[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by Scaredy Pants Rollins:

This may be a long fourth quarter for WWE, as last night's Raw did 3.39 million viewers, almost identical to the record non-major holiday low of the past 18 years, of 3.37 million the prior week. The rating should have been up because last week's rating was caused by a show that caused massive audience tuning out late, and was hurt by Labor Day. This week went against two highly rated NFL games in the regular season debut of ESPN's Monday Night Football. The Falcons vs. Eagles game that ended at 10:17 p.m. did 13.56 million viewers. The late game, starting at 10:17 p.m. with the 49ers vs. Vkings did 14.33 million viewers. For Raw the three hours were: 8 p.m. 3.29 million viewers 9 p.m. 3.54 million viewers 10 p.m. 3.36 million viewers

Ratings ended up being around a 2.42 and a new historic low.

Originally Posted by Forbes Monday Night Raw and Thursday Night SmackDown are supposed to be the cornerstones of WWE programming, but things aren’t exactly going as planned. Despite having one of its most talented rosters ever, one that features everyone from former independent wrestling studs to household names like John Cena, the WWE simply isn’t attracting the amount of viewers that it once did. In fact, ratings for both Raw and SmackDown are in a downward spiral and have been for so long that anyone in WWE who isn’t concerned must be kidding themselves ... Even those at the USA Network, the home for Raw from 1993-2000 and 2005-present, are realizing that pro wrestling’s popularity isn’t what it used to be, thanks to the nearly unwatchable reboot of Tough Enough from earlier this year. According to The Wrestling Observer, sources at the USA Network indicate that officials there believe pro wrestling’s popularity is cycling downward, which is indicated by the decline in ratings. Wrestling tends to be a cyclical business, going round and round from lows to highs, but the disturbing plunge in ratings of the WWE’s two biggest shows highlights just how much the average fan’s interest in pro wrestling—and specifically, the WWE—has waned in recent years. Perhaps more importantly, though, it puts even more pressure on the WWE Network. Now, the Network has to succeed. Absolutely has to. That’s because Raw and SmackDown don’t have the stable futures that WWE wants them to have. Anyone who follows all of the major pro wrestling companies has seen that pro wrestling as a whole is struggling to keep pace with other forms of sports and entertainment, as indicated by the failures of TNA. TNA Wrestling, the closest thing to “competition” that WWE has had since WCW, has had a disastrous stretch over the last couple of years. After losing its spot on Spike TV, TNA moved to Destination America earlier this year, and there are already all sorts of indications that Destination America will drop TNA soon, too. Could the WWE suffer a similar fate? If officials at the USA Network truly believe that pro wrestling’s popularity is “cycling downward,” then the answer is a resounding “yes" ... The WWE Network announced that it had more than 1.1 million subscribers (averaging more than 1.2 million) at its second quarter earnings report earlier this year, an impressive number that is higher than its Tough Enough viewership and likely would be even higher if multiple Network users didn’t share one account like many are (probably) doing. As the WWE Network continues to deliver more entertaining original programming—like The Stone Cold Podcast, the NXT specials and pay-per-views— as well as historical footage, the viewers will continue to tune in and give the WWE a fallback option in the event that Raw and/or SmackDown gets the ax if and when the USA Network has had enough. However unlikely that may be, though, the pressure is mounting on the WWE to build up the WWE Network at a time when its flagship shows are falling down.

Part of a longer article by Forbes on the future possibility of WWE getting dropped from tv and the Network's importance for WWE's future stability. http://www.forbes.com/sites/blakeoes...he-wwe-network

Rollins won on March 29th. If he holds until Sunday that will be 175 days. The length in days of each Cena World title run are: 380, 280, 133, 133, 84, 84, 77, 49, 49, 49, 21, 21, 20, 14, <1 (via Wikipedia... no fancy links). The bottom 7 account for roughly 174/175 days (considering how you wish to count his few hour title reign). While his number of title wins is quite impressive, Cena rarely holds the belt for longer than three months

Thought it was interesting in a "WWE Did You Know" type way.

