action. The word backstage at the taping was he had torn it, which if that is confirmed to be the case, could mean he's out for several months ... Backstage at the taping in Philadelphia were CHIKARA founder Mike Quackenbush, JT Dunn, Austin Gunn, former WWE NXT star Bull James (fka Dempsey), David Starr and Mike Verna. MLW Middleweight Champion Teddy Hart, accompanied by two cats, was also at the taping. Former ECW World Champion Mikey Whipwreck was in the house. With Tommy Dreamer and Jerry Lynn working as Producers and Taz commentating for AEW Dark, there were four former ECW World Champions at the taping. Former CZW star Nick Mondo was also at the taping as he was the talented director and producer behind all of Jon Moxley's post-WWE videos. The pair visited the 2300 Arena on Tuesday as well. Speaking of the Arena, its owner Roger Artigiani was in attendance with his family.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Ruby Riott was the latest guest on Vickie Guerrero’s podcast and Ruby provided an update on when she could be back after undergoing double shoulder surgery: “I’m not 100% sure yet, honestly. They said that I’m on a good track for recovery, sometime, hopefully in early 2020. But they haven’t given me an exact date. I’m just hoping the sooner the better honestly, because like you said, it’s just been such a hard road and physically, I lost a lot of muscle in my shoulders and in my arms and everything. I guess I never realized how much I used my arms until I was without one and then both of them, but just mentally, it’s such a shift and when you’re so used to the adrenaline — go, go, go, go, go, and I had a full-time job when I was on the independents and I was wrestling as much as I possibly could for quite some time and I never really had the want or the desire to stop, because I just loved it so much.” “I loved what I did and the people I grinded by, and then all of a sudden, it’s such a screeching halt so suddenly… it was such a mental difficulty where it was just like, ‘I don’t know what to do with myself’ so I’ve been trying things to occupy my time as of recent[ly]. Its been hard but I’m getting there.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Cody Rhodes took to Twitter and noted that AEW now refers to the Gorilla Position as “The Dusty Position”.

Link: https://twitter.com/CodyRhodes/statu...15303881187329

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Creative Director for Visual Concepts, Lynell Jinks was interviewed by ‘Hardcore Gamer’ and talked about some of the hurdles that came with creating WWE 2K20: “Creation is the most important part to me in the game. It was a struggle to make sure that everything that fans have grown to love was in the game and working as intended. That alone, we spent so much time on that. It’s so complex and deep and we have so much content year after year that we basically have to rip everything apart and put it back together to make sure it worked as is and then see if we could make it better. Certain things we tried to but at the end of the day, we’re running out of time so the decision to postpone Create a Championship and Create a Superstar was such a huge undertaking to get working again. We had to pull resources off of Create a Championship and put them on Create a Superstar to get rid of all the issues and then update it in a patch to have it. Knowing that, our focus early on and how deep that code base was for the content that we had to focus on more content through MyPlayer and Road to Glory and with Originals, you’ll actually get a ton of new content for Create A Arena and parts that are geared towards 2K Originals. Like Bump in the Night, you’ll see weapons. The thing that we saw early on at the event last year with the Wyatt Compound was that there was nothing else to do. There’s some weapons in the MyCareer version of it that was patched in later. There has to be things in these environments for people to play with that affects gameplay and the match type. That kind of spawned into this whole other thing. Let’s add different categories of weapons like one handed and two-handed objects. Let’s build on that and what can we do and if you look at the Originals, the weapon wheel allows for customization and you can have the bat that has a pumpkin skull on it. I want to use a bone instead of a bat or use a tombstone instead of a chair. On the surface you might think we didn’t add that much to create, but what we added to customize your match or character with our new content, there is a ton of content. The head of Bray Wyatt will also be in the game.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Alicia Fox has been moved to the ‘Alumni’ section of WWE.com.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Ohio Valley Wrestling alumni Stephon Smith has signed with WWE to be a full-time referee in NXT.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling WrestleCon announced the return of the Joey Ryan ‘Penis Party’ show for WrestleMania 36 weekend in Tampa, Florida.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling & WrestlingInc Bleacher Report chatted with Britt Baker ... Baker also shared praise for AEW E.V.P. Kenny Omega. She told the site that Omega is very involved in the women’s division and agents most of the matches. One of the major selling points for Britt from Cody and Brandi Rhodes was being able to work closely with the former IWGP Heavyweight Champion: “Kenny Omega has a huge role in the women’s division. He agents a lot of the matches and he’s brought his passion for the Japanese joshi wrestling to our world and it’s amazing. I don’t have a ton of experience with joshi wrestling, but I love it. I’m learning from Kenny by watching how he puts matches together. How lucky can I be? That was one of the selling points for AEW to me when Brandi and Cody told me he’d have a major role with the women’s division. I was a huge fan. I was the girl staying up all night to watch Wrestle Kingdom even though I had class the next day. Now I work with Kenny Omega, one of the best wrestlers in the world and a creative genius. Some of his ideas just amaze me. There seems to be no end to his creative insanity" ... Baker also revealed that Cole is best friends with AEW Executive Vice Presidents The Young Bucks, so he's very supportive of AEW. "But we sit at home and watch each other's matches," she continued. "We actually watch each other's whole show. We support each other's company. My boyfriend is basically best friends with The Young Bucks, so he's very supportive of All Elite Wrestling."

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling CM Punk appeared on WGN News to promote the ‘Girl On The Third Floor’ film and stated that he hopes both AEW and WWE push one another to make wrestling better for the viewers: “I think it’s great. I wish those guys [AEW] nothing but success. If they’re successful, it will force WWE to be more creative and it’s always better when there’s not just one place to work. It’s better for the wrestlers, it’s better for the fans. I think competition drives industry so if there’s only one place in town to work, I think the creatives will be lazy, so hopefully, both companies will push each other and make the product better for the fans.”

Originally Posted by r/SquaredCircle Fumi Saito on the Pacific Rim podcast he did with Dave Meltzer said that WWE had no plan for after they bought the company. Fumi said that WWE's offer was to buy STARDOM and then figure out what they would do regarding NXT Japan. Also, WWE offered Rossy, the head of STARDOM and close friend of Fumi, a spot in the WWE Hall of Fame if he sold the company to them.

TPWW Frontpage:

• WWE Announces New Weekly Podcast Hosted by Corey Graves
• WWE: AOP Added to Raw Roster, Seth Rollins Removed From Team Hogan vs. Team Flair Match
• Sasha Banks Reportedly Scheduled to Be at SmackDown
• Luchasaurus Injury Update

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The Sheets:

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter The WWE’s latest reset, the second draft in a six-month period ended up as kind of a nothing ... The idea was to present this like a sports draft, such as the NFL and NBA drafts, which are now major television events on ESPN. But from the start it didn’t work ... The idea was once again three picks for Raw for every two for Smackdown. Stephanie McMahon announced the picks. She was good in the sense of presenting the right emphasis on them, but it was bad with the idea she, and nobody else, was reading off names. The idea that the first pick would be determined by matches, but with alternating picks in rounds, Raw had to go 1-3-5. So in both first pick determining matches, Raw won ... In another snafu of sorts, when the WWE web site listed the wrestlers that would be drafted on the Smackdown show the day before the draft, with maybe one minor change, it was the exact order that they were drafted. What happened is that the day before the draft, the web site was sent the list of who would be drafted on Smackdown and then on Raw, and it was the order it was planned. They weren’t told that this was the order. And they were told to alphabetize each list. Somehow that got lost in the communications and they printed it in the order. The decision was made not to change the Smackdown order for whatever reason, and then people noticed and called attention to it like crazy. So for Raw, they at least changed the order of the picks somewhat. The only real take is that Raw seemed to get the stronger roster. Heyman picked up some of his key people that were on Smackdown, Flair, Black, Buddy Murphy (who he is said to be super high on) but did lose Lesnar, which had to happen since FOX wanted Lesnar or Rousey on the show as their big sports star. Lesnar’s winning of the WWE title was a key. Flair going to Raw seemed likely when she dropped her title after only five days, clean, to Bayley. But on the other hand, Flair had done extensive promotional work for FOX for the past six months, and the original crew FOX had been advertising around, led by Reigns, featured Flair prominently as well as Rey Mysterio, who is staying on Raw ... Nobody from NXT was drafted, past Humberto Carrillo, who was really more a 205 Live guy. So it appears they want to stick with the key stars on that show rather than bring guys up which gives the impression that NXT is a feeder brand and not a third brand ... The only major acts broken up were Erick Rowan & Luke Harper and R-Truth and Carmella ... With R-Truth and Carmella, it’s the thing of not breaking up couples. With Corey Graves on Smackdown, Carmella ends up on Smackdown. But since the whole 24/7 title idea came from the USA Network and they’ve decided that R-Truth is the focal point of that title, they put him on Raw, ending the unit.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter Even though Flair worked as a heel against Lynch, the plan is for her to be a babyface. There is a clear imbalance and heel weakness, although won’t be if Asuka and Sane work singles, and there has been a clear set up for both to work with Lynch. There’s also the possibility of Natalya as a heel, which was the plan last year to lead to a major program with Ronda Rousey, until Vince McMahon nixed it when Jim Neidhart died and he felt Natalya shouldn’t be turned ... Flair only worked heel on Raw this past week because they needed a name opponent to lose to Lynch in the match for the draft choice and the decision was made not to use Bayley in that spot, likely not wanting the Raw champion at that point to beat the Smackdown champion. With Asuka and Kairi Sane on Raw, while tag champions, expect both at times to be featured as singles. Lynch vs. Asuka is a planned direction at some point, and Sane pinned Lynch in a tag match on television as well.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsetter According to Levesque, Fury approached WWE years ago about doing something. Levesque said Fury was a big fan, and his approach to boxing promotion does feel inspired by pro wrestling and Muhammad Ali, with his charisma and promos. At the time, the two sides didn’t make a deal. With the Saudi Arabia show coming, and Saudi Arabia wanting to bring athletic celebrities into the country, WWE reached out to Fury and with the Saudi money, they could make a economically justifiable big money offer to him. Fury said that with him not fighting until February, against Wilder, he had free time, plus doing this would help keep him in shape. He’s training extensively at the Performance Center in Orlando until fight time. But this is a single event deal, and as far as going forward, both sides seem up for it if the timing aligns and it makes sense economically. Aside from the Saudi Arabia shows, WWE really doesn’t have an event that generates the revenue to justify the type of money one would think a heavyweight champion would want, although with their huge TV revenue, you could do it for a WrestleMania, but the added revenue for a Mania that Fury would generate is unlikely to be enough to match the kind of money he’d want.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter Even though Undertaker was used in the first announcement for the show [Crown Jewel] and he’s been a key part of the previous shows, neither he nor Bill Goldberg at this point are slated to be on the show, likely with the idea it makes no sense to have other outside attractions when you already have Velasquez and Fury. Kevin Owens and Daniel Bryan refused to work the last Saudi Arabia show and at this point neither are scheduled for this show either. Sami Zayn, who was not allowed to work any of the shows since this series began due to his ethnicity, is also not scheduled for the show at this point even though Shinsuke Nakamura is.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter Kushida suffered a hairline fracture of the wrist on 9/18 in doing the angle with Imperium, but continued to work on it to do the planned program with Walter, and is now taking time off with the storyline that he was hurt in their 10/11 television match. He’s expected out for about a month.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter The Wednesday night Wars on 10/16 saw AEW hold steady, although skew older in doing so, while NXT continued its decline. AEW did almost the exact same audience as the week before on TNT, doing 1,014,000 viewers as compared to 1,018,000. However, last week’s actual live number was 1,140,000 because of Tru, and they also had tougher competition with a Major League Baseball game that did 5,856,000 viewers ... On the positive side for a new entity, they were fifth on cable for the night, and second in their time slot behind only VH-1 programming in 18-49 overall, and second for the night, and first in their time slot, in males 18-49 ... They once again doubled NXT in 18-49, but even with no baseball, AEW dropped from 0.46 to 0.44 in 18-49 and NXT from 0.22 to 0.20 ... AEW did a 0.20 in 12-17 (down 13.0 percent from the prior week), 0.29 in 18-34 (down 12.1 percent), 0.59 in 35-49 (identical to last week) and 0.33 in 50+ (up 10.0 percent). So basically it was growth over 50 that made up for losses under 35. The huge teenage and 18-34 audience they opened with has whittled and the older audience has stayed more steady ... We didn’t get an AEW replay number but based on selected markets, it looks to have declined from the 360,000 the prior week ... NXT fell another 10.0 percent this week to 711,000 viewers. The show did a 0.14 in 12-17 (up 40.0 percent from the prior week, which was a good sign), 0.14 in 18-34 (down 6.7 percent), 0.26 in 35-49 (down 10.3 percent) and 0.35 in 50+ (up 29.6 percent).

