[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets:

Originally Posted by Observer AEW's one-hour Late Night Dynamite special, which aired on TNT following game three of the NBA Western Conference Finals last night, averaged 585,000 viewers. The special began at 12:38 a.m. on the East Coast. It finished ninth overall in the 18-49 demo with a 0.26 rating. That matches the rating NXT did on Sept 1 when it aired unopposed on a Tuesday night in prime time and beat the 0.22 rating that NXT did the following Tuesday, but those NXT shows obviously didn't have the benefit of an NBA lead-in. Last night's Los Angeles Lakers vs. Denver Nuggets NBA playoff game averaged 4.828 million viewers, topping all of cable and finishing third overall on television for the night. The post-game show that immediately followed the game averaged 1.743 million viewers on TNT, with Dynamite starting about 55 minutes after the game ended. The strongest demo for AEW was men 18-49, where Late Night Dynamite did a 0.35 rating and was tied for seventh overall on cable.

Originally Posted by Observer The no. 1 contender to the AEW World Title will be off TV for two weeks due to a self-admitted positive COVID-19 test. On Wednesday, Lance Archer took to Twitter to reveal his positive diagnosis and how it came to be: "When I returned from our last show, a family member was ill when I got home. I found out later a friend who had taken my family member to the Vet for our Dachshund was COVID positive. While at home, now I’ve also gotten sick tested positive. I feel ok, expect to see me in 2 wk" Archer was scheduled to be in a six-man tag on tonight's AEW Dynamite, teaming with Ricky Starks and Brian Cage against AEW World Champion Jon Moxley, Will Hobbs, and Darby Allin. Moxley tweeted that he will now defend the title on Dynamite instead but didn't reveal the opponent. For now, Archer is scheduled to face Moxley for the title at the company's anniversary edition of Dynamite on Wednesday, October 14th.

Originally Posted by PWI On 9/21, WWE filed their opposition to Cody attempting to trademark 'Slamboree' and 'Match Beyond'. WWE stated that they purchased the rights to those concepts when they acquired World Chamionship Wrestling in March 2001 and are utilizing them on the WWE Network and the WWE website. WWE added because of the long standing use of the terms by WCW and WWE, they have become "indelibly linked" in the public's mind to be exclusively associated with WWE. They also alleged that Cody filed for those trademarks in an "attempt to unfairly trade on the long-standing use and recognition" of their use with WWE.

