[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets (Observer Newsletter Edition):

A positive COVID-19 test of a WWE wrestler led to issues with television tapings this week and the company for the first time testing all its talent and key staff that works the tapings on 6/16 ... The performer who tested positive was a female wrestler in NXT who has not been used on television. She has been one of the fans in the crowd, and was last used in that role on 6/9. No positive test results have been reported so hopefully nobody else was infected by her. WWE had only been taking the temperature of people coming in, as well as asking them if they had any COVID symptoms. Of all the sports running, WWE was believed to be the only one not testing. They were able to get by with it due to a number of factors, including lack of unionization of talent, lack of regulation of pro wrestling in Florida, and mainstream sports media and general media lack of interest or care about wrestlers because they are not considered sports or athletes. On 6/16, WWE tested many in the morning, and many others later. They tested wrestlers, staff, some people listed as family and friends such as a number of fans who were well known as Full Sail NXT regulars that were being allowed to attend the shows going forward. The 6/15 Raw and Smackdown tapings were the first where fans, basically family and friends, were allowed to attend. There was concern of talent because instead of those under contract, there would be people that were not working for the company allowed into the small building as part of the group gathering. In addition, for fans who wanted to come, many contacted us and other media members saying they were told that wearing masks during the taping of the show would not be allowed. This was as the COVID case numbers in Florida were rising. Some had said they were told the WWE did not want anyone wearing masks on television. Another person said that they were told that they would prefer fans not to wear masks and if people were uncomfortable being in a group without masks they shouldn’t come. John Alba, a Florida reporter who covers WWE, said that fans at the event denied this to them. However, there was nobody with a mask on at the tapings. The company released a statement after news broke that many fans believed that masks would not be allowed, and the fact was, nobody was in the building on camera in a mask except for Catalina Garcia from Chile, whose gimmick is that she’s a masked woman wrestler. “Fans have not been in attendance at WWE events since March 13. Yesterday, a select number of friends and family were permitted to attend WWE’s TV production. These individuals were required to participate in medical screenings prior to entering the closed set at our training facility, and were kept apart from in-ring performers and production personnel. Attendance was below 20% capacity and social distancing guidelines were adhered to with at least six feet between parties, thus face masks were not required.” The company did get criticized for this statement, particularly when the news media ran photos of The Street Profits dancing with fans in close proximity, and from watching, while fans, who were all standing rather than in chairs, while not on top of each other, like with AEW, they weren’t six feet apart at all times either ... Paul Levesque had defended the lack of testing by saying that the tests aren’t accurate enough and that at the time he made the statement a few weeks ago, what they had been doing was working since aside from the case in March, nobody else affiliated with taping of WWE television had tested positive. But as soon as somebody tested positive, WWE pretty much had to have everyone tested. They were all tested using the nasal swab method, which is considered superior to the antibodies test, but is said to be less reliable than the throat swab tests that UFC uses, although some have believed that the nasal test when done by someone who is skilled at administering the test or more reliable than the throat swab. UFC switched from nasal to throat based on the idea the throat swab is the more accurate of the two. What will be notable is that Orange County, in Florida, where WWE tapes, due to increases in cases, is now requiring masks. On 6/18 Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings said every person in the county must wear a mask, an effort to try to stem a resurgence of the coronavirus ... The order goes into effect on 6/20, meaning it will be in place for the 6/26 tapings. People are allowed to take their masks off to eat and drink, but must wear them as they enter restaurants or clubs. All employees working at businesses must wear them at all times. The only exemption would be people outdoors who are exercising ... In Orange County, they set a record with 212 new cases on 6/18, with the median age of the cases being 29. There is no answer at this point regarding WWE televison tapings will be getting an exemption from this ordinance ... It is not known when the wrestler found out and told WWE officials they had tested positive. Unlike the first positive test, which was by a non-wrestling performer who appeared on the WrestleMania tapings, and then took several weeks off, the talent was told immediately in a company memo. Talent was aware of the name of the person who did not ask to be kept confidential. It was nearly a week before that story broke when reporter Sean Sapp got a copy of the memo, and asked WWE, and WWE released a statement to all reporters at the time. In this case, WWE released the statement and the talent found out about this on social media. The name was not released to talent although many believed they knew the name since the name was bandied about. Only one performer that we are aware of, Kevin Owens, did not come back for the 6/17 tapings. Owens’ wife’s grandfather passed away about three weeks ago fo COVID-19, so it was a major issue in his family. There are some others who haven’t been around, some NXT talent that went home, as well as Sami Zayn, Roman Reigns and Riddick Moss. They were all told it was their choice and wouldn’t be held against them. Owens was told the same thing and it was expected he would be returning for the 6/29 tapings, because at that point it would be 20 days since the person who tested positive was in the building. Obviously everything is up in the air in the event new positives are discovered ... A lot of WWE talent was concerned because on 6/17 the story broke that 132 employees that worked at the Orlando Airport, which the non-Florida talent flies in and out of, had tested positive for COVID-19. This is not a recent number but a total number since March.