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter In the segment-by-segment numbers, Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte Flair gained 265,000 viewers. Andrade vs. Ali and the draft picks lost 259,000 viewers. Viking Raiders vs. Robert Roode & Dolph Ziggler quarter first loss 176,000 viewers but the finish of the match and Aleister Black vs. Eric Young gained 144,000 viewers. Draft picks and the angle with the Street Profits vs. The OC lost 182,000 viewers. Ricochet vs. Shelton Benjamin and the Lana/Bobby Lashley segment gained 69,000 viewers. Asuka & Kairi Sane vs. Natalya & Lacey Evans in the main event segment plus the burning of the Firefly Fun house lost 132,000 viewers. The overall peak quarter was 2,699,000 viewers for Flair vs. Lynch. The low point was the main event and Fun House segment with 1,826,000 viewers.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter Regarding NXT Japan, here are a few notes that we know of. WWE was in talks in recent months to attempt to buy both Pro Wrestling NOAH and Stardom, which would have been the base of talent to start things out. However, neither group wanted to sell to an outside company which has a lot to do with a difference in mentality in Japan about selling businesses to foreigners. WWE was also involved in talks with a number of other promotions but we don’t know how serious they were. There were stories going around that WWE has hired or is in the process of hiring two major stars to be head trainers for a Japanese performance center. We have confirmed through WWE that Meiko Satomura, who may be the best woman wrestler in the world (most have either she or Io Shirai as the best) has been working for the company for some time, who was one of the names listed for that role, but that is the only name confirmed. At this moment, the other name going around, Daisuke Sekimoto, is not working for WWE. Jiro Kuroshio is slated to be one of the top stars for this group, which is notable because he’s been saying that he’s moving to the U.S. Another name going around is Sari Fujimura, 23, who is the current world champion of the Pro Wrestling Diana promotion under the name Saree.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter In addition, the belief is that Chris Jericho and Jon Moxley will be on at least one of the shows [NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 14]. Jericho would likely have a singles match with Tanahashi. Moxley could face Lance Archer, who captured the U.S. title at KOPW, which was vacated when Moxley couldn’t get to Japan in time for the show due to travel complications caused by the Typhoon Hagibis.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter World Wonder Ring Stardom, the Japanese women's pro wrestling company best known as Stardom, has been sold to Kix Road, a subsidiary of Bushiroad, in a deal announced 10/17 in Japan ... Ogawa had been approached in recent months by both Bushiroad and WWE, both of which wanted to buy the promotion. The WWE plans were to merge Stardom with a men’s promotion as NXT Japan and run it themselves. The Bushiroad idea was to keep Stardom as its own entity, allowing Ogawa to stay on and run the business ... Ogawa wasn’t looking at selling when first approached in February by Bushiroad. This past summer, both WWE and Bushiroad were, independently, and not with knowledge of the other, looking to buy the group. Ogawa never strongly considered selling to WWE. Part of the situation was that Bushiroad had a battle plan for what they wanted to do, while WWE really didn’t, past the point they wanted to use the women to start NXT Japan. But they really didn’t seem to have a battle plan past the point they wanted to do it. There was no plan on who would run it, how it would be run, and it was likely to be merged with a men’s group or the women would be put on shows with men as WWE does things. There were no decisions on house shows, as NXT U.K. was supposed to have house show and now only does TV tapings and one or two big shows a year ... However, WWE did offer to sign the entire roster to contracts and bring them in for WrestleMania week, and also to induct Ogawa into the Hall of Fame in 2020 if the deal went through. Bushiroad wanted to keep the Stardom structure as it was, with the same house show schedule, but build the stars and run occasional shows in larger arenas ... What this means, with all the Japanese talent under contract, is that it would likely become the premier place for Japanese women talent, and it would become more difficult for WWE to sign their top talent, like they did with Io Shirai and Kairi Sane ... With the company being backed by Bushiroad, it would enable them to pay more if necessary, if that is an issue, although WWE did not pay big money for Shirai and Sane, believed to be in the range of $60,000 per year for each to start, which is less than both were earning in Stardom. Sane likely makes more now working on the main roster than she did in Japan. Bushiroad believes they can also enhance the product by making the characters more interesting. They have looked at hiring a coach/producer to help the women with new characters. One former New Japan wrestler was offered that position but turned it down last month.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter Alex Greenfield, who has been one of the producers with MLW since its relaunch, is no longer with the promotion. He was an agent who would coordinate the crews and shoot stuff for the company at shows and coordinate some post production stuff. The company believed he was pitching himself hard to AEW but felt there were issues in how that was done, even though they consider themselves allies of AEW. Those internally said they felt they had no choice but to let him go.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter PCO’s contract expires on 12/1, but he is expected to stay and ROH has been working hard to keep him and he was very happy how he was treated in the last year

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter Jake Hager had an agreement that he wouldn’t wrestle until after his fight for Bellator at the Mohegan Sun Casino on 10/25 on a show that will air on Paramount ... Hager noted with his gimmick in AEW as a badass MMA fighter, he really can’t afford a loss. His agreement was that he’s doing TV every week and taking Tuesday and Wednesdays as his days off training while training the other five days, but wouldn’t wrestle matches until after the fight to avoid the injury risk

Originally Posted by Observer The full lineup for this year's British J-Cup is now set. Revolution Pro Wrestling has announced that PAC will be taking part in the eight-man tournament. It's being held at York Hall in London, England on Sunday, November 24. Robbie Eagles, Amazing Red, El Phantasmo, Barbaro Cavernario, Michael Oku, Rocky Romero, Senza Volto, and PAC are the eight wrestlers in the tournament.

Originally Posted by Observer NJPW has set a date for Jushin Thunder Liger's final match in the United States. It was announced tonight that Liger's last US match will take place at New Japan Showdown in San Jose on Saturday, November 9. Who Liger will be facing in the match has yet to be revealed.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling The NWA placed tickets on sale Friday for their December 14th “Into the Fire” pay-per-view at the GPB Studios in Atlanta, Georgia. The 255 seat studio sold out on the first day without any match announcements. The company will run the pay-per-view on Saturday, December 14th on Fite TV followed by two nights of television tapings on December 15th and 16th.

Originally Posted by Fightful Tribute to the Troops has been a WWE holiday tradition for 15 years now. A report from PWInsider has revealed the details for this year’s taping of the special event. It will take place on Friday 12/6 in Fayetteville, North Carolina at the Crown Coliseum. This will be a special dual event. That week's SmackDown will be held on the same day in the same venue. Tickets will be available next Friday, October 25, 2019.

TPWW Frontpage:

• More on Why Eric Bischoff Was Let Go By WWE
• MLW: MLW Could Be Gone From YouTube Soon, Women’s Division Launching Next Month
• Velveteen Dream Injured, Could Be Out for a While
• Cain Velasquez Teaming With Rey Mysterio at Mexico City WWE House Show

[Sepholio]

Dream

[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets:

Originally Posted by Observer Raw, with both a lower rated NFL game and no baseball playoff competition, grew three percent from last week averaging 2.34 million viewers. It also didn't have the bad first-to-third hour drop at the level of last week. The first-to-third hour drop of 12 percent is in the normal range as compared to the 21 percent drop last week, which was the eighth largest in history ... What was notable is that women grew big in hour two, up 22 percent in hour two in 18-49, and more than 40 percent among teenage girls on a show with no women. Men 18-49 declined every hour with a first-to-third hour drop being nine percent, which is usual levels. However, with teenagers, boys grew throughout the show and girls had a huge second hour increase and not nearly as big of a third hour drop ... Raw was down eight percent from the 2.54 million viewers the show did last year on the same Monday, going against comparable television competition. The three hours were: 8 p.m. 2.48 million viewers 9 p.m. 2.37 million viewers 10 p.m. 2;18 million viewers

Originally Posted by Observer Sami Zayn has partnered with Pro Wrestling Tees to create a Sami vs. El Generico T-shirt. All of the profits will go toward Zayn’s Sami for Syria campaign.

Link: https://twitter.com/SamiZayn/status/...219049472?s=20

Originally Posted by Observer Dave Meltzer notes that Alex Shelley is guest coaching at the WWE Performance Center for a week

Originally Posted by Observer Cody responded to someone on Twitter about AEW Dynamite ratings: “We are happy and our partner is happy. We overshot projections and set a record for a [WarnerMedia] debut. This is the era of cord cutting, simulcast and dvr bumps. We are proud of how incredible the numbers have been and know we need to work hard now more than ever.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling There was a scary scene at Arena Coliseo in Monterrey, Mexico on Sunday. La Parka (the second version, not LA Park) hit a suicide dive onto Rush and miscalculated the distance and smashed into the guardrail knocking himself out. La Parka was taken to hospital and was thought to be in bad shape. On Wrestling Observer Radio, it was reported that he had begun to get feeling back in his lower body and legs. Luchablog added that La Parka was set to go into surgery on Monday morning. Super Luchas is reporting that La Parka was diagnosed with a neck and cervical fracture.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Dorian Roldan of AAA spoke to the Caliente outlet regarding the status of La Parka. Roldan noted that he came out of surgery on Monday in stable condition. but the following 48 hours would be vital. He was treated for an injury to his fourth vertebrae following a dive to the floor on a KAOZ event at Arena Coliseo. La Parka’s feet clipped the middle rope and he crashed to the floor and hit the guardrail. He lost feeling in his hands and legs but was said to have regained the feeling prior to his operation on Monday morning.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Scott Fishman of TV Insider spoke with Matt & Nick Jackson on the early success of AEW Dynamite as well as the challenges of their scheduled and balancing their home life, the injury to Luchasaurus last week and how that affected the show, and also discussed the viewership figures over the first three weeks with Matt Jackson stating: "I heard the expectations were possibly in the 400 or 500,000 range. The fact we crossed a million was great. I think opening we expected a big number. I don’t know if we expected the number, we got in 1.4. Of course, a week or two after there will always be a drop. We expected that. If we can keep around a million, we’d be thrilled. That would be amazing. We’re such a brand-new thing for them. The next week is tough with Major League Baseball, NBA coming up. We understand that. This whole thing is a whirlwind. We are thrilled right now. And of course, you think about the other wrestling playing that night. And you want to best them, and the fact we are is great. We are also not taking that for granted because they have a great show too. Right now, we have one step foot forward and think about our brand, our television show and making it the best we can make it."

Originally Posted by Fightful WWE on Fox Twitter account posted tweet asking fans to stop the "What?" chant that has since been deleted.

Originally Posted by Fightful Since its inception earlier this year, All Elite Wrestling has trumpeted the fact that they take care of the wrestlers. Tony Khan revealed that he's created office positions for wrestlers as a way to ensure they get the benefits afforded to office members in other professions. Awesome Kong not only serves as a wrestler for AEW, but is also a coach for the women's division. Speaking to Collider Live, Awesome Kong discussed the differences in health care provided by AEW compared to WWE. "From my time in WWE, what I understood was, if you got hurt in the ring then that is something they would take care of," recalled Kong. "However, your everyday exams and check-ups, that was something that you had to be responsible for. As an individual, it's hard and expensive to acquire such medical care with the profession we are in. When you have a company like [AEW] that's behind you and providing [medical care], that really makes it a lot easier on the pocketbook. Just to have that support of, 'these people don't see me as this product in a box. They see me as an actual person.' We had a meeting about concussions and their approach to it was full of humanity and putting yourself and your health first. For old school people, it's hard to comprehend because we'll literally break our neck and try to keep going. To have that attitude of care and putting talent before the bottom line is new for us and surprising, but appreciated."

Originally Posted by Fightful Fightful was able to speak with a couple of people close to the WWE-Fox deal about the relationship between the two, which seems to still be doing swell. One source at Fox said that the company is happy with WWE and how things have gone so far. As far as the rest of the partnership, CM Punk did try out for WWE Backstage last month, but was not offered a deal by Fox. As mentioned before, Punk's tryout went well and he impressed the Backstage team, but it was left in the hands of higher ups at Fox that seemed like they'd "moved on" as recently as this week. Nothing is concrete in that regard, though. The show is run through them, as opposed to UFC Tonight, which would see names get a check from the UFC instead of Fox. We're also told that WWE doesn't have much input on the WWE Backstage show, and it was originally set to feature more inside terminology and references than it does now, even.

Originally Posted by Fightful In an update on the Maria Manic-ROH situation, Casey of Squared Circle Sirens indicated to Fightful that she's back with the company. Fightful was able to confirm the news, and heard that she got a good deal to return to ROH. We're told that Manic is back on a one year deal, salaried, and "non exclusive," but weren't given any indication on how expansive the latter part of the deal was.

Originally Posted by PWI FOX has a one-hour WWE Special scheduled to air this Sunday at 5 PM EST. The title of the special has not been officially announced, but the description reads, "A profile of some of the greatest stars in wrestling and the sport itself."

Originally Posted by PWI Major League Wrestling's Court Bauer is slated for a series of TV meetings this week in Los Angeles, looking to lock in plans to add MLW's television and streaming footprint in 2020. While the promotion is in the midst of a multi-year deal with BeIN Sport, an agreement that each side has been happy with, and are holding their first PPV on 11/9, their existing deals allow them the opportunity to create additional content for other outlets. We are told the meetings are planned to explore what MLW can add beyond their BeIN Sport commitments and with AEW, WWE and Impact Wrestling all locked into existing deals, the belief is now is the time to strike to expand the company's footprint.

