[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets:

Originally Posted by Observer Raw numbers last night were not good, as even coming the day after a pay-per-view and without a big football game, the show set the all-time non-holiday low with 2.05 million viewers. The previous low was for the November 11 episode that did 2.06 million viewers, but that went against the San Francisco 49ers-Seattle Seahawks game that did 15.98 million viewers. Last night's New Orleans Saints vs. Indianapolis Colts game did 11.06 million viewers. The only episodes in the modern era to do fewer viewers were shows that aired on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve this past year. The show started low, meaning not much curiosity or interest coming off TLC, and as is the case with most wrestling television shows, lost viewers throughout ... Because the open was low, the actual drops were not unusually high, but they were there. First-to-third hour in women 18-49 dropped 20 percent, first-to-third in male 18-49 dropped 24 percent, teenage girls dropped 34 percent, teenage boys dropped 20 percent, and the only reason the drops were not near record breaking was because the major audience, those over 50, were only down eight percent. The three hours were: 8 p.m. 2.20 million viewers 9 p.m. 2.10 million viewers 10 p.m. 1.86 million viewers

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Friday Night SmackDown finished with 2,330,000 viewers last week on Fox and was down 5% in viewers from the week prior. They did a 0.7 in the 18-49 demo and 0.4 with 18-34s, which were both #1 among network programs that night.

Down by around 9k compared to the initial ratings which only covered major tv markets.

Originally Posted by Fightful Cody Rhodes gave his take on Marty Scurll after his recent appearance on NWA programming. Scurll, whose future is not set in stone once his contract with Ring of Honor expired, appeared at the NWA Into The Fire pay-per-view this past weekend. In an interview with Alex McCarthy of talkSPORT, Cody reacted to Scurll heading to the NWA and said Scurll is simply testing the waters and doesn't think that what he might be doing in the coming weeks is any indication of where he might end up. "Marty is going to do what Marty is going to do. We all love Marty. Anything he does in the next few weeks or months, I wouldn't look at as permanent for him. He's very much testing the waters here and there and that's pretty much all I can say on Marty," Cody said.

Originally Posted by PWI There has been a lot of talk internally that WWE's third podcast will be centered around a female personality.

Originally Posted by Observer Kazuchika Okada will be one of the torch relay runners for next year’s Olympic Games in Tokyo.

Originally Posted by Observer The NWA announced that their January 24 PPV will be called “Hard Times.”

Originally Posted by PWI Impact Wrestling will run Mexico City in conjunction with AAA on 1/17 and 1/18, it was announced today. They will be running Fronton Mexico. Josh Mathews has signed a new deal with the company ... The 12/24 and 12/31 edition of Impact will be looks at 2019 in the promotion, along with talents talking holiday memories and Impact Year-End Awards ... The promotion has already announced a 2/21 Twitch special titled Outbreak and will return to the Davis Arena in Louisville, KY on 2/22 for an Impact+ broadcast.

Originally Posted by PWI Tracy Smothers, who's career has carried him across the WWF, WCW, Smoky Mountain Wrestling, Memphis, ECW and beyond, announced this evening that he has been battling lymphoma since being diagnosed on 11/14. Smothers had appeared at ringside at the Bobby Eaton Tribute event in Knoxville, TN over the weekend looking ill, which brought up concern publicy. Smothers, on his Facebook account, addressed those concerns, writing: "To all concerned I was diagnosed Nov.14 w Lymphoma cancer which now am on my 3rd treatment 3 to go Of Chemo which is shrinking the rapid growing tumors.Doc told me yrs ago I have blockage in my artery so here we are an have lost 45percent of my heart use.Also he said I have lots of head,body trauma.Doc said I had a heart attack some time back an didnt know it.Have felt bad for awhile now but thought I was getting old,lol.This is not fatal as its between my Pancreas,Colon,neck.A big TY to all of u but I look at it as getting a tube up,overhaul,tires rotated,oil change,etc.all in one lol.Remember LIFE is a BATTLE an I'm in it to win it so dont hesitate in trying to be tough by putting off getting checked out in this day an age u never know??GOD BLESS EVERYBODY.." We are told that Smothers is currently hospitalized as a result of his current treatment.

