[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets:

Originally Posted by Observer Airing to an unfamiliar night -- but unopposed by AEW Dynamite for the third straight week -- NXT on USA Network was up three percent in overall viewership from last Wednesday's show, averaging 849,000 viewers. It was the second highest audience for NXT this year, just trailing the episode two weeks ago that averaged 853,000 viewers ... Perhaps more importantly, NXT did a 0.26 rating in the 18-49 demo and finished 10th overall on cable in that category, the highest the show has finished since the first couple of weeks on USA. That rating was up 8.3 percent from last week and is the highest for NXT since December 18 of last year. In the individual demo categories, the ratings -- as compared to last week,were: women 18-49 -- 0.19 (up 11.8 percent), men 18-49 -- 0.33 (up 10 percent), people 18-34 -- 0.14 (even); females 12-34 -- 0.11 (up 120 percent); males 12-34 -- 0.18 (down 10 percent); people 25-54 -- 0.30 (up 7.1 percent), and people over 50 -- 0.40 (down 2.4 percent) ... AEW Dynamite will air in its regular time slot tonight with NXT airing a repeat broadcast of last night's show on SyFy. NXT will again air on Tuesday next week due to the NHL playoffs.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling The experiment of placing NXT on a Tuesday night provided the show with its second-best viewership figure of 2020 and the highest rating in the 18-40 demographic since December ... It’s NXT second-highest figure thus year trailing the August 19th show, which ran unopposed in its normal Wednesday night timeslot on the USA Network. This would be NXT’s fourth-highest viewership average since October 2nd, 2019. After three weeks of running without AEW competition, NXT has averaged 842,000 viewers and a 0.25 demo rating. That compares to 696,000 viewers and a 0.18 rating for the three previous episodes that went head-to-head with AEW, so they have experienced a 21 percent increase in viewership and 38.8 percent jump in the demo rating. The results would give one enough evidence to argue strongly that NXT is best served to air on a different night if the intention is to grow this product and put the show in the best position possible when their contract with the USA Network comes due. In that sense, this week’s number could be looked back on as a pivotal one if that decision is made.

Originally Posted by Observer Ring of Honor announced Wednesday they have launched a 24/7 digital linear network called ROH Best On The Planet. The service is currently available on STIRR's channel 357, a free live streaming service owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group who also owns ROH. In the press release, ROH noted that additional distribution partners will be announced and are working with sports network Stadium to help make that happen. The channel features non-stop ROH action including new and past episodes of ROH TV, archived pay-per-views and On Tour shows. STIRR is available on Roku TV, Fire TV, Apple TV and both iOS and Android devices.

Originally Posted by Observer After WWE purchased the company he co-founded, longtime wrestling promoter and booker Gabe Sapolsky released a statement Wednesday where he said he is retired from promoting and booking indie wrestling. In July, Sapolsky and co-founder Sal Hamaoui sold the rights to EVOLVE and the content library for both that company, Full Impact Pro and Dragon Gate USA to WWE for an undisclosed sum after several months of discussions. Hamaoui is continuing with streaming service WWN which was not part of the deal. Sapolsky has been a consultant for NXT since 2018 and is expected to remain in that position.

