[Emperor Smeat]

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Originally Posted by Observer Raw last night, going against a strong NFL number and with no notable thing that would increase the ratings, did its worst number of the ThunderDome era last night with 1.66 million viewers and an 0.48 in 18-49. Both would rank among the lowest numbers in show history ... Last night's Raw tied the fourth lowest 18-49 number in show history. The decrease came days after SmackDown had its best numbers in 18-49 since March. The key was hour three, which was down 18 percent from the first hour, the biggest drop in a long time and led to the third hour being the least-watched hour in the history of the show. The show was down four percent in viewers and six percent in 18-49 from last week. It ranked ninth for the night in 18-49 and 39th overall. However, Raw remained the number one entertainment show on cable television last night both overall and in 18-49. It was behind three-NFL related shows and six news shows in 18-49. Of the top 40 shows in 18-49, aside from ESPN, there was only Raw, Below Deck on Bravo, The Holiday Baking Championship on The Food Network, and two shows on TLC. ... Another aspect of the drop was the Tampa Bay Bucs being a marquee team as their game with the New York Giants did 11.70 million viewers. As far as the first-to-third hour drops, women 18-49 fell nine percent, men 18-49 fell 17 percent, teenage girls fell 29 percent, teenage boys fell one percent, and over 50 fell 19 percent. As compared to last year, when the same week's Raw did what was at the time the fourth lowest watched non-holiday episode in history, this year was down 22 percent in viewers, 37 percent in 18-49, and 44 percent in 18-34. The three hours were 8 p.m. 1.77 million viewers 9 p.m. 1.75 million viewers 10 p.m. 1.46 million viewers

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Of the modern era data available, the previous record low viewership for an hour of RAW was 1,463,000 viewers in hour three of the July 27th episode this past summer, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

Originally Posted by Observer Anthony Bowens and Max Caster have signed with AEW. AEW President Tony Khan confirmed today via an interview with PWInsider that Bowens and Caster have signed, and will be going forward as a team under the name The Acclaimed. PWInsider also reported that Bowens had WWE interest prior to signing with AEW. Bowens and Caster have appeared on AEW Dark in recent months, with Bowens previously teaming with Lee Moriarity and Caster losing to Shawn Spears in a singles back back in June. The two teamed together on the October 27 edition of AEW Dark, losing to Best Friends.

Originally Posted by WrestleTalk Some more news has come to light regarding new AEW signing Anthony Bowens who has signed with the promotion along with Max Caster. Fightful Select reports that there was interest from WWE in signing Bowens before spring 2019 but the company just hadn’t gotten back to him about it. It was noted that coaches and staff in WWE were “puzzled” and said that he should have been signed by the company. The new contract with AEW was said to have been signed before the start of this month. WWE has been reaching out to a number of talents that have wrestled on AEW Dark, and has signed Ben Carter for NXT UK.

Originally Posted by Observer A new stipulation has been added to the Zack Sabre Jr./Toru Yano match at King of Pro Wrestling. Yano and Sabre will battle in a No Corner Pad match. Yano frequently uses the turnbuckles to his advantage during his matches, undoing them to expose the metal within the corners. This will be for the provisional King of Pro Wrestling title, a championship that is decided via stipulation matches. An angle ran on the Road to Power Struggle event that aired on November 2. Yano, who was on commentary for the IWGP Tag Team title match that took place, entered the ring after Sabre and Taichi successfully defended the titles against YOSHI-HASHI and Hirooki Goto. Yano removed all of the turnbuckles and cut a promo saying that Sabre pisses him off because he always puts the turnbuckles back on after he takes them off. He then announced the stipulation for the match. The show ended with Sabre sending Yano into an exposed turnbuckle, causing Yano to go backstage and complain loudly. The provisional KOPW title match will open Power Struggle, which takes place on November 7.

Originally Posted by Observer ACH is the latest name announced for the MLW "Restart." From the tone of the Tuesday announcement, he will be part of the Opera Cup tournament which MLW announced will be happening this year. He joins Davey Boy Smith Jr., Laredo Kid, Lio Rush, and Shawn Daivari as those either announced or known to be part of their late-October set of tapings in Orlando, Florida. After his very public issues with WWE that resulted in his release, ACH worked a December 2019 tag team match for MLW, teaming with King Mo against Jordan Oliver and Kotto Brazil. He also worked frequently for MLW in 2018 after their relaunch. He has kept a busy schedule since July, working around the country and making appearances for GCW, NJPW Strong, and other indies. New episodes of MLW Fusion debut on Wednesday, November 18th, their first fresh content since a March set of tapings in Mexico.