A week after the departure of Paul Heyman from WWE creative, it appears that it wasn’t so much, as in the past, any kind of a blow-up, but simply a philosophical change that led to it. Heyman had been going with the idea of rebuilding Raw around creating his own group of stars. When the new rosters were being put together before Smackdown went to FOX, and when Eric Bischoff was still in charge, there was a legitimate draft or trade or negotiations between the two regarding talent. In that, Heyman allowed Bischoff to take two of the biggest stars of the Raw brand, Bray Wyatt, who had been pushed the hardest and was Universal champion, and Braun Strowman, but in exchange wanted people like Aleister Black, wife Zelina Vega, Andrade, Charlotte Flair and Buddy Murphy in particular. Vince McMahon had sold the Raw ratings decline to stockholders as the same thing, a rebuilding phase. Heyman when he started told people it would be 18 to 24 months before the new roster mix would start to show consistent results. But two things happened. The pandemic basically slowed down that timeline of getting people over, because nobody new was organically going to get over in the sterile environment with no fans ... One thing notable is that even though ratings were at consistent all-time lows, the USA Network was behind the changes as they were convinced the rebuilding had to take place with a largely aging roster on top. Evidently those at the network did not find out much ahead of the rest of the world of the change, and were not happy with the news ... Make no mistake about it, both Raw and Smackdown are, and have always been, Vince McMahon’s shows. That won’t change now. If you follow the booking, Bruce Prichard presents shows and ideas knowing what McMahon likes. Heyman was attempting to build his own new crew, that would be loyal to him, and trying to keep the casualty count low when McMahon would routinely lose interest in the newer wrestlers. The most obvious casualty counts were Ricochet, Shayna Baszler, Cedric Alexander and Humberto Carrillo, who McMahon pretty much took off Raw of late. Heyman was able to protect Black better than most, and Apollo Crews, who was in catering for the most part on Smackdown did an injury angle which bided him some time. Austin Theory and Murphy were aligned with Seth Rollins, which gave them protection ... Most people we heard from in the company felt like Heyman’s days were numbered dating back a few weeks. It wasn’t any specific thing, past not seeing what Heyman saw in some characters and the ratings and ratings patterns weren’t good. As far as the talent went, it was a mixed bag. For those Heyman was pushing, they were pretty much all nervous, because, aside from the obvious people whose futures seemed guaranteed strong, Randy Orton, Charlotte Flair, Drew McIntyre and Seth Rollins, most owed their pushes to him. Others, who were not getting television time and in that group, were not as happy with him. It had been pretty clear that Orton and A.J. Styles, and to a lesser extent Rollins, were there to give rubs and feud with younger talent. But circumstances led to the planned programs falling apart due to WrestleMania and the big picture. The crew Heyman wanted to push as the young stars, Carrillo, Alexander, Black and Ricochet were unable to get planned wins and in some cases the U.S. title because once the direction of WrestleMania came, particularly with Styles working with Undertaker and Orton with Edge, beating either of them went out the window. And given the big picture, it had to until after Mania. Styles was then moved to Smackdown. There were issues with Styles and Heyman and different people will tell different stories. It had to do with Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows being fired. Styles was extremely upset about it. It was a McMahon decision, and this turned into the classic post-demotion or being let go wrestler interview of “Vince always liked me but that (Jim Ross, J.J. Dillon, John Laurinaitis, pick your name) hated me and screwed me over.” After three decades you’d think the pattern would be obvious. Perhaps Heyman could have argued with McMahon over it, but in the end, even if he had, the end result would have been the same ... Not only did Raw have a new look this week, but so did NXT, which was patterned with similar changes to Raw, which may mean Vince McMahon has a belief that this is what is needed across the board. NXT felt like this week’s Raw or Smackdown, with the vomiting angle, shorter matches, and vandalizing babyfaces cars. It’s either the people in NXT copying main roster thinking that’s the change needed, or more likely, the overseer believing these changes are necessary to bring up numbers and beat AEW. For a while it felt like NXT was on its own path and not really being reactive to AEW except on rare times. Since Mania it was built on Charlotte Flair from the main roster and NXT’s overall numbers declined less than the other shows, but that wasn’t the case in18-49 which dropped badly, so the gains were over 50. So now it looks like a change in the pacing and nature of the show. They are doing a quick build to a NXT vs. North American title winner take all match on 7/8 to go against the main event of Fyter Fest, which was very clearly totally reactive ... As far as the future of Heyman within the company, he is still under a talent contract. Before being promoted to head Raw, he was at every Raw show producing certain talent and pitching Vince McMahon on the key storylines involving pushing of certain characters, most notably Brock Lesnar and Ronda Rousey. Exactly how that fits in with the future won’t be known until Lesnar returns. But Lesnar, in the end, will always have a great amount of control of everything he does ... Lesnar has always heavily relied on Heyman when it comes to both business and in-ring stories of his matches.

