[Emperor Smeat]

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Originally Posted by Observer Liv Morgan was cleared on 10/1 so she will be wrestling in the Ronda Rousey & The Bella Twins vs. The Riott Squad match. This match is supposed to set up the angle for the Evolution main event of Rousey vs. Nikki Bella for the Raw women’s title on 10/28 at the Nassau Coliseum, unless that plan has been nixed. Nothing has indicted that is the case.

Originally Posted by PWI WWE issued the following: WWE® to Report Third Quarter 2018 Results STAMFORD, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- WWE (NYSE:WWE) announced that it will report its third quarter 2018 results on Thursday, October 25, 2018, before the opening of the market. The Company’s Chairman & CEO, Vincent K. McMahon, and Co-Presidents, George A. Barrios and Michelle D. Wilson, will host a conference call beginning at 11:00 a.m. ET to discuss the results.

Originally Posted by PWI Mercedes Martinez tweeted: Thank you all for your kind words. See it for the first time or relive it again on @WWENetwork. The Latina Sensation vs. @satomurameiko was truly a battle where all combatants left everything in the ring. https://t.co/yEGdkehsSQ — Mercedes Martinez (@RealMMartinez) October 4, 2018

Link: https://twitter.com/RealMMartinez/st...82574629154817

Originally Posted by Fightful.com Lita has high praise for a NXT standout. Bianca Belair is one of the fastest rising stars in NXT and she's already caught the eye of a WWE Hall of Famer. Speaking to The Sun's Gary Stonehouse, Lita revealed what she loves about the EST of NXT. “She’s physically gifted, a great attitude, and when I very first saw her she had that intangible star quality that I just want to see more," she said. "Every time I see her I just want to see more. I can’t wait to see where her career goes. It’s crazy… no-one has ever used their hair as a weapon. It’s so cool how she thought of that and how it works. She sure has that star quality and uniqueness.” Lita isn't the only one to take notice of Belair. Recently, Charlotte Flair called Belair "the future" of the division.

Link: https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/73577...bianca-belair/

Originally Posted by Fightful/Observer Indies Roundup: 4 months after being dethroned by Low Ki for the World Heavyweight Championship, Shane “Swerve” Strickland has optioned his rematch clause. Strickland will challenge for the World Heavyweight Title at MLW’s Chicago debut on November 8th as part of its FUSION TV taping for beIN SPORTS the Cicero Stadium. Shane Strickland’s World Championship Rematch is the second main event announced for the big MLW: FIGHTLAND card in Chicago November 8th. Chris Jericho announced a James Ellsworth vs. Jenny Rose match for the intergender championship on his cruise. Progress Wrestling ran its biggest show in its history, “Hello Wembley,” on 9/30 at Wembley Arena, drawing 4,750 fans, the largest crowd for a U.K.-based promotion in England since the 1981 Big Daddy vs. Giant Haystacks match that drew 7,000 fans. Everyone in the U.K. for years has used 10,000 as the attendance with the idea Daddy vs. Haystacks sold out Wembley, but the actual numbers for Daddy’s three Wembley shows were about 10,000, a legitimate sellout, for the 1979 show against Mighty John Quinn, about 5,500 for the 1980 show with Daddy & Wayne Bridges vs. Quinn & Yasu Fuji, and 7,000 for Daddy vs. Haystacks. There will be two small [NJPW] shows as part of an expo at the Anaheim Convention Center on 11/10 and 11/11. Both will be four or five matches, focusing on younger wrestlers with a Lion’s Gate style programs. The 11/10 show will have Jeff Cobb vs. Hirooki Goto as the main event and 11/11 will be the first-ever meeting of Kenny Omega vs. David Finlay.

Originally Posted by WrestlingInc Wednesday's episode of WWE's Total Divas drew 367,000 viewers on the E! network. This is down 5.9% from last week's episode, which drew 390,000 viewers, and is a new historic low for the show. This week's show ranked #63 on the Cable Top 150 in the 18-49 demographic. Last week's show ranked #56.

