[Emperor Smeat]

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Originally Posted by Observer Raw had what had to be considered good news on the ratings front as Monday's show averaged 2.21 million viewers, up five percent from the prior week and breaking a three-week streak of the three least-watched non-holiday episodes of the show dating back to 1997 ... The rating was down only three percent from the same week last year, although this week last year was at the time the lowest non-holiday number for the show since early 1997. The bad news is the 20 percent first-to-third hour drop just missed the top 10 of all-time ... The three hours were: 8 p.m. 2.42 million viewers 9 p.m. 2.28 million viewers 10 p.m,. 1.93 million viewers

Originally Posted by Observer Ahead of the tapings taking place tomorrow, there's been a change to the lineup for MLW's Opera Cup tournament. MLW announced today that Shinjiro Otani has withdrawn from the tournament. He was scheduled to face Davey Boy Smith Jr. in the first round. With Otani off the show, it will now be Smith Jr. vs. Low Ki in the opening round. The Opera Cup is a one-night, eight-man tournament. MJF vs. Alexander Hammerstone, Timothy Thatcher vs. Richard Holliday, and Brian Pillman Jr. vs. TJP are the other first-round matches.

Originally Posted by Observer After two weeks off, CM Punk's next appearance on WWE Backstage will take place next Tuesday. Last night's Backstage included the announcement that Punk will be back on the show next week. It will be Punk's second appearance as an analyst. After making a surprise appearance the prior Tuesday, Punk officially debuted on Backstage on November 19. When FOX Sports announced that he was joining Backstage, it was noted that Punk's role will be as a "special contributor and analyst." He'll make select appearances in studio but won't be on the show every week.