A key when looking at the ratings is not just the numbers themselves and the pattern, but the audience itself. If the rating decline in 18-49 is greater than that overall, which goes for every show in some form except AEW since the pandemic, it indicates a major above previous level aging of the audience. For NXT in particular, but across all brands, what appears to be a lesser decline is more when the older audience stays steady but the younger audience is down a lot. From November to the present, NXT actually fares the worst with the younger audience and of the WWE shows, Raw fares better than the other two, but quickly, that’s also comparing football season with non-football season. For a fairer comparison, using February to now, NXT fares the best among the WWE shows at maintaining audience and Smackdown fares the worst with 18-49s, but for Smackdown that’s also more notable because 18-49s are going out less on Friday and thus, realistically, it should fare the best of the three. As far as long-term goes, the pattern of November until now, AEW is down 12.0 percent overall and 22.2 percent in 18-49. NXT is down 17.3 percent overall and 37.0 percent in 18-49. Raw is down 17.4 percent overall and 29.2 percent in 18-49. Smackdown is down 17.5 percent overall and 35.9 percent in 18-49. So while nobody was doing well, and AEW is clearly holding its audience better than WWE, Raw was in the younger demo, the one WWE is losing, clearly doing better than either NXT or Smackdown, while all three were roughly the same 17.3 to 17.5 percent drop overall. The numbers are a little different when you use the pre-pandemic February as the data point to judge by. AEW averaged 834,000 viewers in November and 0.36. AEW averaged 876,000 viewers in February and 0.32, so up in viewers and down in the key demo and aging up. The last four weeks they averaged 734,000 viewers and 0.28, so the drop is 16.2 percent in viewers and 12.5 percent in 18-49. NXT averaged 820,000 viewers in November and 0.27. In February that was 760,000 viewers and 0.24. The last four weeks have been 678,000 viewers and 0.17, so the pandemic drop is 7.3 percent in viewers and 29.2 percent in 18-49. Essentially the show has held up better in viewers but has aged greatly. Raw averaged in November 2,106,000 viewers and 0.72, and keep in mind Raw is hurt a lot by football. In February, bouncing back from football, it averaged 2,334,000 viewers and 0.74, so good increases although still aging. The last four weeks dropped greatly, to 1,739,000 viewers and 0.51, so the pandemic led to a 26.6 percent viewership drop and 31.1 percent in the key demo. Smackdown averaged 2,462,000 and 0.78 in November. In February, Smackdown averaged 2,543,000 viewers and 0.75, so viewers were up but the viewership was also aging. The last four weeks have averaged 2,031,000 and 0.50. So the pandemic drop has been 20.1 percent in viewers and 33.3 percent drop in the key demo. Since the key number right now has to be 18-49 or younger, Raw was faring very slightly better than Smackdown in that demo, skewing older, even with the advantage Smackdown had of being on FOX and with the advantage of far more people at home Friday over the past month as compared with February.