Originally Posted by Observer Former NWA Women's Champion Allysin Kay is now a free agent. Kay announced overnight that she's now a free agent and available for indie bookings and appearances. Kay thanked the NWA for the opportunities she was given. "As of today, I am officially a free agent," Kay wrote. "Thank you to the NWA for the opportunities, which included one of my favorite matches of my career. I am open for indy bookings & appearances. Let’s get weird. AK"

Originally Posted by PWI Since we have received a few emails about this following last night's Raw, Bray Wyatt and Alexa Bliss are both officially babyfaces on the Raw roster. Wyatt had considered been a babyface on the Smackdown roster but given the nature of The Fiend character, obviously he's not a babyface in the traditional sense. With the addition of Bliss at Wyatt's side, playing roles similar to DC Comics' The Joker and Harley Quinn, the question as to where they stand came up again overnight. Internally, they are considered babyfaces by the company.

Originally Posted by PWI WWE filed for a trademark on the term "Chigona Bomb" on 10/29. There is no clarity for how the term would be used by WWE at this point. The trademark filing is for goods and services, noting, "Wrestling exhibitions and performances by a professional wrestler and entertainer rendered live and through broadcast media including television and radio, and via the internet or commercial online service; providing wrestling news and information via a global computer network; providing information in the fields of sports via an online community portal."

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Last week, NWA President Billy Corgan clarified that former NWA Women’s World Champion Thunder Rosa is under contract through 2021. While appearing on Busted Open Radio, Rosa weighed her options and stated that she’d like to be in a company where she can continue her outside projects such as Mission Pro Wrestling ... Rosa also spoke about the dynamic between herself and Ivelisse. Rosa first clarified that there is no issue with Ivelisse from her side and says she’ll always handle her in-ring work with professionalism. “Well you know, I never had any issues with her [Ivelisse]. I’m just gonna put it out there, never had any issues with her. I worked with her in Lucha Underground, I worked with her in other promotions and I mean, I thought the match was going well and then you guys saw what you saw. We made it work, we finished, nobody got hurt and that to me, that’s the most important part. I am not gonna — like you said, you gotta make it work and that’s what I attempted to do and even to the finish, I made sure my opponent was safe at all times, no matter what happened in-between. So, like I said, like I told you earlier, my promise with anybody that I step in the ring [with], regardless of our relationship inside or outside is to keep my opponent safe. I’m not trying to kill you. It’s not MMA. They’re not paying me a bunch of money to try to kill you. This is a dance and I try to have the best dances possible, so, that’s what happened.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling During his ‘Hall Of Fame’ podcast, Booker T dove into the announcement of Kylie Rae’s retirement from pro wrestling. Rae worked for Booker T under the Reality Of Wrestling banner and she was also trained by Booker T as well. “Man, it’s sad, it really is. Kylie, when she first came to Reality Of Wrestling, she trained for, you know, [it] seemed like a minute and she won the Diamonds Championship her first night she got in the ring, first match, and she was so special as far as being able to make fans feel a certain way and she had the Pikachu character-like and she always smiled and I tell you, I didn’t really gravitate to the gimmick or anything like that, myself personally, as far as the Pikachu thing but she obviously knew what she was doing, because fans picked her out and they loved her more than they loved all the other girls and I was like, ‘Don’t say nothing. If it’s working, let it ride. If it [isn’t] broke, don’t fix it, don’t say nothing.’ That’s the type of guy I am. So, I saw her growing, growing, growing to the point where she got a shot in AEW immediately. She was on the poster in Vegas. Yes, she was on the poster and I was like wow, and then she no-showed the show. She didn’t show up and then everything started kinda going crazy a little bit after that. She went away. I actually called her, I actually talked to her, and after I talked to her, it seemed like she got back on track, she got back in the ring and started doing indies and then boom, she got the IMPACT deal and I was like, ‘Wow, okay boom, she’s back on track’ because you know, everybody goes through something. It ain’t a day that we all [don’t] go through something. That’s just life. So I thought it was just one of those deals and then now, to no-show another pay-per-view with another company and then this [comes out], it tells me, man, she’s in a place to where maybe the last place she needs to be is around a wrestling ring, around a bunch of wrestlers. It could be something that’s maybe not helpful to her right now. But, I do think she should probably concentrate on that more than her wrestling, than anything, just because her health and her well-being is more important than anything else, and obviously she’s dealing with something and I thought about calling her and saying something but, sometimes you just need to take a minute and try to regroup and find yourself. I’m sure I’ll find myself picking the phone up and making a phone call, but it’s sad to see her in this position that she’s in because there again, she is so talented but it’s like that a lot of times too. The most talented ones, sometimes, it might be something. It might be loose wire or something here or there. You never know what it is, or it could be something stemming from their past that you never really [know]. It could be any little thing that triggers so you know, I just want to see her safe, unharmed and happy, whether that be inside of the ring or out of the ring, it really doesn’t matter. I just want to see her well-being taken care of more than anything.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Chris Van Vliet sat down with Lilian Garcia for an interview and Lilian shared that Jake Rogal, producer of ESPN’s ‘The Last Dance’ docu-series reached out to her to be a part of a documentary that he’s co-creating about Stone Cold Steve Austin. Lilian has already filmed for the documentary. “Well, the producer from The Last Dance called me and he was like, ‘Hey, hey Lil –’ actually WWE reached out to me first. They were like, ‘The producer from The Last Dance is gonna reach out to you. They want you involved in a documentary,’ and I was like, ‘Wait, what?’ So I end up getting reached out by them and it was funny because my husband and I were currently watching that documentary as this message was happening so when Jake [Rogal] reached out to me, I was just like, ‘Jake, I’m literally watching your documentary right now. Like this is amazing.’ Come to find out, they wanna do a documentary for Stone Cold Steve Austin and it’s coming out next year, and [he] gave me the biggest compliment. He said, ‘Your interview with Steve that you did on Chasing Glory was what made us realize that we wanted to do a different documentary’ because he’s had a few already but he said, ‘We’ve never heard the story of him being so shy as a kid that he couldn’t even order from the dairy queen, that his sister had to order that’ and to see what he’s become was so inspiring and I was like, ‘Holy cow, that’s amazing.’ So then they said, ‘You had such dealings and you seem to have such a friendship with him, we want you in the documentary’ and I’m like, ‘That’s amazing, totally.’ So immediately I reached out to Steve. He knew they were going to reach out to me and I was like, ‘Dude, this is so special’ and he’s like, ‘Would you really be in it?’ And I’m like, ‘Are you kidding me? Of course I’ll be in it.’”