Originally Posted by Fightful On Oct. 31, heavyweight boxing champion Tyson Fury will make his professional wrestling debut when he goes one-on-one with Braun Strowman. Reports have circulated that Fury will make $15 million for the bout, though those numbers have not been confirmed. ESPN's Ariel Helwani spoke with Fury and WWE Executive Vice President Triple H about the deal, and asked whether the $15 million number was true. Fury replied, "That's what I've read. I don't know where that information has come from. But I'm not gonna confirm or deny. I don't want to breach my contract." Triple H added, "It's amazing how much people count other people's money. You can make an argument right now that, if you said, what are the four big sports in America, you can make an argument that we're right there. I'm not gonna confirm or deny, but the positioning of what we are, it's no different than any other sport. We're not the size of the NFL or anything like that, but what we do is up there."

TPWW Frontpage:

• AEW: Brandi No Longer Accompanying Cody to the Ring, Germany TV Deal
• WWE: Firefly Fun House Returning on SD, Main Event Results, Rollins vs. Wyatt After Raw
• Impact: Reno Scum Sign, Match Pulled From PPV, Next PPV
• Xavier Woods Suffers Achilles Injury
• NJPW Announces New Japan Pro-Wrestling of America

[Sepholio]

Damn that sucks about La Parka and Xavier Woods. Especially La Parka though. Hope he makes a full recovery.

[Mr. Nerfect]

I would like to see MLW expand. It's weird, because I don't follow them as closely as I could, and they are accessible on YouTube and such, but I feel that having a better deal would help them out tremendously. So much about wrestling is perception, I guess. I want them to be perceived as a bigger deal.

I want another big-time player to be in there with WWE and AEW. Neither product is really suiting me right now, and when Randy Orton's contract comes up, for example, the WWE/AEW dynamic is going to suit him, but selfishly it doesn't suit me as a fan.

[Mr. Nerfect]

I really do think we're going to see CM Punk back in the WWE very soon. He may not get the WWE Backstage deal, but from what I've heard, the show wouldn't suit him anyway. But I can see him doing some part-time stuff to try and get his name "hot" again.

[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets:

Originally Posted by Observer EVIL will miss the remainder of NJPW's Road to Power Struggle tour due to injury. NJPW announced today that EVIL has suffered a left ankle injury and won't be wrestling on the rest of the Road to Power Struggle tour. EVIL's Los Ingobernables de Japon stablemate BUSHI will replace him in the matches that he was scheduled for.

Originally Posted by PWI WWE officially announced on today's edition of "The Bump" that a "WWE 24" documentary on R-Truth is coming soon to WWE Network.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Lynell Jinks, creative director of Visual Concepts spoke to GameSpot about how it felt to create a WWE video game without the involvement of Yuke’s: “I think freeing is the first feeling that you get. When you realize that now that all the ideas that you had and wanted to pursue are now at your fingertips, that’s the first feeling you have, and the second one you have is the reality, where that sets in where you’re like, ‘Oh, now that it’s all ours, that means that we have to write tools and write systems, and actually understand how these things were really put together.’ Every system in the game, every piece of code, and every art asset had to go through our pipeline — had to go through us, and it was our responsibility to make sure that we understood everything that we’re putting in the game from front to back, right? And this is 20 years of just Yuke’s code, Yuke’s art, Yuke’s pipelines that we had to take apart and understand. Not only understand, but make it ours and try to make it better at the same time, or make it as good as it was.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Savio Vega sat down with Hannibal TV for an exclusive interview and revealed that former WWE United States Champion Carlito received a new contract offer from WWE: “Carlito, they [WWE] tried to get Carlito back. I talked to him last week. I was with him, and I said, ‘Brother, just go there, get a contract, get whatever [amount of] money, higher every year, whatever, because you’re not gonna make that kind of money in the street. Make some money, leave OK. It’s good.’ If I had the opportunity, I’d do it.” Savio then began talking about Primo and Epico Colon. The last time that Primo and Epico wrestled on WWE TV was in August of 2018. Their last documented match for WWE was a dark match this past February following an episode of SmackDown Live: “His brother and Primo, I believe they finished. I don’t know if they finished yet. They probably don’t say it or they’re gonna do it this year coming up… next year because they’re working Puerto Rico.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Pro Wrestling NOAH announced that current GHC Heavyweight Champion Kaito Kiyomiya is out of action for a week after injuring his cervical spine. It is noted in the article that there are no symptoms such as numbness or paralysis in the limbs. Kiyomiya is no longer competing at NOAH’s October 27th event but will be back in action on November 2nd.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling On the most recent edition of Sean “X-Pac” Waltman’s ‘X-Pac 12360’ podcast, Waltman talked about the criticism Marko Stunt received after his appearance on AEW: Dynamite and opened up about his own experiences as a smaller in-ring performer: “The way I looked and how I was, you talk about Marko Stunt, oh f*** people laughed at me. The first time I got in the ring, I wrestled Ricky Rice, he’s built very well, I mean not huge but fn built well. And I was totally pale, skinny af, and so everyone laughed, they were all laughing at me as I come to the ring. So it took about a minute and then they were on their feet because I German-suplexed them, wrestled them, and then I dove out of the ring. No one had ever seen that kind of shit. So it didn’t take long, they took to me really quick, it was something different, everyone else were these big jacked up guys, and to be honest with you, a lot of them had this sense of entitlement. That they were from Minnesota and they were jacked up on the gas, and that they were gonna get a phone call.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Ryan Satin of Pro Wrestling Sheet welcomed Jungle Boy and Kia “Awesome Kong” Stevens in-studio for an exclusive interview. Jungle Boy spoke about the criticism that Marko Stunt received following he and Marko’s AEW TNT debut: “Yeah, its kinda been wild. Its been a lot bigger than I expected it to be. That whole day was kind of crazy stressful — that is not how I would’ve imagined my TV debut to go. But I was super happy, personally, with the match. Most of the feedback I guess, about Marko, it’s kinda just the same stuff always. I think that was his first time being introduced to a lot of people — being on a platform that big — it was for all of us but, with him, the thing is, it’s just… you’re kind of open to it or you’re not. I think Marko being so small, I think it maybe makes a lot of people feel not great about themselves, and I say that because I think there’s this attitude that bigger is better, and I think for him to be his size, which in a way, will hold him back a lot, but he’s out there doing what so many people have dreamed of doing and they’ve never been able to do it. I think that kind of just adds a little bit of insult to injury in their minds I guess, and I get it, but at the same — it’s not anything he has control over. I’m super proud of him, and I think if you can get past that, I think everybody should be super proud of him because not only is he doing something for anybody, it’s a huge thing, it’s a scary thing. He’s doing it his way, with what he’s always had to deal with and I think he’s killing it.”

Originally Posted by Fightful WrestleVotes reports WWE is planning on bringing back the Stone Cold Podcast to the WWE Network.

Originally Posted by Fightful Deadline reports former WWE superstar Christian and former UFC Champions Chuck Liddell and Luke Rockhold have signed for the film "Cagefighter," which also stars AEW wrestler Jon Moxley. The movie follows MMA knock-out specialist Reiss Gibson (UK MMA fighter Alex Montagnani) climbing the MMA ranks before promoter Max Black (Gina Gershon) sets up a cross-promotional bout against pro wrestler Randy Stone (Moxley). Christian has previously starred in the films "Shoot 'Em Up" and "SuperGrid." Liddell has been in multiple films and TV series, including "Workaholics," "Entourage," "Kick-Ass 2," "A Violent Man," and "How High." Rockhold has no film or television credits. Production is set to start on Nov. 1 in Saskatchewan, Canada. The film is scheduled to release in quarter two of 2020 and is being sold by UK outfit Kaleidoscope with Calgary’s Anamorphic Media financing the project. Jesse Quinones (Calloused Hands) is writer-director on the movie. Producers include Shayne Putzlocher (Cold Brook) and Jessica Gaube of Trilight Entertainment, Sara Shaak (Girl) of Anamorphic Media, and Lorianne Hall (Shoplifters of the World).

Originally Posted by Fightful Though Big Show hasn't been on WWE television since November 2018, the "World's Largest Athlete" has kept busy filming "The Big Show Show" for Netflix. Ahead of WWE Crown Jewel, TMZ caught up with Big Show to get his thoughts on the showdown between Cain Velasquez and Brock Lesnar ... Finally, Big Show was asked about criticisms of WWE booking as Velasquez is getting a WWE Title shot in his first bout. Big Show replied, "You're never gonna make everyone happy. Some people say, 'you're rushing too much' or 'you're taking too long.' Everyone is gonna have an opinion. My advice is to sit back, watch the show, and enjoy it. Quit trying to direct it." Show also mentioned that he didn't have much room to talk as he wrestled Hulk Hogan for the WCW World Title in his first match.

Originally Posted by Fightful Reddit user WrestlignGamer posted a list of talent who did motion capture work for WWE 2K20. Aerial Johnson - Aerial Monroe Austin White - Austin Theory Brian Button - Brian Cage Brianna Sparrey - Kylie Rae Deveon Everhart Aikens - Dezmond Xavier Drew Everett Wenkel - Andrew Everett Jason Seaton - ?????? Allysin Kay - Allysin Kay / Sienna Jessica Cricks - Jessika Havok Jeff Cobb - Jeff Cobb Jonathan Cruz Rivera - Jay Cruz Kenny Layne - Kenny King Kristen Stadtlander - Kris Stadtlander Marty Elias - Marty Elias Matthew Capiccioni - Matt Cross Nicole Matthias - Nicole Savoy Olivia Hasler - Penelope Ford Peter Hernandez - The Librarian Peter Avalon Rachael Ellering - Rachel Evers Ronald Arneill - Tye Dillinger/Shawn Spears Santana Garrett - Santana Garrett Schuyler Andrews - Scorpio Sky Shaun Ricker - Eli Drake Stephon Strickland - Isaiah "Swerve" Scott Tanea Brooks - Rebel TJ Perkins - TJP Trevor Lee Caddell - Cameron Grimes

Originally Posted by Fightful Along with being a wrestler and coach for All Elite Wrestling, Awesome Kong plays "The Welfare Queen" Tammé Dawson on Netflix's GLOW. AEW President Tony Khan has hinted at AEW and GLOW working together in some capacity in the future and Awesome Kong dropped some more hints in an interview with Collider Live. "Collectively, [GLOW castmates] were very excited for my return (to wrestling). They celebrated that and thought it was absolutely awesome. I can't make any promises, but I believe we might see someone (from GLOW) visit (AEW) at least. Could be cool. Nice little moment. There have been discussions about the possibilities of what that would look like and what we would do. Right now, there is a plan. And once those plans are realized, then we can get 'loosey-goosey' and see what else we can go onto next. We would have to be careful and make sure things fit together nice and it's something the fans can appreciate and not ridicule. Ya'll, sometimes it's hard to please them," said Kong. As of now, nothing has been announced for an AEW-GLOW crossover.

Originally Posted by Observer CNN Business published a story on the declines WWE’s stock has seen this year.

Link: https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/23/inves...fox/index.html

Originally Posted by Observer WWE 2K20 received a 4.3/10 rating from IGN.

Originally Posted by Observer Jake Hager (formerly known as Jack Swagger) spoke to Sports Illustrated about the end of his time with WWE: “I was lost in the mix there [in WWE]. When I look now at guys like Cesaro, guys like Bobby Lashley, they’re just lost. When I look at them, that whole cloud of doom comes right back over me. I’m so glad I’m not in that. It’s something you deal with within big companies, but it’s also about how they treat their talent. They know exactly what they’re doing, and I hate to say it, but it’s on purpose.”

TPWW Frontpage:

• AJ Styles Will Defend the US Title Against the Winner of a Battle Royal at Crown Jewel
• AEW Dynamite Results – Oct. 23, 2019 – Moxley vs. Pac, Tag Title Tournament Semifinals
• NXT Results – Oct. 23, 2019 – Strong vs. Lee vs. Dijakovic

[Mr. Nerfect]

Wouldn't mind seeing a Colons vs. New Day feud. Yeah, they've run that family into the ground, but Primo has always impressed me with his work in front of live crowds, and Carlito always had something there.

[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets:

Originally Posted by Observer Against competition from both the World Series and NBA, AEW viewership dropped for the third straight week, averaging 963,000 viewers last night. That's down five percent from last week and is the first time Dynamite has fallen below a million viewers. In the key 18-49 demo, Dynamite averaged a 0.45, which was actually up two percent and good for fourth place on the night in all of cable. NXT on USA also dropped for the fifth straight week, falling two percent to 698,000 viewers. Like AEW, the rating in the 18-49 demo was also up. It increased five percent to a 0.21 and finished 21st overall on cable for the night. Aside from people over 50 -- where the WWE product had an advantage of 0.33 to 0.25 -- Dynamite beat NXT in every ratings demo. The over 50 demo was obviously the strongest for NXT. AEW was strongest in the 25-54 demo, where they averaged a 0.46 rating. One demo where they completely dominated NXT was in young males (12-34), where they had an advantage of 0.43 to 0.12, almost four times as many viewers.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling If the Astros vs. Nationals goes to a seventh game, it would be played next Wednesday and go head-to-head with both programs.

Originally Posted by Observer A special edition of WWE Backstage has been added to FS1's schedule for tomorrow. WWE on FOX's Twitter account posted a video today where Renee Young announced that a new episode of the Backstage studio show will air live immediately after Friday Night SmackDown at 10 p.m. Eastern time tomorrow. Due to game three of the World Series being on FOX, tomorrow's SmackDown will air live on FS1. Paige and Christian will join Young and Booker T on the WWE Backstage episode. Young noted that they'll be speaking to Finn Balor, who turned heel by attacking Johnny Gargano on this week's NXT.