There were two major notes reported by Wrestlenomics regarding the multitude of lawsuits filed against WWE regarding the Middle East situation and misleading stockholders and two confidential witnesses that have come out that are part of changes in the complaint ... The second is a statement from a former WWE active wrestler who is listed as Confidential Witness No. 2, or CW-2, listing him as working for the company starting in 2012 and working there through April. The confidential witness was one of the wrestlers who performed on the October 31, 2019, show which was the subject of much controversy regarding the wrestlers being stranded in Saudi Arabia ... WWE would likely know the identity of the two witnesses since one was the point person for MBC that they were in talks with ... The wrestler in question, besides the 2012 start date, was one of about a dozen wrestlers on the charter flight to Buffalo that didn’t get there on time for the show. The wrestler also told management he would never go to Saudi Arabia again. He claimed that he heard while on his plane that military police were holding the other wrestlers. He said WWE made comments regarding the story that it was a mechanical failure issue and that WWE denounced the stories that came out as laughable and conspiracies. He said he and another worker at the time went to management and said they wouldn’t go back. We also had heard there was talk about some talent trying to get people to sign a papers saying they wouldn’t go back. It was believed nothing significant transpired from that and as far as the key stars went, on the next show, the same main people, John Cena, Daniel Bryan and Kevin Owens were the only major names who didn’t go. Sami Zayn and Aleister Black didn’t go, Zayn due to Saudi Arabia not wanting him there because he was Syrian and Black because somebody, and we don’t know if it was on the WWE side of the Saudi side, felt his tattoos would be seen negatively in Saudi Arabia due to the religious beliefs in the country. The wrestler in question said that other talent also wanted to not go back and claimed WWE threatened the future trajectory of their careers if they refused to go ... Obviously when it comes to the arguments in the lawsuit, it is the television negotiations that were the key. If there was trouble after the October show, it’s been quelled since WWE has gone back and has been paid for shows they’ve done since. The lawsuit surrounds the idea that WWE misled shareholders and inflated the stock price based on statements without informing stockholders and the market that there were problems in the Middle East. While the situation from the October show was a news story at the time, the fact the deal is still ongoing means that it led to know long-term economic harm or changes in the lucrative deal.

For the second time in its history, the WWE declared a match the greatest of all-time before it took place. The 6/14 Backlash show from the Performance Center in Orlando was built around Edge vs. Randy Orton, billed ahead of time as the greatest match of all-time ... While most have long forgotten this, in September 1972, prior to the Pedro Morales vs. Bruno Sammartino WWWF title match at Shea Stadium, Vince McMahon, as an announcer pushed the bout in the weeks leading up to it, not only in the New York market but in other markets that they never advertised Madison Square Garden shows in, telling fans they would see “the greatest wrestling match in our lifetime.” The match was a 65 minute (billed as 75 minute) draw, ending with the 11 p.m. New York State Athletic Commission curfew. As the only time the two met, it was historical, and because of the nature of a face vs. face match, completely different from any match either of them ever had in New York, or really, anywhere. The match got mixed reviews, as those who expected the typical Morales or Sammartino match didn’t get it. Some felt two faces exchanging holds for that long was boring. Others felt it was refreshing. Generally it was viewed as good, but not great. Sammartino also talked of this match as a career highlight only because he was forced to do a totally different style match as usual for a long period of time and felt he pulled it off.