Originally Posted by Observer In her first appearance since her departure from WWE, the former Renee Young discussed her first week out of the company, her experience having COVID-19 this summer, and how the company's reaction to her announcing the news didn't go over well internally or with her personally. Now going by Renee Paquette, she was a guest on the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast and was asked by host Jimmy Traina about the rumors WWE weren't happy with her decision to go public. She said she likes to be transparent about things and there's no shame in having the virus, but wanted to be responsible and ensure those who were around here were aware. "But yeah, it was not well received," she said. She said that after her tweet announcing the news at night, she awoke the next day to several texts: "They weren't even even like 'You shouldn't have posted it.' But it was like, 'We really wish you gave us a heads up that you were going to post it.' It was bad for PR and whatnot. But again, I wouldn't have even thought to be like, "Hey guys, I'm gonna tweet that I have COVID, ha, ha. Like, that was just not what I was thinking about when I posted about it." Asked if WWE should have shut down early on in the pandemic, Paquette said she felt less concerned at SummerSlam given the testing they are doing now and that proper testing and protocols should have been implemented from the beginning. She also admitted she felt "a little slighted" as she "didn't really feel like anyone was all that concerned that I got sick. That bothered me for sure." Paquette said she knew fairly quickly that she had the virus despite an initial negative test, feeling a gradual increase in symptoms and that her husband (Jon Moxley) didn't think she had it. To this day, she still feels some aftereffects from time to time despite being COVID free. She said there wasn't a definitive moment when she decided to leave WWE but that when Backstage got canceled and she got her virus diagnosis on the same day, it forced her to take stock of her career and that she realized there wasn't a lot for her to do in WWE that represented career progress. She added she will still be working for Fox in relation to WWE but that they are currently trying to figure that situation out. When it was time to announce her decision, she talked to Michael Cole as both her boss and friend. No one tried to talk her out of her decision once they knew her mind was made up and that doing a show like Talking Smack again or random backstage interviews felt like taking steps back at this point in her career. She said she has not spoken to AEW about working there since leaving and joked about the assumption that everyone that leaves WWE is going there. Her goal is to be "Lady Rogan" and be in more control of her content. She said she has a non-compete for "quite a while" and intimated it's much longer than 90 days. She said she would open to talking and that it was tough in having to pretend that Moxley didn't exist as she wasn't allowed to tweet about him.

Originally Posted by PWI Colt Cabana is reviving his Art of Wrestling podcast.

Originally Posted by PWI The Rock responded to Jabroni being added as a word to Dictionary.com: Wow - very cool! Honored have a word actually make the dictionary. Making my all my teachers very proud ???????? For the record, I may have made the word “Jabroni” (a noun, btw famous and part of ???? culture, BUT the Iron Sheik made it famous in our wild wrestling locker rooms!???? https://t.co/ivsCkeVMJA — Dwayne Johnson (@TheRock) September 1, 2020

Originally Posted by PWI WWE Network announced the following list of content coming to the streaming service this month: Coming this month to WWE Network... ???? ?? pic.twitter.com/hKIpCg8psw — WWE Network (@WWENetwork) September 1, 2020 They also reveal that September will see a new addition never before added to the classic content library in Velocity, which ran from 2002 to 2004 featuring Smackdown talents before migrating with Raw's secondary show at the time, Heat over to WWE's website as a webcast before being retired in 2006.

Link: https://twitter.com/WWENetwork/statu...95859244920832

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Brandon Thurston at Wrestlenomics looked at data over the past five years regarding the viewership bump Raw would receive following a pay-per-view. His research shows that over that period it’s the episodes of Raw following WrestleMania (+16 percent), Royal Rumble (+12 percent), Money in the Bank (+10 percent), and SummerSlam (+9 percent) that saw the largest increases from the prior four episodes. In 2020, the overall pay-per-view bump on Raw has been 4 percent but when factoring out the four big shows listed above, it’s only an increase of 0.3 percent.

Link: https://twitter.com/BrandonThurston/...235457/photo/1

Originally Posted by Fightful ICW No Holds Barred announced that Joe Gacy's last match before heading to WWE will be against Tony Deppen at No Holds Barred Vol. 6 on September 11. Gacy is one of several wrestlers reportedly signed by WWE recently.