WWE has reportedly signed Tough Enough finalist Zamariah "ZZ" Loupe. He was at the WWE Performance Center working out in the ring on Monday, according to PWInsider. Apparently ZZ has reported to the Performance Center to begin working. WWE now has all four Tough Enough finalists signed as winners Josh Bredl and Sara Lee reported to work this month and Amanda Saccomanno has been filming Total Divas.

As most are aware, if Nikki Bella defeats Charlotte on tonight's episode of RAW to retain her Divas Championship against Charlotte, she will break AJ Lee's record as longest-reigning Divas Champion. According to Dave Meltzer, WWE has been going back and forth on who is going to win the match between the two. Meltzer says anything can happen tonight but if Charlotte doesn't win, it's probably because of the influence of Nikki's boyfriend John Cena. That is what he was told.

Some insight by the Observer prior to last night's Divas title match.

"It is interesting because I see it two ways. I see maybe people who don't watch it anymore, who were big fans in the Attitude Era, which was the most popular time in wrestling. It would appeal to people who may not be watching the current product, but would be interested in the video game. One of the things I think it shows is that we have not really created enough new stars, to where we put new stars on the front of the video game, so that should be the overall bigger concern. We need to not just rely on people from the past. There is almost this mentality these stars are bigger than the current stars, and they keep going with the mentality when the guys now are every bit as good as the guys from before, it is just they need to be given the platform."

Part of a recent interview Daniel Bryan had with The National. http://www.cagesideseats.com/2015/9/...ough-new-stars

WWE Hulk Hogan was recently interviewed for Sports Illustrated’s Extra Mustard blog and says he believes pressure from the USA Network is the reason WWE distanced themselves from him so forcefully in the wake of his racism controversy. Hogan told Justin Barasso that he spoke to Triple H shortly after the scandal broke but had a conversation with Vince McMahon about the situation. “Triple H was telling me the USA Network was reacting very badly, and they had to make a quick decision, and that was to put me out to pasture.” Hogan said. “They were under heavy fire and they were scrambling.” “The only person I talked to was Triple H. I called him and told him there was some old news coming out from when TMZ first reported the tape and there were some racial slurs on it. Triple H said, ‘Okay, thanks for calling. Let me talk to Vince,'” Hogan recalled. “He called me back a half-hour later and he goes, ‘I’ve got some news and it isn’t good. Vince said that you need to resign.’ I never heard from Vince or talked to Vince. In the middle of the night, they just fired me.” Hogan said he and his attorney, David Houston, requested a meeting with WWE to work things out, but WWE declined the request. Hogan feels like WWE treated him unfairly by immediately cutting ties with him and scrubbing him from the WWE website ... Hogan was hopeful that he’d get a chance to address the WWE Universe, ask them for forgiveness, but it never panned out.

.@WWE. E is for entertainment.
pic.twitter.com/48SOQyqI29

— Vince McMahon (@VinceMcMahon) September 15, 2015

Some other sheet news includes:

• WWE signed a new deal with Jakks Pacific to cover everything non-toy based for the company. Jakks won't have a chance to try to regain the action figure deal until 2019 assuming Mattel or WWE declines extending it.
• GFW signed a deal with Boulder Creek International (BCI) to act as their tv distributor for their Amped ppv series.
• In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, last night on RAW was the first time in Cena's career he ever beat Sheamus by pinfall or submission on tv. Never pinned or submitted him whenever he was involved in tag matches.
• Recent updates for the CM Punk vs. Dr Chris Amann lawsuit saw a judge toss out Punk's request to dismiss the lawsuit, the WWE denying they are involved in the lawsuit while actually getting a lot more involved behind the scenes, and the lawsuit itself likely getting settled due to how shaky it is for the WWE/Amann. Judge doesn't think the case is strong enough to need a trial by jury for a decision which Punk wants.
• Triple H announced the upcoming NXT special will be called "NXT Takeover: Respect." https://twitter.com/TripleH/status/643884657352790016