Originally Posted by PWI An arrest has been made in the criminal investigation into the death of Matt "Travis" Palacios. 48-year-old Luc Vu of Elmwood Park, NJ has been charged with reckless driving, failure to yield to a bicyclist, failure to obey a traffic device, drive left of pavement marking and failure to exercise due care, according to MSN.com. Palacios was struck while traveling on a bike path in East Harlem about 2:30 AM on Saturday 11/9 when a dump truck driver made an illegal left u-turn to get onto the Willis Avenue Bridge. Travis was struck and although rushed to the hospital, suffered serious trauma and was pronounced dead when he arrived. It is not yet clear whether Vu was aware he struck Travis. Vu was driving for D&A Contracting, which fired him upon learning of his arrest.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Ethan Page’s Body Guy Extravaganza over WrestleMania week will be headlined by Brian Cage vs. Scott Steiner in a 3 Stages of Hell match. Stage one is a live debate, stage two is a pose off, and stage three is a match with Page as the special referee. The show is taking place on Friday, April 3rd in Tampa as part of Wrestlecon at 3 pm that day.

Originally Posted by Observer This was a note about the MTV show The Challenge on Wednesday nights from those close to the situation regarding ratings and why DVR numbers may be so high for AEW & NXT. "I know you briefly referenced an MTV show that beats AEW/NXT most weeks. That show is The Challenge. We are the number one podcast and touring live show about The Challenge. Wanted to give you a heads up for some stuff to look out for. I know there is a bit of crossover between Challenge fans and wrestling fans. Among our listeners we have a ton of wrestling fans and we've even begun scheduling our live shows around wrestling weekends. We're doing the Tampa Improv Mania weekend and we did Chicago Improv this past November. MIZ started on The Challenge. Ziggler hosted the Season 33 reunion. CM Punk did Champs vs Stars. Overall it is a competition with drama etc so it does appeal to a similar audience. Like wrestling, their bread and butter is also 18-49.This coming week is the reunion for this season but then The Challenge will be dark for a few weeks between seasons 34 and 35. Season 35 will likely premiere around Feb. Might be interested to see how AEW/NXT do in the weeks with no Challenge whatsoever.”

Originally Posted by PWI Although WWE traditionally has a 90 day no compete, we are told that Cara is telling those reaching out to book him that he has no such clause. We are also told he is close to signing a contract with AAA in Mexico.

Originally Posted by Fightful Paige has made the most of her in-ring career being shortened, successfully transitioning from wrestler to panelist on WWE Backstage. The former Divas Champion has become a regular on the show, joining Renee Young and Booker T each week to recap the latest news and notes in WWE. Those who work on WWE Backstage have consistently said the show, which airs on Fox Sports 1, is separate from WWE and they are allowed certain freedoms they wouldn't have on Raw, SmackDown, or NXT. But Paige wishes she had even more freedom on the show. "I wish I got to have more," Paige told Corey Graves on WWE After The Bell when asked about the freedom she has on the show. "Sometimes, you get a little pulled back. Obviously, with Punk on the show now, since he's working under contract with Fox and not WWE, he can voice a lot more opinion. I would love to go in a little bit more. I love to talk crap and I feel like the crap that I talk is what the people say anyway. It feels good, but I wish I got to do it more."

Originally Posted by Fightful Taz and Corey Graves have an interesting exchange on Twitter after Graves posted a tweet about Vic Joseph and Samoa Joe being the "new and improved" Michael Cole and Tazz on commentary.

Link with the tweets: https://www.fightful.com/wrestling/k...ht-size-update

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Hiromu Takahashi was interviewed by New Japan about his 2018 injury during the match against Dragon Lee and recent return. He said that after he wasn’t going to return for the Best of the Super Juniors tournament this past spring that it had to be Osaka where he returned at Power Struggle and setting up the match with Will Ospreay for Wrestle Kingdom. He described the injury from July 2018 in San Francisco and thought his career might be over. Referee Marty Asami asked if he wanted to stop the match and Takahashi continued and thought it was adrenaline that got him through it. When he went to the hospital, he had to wait eight hours for a CT scan after the injury. The return at Power Struggle was kept a surprise with Takahashi that few knew, including people in the company. His first match back is this Thursday at Korakuen Hall teaming with Bushi against Will Ospreay and Robbie Eagles and is doing multi-person tags on Friday and Saturday.

TPWW Frontpage:

• WWE: No 205 Live for Next Two Weeks, Samoa Joe Close to Returning to Ring
• WWE: Rey Mysterio on His Career’s Future, Vince Not at TLC, TakeOver: Portland Tickets
• Kairi Sane Pulled From Upcoming WWE House Shows
• Sin Cara Changes His Name
• NXT and AEW Announce Commercial-Free Opening Matches for This Week
• Primo Colon Explains His WWE Suspension, Says He Didn’t Test Positive for Anything