Originally Posted by Fightful Eric Young is atop the IMPACT Wrestling mountain yet again, after four years away from the World Title. "I’m doing well. What’s the old saying? 'It’s good to be king,'" Young told Fightful in an exclusive interview just after winning the championship. Wrestling Television Viewership Numbers: WWE Raw, SmackDown, NXT, AEW Related Article Wrestling Television Viewership Numbers: WWE Raw, SmackDown, NXT, AEW Eric Young went from not being used on WWE TV, to being released, to being a free agent during a pandemic, to returning to the IMPACT brand in one of the hottest stories the company has seen in recent years. That's not lost on him ... We've heard of new champions, namely Deonna Purrazzo, who not only don't have contracts, but haven't had full-time offers. That isn't the case for Young. He's with IMPACT, and doing some side gigs as well. "Yeah, I’m committed there. I signed a two year exclusive deal. So, exclusively wrestling with them. It will be all IMPACT! all the time for me. I mean, I have tons of other interests like TV, outside of that I’m crazy into fantasy sports. Just actually this morning signed a deal with SportsGrid, I’ll be doing a Sunday morning fantasy prep show for them that airs digitally online and all over the world. Like I said, I’m a very experiential person. I want to do everything. I’m running out of time in the day. One guy can only do so much. For me, IMPACT! is my home. It was my home away from home when I was gone. Now, I’m back. It’s just a very cool place to work, a very cool place to be involved. I said, for me, I just wanted to be involved. I just wanted to be doing something. The fact that I’m the World Champion, I’m the flag bearer, I’m the flagship of the show, it is a huge honor for me. Something I feel that I’ve earned and I deserve, but I will not rest on it, you know what I mean? I’ve never been a person that’s rested on it. I want to improve myself. I want to improve IMPACT! and in turn improving my life. Everything is circular that way. The task at hand is huge. We’ve got a long ways to go, but the opportunity is there. It’s limitless potential in this locker room and I can’t wait to get going and do some other amazing things."

Originally Posted by WrestleTalk All Elite Wrestling an the NWA will be holding a big interpromotional match at All Out this Saturday. NWA Women’s Champion Thunder Rosa will be challenging Hikaru Shida for the AEW Women’s Championship. It is not every day that promotions work together like this and now we have more details about how the relationship came to be. Fightful Select (subscription required) is reporting that the entire deal to bring Thunder Rosa in was constructed between Billy Corgan and AEW. Rosa was said to have wanted to be respectful towards NWA but doesn’t think anything is surprising in how the deal was made. Rosa first appeared on the August 22 episode of Dynamite, challenging Shida for her title. Their match was quickly signed for All Out for September 5. Rosa will be making her in-ring debut tonight on AEW Dynamite.

Originally Posted by Fightful Tenille Dashwood has made her return to the IMPACT Zone. Dashwood crashed Knockouts Champion Deonna Purrazzo’s Black Tie Event on IMPACT, making her first appearance for the company in nearly six months. Her last appearance was on the April 14 episode of IMPACT, which was taped in March, when she defeated Taya Valkyrie.

Originally Posted by Fightful MJF's personality isn't for everyone and he's pissed off his fair share of fans throughout the years. It's better to piss off fans than be pissed on by fans. Speaking to the New York Post, the number one contender for AEW World Title, recalled a couple of fan horror stories he's experienced during his time in wrestling. “At AEW, a fan tried to dress up I believe like a pilot and was trying to convince our security that they were supposed to fly me out on a private jet after the show,” MJF said. “I can assure you that that guy was most certainly not my pilot, so there was once a fan who literally tried to kidnap me. I’ve seen it all. When I was in Mexico, people threw a car battery at me and urine at me. That’s because I don’t tiptoe around. I don’t hide how I feel.” MJF isn't afraid to insult anyone and everyone Arn Anderson, who has been around wrestling for nearly four decades, has seen it all and has his own fan horror stories. Even he is surprised fans don't kill MJF on the spot. “I just happened to be walking by a monitor when he started [a stage show at a Starrcast fanfest] and my God, I couldn’t believe the kid was getting away with the stuff that he was saying, that a herd of people didn’t bum rush the podium and cuff him and take him to jail,” Anderson said. “It was unbelievable how he was toeing the line.” Taz went on to call MJF "a pain in the ass, but [AEW's] pain in the ass."

TPWW Frontpage:

• WWE Considering Idea of Moving NXT to a Different Weekly Night
• WWE: Renee Young on Her Departure, More on NXT Title Iron Man Match, EVOLVE Trademark Issues
• Tonight’s AEW Dynamite Card + AEW Rankings
• Eric Young Wins Impact World Championship