[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets:

Originally Posted by Observer SmackDown averaged 2.061 million viewers on Tuesday night, down two percent from last week. More notably, the show retained 97 percent of the previous night's Raw audience, one of the highest retention rates since moving to Tuesday nights. This confirms the thought that Raw's bad number was due to competition from Monday Night Football, which affected the rating more than it has in previous years, even with Steve Austin making an appearance on Raw. SmackDown was only down seven percent year-over-year, while Raw had a 22 percent drop when compared to the first week of Monday Night Football in 2018.

Originally Posted by PWI With Anthem having taken over the majority ownership in AXS TV, we have been besieged with questions about the future of WOW and New Japan Pro Wrestling on the cable network ... However, at some point, decisions will have to be made and there has been extreme cost-cutting across the board already at AXS TV's offices across the United States. This is normal when one company absorbs another, as sad as it is, and there are likely more to come after over 40 employees were let go from offices in Los Angeles (the corporate HQ), Dallas (where a lot of day to day work was done) and Denver, which is extremely important to pro wrestling fans as that studio was where the nuts and bolts of the New Japan Pro Wrestling on AXS TV show was put together. We are told the Denver office was extremely gutted and as of now, there's no real understanding from the New Japan side yet on how things will be proceeding. Currently, New Japan has a deal through January 2020 with AXS TV. The process before the takeover was that New Japan would send over their tapes, which were edited live as NJPW produced their live events. AXS TV would do some minor editing with additional voiceover work by Kevin Kelly to fit the American broadcasts ... Nothing is set in stone yet, but It's entirely possible that the NJPW on AXS TV shows, as part of a cost-cutting maneuver, could now be post-produced by Impact's production team or that AXS could go into New Japan repeats as everything is sorted out. We are told that the announcing teams for New Japan on AXS are not signed to AXS, so technically, Anthem could even have their own Impact Wrestling announcers voicing over any new content that is released.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling The Wrap is reporting that at least 40 people have been let go from AXS TV following the news that Anthem had acquired a majority stake in AXS. The report notes that there were more than 40 employees cut which includes contractors, consultants, and freelancers. The cuts happened within hours of the announcement. A source told The Wrap that there was no time for consultants to negotiate a new deal. Bob Gold, who is a spokesman for Anthem told The Wrap that AXS had a few more than 100 hundred employees before the cuts. There are currently 20 AXS employees left per the report but Bob Gold believes that number is higher. There are some AXS employees remaining in the Los Angeles office but most staffers in Dallas and Denver have been laid off.

Some more details about the recent layoffs at AXS TV.

Originally Posted by PWI All three New Japan Pro Wrestling Super J Cup 2019 shows are up for viewing on New Japan World. Plus, last week's Road to Destruction shows have been given English commentary. The Super J-Cup tournament was presented last month for the first time in the United States, produced by Jushin Liger, who competed in non-tournament matches.

Originally Posted by PWI WWE Network News is reporting that more episodes of WCW Thunder are headed to WWE Network this Monday, September 16 as the September 2019 classic content drop. Currently, episodes on the streaming service run-up to June 21, 2000. It is unclear how many episodes will be added at this point. But if we get the normal 20 episodes that would put us at November 2000, meaning there would be one more content drop of Thunder in the future to complete the series.

Originally Posted by WWE Network News The latest Hidden Gem details are in and while we’re set for quite the considerable chunk of content tomorrow, there is a caveat to that statement. In 1994 and 1995, TBS decided to fill the early hours of its schedule with several different WCW marathons. These were given the name “WCW All Nighter” and featured a selection of classic matches alongside themed skits involving Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan, “Mean” Gene Okerlund etc as they partake in a late-night party. This brings us to the upload planned for tomorrow. Dated 01/20/1995, this would appear to be the second of these long-form shows. However, that is where the controversy lies as this edition focused on the top 10 matches in Clash of the Champions history up until that point (with such a link possibly explaining WWE’s timing) ... As always, here is the official description: WCW 01/20/1995 – WCW All Nighter 1995 [Duration: 04:36:24] Join Tony Schiavone, Gene Okerlund and Bobby Heenan as they count down the 10 greatest Clash of the Champions matches of all time.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling During an interview with Sporting News, Killer Kross told the publication that his relationship with IMPACT Wrestling is not in a good state. Kross did not dive into specifics but he stated that one of the roots of his issues with IMPACT has to do with merchandising. Kross says that he is trying his best to address the situation and is remaining civil and professional although it can be difficult. Killer Kross also confirmed that he will not be working AAA’s show in New York City on September 15th as he was originally scheduled to work the show but when IMPACT got involved, he was told he was no longer going to be a part of the event.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Former CZW Tag Team Champions Beaver Boys (John Silver & Alex Reynolds) were the opponents of Heavy Machinery on the 9/10 edition of SmackDown Live at Madison Square Garden.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Three years ago today at WWE’s Backlash pay-per-view, Becky Lynch became the first-ever SmackDown Live Women’s Champion and Heath Slater and Rhyno became the inaugural SmackDown Live Tag Team Champions.

Originally Posted by Fightful WrestleVotes reports that changes will be coming to WWE commentary teams once SmackDown moves to Fox. "A source has said the return of the 2 man booth is coming."

Originally Posted by WrestleVotes The plans as of now for the new announce teams include Michael Cole heading to SmackDown on FOX. I’m also told Vic Joseph is set to become the lead man on Monday Night RAW. Not set in stone, as nothing is with WWE, but this is their working idea.

Originally Posted by Fightful At Dragon Gate Storm Gate 2019 on Sept. 11, Ultimo Dragon officially joined Dragon Gate after a teary in-ring speech alongside his disciple Masato Yoshino ... Dragon returned to Dragon Gate on July 21 at Dragon Gate Kobe Pro-Wrestling Festival 2019. It was a historic night as he had not wrestled for the promotion since 2004. Dragon was with the promotion, then called Toryumon, before their falling out. Toryumon would become Dragon Gate after the two parties split ways and Dragon took the name and trademarks with him to Mexico. Toryumon was designed to give trainees of Ultimo Dragon's school their initial in-ring experience.

TPWW Frontpage:

• WWE Network’s Free and Premium Tiers Coming “in Weeks”
• WWE: New 205 Live Commentator, Bray Wyatt in Dark Match, SmackDown Crowd
• WWE: Kurt Angle Working as a WWE Producer, Seth Rollins Finds Siblings Through DNA Test
• Triple H Says 205 Live Will Move Under the NXT Brand
• Pete Dunne and Toni Storm May Be More Heavily Featured in NXT