[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets (Observer Newsletter Edition):

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

WWE Ratings, AEW vs. NXT Ratings:

SPOILER: show

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

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

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

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