Total Divas and Bellas being mainstream draws for WWE is pretty much over. Last season started the serious decline and the show never really recovered since then.

Originally Posted by Observer There have been some notes from Chris Harrington and others regarding the drop in women watching Raw as compared to men. In the recent year-to-year declines it has hit women harder. Basically the key is this. When wrestling was at its most popular two decades ago, it was usually about a 70/30 men/women split, similar to most sports. Due to the popularity of Total Divas, the women’s had audience increased while the men’s audience decreased significantly ... What has happened this year is that Total Bellas and Total Divas have declined greatly in ratings, and thus, that women’s audience has also declined. It’s notable that this is taking place at a time when women are being treated as characters with more respect. The belief was that this change might help the women’s audience but could hurt the men’s audience, with the idea women want to see women treated respectably and as athletes rather than sex objects, but a lot of men watch the women only because they are hot and could care less if they could wrestle well or not. In fact, the opposite has happened ... But the decline in Total Divas, probably because of the show being on for so many seasons and shows like that run out of steam, and perhaps a big part if the Cena/Nikki break up since it was their relationship that was the key driver, has led to fewer viewers, and that “new” women’s fan base is now declining significantly. The funny part of that decline is it came at the same time Ronda Rousey became a regular character on Raw, and she was a huge mover among women on her UFC PPV shows. That also says that while Rousey is popular with wrestling fans, that the Rousey MMA sports fan and older women fan base, did not follow her in significant numbers to WWE television.

Originally Posted by Observer WWE on television was using the number 70,000 for Super Show Down, which means they have to announce a number in that realm or slightly higher. We were told that paid attendance expectations were 58,000 to 60,000. The MCG holds 100,000, and the Australian Football League (Australian Rules Football, like rugby, not soccer) on 9/29 drew a number in that realm. With the stage, WWE would have legitimately sold out with 80,000, which was the goal. But 60,000 for pro wrestling, WWE’s largest crowd ever outside of the U.S., Canada or England, would still have to be considered a major success.

Originally Posted by Observer Yoshi-Hashi’s shoulder is pretty bad off. New Japan rarely edits their stuff on New Japan World, and the only one I can recall was a blade job caught on camera, but they did edit Yoshi-Hashi’s run-in where he lost his footing and crashed into the ring. WWE would have replayed the same thing to death, and did with O’Neil Lance Archer has been banned from doing his running around the crowd, drinking water and spitting it all over people ring entrance. He’s taken to social media trying to get fans to get behind him to get the decision changed There is new regime in charge, not just Harold Meij as the new President, but also others that he’s put in key positions. The new people in charge for the most part don’t have any background in wrestling so there are things like some things said and etiquette that are different. They’ve replaced popular long-time officials that the wrestlers trusted and respected. The question a lot of wrestlers are asking is why a company that was on such a major business upswing has gutted the business team in charge during that upswing. Obviously the idea is to expand the business outside of Japan, but there is concern.

Originally Posted by Observer The reason WWE is filing for all kinds of trademarks on old wrestling terms from WCW, WCCW and other companies is because they were not happy that MLW trademarked War Games and has the ability to use the term

For some reference, WWE used to own the War Games trademark as part of their purchase of WCW but abandoned most of the WCW trademarks years ago.

Originally Posted by Observer The final episode of World of Sport was on 9/29. It was a good show, built around two title changes to end the first season. The bad news is that the audience dropped again, down to 200,000 viewers in a 2:30 p.m. Time slot. They opened on 7/28 with 937,000 at 5 p.m. There was major erosion after week one, and then secondary erosion with the time slot change in week six (700,000 down to 400,000). We didn’t have the 9/22 rating in last week’s issue but it was 300,000 viewers.