Originally Posted by Observer Next week's episode of Dynamite will include a bit of collaboration between AEW and Adult Swim animated hit Rick & Morty. After AEW teased the partnership for next week's show, Cody Rhodes posted a tweet with some more information: "SPOILER: fans attending this Wednesday in Charleston for the Halloween @AEWonTNT will receive @RickandMorty masks #AEW." Season four of Rick & Morty will premiere on Adult Swim at 11:30 p.m. Eastern time on Sunday, November 10. TNT and the Cartoon Network/Adult Swim are both part of WarnerMedia.

Originally Posted by Observer AEW is set to crown its inaugural Tag Team Champions next week, and a Hall of Fame team will be playing a part in the process. It was announced today that The Rock 'n' Roll Express (Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson) will be appearing on next week's episode of Dynamite. They'll present the AEW Tag Team titles to the winners of the promotion's Tag Team Championship tournament.

Originally Posted by Observer Impact Wrestling co-executive vice president Scott D'Amore, Impact World Champion Brian Cage, and Knockouts Champion Taya Valkyrie were part of an hour-long conference call Thursday, hitting up a variety of topics on the company's past and future ahead of their official weekly AXS TV debut this Tuesday. The whole call can be heard below, but a few highlights: D'Amore addressed the rumor of the TNA brand returning for one night in April during WrestleMania weekend in Orlando. He said it's early in the process, but that "we don't run from our history, we embrace it." On Kylie Rae returning to the company, "the door is certainly open if she is interested." D'Amore and Valkyrie were asked a lot about intergender matches which D'Amore said they are proud to be at the forefront of. Valkyrie jokingly challenged Cage to a title match and Cage retorted with that it didn't go well for Valkyrie when they wrestled in another organization. D'Amore said their rebuilding process is over and that they have spent two years putting out a great product. He talked about restoring trust in the Impact name. He said they had to rebuild that when he and Callis took over two years ago. After a lot of negativity in '18, he feels they have reclaimed a lot of that trust in '19, but need to keep at it." D'Amore said that other wrestling organizations are competition, but in a good way. "While other companies are competition, they aren't enemies. For us to success, they don't have to fail. Competition breeds innovation. We need to answer the challenge," he said.

Originally Posted by PWI Because of Crown Jewel, next week's episode of NXT UK will premiere at 11 AM Eastern (4 PM GMT).

Originally Posted by PWI AEW NEWS AND NOTES The plan for the end of last night's episode was for it to end as Kenny Omega hit the ring but he was a little late getting to the ring. In another incident of AEW stepping in where NXT/NXT UK talent was originally scheduled, Private Party will be replacing Mustache Mountain on the International Wrestling Syndicate show in Montréal entitled One Night Only 11/8. Tony Schiavone tweeted: I am having more fun than I’ve ever had before calling wrestling. I hope everyone realizes that. Working with @JRsBBQ and @ShutUpExcalibur is a blast. And the @AEWrestling in ring works amazing — Tony Schiavone (@tonyschiavone24) October 24, 2019

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Per TVAzteca, Karis la Momia Jr. who is the son of La Parka stated that his father is in stable condition after attempting to hit a suicide dive in a match this past Sunday. La Parka crashed into a barricade head first. It is noted in the article that doctors planned to reevaluate La Parka on 10/24 and Karis la Momia Jr. sent his thank you’s to all who wished La Parka well.

Originally Posted by Fightful WWE Universal Champion Seth Rollins made headlines on Oct. 21 when he called AEW the "minor leagues" in a response to a question about when he would face Kenny Omega. Rollins was speaking at Fandemic in Houston and you can view his full comments by clicking here. The comment was viewed by many as another jab between WWE and AEW, which began seemingly the moment All Elite Wrestling became a reality at the start of the year. Kenny Omega and Chris Jericho have taken similar strikes at WWE and NXT talent in recent months. However, AEW announcer Jim Ross didn't dismiss the comment as a light jab or "workers working." "I'm pissed off about it," Ross said on the latest episode of Grilling JR. "It doesn't do any favors for our business. Any promotion, is bigger than any individual. I'm not inferring that Seth thinks he's bigger than the business. But, by what he says sometimes, you can make that assessment, rightly or wrongly. It's not a classy thing to say for an athlete of his designation. "I talked to two Hall of Fame guys, off the record, that were embarrassed by those remarks as well. It doesn't do the business any good and one of these cats even said to me, 'Maybe Rollins is breaking under pressure because he's getting a lot of criticism.' Here's the deal, the WWE is a whole different world today than it was when guys were earning above their downside based on live events and pay-per-view. A guy like Steve Austin might be making $1 million a year, downside guarantee. But he might have a year where he could make $10 million, $13 million, $9 million. It's always over that. Now guys in WWE, like Rollins, is on a salary. In broad terms. I don't know how many houses Seth has drawn that has sold out. As another Hall of Famer mentioned to me, it's not about the individuals being over or drawing the house. It's about the WWE brand selling out." Ross didn't let up on Rollins, saying, "Rollins is in a great spot, he's blessed, maybe someday he'll be as over as his girlfriend [Becky Lynch]. I don't know. I've always liked his work. He's a solid guy. But saying things like that makes him look bad. I feel bad for him. I was upset at Seth because I thought his comments made him sound bad. Made him sound bush league, like he was born on third base, woke up, and thought he hit a triple. I don't know what's happened to some of these guys. I don't know if it's internal, what they're driven to say, what they're obligated to say. They think it'll gain favor of their bosses. I don't know what the answer is." Despite his criticism of Rollins' comments, Ross did admit that he believes Rollins is a great worker and that a match between him and Omega would be great.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling New Japan Pro-Wrestling official Tiger Hattori will be refereeing CMLL’s November 15th show as a part of his retirement tour. Hattori’s last bout that he will officiate will be at the Tokyo Dome in January.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Josh Barnett announced the third installment of his Bloodsport event in conjunction with Game Changer Wrestling. The event is scheduled for WrestleMania 36 weekend in Tampa, Florida.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Sportskeeda has an interview published with Michael Nakazawa. Nakazawa shared that he is more involved in the backstage scene of All Elite Wrestling opposed to the in-ring portion. Nakazawa specifically mentioned assisting Kenny Omega and helping Japanese talent.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Deontay Wilder told SunSport he believes Tyson Fury is going to use a made-up injury after his match at Crown Jewel as an excuse to hold off he and Fury’s rematch: “I’m not surprised he got into WWE. We’d been saying this a long time ago that he’s gonna try it, he’s been making excuses about the rematch. Now he’s got into the WWE, he’s gonna get ‘injured’, make up excuses and lo and behold, we’re already hearing about his sprained ankle. But yeah, he’s messing around with those big guys, but I do not want to hear no excuses, none, no excuses.” Wilder also stated that he does not believe the reported number that WWE is paying Tyson Fury to be with the company. He questioned why WWE would even give that type of money to Tyson when he can’t sell out Las Vegas. “I wish everyone well, especially fighters. We work so hard and put our lives on the line so whatever outside of boxing comes to us, I’m happy for everyone. I’m into acting, my thing is acting. I’ve been doing my thing, super busy, I got a lot of acting stuff, movies, a lot of sh*t presented to me. But I’ve been hearing some bits about the WWE. You know, some of the stuff I just don’t believe – like the $15 million. I just can’t see them giving Fury $15 million for what is a guest appearance, when the highest paid I believe is Brock Lesnar on $12 million. Why would they give that to a guy that can’t even sell out Vegas? In his first fight he sold 1,500 tickets, and the second he sold 3,500 tickets. The rest he gave away. Why would they give someone $15 million after that? It’s just like the ESPN deal, that was a lie. He was never getting $100 million. Even his promoter Bob Arum came out and said that’s not true. If everything goes perfect then maybe he got $100 million. A lot of it is smoking mirrors and clout chasing.”

TPWW Frontpage:

• Interview: Tessa Blanchard on World Title, Her Father, Why She Signed With Impact
• Women’s Tag Title Match & More Announced for Next Week’s NXT
• Two More Matches Set for AEW Full Gear PPV

[Mr. Nerfect]

Jim Ross isn’t wrong about Rollins, but AEW guys are just as insecure.

[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets:

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter For the ratings for last week in Canada, Smackdown on 10/11 for the draft dropped to 201,300 viewers, Raw on 10/14 was up to 294,000 viewers, NXT didn’t crack the sports top ten for its night while AEW fell to 108,000 viewers, which was a 29.4 percent drop, although those in Canada blamed this drop to the Toronto Maple Leafs playing head-to-head, which kills all competing sports

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter Orton got a lot of talk this past week with a tease on Twitter. He could just be having fun, but Orton’s ten-year WWE deal expires in 2020 and he’s in a great position to play both sides against each other, and that’s the smart thing to do. In the end, for someone like Orton, who is believed to be making in the $3 million per year range, and doesn’t work a full house show schedule, WWE is probably the better place. At 39, he may be able to get an even lesser schedule. Whether he’s the right mix for AEW is a question but next year you’d think they’d be looking for a big pick up and Orton would fit that bill, there’s the question if they want to spend at that level for a new guy. There is a photo that shows Orton looking at a sign that says “Elite level” and had a caption that reads “tick tock tick tock.” He tagged Riddick Moss, Dawson, Wilder, Cody and Jericho. I’m not sure of the significance of Moss, who is a former college football player who is in NXT and is one of many there with potential kind of caught in the numbers game. The Revival, who Orton had teamed with on Smackdown until they were just separated, definitely had interest in AEW when their WWE deals expire since there’s a natural already made program with The Young Bucks ... Orton and Cody have a relationship as part of the old Legacy faction and Orton had inquired about AEW from the time of its launch, as a large number of WWE stars did ... Orton once tweeted to Will Ospreay about wanting to face him and used the date June 2020, so the belief is that would be around the period when his deal expires. No matter what Orton wants to do, the smart thing is to, especially right now given his age, to use both sides to get the best offer, which at this stage is not just money, but schedule and perhaps putting a cap on professional legacy.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter Kacy Catanzaro has been removed quietly from the WWE roster page. Nobody has confirmed she’s gone, but that is usually an indication. She had taken time off and was considering retiring but the last we’d heard was that she hadn’t made a decision

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter Even though Cain Velasquez said that WWE had given him permission to do one last AAA match, WWE’s official response to that is to say that the event that he was going to work was canceled, meaning the 10/13 show at The Forum in Los Angeles. Those at AAA believe that they have one date left with him

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter We have complete rundowns on how every segment did with almost every demo for the 10/16 Wednesday night Wars. For AEW, the show ranged from 1,174,000 viewers for the SCU vs,. Best Friends match that opened the show to 999,000 for the Chris Jericho vs. Darby Allin title match that ended it. The actual low point was 912,000 viewers for the beginning of the Pentagon & Fenix vs. Marko Stunt & Jungle Boy match. As far as the segments, the Ortiz & Santana vs. John Silver & Alex Reynolds match, the Jericho interview and the Cody video package lost 174,000 viewers ... Riho vs. Britt Baker gained 3,000 viewers. Pentagon & Fenix vs. Stunt & Jungle Boy lost 17,000 viewers in total, which was a combination of losing 91,000 viewers early and gaining 74,000 late. Kenny Omega & Adam Page vs. Pac & Jon Moxley gained 71,000 viewers. Jericho vs. Allin lost 58,000 viewers ... For NXT, the show opened at 732,000 viewers, the last quarter was 639,000, the overrun after AEW ended gained 127,000 viewers to 766,000 (so that would be a good estimate of the audience that NXT would gain without AEW) and it would be the first week where the overrun helped the final rating, as usually it either hurt it slightly or made no difference. The peak number was the overrun, followed by the Keith Lee vs. Dominik Dijakovic match that peaked at 740,000 viewers. Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch vs. Marcel Barthel & Fabian Aichner lost 38,000 viewers. Io Shirai vs. Kayden Carter and the post-match with Rhea Ripley and Shirai gained 35,000 viewers. Lee vs. Dijakovic gained 10,000 viewers. A combination of Matt Riddle vs. Bronson Reed and Tegan Nox vs. Taynara lost 41,000 viewers. Killian Dain vs. Boa and a Finn Balor segment lost 5,000 viewers. Pete Dunne vs. Damien Priest lost 54,000 viewers until AEW ended and then gained 127,000 at that point. Keys are that while the overrun did show a crossover, if you look at comparisons, you don’t see a lot of crossover. Both shows dropped audience in the second quarter. Baker vs. Riho gained while Io Shirai vs. Cayden Carter also gained. Pentagon & Fenix match with Jungle Boy & Stunt lost while Lee vs. Dijakovic gained, but in the latter stages the Pentagon & Fenix match gained while Lee vs. Dijakovic held steady. Omega & Page vs. Moxley & Pac did gain strong at the same time NXT was falling with Riddle vs. Reed, Nox vs. Taynara and Boa vs. Dain, and one would think that would happen, but in some demos that was not the case. But AEW lost 58,000 in its final quarter at the same time NXT lost 54,000. Key here is 18-34s appear to be interested in both as it picked up 44 percent when AEW ended, but in 35-49, the pick up was only seven percent (misleading because it was 49,000 to 52,000 among women, but 93,000 to 122,000 among men) and for teenagers it was only 2.5 percent while for over 50 it was 15.3 percent. So basically, the crossover is big in 18-34 across the board, and in 35-49 with men but not with women and noticeable but not nearly as large over 50