Raw on 6/15 averaged 1,939,000 viewers, the best number for the show since 4/6, the Raw after WrestleMania, which did 2,100,000 viewers. It even beat the 5/11 show’s 1,919,000 viewers which was the show where Becky Lynch announced her pregnancy. The keys appear to be the PPV bump in the first hour, but also retention through three hours with more angles and talking, less wrestling, and the show-long tease of Christian’s first match in years, Ric Flair appearing live and Big Show returning. The audience was up 11.6 percent from last week, but in 18-49, the number was identical. The key to the growth was a huge increase in teenage girls and a huge increase in those over 50, plus retaining the over 50 viewers over the three hours far better than usual, which likely ties in with the focus on older performers and Flair, who is a historically big draw to that group, plus Show and Christian who haven’t been around. I don’t believe Christian himself is going to be a ratings changer since Edge hasn’t been, but the show was built around Christian wrestling, whereas Edge never teased an actual television match. Raw was 12th overall for the night, with the news audience being way down from the past three months. It was fourth among non-news shows. In 18-49, Raw was fifth overall, and beat every news show. The first-to-third hour overall drop was 7.3 percent, much lower than usual, largely due to a much lower than usual drop of over 50 aged viewers. It also fared better than it has in a long time when compared with last year at the same time, with a 13.2 percent decline in viewers and 25.4 percent drop in 18-49, which in both cases is far better than the show has done in recent months in comparisons ... The overall first-to-third hour declines were 14.0 percent in women 18-49, 11.6 percent in men 18-49, 12.6 percent in girls 12-17, 27.2 percent with teenage boys and 5.2 percent over 50. The latter is a great improvement over usual while the teenage boys tuning out was far greater than usual. The first hour did 1,982,000 viewers. The second hour did 1,996,000, the first time since 3/9, the last show in an arena, where the second hour gained viewers, which historically happens most of the time during a normal summer. The third hour did 1,838,000 viewers. The show did a 0.31 in 12-17 (up 19.2 percent from last week), 0.29 in 18-34 (down 9.4 percent from last week), 0.77 in 35-49 (up 4.1 percent from last week) and 0.95 in 50+ (up 15.9 percent from last week).

Smackdown on 6/11 did a 1.35 rating and 2,065,000 viewers (a low 1.27 viewers per home), the best numbers for ratings and viewers since 4/17. Most likely the increase had to do with the long build for the A.J. Styles vs. Daniel Bryan IC title match as well as lack of competition since every other network show was a rerun. The keys are that far more homes watched, but they were single viewer homes, and older viewers than usual. Smackdown won in 18-49 at 0.5 (655,000 viewers, basically the same as the 656,000 the prior week with the lower overall audience). It’s the same number it’s been locked at for weeks. It also won in 18-34 at 0.3 and tied with a 20/20 rerun for first in 25-54 at 0.7 as well as won in all male demos ... Last year in the same time slot, FOX had U.S. Open golf coverage which did 2,601,000 viewers and an 0.5 in 18-49, so 20.6 percent overall and the same in the demo.