Originally Posted by Observer Jordynne Grace is getting a Knockouts Championship shot at Impact Wrestling's next pay-per-view. Impact confirmed yesterday that Grace will challenge for Taya Valkyrie's Knockouts title at Hard to Kill. The PPV is being held at The Bomb Factory in Dallas, Texas on Sunday, January 12, 2020.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Stephen Amell noted on Twitter that he was not able to do his ‘Promo School’ segment on WWE Backstage due to a pinched nerve in his back on top of being under the weather.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Sports Illustrated has an in-depth feature up on their site about former Women Of Honor World Champion Kelly Klein and her situation with Ring of Honor. Klein spoke out about the company not having a proper protocol in place after she suffered a concussion during a match on an overseas tour in October ... Klein claims there were no medical personnel at ringside when she suffered her concussion. ROH C.O.O. Joe Koff had the following to say about the situation: “The protocol is just this: We recognize the dangers that are inherent in professional wrestling. More specifically, the possibility exists of a wrestler suffering a concussion during a match, and we take all injuries very, very seriously. When we are alerted or when we feel there is an injury, we immediately defer to the medical professional on staff. I wasn’t there, but I was made aware that Kelly did not realize she was concussed until sometime after the match. That hour could very well be a true lapse of time. But as soon as she reported she was concussed, she received immediate attention. Kelly declined the option to go to the hospital at that point. Ring of Honor had management present at the event, including the hired operating agent for the tour. I will tell you that as soon I learned about it, I texted her and she told me she appreciated my text and told me she was fine.” Minutes passed before Klein received medical attention and Koff was asked were mistakes made by ROH officials and he declined to comment because he was not there. Ring of Honor is reimbursing Kelly Klein for medical bills related to the concussion. Kelly Klein met with Joe Koff at the ROH headquarters in November and suggested the following to him: “I suggested that we could develop independent contractor standards, similar to an employee handbook, but it would apply to independent contractors, and Joe Koff told me that my contract was my handbook,” said Klein. “I said that the contract did not have any information on how we handle these situations or who I talk to. Joe said, ‘If I was there, I’d always tell you to seek medical help.’ But Joe wasn’t there. Our general manager did not see me. No one from management [at the venue] told me to go to the hospital.” Joe Koff confirmed that the meeting did take place in November but it was before Klein was informed that ROH was not going to renew her contract. Koff said that ROH has always had a good rapport with Klein but her sharing private emails and information was a breach of her contract. When asked about ROH blocking Kelly Klein on Twitter, here’s what Koff had to say: “That was not a company decision,” said Koff. “It was a lapse of judgment from one of our administrators who emotionally wanted to prevent our company from further attack [from people on social media supporting Klein]. We never would condone this, and we apologized immediately privately to Kelly and remedied the situation as soon as I found out about it.” To close the discussion, Koff responded with, “I don’t know” when asked if the relationship between Kelly Klein and Ring of Honor could be repaired before December 31st.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Coming out of WrestleCade, IMPACT Wrestling’s Jordynne Grace tweeted out that The Sandman came up to athletes that were about to main event a show at WrestleCade and told them that women main-eventing is wrong. The four athletes closing that night were Jordynne Grace, Rosemary, Su Yung, and Taya Valkyrie. After the match, Tessa Blanchard came out to the ring and addressed the comments directly and expressed that she thought the comments were a “crock of horse sh*t”. Tessa concluded her statement by pointing out the athletes that just finished competing and said that she couldn’t think of anyone else better to main event. The Sandman made an appearance on Busted Open Radio with Bully Ray and David LaGreca to give his side of the story. Sandman admitted that he made the comments but doesn’t think any of the backlash he received was called for. “Yeah, I did [cause controversy on social media]. But I didn’t think any of it was warranted at all, and so, my kids are calling me yesterday like, ‘You’ve been trending for like two days since Sunday’ or whatever the day was dude, and I’m trending for telling somebody — to me it’s not important… the bottom line is, all I said was I don’t think that most fans are ready for girls to be in main events. With that said, there are so many girls that totally deserve to be main eventers in all different kinds of organizations. WWE to AEW. Dude, they’re so good right now it’s absolutely incredible, but no, I absolutely do not think like that, and that’s just the way it is so I don’t know where that girl got her information but I know that I never talked to that girl.” Sandman said he was not talking to a group of people and was only talking to Taya Valkyrie. Sandman claimed that he never talked to Jordynne Grace and went on to tell his side of what transpired between himself and Taya Valkyrie. He added that he does not watch any of the current product: “I was not talking to four women, ever. I don’t even know who that girl is. Never talked to that girl.” Sandman said that he made those comments but not directly to the four female athletes involved in the main event match at WrestleCade. “Well yeah dude, after it originally happened, yeah I was talking about it to more people but originally, I was talking to John… dude, I am so bad with people’s names. What’s Johnny Morrison’s girl? Yeah, his girl [Taya Valkyrie]. Wasn’t she in the match? Dude, I was just walking by her, working the room, saying hi to everybody. She asked, ‘Hey, what’s going on?’ I say, ‘What number are you tonight because I like watching the matches and helping out anyway I can’, and I was talking to her. Not talking to four people at all.” Jordynne Grace then called into the show to give her side of the story. She stated that herself, Tessa Blanchard and Taya Valkyrie were all talking as a group. Sandman approached them, asked Taya what match she was in and questioned her being in the main event. Jordynne said Tessa went back and forth with Sandman and she [Jordynne] shared additional claims that were made by Sandman: “Okay, so he did not just say it to Taya and that’s not the only thing he said. I didn’t go into the whole conversation on social media because it was about a ten minute back and forth thing that went on. It was me, Taya and Tessa all standing around talking. The Sandman comes up to Taya, asks her what match she was in. She said she’s the last match. He said, ‘The main event?’ And she said, ‘Yeah, the main event’ and he said, ‘Excuse me?’ And we all just kind of stared at him because I didn’t know if he was joking or not, and then he said, ‘You know that’s wrong right?’ Looked at every one of us, then he started talking about the WrestleMania women’s match and how bad it was, and then Tessa, she’s a little bit more outspoken. I was in shock, and she tried to start talking, he cut her off, stuck out his hand and said, ‘Oh, I’m The Sandman by the way.’ She said, ‘Oh hey, I’m Tessa Blanchard’, and he says, ‘Oh, I respect your family so much.’ Continues to complete sh*t on women’s wrestling. Him and her start going back at it, back and forth. Rosemary walks up, we tell her what Sandman just said. We’re all standing there listening to him argue about women’s wrestling with Tessa. He throws up his hands, walks away. Two minutes later, comes back and says, ‘Excuse me ladies, I just went around to the locker room and I pulled a bunch of people with over 200 years of wrestling experience. Women main-eventing is wrong.’ So, that’s exactly what happened. Tessa and him went back at it a little bit more. She told him how disrespectful he was. He clearly didn’t care. He came on here [Busted Open Radio] and he’s completely lying through his teeth to try and save face now.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling During his appearance on WWE Backstage, Seth Rollins joined the show and talked about his Twitter exchange with Will Ospreay and that possibly being where the shift in his fan-base began. Seth expressed that he did not enjoy competing under the red lights in matches with Bray Wyatt. He added that the lights distracted him and were not a fan of it. Rollins said that he was unaware that the red light was going to stay on during his Hell In A Cell match with Bray Wyatt in October.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling According to Tokyo Sports, former Sendai Girls World Champion Sareee will wrestle in WWE in 2020. Squared Circle Sirens ran a story and noted that at Sareee’s self-produced show on December 3rd, she announced that she’ll be competing in STARDOM soon. This past July, Paul “Triple H” Levesque met with Sareee while WWE was in Japan for a string of live events.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Rhea Ripley joined the Swerve City podcast with Isaiah Scott, Big Swole and Teasy. At the age of 23 years old, Rhea stated that she has been burned out on wrestling several times throughout her career but clarified that it is not the in-ring portion that burns her out but the outside noise: “I’ve already burned out a few times to be honest. It’s what happens. I’ve been wrestling for like seven years now. I started when I was 16, and there’s been so many times where I just like, stopped caring and was like, ‘I’m gonna quit wrestling. What am I doing with my life?’… Mostly people in wrestling,” Rhea said, after being asked what leads to those stressful moments. “It’s never the actual wrestling. I love going out in front of everyone and performing and doing what I do best but it’s people [behind the scenes]. They get in your head and they make you hate yourself and that’s the one thing that I dislike about wrestling.”