at WWE claiming a "long standing use" of those trademarks. Same company that didn't give a crap about WarGames until a few years ago and had to pay off MLW to get the trademark for it back because they let it and almost every other WCW trademark lapse bsck in the day.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling CMLL’s 87th Anniversary Show is taking place on September 25th in Mexico City, Mexico and the company made the announcement that the World Trios Championship match will no longer take place on the show as Ultimo Guerrero has tested positive for COVID-19. Guerrero, along with Euforia and Gran Guerrero were going to be defending the titles against Hechicero, El Terrible and Templario in a six-man two-out-of-three falls match. In place of that the bout, Titan is going to be defending the CMLL World Welterweight Championship against Soberano Jr. The company revealed that Bandido has also tested positive for COVID-19 and will be off the 87th Anniversary Show. Last week, CMLL revealed that Princess Sugehit tested positive for COVID-19. As of this writing, Ultimo Guerrero is the third wrestler in CMLL to test positive in the span of eight days.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Roman Reigns was a guest on The Bloodline with LLS podcast to discuss his Leukemia diagnosis. Roman discussed what he felt like leading up to discovering that his cancer was in remission and being grateful that the talents he worked with took care of him before he was able to find out about the remission. “But my spleen had enlarged and I think that was something that kind of [is] one of the more short-term serious side effects that I had to deal with, just involving the physicality of being in the ring and God, I’m so lucky that fortunately nothing happened. Thank God that I worked with some really, really talented performers and some great professionals and guys who [are] as violent and as physical as our job can be, they’re very good at what they do and then no one hit me in the wrong place and caused a rupture or anything like that because as I’m sure you know, being out of town, in an arena, on the road away from your family, something like that happens and you get rushed to the emergency room, go into surgery, it just can, along with how serious it is it can just cause an emotional rollercoaster for everybody so, that was something that we really had to take into account and get me out of the ring and that’s why it all just started to happen so abruptly. But I think the main thing I was feeling was the fatigue. Always feeling tired. Not quite sure why, even if I were able to get good nights of rest. Even had a couple of days of recovery being off the road, it just never felt like it got off of me. It was just that monkey on my back at all times but along with that, I always thought it was that when you’re working hard and chasing your dreams and you’re busting your tail every single week trying to get the job done, especially when you’re performing at an elite level, at the very top of the biggest company in the world, as far as sports-entertainment, these are just the riggers that come with the schedule of the lifestyle so, I tried to as we say in the wrestling business, I tried not to sell it but thank God we’re taken care of, between the company and my doctors, my Oncologist doing our blood tests and our CVCs and keeping track of that stuff. I was able to see my white blood cells getting out of whack again.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling The ‘Sports Guys Talking Wrestling’ podcast welcomed Jay Lethal onto the show to chat about the ROH Pure Title tournament. Lethal detailed some of the COVID precautions that were in place as ROH filmed the Pure Title tournament. “I’ll tell you this too, there were a lot of hoops to jump through with the commission. You gotta have your mask on right after you come back from the locker room so you’re tired but you still gotta put your mask on. There’s a room just for you and your opponent and then when you leave there, that room has to be cleaned and my match had to be at eight in the morning and then once your match is done, they have to clean the arena, clean the ring, change the canvas. It was a nightmare for the crew I’m sure. They were there from like 7 AM to like 11 PM and they get 20, 25 minutes after each match to disinfect everything. We had so many canvases because they changed them after everything but it was such a long day but everyone did it with a smile on their face because we were all just so happy to be back at work.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Sports Illustrated caught up with Miro (Rusev) for their ‘This Week in Wrestling’ column. Miro feels that he’s the best “all-around player” in professional wrestling and hinted that he’s going to top his WrestleMania 31 entrance while in AEW. “It’s not a gimmick. I am the best. I am the best all-around player in professional wrestling. And people remember WrestleMania 31, the greatest entrance of any entrance, until you see how I top that in AEW.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling TSN has a lengthy feature up about AEW broadcast team member Tony Schiavone which includes quotes from Schiavone. The longtime announcer discussed some of the talents on the AEW roster and who he’s been impressed with. Schiavone talked about MJF and the current AEW World Champion Jon Moxley who Schiavone feels is AEW’s Stone Cold Steve Austin. “Obviously, MJF has because he is a throwback to the old heels. Jon Moxley – I didn’t see much of [his WWE character] Dean Ambrose, but only the Dean Ambrose from 2017 forward. I immediately said, ‘Man, Jon Moxley is kind of like our ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin.’ And I like Jon Moxley better than Dean Ambrose. Again, I didn’t see the Dean Ambrose before 2017 and I heard that he was pretty rough and rugged, but I just love what Moxley does. I love the Young Bucks and not only because I respect them for being on the independents and the money they made and the following they got, but also just because they’re cool guys. They’re great guys to work with.” Schiavone shared some of his thoughts from when he first found out he was going to be calling the action of AEW alongside Excalibur and Jim Ross. Schiavone was curious about what Excalibur had to offer based on his background. “I like to think – well, I know I am – I’m easy to work with. I didn’t know Excalibur at all, and when I was told that you’re going to be working with a masked guy who used to run a promotion and used to be a wrestler, I’m thinking ‘Oh, boy. What do we got here?’ But he’s a very intelligent guy and he knows his stuff and he’s a good kid. He’s hardworking and he and I have struck it off. JR and I have known each other for ages, so I think one of the things that makes our chemistry good – if you, in fact, think it is that way and people think it is that way– is that I do know my role and I don’t try to force the issue.” In terms of how he likes to call a show, Schiavone stated that he cannot watch the competition. He feels that if that becomes a habit, he may pick up certain things or incorporate a style into his announcing and wants to avoid that potentially happening. “It’s hard for me to sit here and compare what we do to what the WWE does because here’s what I do – the exact same thing that I did when I did Nitro back in the day – I do not watch the competitor. If something is going on with the competitor, I’ll read about it or I’ll hear about it from somebody backstage, but I don’t watch it. The reason I don’t is an old thing Vin Scully used to say and, of course, I was a big baseball guy. Vin Scully said years ago that he never listens to any other announcer because he doesn’t want to get caught in the trap of trying to imitate what they say or how they call a game. And I don’t want to do that. I guess I can watch it with the sound down, but I can find out the information another way. So I can’t sit here and say, ‘Hey, watch AEW because we are X-different than WWE’ because I don’t know what they’re doing. I just know that we have exciting wrestling, we have great storylines and I think it may be, from what I understand, a little bit more of what the fans really want in a wrestling program than what the WWE is providing.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp has an extensive interview with Matt Rehwoldt, the former Aiden English. One of the topics covered during the interview had to do getting access to Vince McMahon and Rehwoldt admitted that trying harder to reach Vince is something he could’ve done better ... On the topic of television ratings, Rehwoldt feels that the era of ratings will be done away with over the next decade and he thinks advertising and all things related will be dumped into trending hashtags and SEO-related content. “My thing is I’m pretty convinced and this is kind of a dive off but, I’ve always been convinced — if it doesn’t happen in the next ten years, I will be shocked. But I think television ratings are gonna go away. I think Nielsen is maybe gonna be around or something. I think advertising dollars are gonna be spent on trending hashtags and things like SEO and stuff like that. TV ratings I think are gonna get less and less important, so everyone talking about, ‘Oh, RAW’s lowest numbers ever.’ It’s like, yeah, maybe, but it’s like eight billion things to watch right now so, but people are still talking about X, Y, Z a ton on the internet and eyeballs are there. So that’s [where] I think advertising and media is going.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Pro Wrestling Sheet conducted an interview with Shotzi Blackheart ahead of NXT. Blackheart was asked if she thought that her being in the crowd at the Performance Center diminished her character a bit and she is not of that mindset in the slightest. “It makes such a difference having us there. So I was really hyped for it. I don’t know if you’ve seen the dancing GIFs that come up for me doing audience work, but I loved it. I loved supporting my coworkers, so I was all for it and I took advantage of it. And I had a good time during everyone’s entrances. Some people kind of view it as we’re looked at as fans and not wrestlers when we do this, but I’m like, ‘Uh uh. I’m having the time of my life.’ And I’m supporting my coworkers. I know how I feel at NXT TV when I see the people that I train with out in the crowd giving me that energy. It just helps so much. So I can’t complain. They do it for me. I don’t mind giving back.”