Both AEW & NXT were up on 6/17, which probably speaks to the NASCAR race as the key reason the numbers were down last week. In addition, all the increases on both sides were under 50, since over 50 numbers were identical to last week. AEW did 772,000 viewers and a 0.28 in 18-49 (364,000 viewers), putting it No. 8 for the night in 18-49, and No. 3 among entertainment shows. NXT did 746,000 viewers and 0.20 in 18-49 (262,000 viewers), putting it at No. 25 in 18-49, and No. 9 among entertainment shows for the night ... Both sides had major gains among teenage girls, with AEW up 87.5 percent and NXT up 221.4 percent from last week when both did poorly. Among teenage girls. AEW still held a 45.3 percent lead over NXT. AEW won every key demo. In Men 18-34, AEW had 60,000 viewers (up 17.6 percent from last week) and NXT had 31,000 (identical to last week). In Women 18-34, AEW had 34,000 (up 54.5 percent from last week) and NXT had 25,000 (up 25.0 percent). In Men 18-49, AEW had 171,000 (up 16.3 percent) and NXT had 124,000 (up 17.0 percent). In Women 35-49, NXT had 99,000 (up 30.3 percent) and NXT had 85,000 (up 51.8 percent). It was competitive much of the way with AEW winning five of eight quarters but losing the main event, even though Chris Jericho was in it. AEW won every quarter in 18-49, but the second quarter was as close as its been ... In the main event segment, NXT with Bayley & Sasha Banks vs. Tegan Nox & Shotzi Blackheart and Io Shirai cleaning house won overall with 757,000 viewers to 705,000 for Chris Jericho & Sammy Guevara vs. Best Friends with the Jericho vs. Orange Cassidy angle, but in the key demo, AEW maintained a strong 367,000 to 264,000 lead, so the difference was those over 50. NXT also won the first and second quarters. NXT did have the edge with the better lead-in, and that may give them the first quarter, but that usually runs out after ten minutes, and they still had more viewers in quarter two. In quarter one, AEW opened with 782,000 viewers and 379,000 in18-49 for Kenny Omega & Adam Page defending the tag titles against Dustin Rhodes & QT Marshall. This was AEW’s peak in 18-49. NXT had 793,000 viewers and 264,000 in 18-49 for Fabian Aichner & Marcel Barthel vs. Tyler Breeze & Fandango for the tag titles. This was NXT’s peak in overall viewers. In quarter two, AEW lost 41,000 viewers and 47,000 in 18-49 for the Anna Jay video package and interview, Jay vs. Abadon and the Dark Order coming out. Given they were introducing a new character that’s to be expected. NXT lost 6,000 viewers and gained 33,000 in 18-49 for the end of the tag title mach, a Velveteen Dream interview and Damien Priest vs. Killian Dain. In 18-49, AEW’s edge was 332,000 to 297,000, the closest quarter hour in a long time. This was NXT’s peak in 18-49. In quarter three, AEW gained 59,000 viewers and 39,000 in 18-49 for MJF vs. Billy and the post-match brawl. NXT lost 13,000 viewers and 14,000 in 18-49 for the ending of Priest vs. Dain and Xia Li vs. Aliyah with the Robert Stone throw-up spot. In quarter four, AEW lost 3,000 viewers and 2,000 in 18-49 for Cody and Ricky Starks promos and the beginning of their match. NXT lost 62,000 viewers and 27,000 in 18-49 for the Timothy Thatcher vignette and the Undisputed Era skit where they took Roderick Strong to see the psychiatrist. In quarter five, AEW lost 2,000 viewers and 4,000 in 18-49 for the ending of Cody vs. Starks and the beginning of Young Bucks vs. Kip Sabian & Jimmy Havoc. NXT gained 33,000 viewers but lost 7,000 in 18-49 for the in-ring with Adam Cole, Keith Lee, Johnny Gargano and Finn Balor. In quarter six, AEW gained 29,000 viewers and 10,000 in 18-49 for Young Bucks vs. Sabian & Havoc and the Taz & Brian Cage promo. With 824,000 viewers, this was AEW’s overall peak. NXT lost 71,000 viewers and 21,000 in 18-49 for Dakota Kai vs. Kayden Carter, Bronson Reed vs. Leon Ruff and the Reed promo. It was the low point of the show for NXT. In quarter seven, AEW lost 90,000 viewers and 16,000 in 18-49 for a Jon Moxley promo, Britt Baker & Rebel in the garbage dump and the intros and beginning of Jericho & Guevara vs. Best Friends. NXT gained 53,000 viewers and 25,000 in 18-49 for the angle with Santos Escobar and his group with Drake Maverick, and the beginning of Bayley & Banks vs. Nox & Blackheart for the women’s tag titles. In quarter eight, AEW lost 29,000 viewers and gained 8,000 in 18-49 for Jericho & Guevara vs. Best Friends and the Jericho/Cassidy post-match. NXT gained 30,000 viewers and 11,000 in 18-49 for Bayley & Banks vs. Blackheart & Nox.

The ten most-watched shows of the past week on WWE Network were: 1. Backlash; 2. Undertaker’s Last Ride Episode 4; 3. Undertaker’s Last Ride episode 1; 4. Backlash kickoff show; 5. Dream Match Mania: Backlash edition; 6. Undertaker’s Last Ride episode 3; 7. Undertaker’s Last Ride episode 2; 8. Last Ride Post Mortem; 9. Backlash 2018; 10. Raw Talk for 6/15. Neither NXT nor 205 Live cracked the top 15