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter WWE also talked a few months ago with Dragon Gate, talking about buying it to become the transition for NXT Japan

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter One of the reasons for going with an all Japanese hierarchy for New Japan Pro Wrestling of America was an overreaction to vocal fans who had complained that under Meij, they had tried to Americanize New Japan and not give the U.S. the authentic product. The reality is that Americanizing drew better, and the complaints would come after shows where the Young Bucks & Kenny Omega would get the biggest reactions and the fans would complain they were catering too much to the American audience by featuring them ... The funny part of this is that Meij never had a hand in the booking, and all those decisions on the U.S. shows were made by Gedo ... It is notable that Takaaki Kidani of Bushiroad had hired Harold Meij to head up these expansion plans, and neither Meij nor his lead hire, Michael Craven, who is from the Vancouver area, are part of the new company ... Ohbari was a Bushiroad business employee who was moved into the New Japan office in 2018. Ohbari was actually a Meij hiring in February, and while new to pro wrestling, he’s an experienced businessman ... Some believe he’s being groomed to be the backup for Harold Meij in the company ... Ohbari called the creation of the new subsidiary company as stage three of their U.S. market strategy. Stage one was opening up the dojo in Carson, CA, and stage two was running occasional live events. While nothing was said about the relationship with ROH, the fact they’ve had access to no New Japan talent in a few months is telling, particularly with the recent Global Wars touring being only CMLL wrestlers, who have little U.S. drawing appeal. Aside from Jeff Cobb, there is nobody from ROH who has been working for New Japan and Cobb with New Japan predates his signing with ROH. It will be interesting if Cobb works New Japan U.S. shows, or if Cobb, who is a big fan of working for New Japan, even gets offered a full-time New Japan deal and leaves ROH ... New Japan itself took a hit as far as its drawing potential in this market with the development of AEW. And New Japan running a full-time U.S. company probably means, at least for the time being, a relationship with AEW would be out the window ... I think the one thing that hurt attempts to combat WWF in every time period was when the top non-WWF talent was fragmented rather than united. The plan is to run shows in arenas that hold 2,000 fans or less. With so many events, meaning having to draw from local markets rather than fly ins, that is the right size. But it also means you’re going to mostly cater to a very small fan base ... The idea is to run more events, and not bigger buildings. The idea is to grow from there, and build to running major arenas. New Japan has maybe 1,700 tickets out for the San Jose show in a 2,500-seat building, and has plenty of tickets remaining for a Monday night show at the Globe Theater, which PWG sells out routinely at barely 600 people.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter The NWA PPV show on 12/14 in Atlanta is sold out, although that’s in a 250-seat television studio, but it also sold out instantly. Right now the idea is to run weekly television on YouTube until a few weeks before the show, and then do “10 Pounds of Gold” shows weekly leading up to the PPV. Then they’ll tape maybe seven weeks of new TV after the PPV that will build for a live Clash of Champions like YouTube special which would start the next set of tapings, and those tapings would build to another PPV. Right now the plan is four PPVs per year, but like everything, the more they learn, the more things can change. The hope for now is that they can sell ads within their show because they reach a specialized 18 to 44 male audience, and with merch revenue, PPV revenue and other things, that it can be viable financially to continue with this model. It’s also a good place for talent to showcase themselves if they can get in, because you are given a direction and ideas, but you do your own promos and work your own style.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter In the U.K., the AEW Sunday morning show has been dropped, but the Friday night time slot has been moved up to 10 p.m. on ITV 4, which is a major upgrade from an 11:20 p.m. start ... The Sunday morning show on ITV 4 at 8:20 a.m. averaged 24,000 viewers, which was down 34 percent. Really, the most impressive U.K. number for the past weeks may have been Impact, which did 77,000 viewers on 10/18, which was more than AEW did live the previous Friday. WWE numbers have been bad, as the 10/14 Raw did 38,000 viewers, down from 48,000 for the 10/7 show that featured Tyson Fury, who is a huge name in the U.K. Smackdown on 10/18 was down to 23,000 viewers. Raw on 10/21 did 3,000 viewers. It was so bad people thought it was a computer glitch but we’re told the data was sound

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter Regarding Kenny Omega and the AAA heavyweight title, this was not a long-term program worked out between AEW and AAA like the Young Bucks vs. Pentagon Jr. & Fenix program in AAA and AEW over the AAA tag titles, where both companies worked it all out ahead of time. This is more of a thing in progress. Omega’s title win was acknowledged by AEW, unlike Jon Moxley’s New Japan U.S. title. Each situation is different. Tony Khan said that obviously the relationship between AEW and AAA is very different from the non-relationship with AEW and NJPW, plus he noted it was their U.S. title, not the IWGP heavyweight title, which he’d have considered acknowledging if one of his guys wins it (which isn’t going t happen right now).

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter Unlike the last Saudi Arabia show, where the government gave WWE the impression they would allow women on the show, to the point the Natalya vs. Alexa Bliss match was quietly booked and both were flown over, and the rug was pulled out, we’ve heard nothing in that direction so far this time for Allahween Havoc. WWE, which, due to controversy last year, would not mention Saudi Arabia in the promotion of the recent shows, has mentioned the country on television. Paul Levesque at the press conference opened up talking about how huge Riyadh season, as it’s being called in Saudi Arabia, with various forms of entertainment involved.

Originally Posted by PWI In regard to questions we have received about the long-term status of Cain Velasquez and Tyson Fury, here is where things stand with them: Tyson Fury - He has been working out at the WWE Performance Center with Jonny Moss in preparing for his bout with Braun Strowman this Thursday at Crown Jewel. As of this week, that is his only planned WWE appearance and he is not signed to anything with the company. We are told that he's absolutely loved his time with the company and is open to doing more down the line, however. Cain Velasquez - The former UFC Heavyweight Champion has signed a multi-year deal (believed to be three years) with WWE and will be appearing regularly for the company going forward.

Originally Posted by PWI TMZ.com released video footage of the 7/25 arrest of WWE star Jimmy Uso (Jonathan Solofa Fatu) in Pensacola, Florida th In the video, Uso's car is seen swerving on the road and pulls over after the police turn their lights on. He is polite with the officers and admits that his swerving and speed (85 mph in a 45 zone) were both "stupid." Once he realizes he is being asked to take tests to measure his level of intoxication (Uso had admitted to having a glass of wine at dinner "two hours ago"), he begins to get more aggressive and asks to record the officers and for his lawyer to be present, consistently asking if he's being arrested or detained. He is finally placed under arrest and put into the police car. The Usos have not been used regularly by WWE since the arrest. The case against Uso is still open.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ia9L_ho8fKE

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling For those in Canada, AEW Dynamite will be airing on TSN 2 next Wednesday after originally being scheduled for TSN 3. The Wednesday night program will run on TSN 2 on October 30th, November 6th, November 13th, November 20th, and November 27th. TSN has not finalized its schedule beyond that but Dynamite will have a consistent channel destination at least through the end of November.

Originally Posted by PWI This Sunday's FOX special at 5 PM Eastern (check your local listings and affiliates) is slated to be a one-hour version of this week's Smackdown.

Originally Posted by Fightful Ryan Satin of Pro Wrestling Sheet reports that "a handful of wrestlers in the middle and lower parts of the card" in IMPACT Wrestling were told they would be given a raise prior to Friday's television tapings in Windsor. Other wrestlers were reportedly told on Sunday at Bound For Glory. Wrestlers who were told they would receive a raise include IMPACT Tag Team Champions The North (Josh Alexander & Ethan Page), X-Division Champion Ace Austin, The Rascalz (Trey, Wentz, & Dez) and Knockouts wrestler Jessicka Havoc. Satin reports "management wanted to give back to the men and women who’ve sacrificed their bodies to help the company as of late." It is unclear how significant the raises are, but Satin reports everyone in the locker room was happy with the increase, with one wrestler reportedly "almost brought to tears."

TPWW Frontpage:

• CNN Business Releases Report on WWE’s Declining Stock Value This Year
• NXT Looking to Broadcast from Other Arenas Next Year
• AEW: Dynamite Beats Raw in NYC, Extended Dynamite Episode Tonight
• Xavier Woods Has a Torn Achilles, Will Be Out for Several Months
• Luchasaurus Injury Not as Bad as Originally Feared

[Mr. Nerfect]

Hang on, so Marko Stunt actually attracting viewers is BS? It’s more likely people tuned out of the match and waited until that shit was over?

[Emperor Smeat]

No, the match still gained the most for AEW since that's 74k by the time it ended and not all of a sudden. It was only a net loss since it didn't make up the 91k drop between the previous segment and start of the match.

Same for Pete Dunne vs. Damien Priest was NXT's biggest decline in viewers until the over-run kicked in and turned that match into a net gain. The over-run also had the biggest audience gain for NXT meaning they didn't tune in specifically for that match but because AEW's show ended.

[Mr. Nerfect]

But the viewers left at the start of the match.

[Emperor Smeat]

Yeah but it still gained 74k viewers by the end of it which was 3k more than what Omega/Page vs. Moxley/PAC did despite being a net loss in the end.

[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets:

Originally Posted by Observer A Raw episode built around the Rusev and Lana marriage split angle last night ended up doing the third-worst non-holiday number in the modern history of the show. The show did 2.13 million viewers on average, barely beating the September 9 episode this year and the June 10 episode against the NBA finals. The only other shows finishing lower were on this past Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve. Football hurt, as it does all fall, but that's not the excuse since the Pittsburgh Steelers-Miami Dolphins game did 9.98 million viewers, the lowest Monday game so far this season. It was a nine percent drop from last week with lesser competition, with significant losses in every hour ... The three hours were: 8 p.m. 2.33 million viewers 9 p.m. 2.15 million viewers 10 p.m. 1.93 million viewers

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling The third drop experienced an additional drop of 10% with the show built around the Divorce Court segment involving Rusev, Lana, and Bobby Lashley. Despite the success the segment saw on YouTube, the viewing pattern of the show told a different story regarding people sticking around for the third hour. The final hour of Raw was the fourth-lowest third hour of 2019. The major loss was seen among female viewership with women 12-34 down 21% from last week’s show and a tune-out of 19% from the first to the third hour. Among women 18-49, they were down 12.5% from last week and down 26% from the first hour of the show to the third hour. The only key demographic that stayed steady was males 18-49 where they were up 1% from last week but dropped 13% from the first hour to the third.

More on this week's RAW viewership.

Originally Posted by Observer Steve Austin's new show on the WWE Network called Steve Austin's Broken Skull Sessions, which will be interview segments with different wrestlers, debuts Thursday on the WWE Network. Austin's prior interviews were the most-watched non-PPV programming on the network in the past.

Originally Posted by PWI In regard to a question we have received about XFL Players' potential of playing for the NFL, we are told that the current contracts allow a player to leave for the NFL after the existing XFL season is completed. So, if someone goes on a tear in the inaugural season, they would be free to sign with an NFL team (if there was interest in them) after the XFL season has been completed.

Originally Posted by Fightful Mike Johnson at PWInsider reports JoJo Offerman will be back on the road with WWE on Monday, Oct. 28. She is scheduled to be backstage at WWE Raw, though it is not known if she will appear on television or in social media segments. JoJo has been off the road since January as she was pregnant with Bray Wyatt's child. She gave birth to Knash Sixx Rotunda in May.

Originally Posted by PWI For those of you in Canada, AEW Dynamite this week will air on TSN 2. We have heard the Friday 10/25 Dynamite replay on TNT, which featured an "extended" five minutes of content, brought in either 254,000 or 255,000 overnight viewers.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling TNT is not scheduled to air a replay of AEW Dynamite tomorrow night at 10 pm eastern. For the first three weeks, they ran a replay immediately after the live broadcast but didn’t air one last week. TNT will be running a one-hour version of Dynamite on Saturday morning at 9 am.

Originally Posted by Observer John Cena announced yesterday that he is planning on donating $500,000 to a charity of Paramount Pictures’ choosing as long as it aids first responders. Paramount Pictures responded by saying they would be donating the money to the Los Angeles Fire Department and the California Fire Foundation. Fires have been raging in California in the last week, forcing evacuations.

Link: https://twitter.com/JohnCena/status/1188965875141038084

Originally Posted by Observer Seth Rollins did a promo after his match last night talking about his perceived lack of respect, saying “There's been a lot of disrespect lately, I feel like. The Fiend is cool, fresh, and new and has this cult following. And that just puts a chip on my shoulder. I feel like I'm out here every single week, busting my back, breaking my back, putting this whole company on my back sometimes. And I don't get the respect I deserve because there's this new flavor of ice cream.”

Originally Posted by Observer Musician Poppy is advertised for tomorrow's episode of NXT.

Originally Posted by Observer The Chicago Cubs jobber team from last night’s Raw were Mike Sydal (brother of Matt) and Kyle Roberts.