Originally Posted by Observer wXw announced major changes in hierarchy and business... The company also confirmed a deal with WWE. We don’t know if this was the case with this deal, but WWE’s deals working with other companies are that WWE would allow its talent on shows and also have the right to purchase the promotion at an agreed upon price should they choose to do so, as well as own the library. We don’t NWO that this deal is similar to other deals. But WWE is looking for independent libraries when they add tiers to the WWE Network. Robbie Brookside and Canyon Ceman of WWE were at the training school scouting talent last week and were looking for talent to bring to a November tryout in Cologne

Originally Posted by Observer There is definitely talk about All In 2 and even 3, but the contract situation is what it is. We’ve heard Memorial Day and Labor Day both being talked about, as well as Southern California and Chicago. Nothing is definite. The Memorial Day drawback is that’s less than two months from the MSG show and that’s a quick turnarond since it’s going to be a major traveling audience, and even though the MSG show actually sold out mostly to those within driving distance of New York, a large percentage of the All In crowd base will be going to New York that weekend

Originally Posted by Observer WWE is looking at expanding talent and the NXT side with all the added revenue coming in from the new deals. Among the ideas are more international Performance Centers and international territories, which means being even more aggressive in locking down people who they spot having marketable potential

Originally Posted by Observer There are those in the company pushing for the idea of the NXT TV show going two hours because they have so much talent, and to also increase the time of their Takeover shows. I could see the idea of two different one hour shows if one moves to a television platform as I’ve suggested in the past, and even could see a 90 minute show, but two hours seems like too much product. Similarly, the Takeover shows are the one thing in wrestling that isn’t broken and doesn’t need fixing. A key is that they already have one hour in the building before Takeover since they have to tape then next week of TV. So if they try and increase from 2:15 to 2:40 or so and go over three hours, you’re talking about a four plus hour live event, and that’s the night before a five to six hour live show

Originally Posted by Observer Wrestle Talk magazine claims through their sources in Saudi Arabia that the Saudi sports minister’s tweet regarding Hulk Hogan was not meant as a hint of a Hogan appearance on the 11/2 show. The tweet read in their language, “What is this World Cup that nobody is talking about?” It was meant to be Saudi Arabia mocking that its political enemy, Qatar, got the 2022 World Cup. They didn’t rule out Hogan being there, just that the tweet itself was meant to run down Qatar

Originally Posted by Observer An interesting stat regarding retention of the audience, and maybe product interest. Miz & Mrs. being promoted on television and airing right after Smackdown was doing 1.1 million to 1.5 million viewers. Mixed Match Challenge, promoted even harder on Smackdown and featuring live matches, airing in the same time slot, but on Facebook watch, live, as far as average viewership for the 30 minute show, was doing just under 30,000

Originally Posted by Observer The top ten most-watched shows on the WWE Network this past week were: 1. NXT on 9/26; 2. Table for 3 with McIntyre, Slater and Mahal; 3. Mae Young Classic week four on 9/26; 4. 205 Live on 9/26; 5. Hell in a Cell 2018; 6. 19998 Kuwaiti Cup; 7. Photo Shoot: Scott Hall; 8. Mixed Match Challenge from 9/18; 9. Mae Young Classic from 9/19; 10. Mixed Match Challenge from 9/25. So the key takes on this are that 205 Live is doing better when moved from being live to Wednesday and the week of the second week of Mixed Match Challenge, interest declined so badly that the first week beat it during the second week, which coincides with the decline on that show of the live audience

Some other sheet news includes:

• According to the Observer, WWE actually launched an internal investigation regarding Brie Bella injuring Liv Morgan with the initial blame going towards the ref for not checking Morgan afterwards. WWE's medical team also got looked at for why they allowed Morgan to go back into the ring for a spot.
• Rumor going around the net hints at WWE working on a partnership deal with The Crash in order to help their chances with the Mexican market.
• Another rumor going around the net hints at Vince becoming very impressed with Becky recently and even softened his stance against her promos due to her accent.

Some stuff from TPWW Frontpage:

• Johnny Gargano Hints That He’d Like to Stay in NXT for Now
• Various: Braun Strowman’s Parents, Super Show-Down Set, New NWA 70 Matches
• WWE Reportedly Trying to Get The Rock for SmackDown 1000
• Charly Caruso Now Works for ESPN Too