The career of David Starr (Max Barsky, 29) appears in jeopardy after a sexual assault charge and public exchange between Starr and an ex-girlfriend named Victoria took place on social media this past week. This has led to a groundswell of charges on social media, largely involving U.K. wrestlers, but also a number of well known names on the U.S. scene ... Before the end of the day, accusations were being thrown around that included a ton of name wrestlers and former wrestling performers, including one Hall of Famer. There are at least six performers for the WWE U.K. brand charged in different social media posts, as well as one AEW wrestler by name and second one implied, a top ROH star, an NWA exec and a well known Impact name. Undoubtedly this is the tip of the iceberg and all of these stories and more are likely to unfold over the next week ... There are different aspects of this, ranging from aggressive hitting on women, using power for sex, sex with underage girls which in a different era was considered one of the fringe benefits during the heyday of territorial wrestling. There was even a phrase that was used when wrestlers weren’t paid well but how the benefits of being a star on television gave access to women that working at a regular job wouldn’t give you. Some promoters hated this because they felt it gave wrestling a bad name and looked the other way, and some outright told talent to lay off because it could hurt the business. Others used it as a lure to get and keep wrestles working for them while not paying them well ... It’s also known that a woman doing so in pro wrestling throughout most of its history would get extreme backlash and this opened the floodgates to something that is exponentially larger historically than anyone could imagine. This would also be the case in almost every sports or entertainment field. Many of the other cases involve guys coming on to women who didn’t want it but would be inappropriate behavior, and in some cases such as trainer/student or veteran/rookie, in some cases power issues involved, or inappropriate messages sent through texting or social media. In some cases, particularly involving people with power over careers and young women getting started, like in most any form of entertainment, this is going to exist but it shouldn’t exist. In some higher profile industries it has come out and huge names in major entertainment industries have been forced out of the business by stories.

After what happened with Hana Kimura, there was concern over a tweet by recently retired Stardom wrestler Arisa Hoshiki. “The human waste is still alive. I’m sorry, sorry for not contributing anything. I’m worthless because I’m a person who makes you notice things I can’t do, but I have a respiratory system so I’m sorry for breathing. Ah, I wasn’t recognized as a person. I’m sorry to call myself a human.” Hoshiki, 24, announced her retirement in May due to head and neck injuries and has been focusing on her music. She has been a victim of cyberbullying, like Kimura, particularly over the past year, and it got so bad she had gone to the police about it

There have been a crazy amount of deaths in the Mexican wrestling scene in recent weeks, a lot of which have been COVID-19 related

Regarding starting up, Joe Koff said, “Nothing has been confirmed yet, but we are trying to develop what we believe would be safe production in July. Obviously, anything that does get finalized would come with an asterisk as we monitor the daily progressions of the pandemic. There are multiple reports that ROH is offering no new deals at this time due to not running shows. There are some deals that have expired over the past few months and no new offers have been made. ROH did tape one match with Brody King vs. Tyler Bateman at the New Japan show over the weekend. There was talk of empty arena tapings to cover two months of television as soon as possible in July Due to the situation in Mexico, the Mexicans on the roster, Rush, Dragon Lee, Bandido, Flamita and Rey Horus, would be the ones in question.

While the XFL losses for season one in the bankruptcy filings were said to be less than $50 million, it has been noted that with all of the costs involved in starting up, Vince McMahon had gone through $200 million of what those in the company believed was $500 million that had been committed for three seasons. The XFL is up for bankruptcy bidding so it’s possible it will be restarted, just not under McMahon, who was considering trying to buy it back in bankruptcy court to get out of the money owed people and starting up fresh, but after so much negative reaction from other creditors about the process, he stated he would not be doing so

Details are still not known, but Evolve/WWN is said to be finished and it is believed its library and other assets were sold to WWE, but neither side has confirmed or denied the transaction. However, Gabe Sapolsky did send out a message to the Evolve core roster telling them that there are no more plans to run shows and that the core roster secret social page is shutting down. He said that for those in the group he feels you have a good future in the business, it’s not the end of the road, just taking a different path from a fork in the road. Evolve/WWN had not sent out refunds until recently for the canceled WrestleMania week shows due to the company’s financial issues. In April they had stated that they would refund all money but said that it would take some time, so they’ve acknowledged the issues. On 6/18, Sapolsky wrote, “We just got an update from Etix. They’ve made some refunds. The rest will be made in the next week or two. They are working on them and everyone will be refunded. My deepest apologies it is taking this long. I’m not going to make any excuses, but I assure you this has been the foremost thing on our minds and we are doing everything we can to get this done as quickly as possible. I understand if you are angry and upset. You will be made whole if you are owed a refund. Be safe & well.”