Originally Posted by Observer A pre-Crown Jewel media event will stream live on the WWE Network and WWE's YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter accounts early Wednesday morning. It was announced today that "WWE Superstars are set to meet the media in Saudi Arabia one day before they take center stage at WWE Crown Jewel." The media event will begin at 4 a.m. Eastern time tomorrow (October 30). The Crown Jewel pre-show will begin at noon Eastern this Thursday, with the main card starting an hour later.

Originally Posted by Observer Less than two weeks before they were supposed to take place, ROH has postponed their two November shows in Texas. The ROH shows that were set for Gilley's Dallas in Dallas, Texas on November 9 and The Aztec Theatre in San Antonio on November 10 will no longer be taking place on those dates. They've been postponed to June 5 and June 6, 2020.

Originally Posted by Observer Ahead of their first pay-per-view, MLW has confirmed a behind-the-scenes addition to the company. It was announced via Sports Illustrated today that Chris DeJoseph has joined MLW as a co-executive producer. DeJoseph was formerly an executive producer for Lucha Underground and was also part of the WWE writing team for six years during his career.

Originally Posted by PWI As PWInsider.com reported earlier, Hulk Hogan's plane landing in Iceland led to several burst tires, preventing Hogan and Jimmy Hart from continuing on to Saudi Arabia. While Hogan did not mention it on his videos, likely to prevent the current storyline, Ric Flair was also traveling with him. Hogan stated earlier that a "friend from Minnesota" offered them seats on his plane to allow them to continue on to Saudi Arabia on schedule. PWInsider.com has learned that friend was actually Brock Lesnar as his plane to Saudi had stopped in Iceland as well, likely to refuel. So, Hogan, Flair and Hart jumped on Lesnar's flight.

Originally Posted by PWI WWE announceed this afternoon that tomorrow at 7 PM EST, the USA Network will be airing a one-hour version of last week's WWE NXT episode, which ended with Finn Balor turning on and attacking Johnny Gargano. One would think the strategy here is to get fans to watch NXT and continue watching, as opposed to switching over to AEW on TNT.

Originally Posted by PWI In an interview with Marca.com, Rey Mysterio noted that his son Dominick is slated to begin training at the WWE Performance Center in 2020.

Originally Posted by PWI Corey Graves was interviewed about the forthcoming WWE Podcast he will be hosting by Newsweek at this link. On getting involved with the project, Graves said, "WWE reached out to me. I heard mumblings of a podcast partnership for the last year or so, and this place is so big that you can't believe anything until you see it. So I got a call about a month, maybe two months ago, asking if I'd be interested in hosting the WWE flagship podcast. For me that's a great compliment because it's a big undertaking and the company is putting a lot of effort into this, so I was flattered to be the first one asked to do this and be entrusted with the keys to the castle. The first question I asked when they approached me about the podcast was, "is this going to be a WWE fluff piece?" And they assured me that it wouldn't because I said "if you want me to go on and talk about how great everything is and put my head in the sand and not talk about things that most podcasts cover then I wasn't interested." They assured me that I am allowed to rock the boat a little bit. That to me was very exciting."

Originally Posted by Fightful The Jordan Myles situation boiling over has plenty of people talking, among those is WWE Hall of Famer Booker T. A situation unfolded over the weekend where Myles went off on WWE brass for pushing through a WWE t-shirt featuring his name that appeared to utilize black face. After being tagged in numerous tweets about the matter, Booker spoke of it on his Youtube channel Monday. "I've been a part of WWE since 2001, and I've had several t-shirts. Every t-shirt all the way up to the hall of fame, they came up to me and gave me several designs. Even back to WCW, I was always a part of the process. I don't know how this t-shirt got out without him knowing about it first and foremost," said Booker. Beyond Booker's feelings about the situation, he didn't think the shirt was created with malice, but that it was a garbage looking shirt. He also feels like racial controversies are cooked up out of nowhere. "It's not our job to step up and defend Jordan Myles over his t-shirt. One thing I will say, it's not a good looking t-shirt. It's an ugly shirt. The t-shirt has a black background to it, 90 percent of the shirts have a black background to it. Did it look like black face? Maybe to some people on social media said that. There's a lot of negative people on social media who are looking for anything to make racial. It happens all the time. I can't think the guys went into it (looking) to make a racial shirt about Jordan Myles. To me, the firestorm is not worth going through this," Booker stated. The WWE Hall of Famer continued to sound off on the controversy by taking the former ACH to task for voicing his grievances on social media. To Booker, unless he's getting paid by his social media following, the issues are meant for WWE and Myles to directly handle. "Is it something that should have been talked about? Yes. This going to social media crap is the worst thing I've seen in my life. Your business and your job is your business, with that company. It's not for the world to come in. I don't know the last time someone on social media signed my check. Because they don't sign your check they shouldn't know what you're doing? You're damn right! It should be handled, and handled behind closed doors. I've had many racial issues I've dealt with in this business, and none of them have been on social media. There has never been a racial issue that has gone over my head or I've swept under the rug. Every time anyone has said anything racial to me, I've handled it. To hear this Uncle Tom crap -- I heard Jay Lethal's name. I've heard people call me an Uncle Tom, I wish they'd do it to my face, I'll show you what an Uncle Tom looks like, if you do it in public," said Booker T, before clarifying he wants social media complaints reduced.

In regards to Booker's claims that talent are involved throughout the design process, Myles provided the receipts denying that to be the case in NXT. Deadspin's Bixenspan also provided evidence from others in NXT supporting Myles side in that part of the dispute.


TPWW Frontpage:

• Judges Will Decide Cody vs. Jericho Match In Case of a Time Limit Draw
• Jordan Myles Says His Tweets Were “Disrespectful and Unprofessional”
• Jay Lethal Suffers a Broken Arm
• Identity of the Masked Luchadora Who Debuted on Raw
• NXT Wrestlers Have Reportedly Not Gotten Pay Raises, Despite Millions from USA TV Deal

[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets:

Originally Posted by Observer NXT and AEW will both face competition from game seven of the World Series tonight. The Washington Nationals defeated the Houston Astros last night to extend the series, with last night’s game drawing more than 16 million viewers on FOX.

Originally Posted by PWI With the seventh game of the World Series tonight, AEW Dynamite and WWE NXT will face a massive distraction to their audiences tonight. This is how they and their respective cable networks plan to battle the threat: AEW - TNT will air an immediate replay of Dynamite at 10 PM EST when it goes off the air live. WWE NXT - The USA Network will air a one hour replay version of last week's NXT at 7 PM EST. They will air the live two hour broadcast at 8 PM. They will then, for the first time, air an immediate NXT replay at 10 PM EST. So, each network is hoping that fans who are watching Major League Baseball live will check out their respective replays after the game ends.

The AEW Dynamite portion of the report ended up being wrong since TNT is currently airing a movie instead.

Originally Posted by PWI WWE trademarked "UUDD" on 10/22 for clothing purposes. That's the Xavier Woods YouTube gaming channel.

Originally Posted by PWI Natalya tweeted the following: The world will be watching. I am so incredibly proud to represent our women’s division tomorrow night at #WWECrownJewel. It’s time to bring your best, Lacey. pic.twitter.com/TeglMWzbZM — NattieByNature (@NatbyNature) October 30, 2019

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling WWE Universal Champion Seth Rollins was one of the first guests on the After The Bell podcast with Corey Graves. Seth had the opportunity to further address the comment he made about Kenny Omega at a recent Q&A session during-which Rollins referred to All Elite Wrestling as the ‘minor leagues’ when asked about a potential match-up between himself and Omega: “So, that was fun. We do Q&A sessions and so I had somebody ask me about a potential match-up between Kenny Omega and myself. Kenny and I worked together at Ring of Honor, nine, ten years ago or whatever it was. Maybe a little longer even, and we worked with each other and had some really good matches and I had a great rapport with Kenny. I actually considered him a pretty good friend and stuff and he told me about his time in developmental because he signed to WWE in Deep South [Wrestling] for a little while. He ended up getting sick of it and quitting and stuff like that and went on to have great success in his own right. But yeah, no ill will towards Kenny Omega and I’ve seen Kenny’s stuff since then and he’s an incredible performer but again, if I just sit there and say, ‘Oh, Kenny Omega, what a talent. I would love to wrestle him someday.’ Womp womp. That doesn’t make a headline man. That’s boring, then J.R. has nothing to talk about. God, just let us hate each other. Look, Kenny is great. Kenny’s gotta prove himself in the WWE. So, that’s what I was saying. It is what it is. WWE is the top of the mountain. I’m the guy sitting at the top of the top of the mountain and so if Kenny wants to come and like I said, play in the major leagues, get out of the minor leagues or whatever then that’s fine. The bottom line is, I [asked] Kenny to come to me because I’m not going to him anytime soon.”

Originally Posted by Fightful Over the summer, Seth Rollins made some enemies online when he got into a back-and-forth with Will Ospreay over who the best wrestler in the world is, with both Rollins and Ospreay laying claim to the title. The discussion quickly went off-topic as Rollins brought up his bank account compared to Ospreay's. The comment didn't go over well with fans, but Rollins explains that he was just having some fun. "To me, a big part of being one of the best is being able to draw money," Rollins told Corey Graves on After The Bell. "That's what our industry is at the end of the day and people don't like that for some reason when it came from my mouth. When other people talk about it, say Cody Rhodes or Sasha Banks, they're cool. But if I come right out and say, 'I've drawn more money than you over the last however many years' I'm the bad guy. Fine. I'll be that guy. I've got nothing but respect for Will Ospreay. It's cool that he stepped up and we got into a spat. If we're all buddies and friends, that's lame. I can be the most humble dude on the planet, but that's boring. Twitter is a place where you have fun."

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Keith Lee spoke with Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated prior to the 10/30/19 edition of NXT. Lee was asked about the Jordan Myles t-shirt situation and Lee had the following to say about the way black wrestlers and their characters are treated in WWE: “My character isn’t a character. Keith Lee is Keith Lee. There’s not really a character involved here, so it’s hard for me to really answer that. I’m me, and the only thing that was ever given to me was ‘Bask In My Glory,’ which is thanks to Dusty Rhodes. So I can’t really have qualms about how I represent myself, because it’s by choice. In terms of story, its taken some time to get where I am. But with the work and buzz I’ve created, I’ve put myself in a position where I’m given opportunities that I feel like I deserve. My job is to continue to produce results, ones that continue my narrative—that Keith Lee is everything he says he is, and then some.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling According to the Orlando Business Journal, between 2022 and 2025 is a timeline that the city wants to host either a WrestleMania, SummerSlam and/or Survivor Series.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Nick Hausman welcomed IMPACT World Champion Sami Callihan onto the WINCLY podcast and Sami revealed that he is under contract with IMPACT Wrestling until December of 2020: “I’m tied in with IMPACT Wrestling until next December. Not this one coming up. The one coming afterwards but right now, that’s not even on my mind. My mind right now, is being the full force behind saving IMPACT Wrestling and I think I’ve done exactly just that.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling AAA held a press conference today. It was announced during the presser that Kenny Omega will defend the AAA Mega Championship on December 1st.

Originally Posted by Observer Stephanie McMahon told Bleacher Report about why Natalya and Lacey Evans were chosen for WWE’s first women’s match in Saudi Arabia: “Natalya is somewhat of a legend in the women's division. She is the veteran. She has been here for so long, been a part of so many of the changes that have happened. When you consider her legacy and family history, it's pretty remarkable. You take Lacey Evans, who is fairly new on the scene but who has not been shy about sharing her perspective on overcoming, especially in her life and the things she's been through. She has a young daughter and she wants to set an example and pave the way not only for her daughter but boys and girls all around the world. That's their personal stories. I can't think of better representatives for WWE. You can go on their social media. They've made some pretty awesome statements." Stephanie noted that Natalya and Evans’ ring gear will be different than what it normally is: “I haven't seen the designs but I do know there are certain restrictions and we want to be respectful of the culture. Their costuming will be different than what you would see in a typical WWE show.” Stephanie also confirmed that another Evolution PPV is most likely not going to happen this year: “We did consider it. A lot of our focus has been on having this particular match as a part of this PPV in Saudi Arabia. More to come on Evolution but it's most likely not going to happen in 2019.”

Her comments about Evolution 2's postponement contradicts Triple H's comments he made a while ago. According to Triple H, Evolution 2 was postponed due to them being very busy with getting things ready for the start of their new tv deals and juggling a bunch of events at the same time.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Diamond Dallas Page joined Wrestling INC’s WINCLY podcast and talked about his recent appearance on AEW: Dynamite and made it clear that he has not signed a deal with the company and everything he does with AEW is for Cody Rhodes. “I wasn’t supposed to be at the AEW show. Cody called me — he was like, ‘Hey, can you do this?’ And I go, ‘Yeah, okay’.” He continued, “I started with Cody on this. First of all, I don’t have a contract. I’m not employed by AEW. I’m doing this for Cody, and you have to understand that it’s a thing of… I’ll give you an example: Without Dusty Rhodes, there’s no Diamond Dallas Page. I don’t have… I probably don’t — I’m positive I don’t have everything that I’ve been able to accomplish, and a lot of it had to with The Dream giving me the opportunity. Well, being as close as we were, you know, I’ve known Cody since he was 12 years old and we just hit it off immediately.” DDP went on to explain that the reason he hasn’t signed with AEW is that he wants to continue working with WWE: “And I also wanted him to know as this was starting to grow, the reason I’m not gonna take a contract with AEW is because I still wanna work WWE, because my fitness and wellness plan is really important to me and I know how Tommaso [Ciampa] and [Johnny] Gargano and Lacey Evans and the people who are there I’ve done it with — Shayna [Baszler]. All the different artists that are there and I helped them by getting them in my program and helping them. So I wanted to help the boys and the girls, and of course AEW, but WWE, I’ve been doing for years. So I didn’t really want to take any kind of contract, but when I talked to Code about it, I also wanted him to know that if I was giving him any kind of advice, it wouldn’t be tainted.”