Originally Posted by Fightful It's been almost 20 months since we've seen Ronda Rousey in a wrestling ring for WWE, but she's been in one a couple times lately for other reasons. Rousey and husband Travis Browne have been spending some time in the ring, with the latter getting some work in ahead of what would be his pro wrestling debut if he so chose. Fightful Select recently broke some news in relation to the details of the training sessions. Originally Posted by Fightful We've heard Ronda Rousey tell Natalya that she hopes they meet in the ring again one day, but Rousey has been training of late as well. She's not alone. Travis Browne has also been getting pro wrestling training in, and actually did some with James Storm as the latter showed off on social media. We've specifically heard that Browne has been working on his timing and selling of late and has impressed people with agility for his size. As of this year, Browne was still in the USADA drug testing pool required for UFC fighters, though he hasn't fought since July 2017. Dana White stated he thought Browne should retire, but he's not officially been released as of yet. Rousey herself has trained at least several times that we know of in California over the past several weeks.

Originally Posted by Fightful Since WWE moved from the Performance Center to the ThunderDome at the end of August, fans have been treated to an over the top television experience. The ThunderDome helps recreate the live event experience with virtual fans, pyro, lasers, drones, and the large scale production WWE has become known for. One complaint regarding the ThunderDome has been the crowd noise, which is a mix of real audio and piped in chants. Some fans have found the audio distracting during segments. Speaking on Token CEO, Stephanie McMahon revealed WWE didn't initially want to use the fake crowd noise in the ThunderDome. "The audio made such a difference. At first, we did not want to pipe in any audio because we thought it would come off as phony and it wouldn't feel real. We didn't like that. When we started experimenting with the mix of real audio with the amplified audio, it made such a difference as a viewer," she said. Stephanie went on to say that now is the time for brands to experiment and that consumers want to become attached to brands that experiment. She also said brands can't be afraid to fail during this times.

They should have canned the idea since their handling of fake crowd audio for the ThunderDome shows has been horrendous at times and seems to be getting worse almost every week. Pretty much took all the wrong lessons from the Orton vs. Edge "Greatest Wrestling Match Ever" and amplified it to the nth degree.

Originally Posted by Observer The company has launched an AEW Games Twitter account and has announced a major announcement on 11/10 at 6 p.m. Eastern time. This is likely the first video game announcement.

Originally Posted by Observer According to Stephanie McMahon, the upcoming Netflix docuseries on Vince McMahon will be four episodes. Talking to Barstool Sports CEO Erika Nardini on her podcast that dropped Monday, the WWE's Chief Brand Officer revealed the news. No release date or relevant information was given. McMahon said she was excited about the project, but a little nervous because it's still her father. WWE President Nick Khan gave the news during last Thursday's quarterly financial call, claiming it's one of the most expensive docuseries the streaming giant has ever done. Bill Simmons (Spotify and HBO) will be an executive producer along with Chris Smith and WWE Studios. Smith will also direct the series with Netflix's Fyre Festival documentary and The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann on his resume. The docuseries won't be the only look at the iconic WWE Chairman's life as a biography by Abraham Riesman via Simon & Schuster imprint Atria is set to come out in 2022.

TPWW Frontpage:

• Various: FTR on Young Bucks Build Issues, Thunder Rosa on Terms for Signing Future Deal, Indies
• NJPW Announces Participants for Best of the Super Jrs & Super J-Cup 2020 Tournaments
• Kylie Rae Says She’s “No Longer a Professional Wrestler”