Completely different stance than Tommasso Ciampa in a different interview who was against the idea of having regular NXT stars in the crowd since it was beneath their star status.

Originally Posted by Fightful IMPACT Wrestling is finally trying to lock down their Knockout's Champion. Still technically a free agent, Fightful learned that recently IMPACT Wrestling made a long-term contract offer to Deonna Purrazzo. The following was reported on Fightful Select: After months of no contract offer, Fightful can confirm that IMPACT Wrestling has offered their Knockouts Champion Deonna Purrazzo a full-time contract with the company. There's no word on whether or not pen has been put to paper, but we're told it's at minimum a two-year deal with financial increases as the contract goes on. There were rumors backstage that Purrazzo was going to leave the company in October, which led to an offer finally being made. Alex Shelley is also working without a contract as tag team champion, and EC3 says he does not have a contract at this time. Purrazzo has already competed in several high profile match, including a show-stealing title win on Slammiversary, and a main event Iron Man Knockouts Title match on IMPACT. She sits at 5-0 in singles action on IMPACT programming since her return.

Originally Posted by Fightful For years fans believed The Undertaker would enter the arena on his motorcycle once again. The American Badass Undertaker was buried in 2003, bringing back the Deadman in 2004. It wasn't until WrestleMania 36 that The Undertaker returned on his motorcycle. According to Undertaker, there were never plans for the American Badass to return after he was buried in 2003. "Once I left American Badass, everyone was content with the hybrid version of the Undertaker. My style had changed. I kept a lot of elements of my in-ring work, geared towards the American Badass character. It didn't come up until this year. It dawned on me with the type of promos AJ was cutting, there was really no way I could bring the original Undertaker to (the match). It had become too personal and crossed too many lines. You're gonna have to get American Badass all grown up and he still has that evil side to him but a much more person approach. That's how we ended up with American Badass 2.0. Regardless of what I do on camera moving forward, that's the persona (I'll use)," said Undertaker on My Mom's Basement podcast.

Originally Posted by 411Mania Last week’s episode of AEW Dynamite featured a parking lot brawl between Best Friends and Santana & Ortiz that got a lot of praise from wrestling personalities and fans. According to Fightful, the wrestlers backstage in AEW also were big fans of it. Several wrestlers reportedly went out of their way to see the match in person, even though they weren’t on camera. Certain wrestlers and personalities appeared as the audience for the match, but others came out to watch from a distance even though they weren’t asked to be there.

Originally Posted by 411Mania During today’s episode of Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer discussed the current status of NXT Superstar Chelsea Green and if she will be making it to the main WWE roster. According to Meltzer, Green is not part of the current Retribution stable on Raw, which has seen NXT Superstars Mia Yim and Mercedes Martinez join the group. Meltzer added that Green was taken off of NXT TV right when it appeared she was about to get a push after she broke away from manager Robert Stone. When the angle was done, it was executed with the intent of brining Chelsea Green to the main WWE roster. Meltzer stated, “At the time, the idea was to bring her to the main roster, but they’ve made changes since then. So, who the hell knows what’s going on?” Green is currently still listed as part of the NXT roster for WWE.

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