Originally Posted by Fightful Scott Stanford, Charly Caruso and David Otunga will be part of the WWE Crown Jewel kick-off panel. The 20-man battle royal with the winner receiving a United States Title shot will be part of the kick-off show.

Originally Posted by Fightful The WWE on Fox official Twitter account has earned high marks from other Twitter users for interacting with fans and making jokes at the expense of reports and reporters. But the person behind the account admitted to making a poor tweet on Monday. The account posted a photo hyping Raw featuring Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Erick Rowan, Seth Rollins, Becky Lynch, and Kairi Sane. All six were advertised for big matches or segments at the show, but one user wondered where were the people of color. WWE on Fox replied, "What do you think Kairi Sane is?" The tweet was deleted after backlash from fans. A "person of color" is defined as "a person who is not white or of European parentage." In a post on Reddit, the WWE on Fox social media team admitted to making a mistake. "It was a bad tweet our on end. We shouldn't have even replied, or we could've used other examples like The Street Profits, R-Truth etc. But we just should've stayed quiet. Mistakes happen, and this was on us." A reply to the Reddit post said "While I can see why you'd think responding to that wasn't necessary, I personally thought it was quite enlightening to those who are ignorant of the fact that the Japanese are also PoC." The WWE on Fox account responded, "Imagine if they found out that I'm hispanic." This isn't the first time the WWE on Fox account has deleted a tweet. A tweet asking fans to stop chanting "What?" was deleted on Oct. 21 during Raw. The team later admitted that the timing of the tweet was poor as it took away from WWE Raw. The social media team also deleted a tweet following WWE Hell in a Cell where they declared 'The Fiend' Bray Wyatt the winner over Seth Rollins by disqualification. The match was officially ruled a "match stoppage."

Link: https://twitter.com/TheBarrylad/stat...65053967372288 , https://old.reddit.com/r/SquaredCirc...ately/f5o15qo/

Originally Posted by Observer Jordan Myles noted that all of the proceeds from his “F%#k Racism, Watch Wrestling” shirt on Pro Wrestling Tees will go to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America.

Link: https://twitter.com/GoGoMyles/status...837603840?s=20

Originally Posted by Observer MJF will join Excalibur on commentary for the episode of AEW Dark that’s being taped tonight.

TPWW Frontpage:

• Starrcast Releases Full Schedule for Starrcast IV Convention
• Various: Rusev & Lana Angle Doing Well on YouTube, Ratings Likely to Be Hurt By World Series Tonight
• “First Ever” Women’s Wrestling Match in Saudi Arabia Announced for Crown Jewel

[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets:

Originally Posted by Observer Going up against game seven of the World Series between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, AEW and NXT ratings were both significantly down from last week. AEW did an average of 759,000 viewers, down 21 percent from last week. In the 18-49 demo, the show finished sixth overall on cable with a 0.33 rating, down 27 percent from the previous week, which aired against game one of the World Series. NXT wasn't down quite as much in terms of either audience or the key demo. NXT averaged 580,000 viewers, which was down 14 percent from last week. In the 18-49 demo, the show did a 0.18, down 17 percent. The strongest demo for AEW was men 18-49, where they averaged a 0.48 rating, more than double the 0.23 for NXT. They beat NXT in every category except for persons over 50 (where NXT has an advantage every week), as well as women 12-34 ... Last night's World Series game averaged 20.8 million viewers on FOX for the two hours that aired opposite wrestling.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Where AEW got slaughtered was among younger viewers as people 18-34 were down 51%, females 12-34 were down 65%, and males 12-34 were down 44%. The audience AEW has struggled with most, adults 50+, was unchanged from the week prior with a 0.25 both weeks. NXT topped AEW among females 12-34 and adults 50+. They saw fewer erratic drops among the key demos with the largest being females 18-49 that dropped 31.5%. They also displayed gains among males 12-34 that were up 27% and people 18-49 that increased 15%

Originally Posted by PWI Joey Mercury 's run with Ring of Honor ended this week, PWInsider.com has confirmed. Mercury had been overseeing the company's training dojo and was working on the creative team as well as a Producer behind the scenes. We are told that Mercury was removed from his positions this week. We are told that it was a "mutually agreed upon decision" following this past weekend's in the UK.

Originally Posted by PWI For those asking how AEW Tag Team Champion Frankie Kazarian is after smacking his head on the apron during a hurancarana off the top rope to the floor, we are told that while he got banged up, he is OK and isn't expected to miss any action. He did not suffer a concussion.

Originally Posted by PWI In honor of Halloween, WWE Network News is reporting that we are getting two dark matches from a WWF Superstars taping which took place on October 31, 1989 as today's WWE Network "Hidden Gems" selection: WWF Superstars Taping Dark Match 10/31/1989 – Rowdy and Ravishing [Duration: 00:11:48] “Rowdy” Roddy Piper looks to show Rick Rude just how ravishing he can be when they face off in this rarely seen contest from Halloween 1989. WWF Superstars Taping Dark Match 10/31/1989 – A Savage Halloween [Duration: 00:14:08] On Halloween night 1989, “Macho King” Randy Savage, accompanied by Sensational Queen Sherri, battles “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan.

Originally Posted by PWI Ring of Honor issued the following ... Beginning Nov. 8, Fight Network UK will broadcast ROH’s TV show every Friday night at 9 p.m. This will mark the first time “Ring of Honor Wrestling” will air on British television. The program is currently available via the FITE TV app.

Originally Posted by Fightful Continuing his recent run of having superhero-inspired gimmicks, Ricochet's ring gear was inspired by All Might from the "My Hero Academia" franchise.

Originally Posted by Fightful On Wednesday's NXT, William Regal announced the first-ever women's War Games bout for NXT TakeOver: WarGames III. While the competitors have yet to be announced, it was confirmed that NXT Women's Champion Shayna Baszler and Rhea Ripley would serve as the respective captains. "It's crazy to think all the big moments in history I've been a part of," Baszler told CBS Sports. "I say this every single time. The first-ever Mae Young Classic and the first-ever all women's pay-per-view. Every time a historical moment happens, I think, 'What next?' This is what's next. I ask that every time. "But the thing I have to look at for the future is retaining and defending the NXT women's championship, whatever that entails. Just the way NXT has been run and the importance placed on the women's division, as long as I concentrate on the NXT women's championship, that title has history behind it and historical importance. As long as I do my job in defending that, history will come my way. I don't need to seek it out." On NXT, Baszler was aligned with her Horsewomen running mates Jessamyn Duke & Marina Shafir along with Io Shirai and Bianca Belair. On the other side, Ripley stood with Candice LeRae, Dakota Kai, and Tegan Nox. It is unknown how many competitors will be in the bout. "I have a whole lot of mixed feelings, to be honest," Ripley said. "I just can't wait to get in there. To be able to make history time and time again, that's all that I've ever wanted to do since being a little girl. I always knew that I was destined for something big in this world. I've already made history becoming the first-ever NXT UK women's champion, and I've been in the first ever Mae Young Classic. "Now, to be able to break history again and be in the first ever women's WarGames? It's insane. And not only just be in it, but to be the captain of my own team is just incredible. I have so many mixed feelings about it and I can't wait to step in there and give Shayna's team what they have coming, you know?"

Originally Posted by Fightful During his feud with 'The Fiend' Bray Wyatt, fans have turned on Seth Rollins after getting behind him heading into WrestleMania and his clash with Brock Lesnar. Fans have become more vocal about their displeasure with Rollins, stating their opinion on Twitter. Rollins hasn't backed down from the criticism, often engaging in a war of words on social media that seems to do him more harm than good. Speaking to Corey Graves on After The Bell, Rollins addressed the backlash. "If they don't get what they want, they whine about it on Twitter. That's kinda what happens nowadays. It happens with everything, not just our industry. If you do something, and it strikes a chord, it's almost like you're doing the right thing. I don't even know anymore. It's a weird industry. It's 2019 and I don't know what wrestling looks like anymore. It's a weird place," he said. "A year ago, I was everybody's favorite. The same people panning Hell in a Cell are the same people who were clamoring for me to be the guy to face Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania. I don't know what changed, except for the fact that I became the person they wanted me to be. Then they hated me for it. It's a very fickle audience." When asked about the crowd booing his WWE Hell in a Cell match with 'The Fiend Bray Wyatt, Rollins replied, "It's not a good feeling to put your body on the line, and you go out there and people don't like it. It hurts your feelings. You go out there, work hard, and you can have your opinion on it but it's a tough pill to swallow sometimes." Fans not only boo'd the contest, but chanted for rival promotion "AEW" and "refund" as the show went off the air.

TPWW Frontpage:

• Survivor Series Will Be Raw vs. SmackDown vs. NXT
• WWE Stock Price Plummets After WWE Releases Financial Report
• AEW Dark Taping Results – Oct. 30, 2019 – Janela & Havoc vs. Jurassic Express
• Women’s WarGames Match Announced for NXT TakeOver: WarGames

[BigCrippyZ]

Seth Rollins is either 1. a money grubbing pussy or coward for agreeing to simply tow the company line, or 2. he's an out of touch idiot or moron (just like his employer's "creative" CEO) for not seeing the forest for the fucking trees. Regardless, as a result, while I respect his physical abilities and sacrifices, I don't respect him or his opinion as an individual.

[Sepholio]

Said it in another thread but I've come to the realization that Seth Rollins is the real life personification of Dolph Zigglers gimmick.

[Fignuts]

[Triple A]

Yeah it's good tbh... sort of a "slow build" heel turn based on reality... assuming that he actually does turn heel.........

[erickman]

he is a better heel then face

[Ol Dirty Dastard]

I am desperately hoping he's working us marks. Would give him mad cred for that.

[Sepholio]

Working in what regard though? He isn't exactly acting like a heel in the media. He's acting like a cry baby. Is he planning to make a bitch turn or something?

[BigCrippyZ]

Originally Posted by Seph Working in what regard though? He isn't exactly acting like a heel in the media. He's acting like a cry baby. Is he planning to make a bitch turn or something?

Not only that, it doesn't make me want to tune in and watch him more, or even watch him eventually turn heel and then get beat by a face. Instead, it just makes me want to tune out because he comes across as just as out of touch or delusional about the quality of the product as his bosses are. If this is some "master plan" of a work, it's one of the lamest ideas I've ever heard of.

[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets:

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter We’ll have a more detailed look next week, but the WWE financial numbers, while beating profit estimates, indicated far more core business declines ... The decline in ratings since the FOX deal started and with NXT was not brought up, nor AEW’s success against NXT, either by the company or those asking questions, who were more concerned with overseas television contracts as opposed to consumer engagement in the product. The other key is that WWE lost $3.5 million during the quarter on their house show business. They have never lost $3.5 million on house shows over the course of a year, let alone a quarter. The losses were such even with canceling a number of shows, as well as doing a number of Supershows with stars from both brands, which in theory, although this didn’t happen, should have led to increased attendance. House show business doesn’t look bad on the surface, falling from a 4,500 average to 4,400. But that’s misleading because they produced 86 shows in North America, which were 29 television shoots and 57 house shows. The house shows draw significantly lower so that will weigh more heavily downward on the average. This year they were down to 67 shows, again with 29 television shots but only 38 house shows. They did increase overseas shows from four to seven, but that average dropped from 5,600 to 4,500. Ticket sales declined from $22.4 million in North America and $2.3 million outside North America to $18.3 million in North America and $2.3 million outside, but that’s also a misleading stat with 74 shows instead of 90. The gist is house shows are losing significant money for the first time, which doesn’t bode well for the industry as a whole. If the market leader can’t make money touring, what does that say for the prospects of doing so with the No. two, three or four group. Luckily house shows for WWE are a small part of their overall business, but they are still the constant to determine how many true customers the company is making and the strength of the brand to consumers. NXT averaged 817 paid and $32,287 per show in the third quarter of 2018. This past quarter attendance dropped to 693 paid on average and $26,467 gross per show.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter [Tyson] Fury said that the original idea talked with him about was a Crown Jewel match with Lesnar, but the idea changed when they were able to sign Velasquez. According to those internally, Lesnar vs. Fury was discussed but never got past early discussions, likely due to Velasquez having the storyline from the past and being the bigger star in the U.S. market, which is WWE’s primary market, and for Saudi Arabia, it wasn’t the matchups that were important as much as delivering matches with Fury and Velasquez

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter Balor is being advertised on Smackdown brand shows on the U.K. tour but we’re told the decision has changed and because of his being with NXT, he won’t be on the tour. Before they made the move to put him on NXT, the plan was for him to be on the Smackdown crew. When he lost to Wyatt badly, the idea was he’d go on his sabbatical and switch to Smackdown on his return, but then when the ratings ended up going the way they did, he was moved to NXT with the idea that his star power could make more of a difference there