Rhea better hope she never gets called up to the main roster if dealing with backstage management issues has been a big problem for her in the past since WWE's is arguably one of the worst to deal with.

Originally Posted by Fightful WWE tryouts brings people from all different walks of life for a potential shot at a WWE contract, including the daughter of a famous actor. Squared Circle Sirens first reported that Arissa LeBrock is one of several people that will be participating in the upcoming WWE tryouts taking place on December 5. LeBrock, a model in her own right, is the daughter of action movie star Steven Seagal and actress and model Kelly LeBrock. The 26-year-old works as a model who has done ad campaigns, runway modeling and appeared on the cover of PLUS Model Magazine. Arissa has also been featured on the reality show "Growing Up Supermodel" that aired on Lifetime TV, a show that takes a look at several children of celebrities looking to break into the modeling business. Aside from modeling, Arissa also practices Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu at the Paragon Jiu Jitsu & Kickboxing Academy in California.

Originally Posted by WrestlingInc Alexa Bliss, who returned to WWE on last week's SmackDown, seemed to express some frustration with the lack of promo time she's had lately. A fan on Twitter posted a video of an old Bliss promo, to which she replied, "I remember a time when I was given a microphone in the middle of the ring ... good times"

Link: https://twitter.com/AlexaBliss_WWE/s...41862039257088

TPWW Frontpage:

• Ratings: WWE Backstage and Total Divas
• XFL Reveals All Team Uniforms
• CM Punk and Seth Rollins Take More Little Shots at Each Other
• Dio Maddin Not Returning to Raw Commentary Team, Will Be Replaced by Samoa Joe for Now
• John Morrison Officially Signs With WWE