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter The WWE Backstage show, which has had two introduction shows, one right after baseball playoffs and the other right after Smackdown this past week on FS 1, starts in its new regular Tuesday at 11 p.m. time slot on 11/5. Cena and Rob Gronkowski will be the guests. Ryan Satin of Pro Wrestling Sheet will have a regular role on the show, likely as the reporter to break news in the role Ariel Helwani had on the UFC version of the show. I didn’t hear of any other names up for that spot

Satin has been very public the past few months about trying to get a job in WWE and why he's been slanting a lot more pro-WWE online. He was also the one intitally trying to downplay last night's Saudi issues as being nothing more than just plane-related problems.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter In the segment-by-segment, the high point for AEW was 880,000 in the first segment. The low point was 701,000 for the Cody and Tony Schiavone car ride and Best Friends & Orange Cassidy vs. Alex Reynolds & John Silver & QT Marshall. Hikaru Shida vs. Shanna lost 85,000 viewers. The end of Shida vs. Shanna and the angle with Ortiz & Santana and the Rock & Roll Express lost 60,000 viewers. The Cody car ride and Best Friend s match lost 34,000 viewers,. The Cody/Chris Jericho contract signing and beating of Dustin Rhodes by Jake Hager gained 51,000 viewers. The Young Bucks & Kenny Omega vs. Jack Evans & Angelico & Kip Sabian lost 45,000 viewers. The end of that match plus the Jon Moxley/Peter Avalon angle and Moxley promo gained 9,000 viewers. And the Scorpio Sky & Frankie Kazarian tag title win over Pentagon Jr. & Fenix gained 55,000 viewers to 781,000. NXT did very close to AEW from 9 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. with Asuka & Kairi Sane vs. Dakota Kai & Tegan Nox, going against the Jericho contract signing and Young Bucks & Omega match. The AEW edge was 730,000 to 679,000 during that half hour, the closest it has come. But NXT collapsed in the last half hour of the show with the Tyler Bate vs. Cameron Grimes match and tag title match, with the head-to-head tag title matches doing 781,000 to 467,000. For NXT, the Finn Balor promo grew 30,000 viewers. I had expected Balor promo vs. Hikaru Shida to be close, but AEW had a 795,000 to 607,000 edge. Bronson Reed vs. Shane Thorne lost 62,000 viewers. The women’s tag title match gained 143,000 viewers, so they ended up meaning far more than Balor. The War Games angle after the match lost 39,000 viewers. Grimes vs. Bate lost 163,000 viewers. Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly vs. Matt Riddle & Keith Lee lost 27,000 viewers in the head-to-head, but when AEW ended, they gained 145,000 viewers in the overrun so that’s probably a lot of AEW viewers. It probably also kills them in the last quarter because fans watch the NXT main events in fewer numbers knowing they can watch the AEW closing angle and miss nothing on NXT and still see its closing angle.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter A video patterned after the character Sans has led to a lot of talk regarding a relationship between New Japan Pro Wrestling and AEW. The video, which played for Kenny Omega’s ring entrance on the 10/30 Dynamite show from Charleston, WV, had a message and gave a very cryptic message regarding Kota Ibushi and Omega. The video included a character of Ibushi holding his G-1 trophy. The rule of thumb with these guys is never do a tease that isn’t going to pay off. But we’re told emphatically there is nothing going on in the direction of Ibushi in AEW or AEW working with New Japan from people on both sides who would know. In fact, the video was closer to Cody sledge hammering the throne in meaning than signaling a working relationship and the return of the Golden Lovers ... The story behind the video does have its deep personal meaning and it plays off a similar video that Omega used at the 1/4 show at the Tokyo Dome. The story is that the universe of “Kenny’s Quest” is very similar to one featured in a hit, award winning video game, Undertale. Omega felt there were parallels in that game to his relationship right now with New Japan and he was behind it ... The video on Dynamite was meant as the continuation of the Tokyo Dome story. The ominous, evil being could be seen as New Japan, or whatever ominous evil the viewer wants to see.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter Regarding La Parka and his condition, the only news of the past week is El Hijo del Santo said he talked with Parka’s daughter who said he underwent a second neck surgery. Parka’s son, who wrestles as Karis La Momia Jr. (Parka was Karis La Momia prior to becoming La Parka Jr., and then just La Parka after AAA had its falling out with the original La Parka, who is now L.A. Park), denied the story only saying his father is in stable condition and sedated

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter Rush did an interview with Solo Wrestling. He said he wanted to keep working in CMLL but he couldn’t come to an agreement with the new boss (this was after CMLL cut his guarantee, believed to be in half) ... He said he is open to returning to CMLL with on a per show basis like the other outsiders do, although aside from Gilbert El Boricua, CMLL hasn’t been using the others of late. Rush was critical of CMLL for not bringing in more bigger names from New Japan and ROH. He said he’s not interested in signing a contract with anyone in Mexico. He said he’s had talks with Konnan and Dorian Roldan, but they haven’t reached an agreement. He said he’d working on a per-show deal with NLL (Alberto’s promotion) and would do the same with AAA ... He also complained about CMLL’s treatment of his brother, Dragon Lee, saying they didn’t treat him fairly saying he was fired because Rush left. That and because they told him not to work PWG and he did anyway. Rush said that three of the best promotions in the world (New Japan and WWE are two, I would presume AEW is the other one but he could mean ROH or AAA) want Dragon Lee but he’s not making any decisions until the new year

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter This week was the U.K. tour which did not do well. We didn’t get official numbers from the tour but 10/25 in London did about 400 at York Hall which is terrible, 10/26 in Newport, Wales, did about 150 and 10/27 in Bolton, UK looked to have done a little over 300

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter There are internal debates going regarding running Lakeland, FL over Mania week or not running in Florida that weekend at all, which would be the first time in many years they [ROH] wouldn’t run Mania week

Originally Posted by PWI The WWE wrestlers and staff who ended up stuck in Saudi Arabia yesterday will finally be flying home in about three hours. PWInsider.com has confirmed WWE will be bringing everyone home on one chartered flight together from Riyadh that will land tomorrow in New York City. For Raw talents that were stuck in Saudi Arabia, they can either continue on home and then turn around and travel back to NYC Sunday for Monday's Raw at the Nassau Coliseum or opt to remain on the road in NYC and then go home after Raw.

Originally Posted by PWI Atlas Air, the charter jet company that was traveling WWE talents from Saudi Arabia to The United States, issued the following statement: “A chartered WWE passenger flight operated by Atlas Air is currently delayed in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia due to a mechanical issue. The flight was scheduled to depart at 0300 local time on November 1. Our top priority is always to ensure our passengers arrive safely and on time at their destination. The aircraft is being repaired and will be inspected and certified before returning to service to transport our passengers to their final destination. We regret that operational disruptions delayed the flight and apologize to our passengers who were inconvenienced.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling The Young Bucks appeared on 98 ROCK Baltimore to chat about AEW’s Full Gear pay-per-view. During the conversation, Nick Jackson was asked what talents have impressed him the most thus far in AEW and Nick shared high praise for Luchasaurus and added that AEW is going “full blast” on him when he returns from his hamstring injury: “I’ll tell you right away, the first one who popped in my mind is Luchasuarus. He’s probably getting the strongest reaction live than anyone on the roster which blows my mind because man, maybe just a year ago, not many people knew who he was. So when he comes back from this injury, we’re gonna go full blast on him because he’s a star in the making and he already is a star.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling According to PWInsider, Joey Mercury is no longer working with Ring of Honor. Mercury had been working on the creative team, worked as producer and oversaw the ROH dojo. The site added that Joey Mercury was removed from his positions this week and it was a mutual decision. Mercury is still with Ring of Honor until the non-compete period in his contract expires. Joey Mercury took to Twitter and opened up about his departure from Ring of Honor. He shared text messages between himself and ROH GM Greg Gilleland. Mercury noted that he doesn’t want Gilleland out of a job but wants him out of the role he’s in now. There were transportation issues that Gilleland was set to take care of but did not and Joey Mercury released that information. Greg confronted Joey through text message about him coming to shows high, skipping shows and Joey telling wrestlers he can get them work elsewhere. Joey Mercury also recalled the incident that occurred with a fan in Portland at an ROH show this past June. Mercury said there was no security on-site and was disappointed that a “respected veteran” being Bully Ray, had to make a judgement call in that situation. He revealed that Shane Taylor’s contract with the company is up on January 1st, Bandido’s contract is up January 2nd and PJ Black’s contract expires February 2nd. BJ Whitmer added that everything Joey Mercury noted on Twitter is true.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Stone Cold Steve Austin joined ‘The Taz Show’ and during the conversation, Taz and Steve Austin began to talk about All Elite Wrestling. Austin praised the AEW World Title match between Chris Jericho and Darby Allin and said the young talents of today are more polished than he was when he was their age. “They [AEW] are pushing more athleticism and the business has changed. Its sped up and it’s a different landscape, and man… for that kid [Darby Allin] to be as young as he is — what is he? 22? 23 tops? Hell, when I started — I think I went to school when I was 23 and I had my first match when I was 24. But that kid, however long he’s been in the business, way more polished than I was at that time. Hell, half that roster is more polished than what I was at that age and so, hey man, they’re learning things at rapid fire fashion. It’s interesting to see just the creativity and what lengths — not lengths as far as risks, but just ways to push the creative envelope with respect to staying somewhat safe and you saw that kid get his hands taped up behind him and do all that stuff. It was great. I ain’t never seen nothing like that and I enjoyed seeing it. Wasn’t nothing like it.” Austin shared high praise for MJF. He talked about MJF looking the part and having everything it takes to be successful in wrestling but feels MJF needs a few more years under his belt to further develop his talents. “Oh absolutely. The whole way,” Austin said when asked if MJF stayed in character on the Steve Austin Show podcast. “You know, we shot an angle at the end of the thing. We shot a wrestling audio angle. It was tremendous. Nah, I like that kid. I like what I see in him. In his core, we say when we hit the mute button and go off air, hey man, he’s a good f*cking kid. Good looking kid, talk his ass off and you [Taz] love promo just as much as I do. Cutting them and listening to them so, this kid can talk a blue streak. He’s just full of sh*t. I mean that in a compliment, and full of himself and a hundred percent confident. He’s still young in the business and everybody would like to heap praise on him and say, ‘Hey man, he’s the next…’ Well, let’s see how the work keeps developing. So he’s a good worker right now. I’m not saying that he isn’t, but his promo — I think his appearance, everything, he looks the part, he talks the part and he works the part. But the work is gonna progress as he gets some more experience under his belt and I think that’ll be the telling factor, but as far as checking the boxes on being a star, he checks a lot of those boxes right now.”

Originally Posted by Fightful The NWA has released a statement regarding Jim Cornette and his recent controversial remarks on Twitter regarding suicide. In 2019, Jim Cornette is often regarded as a source of controversy and recently on Twitter, he made some off-color remarks about suicide on Twitter, that picked up a heavy negative response ... The National Wrestling Alliance, through Vice President Dave Lagana, released the following statement regarding Cornette: "STATEMENT BY NATIONAL WRESTLING ALLIANCE ON JIM CORNETTE Over the last few days, a situation was brought to our attention in regard to comments made by Jim Cornette that have been taken as making light on the subject of suicide. We’ve addressed the situation internally with Mr. Cornette and made it clear that any comments in regards to this subject, joking or serious, are not endorsed by Lightning One and the National Wrestling Alliance. Mr. Cornette understands the seriousness of this situation and with that he will remain the color commentator for NWA Powerrr."

Link with the tweets in question: https://www.fightful.com/wrestling/n...l-call-powerrr

Originally Posted by Fightful On Wednesday's episode of AEW Dynamite, fans were treated to the AEW debut of Shanna. Despite losing to Hikaru Shida, Shanna was able to win over the crowd with her performance. In an interview with the Portuguese media (translation via @ucancallme), Shanna confirmed she has signed a three-year deal with All Elite Wrestling.

Originally Posted by Fightful Pro Wrestling Illustrated released its 2019 Top 100 Women list and perhaps to the surprise of no one, Becky Lynch took the top spot. Lynch has had a banner year, ascending to the top of the WWE mountain by headlining WrestleMania 35 and winning both the Raw and SmackDown Women's Championships at the event. "The Man" placed 11th on the 2018 list, which was topped by Ronda Rousey. Though Lynch didn't place in the top ten last year, she was named 2018 PWI Woman of the Year, which was based on fan voting.

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[Mr. Nerfect]

I couldn’t be less interested in Seth Rollins if I tried. He’s just bland in main events. The reason they need to turn him heel is because he’s fucked as a babyface anyway.

[Jordan]

They should do an angle where STROWMAN cucks ROLLINS, BECKY just can't say no to BRAUN and it drives SETH cRaZy.

[Mr. Nerfect]

Originally Posted by Jordan X They should do an angle where STROWMAN cucks ROLLINS, BECKY just can't say no to BRAUN and it drives SETH cRaZy.

Right on, Partner.

[Mr. Nerfect]

Wrestling could use some sex. Not the way they do it between Lashley/Lana/Rusev though.