[Emperor Smeat]

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Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter AEW on 1/15 did 940,000 viewers (1.34 viewers per home) and a 0.38 in the 18-49 demo to not just beat NXT, which did 700,000 viewers (1.28 viewers per home) and a 0.21 in 18-49, but also for the first time beat the NBA on ESPN head-to-head. The first NBA game against the first 97 minutes of AEW and NXT did 934,000 viewers and a 0.34 in 18-34. The late game on ESPN did 1,128,000 viewers and a 0.44 in 18-49. AEW won its time slot in Males 18-49 for the first 97 minutes although the NBA game did beat them in 12-34 and the second game beat AEW over the last 23 minutes.. AEW was fifth in 18-49 while NXT was No. 31. We don’t have quarter hours at press time. In the different key demos, AEW won Women 18-34 70,000 to 39,000. AEW won Women 35-49 98,000 to 62,000. AEW won Men 18-34 101,000 to 56,000. AEW won Men 35-49 226,000 to 112,000, so more than a two-to-one margin. AEW more than doubled NXT with teenagers and NXT won slightly with viewers over 50, as it does every week ... AEW did a 0.20 in 12-17 (up 17.6 percent from last week), 0.24 in 18-34 (up 9.1 percent), 0.52 in 35-49 (up 4.0 percent) and 0.34 in 50+ (down 5.6 percent) ... Because last week’s NXT show didn’t crack the top 50, we don’t have comparisons withe last week, but the show did a 0.08 in 12-17 (well under half of AEW), 0.14 in 18-34, 0.28 in 35-49 (barely half) and 0.35 in 50+, beating AEW only slightly in the demo NXT has won almost every week.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter Unlike in the past when they would run four shows in the same market on big show weekends, this time the 1/23 Smackdown show will be from Dallas and the 1/26 Raw will be from San Antonio. There are two shows in Houston, the Rumble, and the Worlds Collide show the night before at the Toyota Center. Worlds Collide ticket sales are very weak, basically ringside and most but not all of 100s as they haven’t sold out the side of the hard camera, and the rest of the building isn’t for sale. Similarly, the 2/16 Takeover show in Portland also has a weak advance. About 60 percent of the 100s that would normally be for sale are on sale, not including what you’d expect not for sale due to the stage. They are not opening up any other seats at this point for Worlds Collide.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter It appears the next Saudi Arabia show will be on 2/27, a Thursday afternoon, with Smackdown being on 2/28 in Boston. It will be very interesting to see who goes and who doesn’t go. It’s both what happened last time combined with the situation in the Middle East. That situation in theory, since it doesn’t involve Saudi Arabia, may not play a part in some people’s thinking but you can imagine wives and family members right now thinking about celebrities going to the Middle East with the problems with the U.S. and Iran. And that doesn’t even take into account several guys were talking about not going back after the problems getting home from the last show.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter The Revival have hired the same lawyer who does trademarks for Cody Rhodes and are looking and trademarking shatter machine. They’ve already trademarked FTR and Forever The Revival, so at worst if WWE claims rights to the name The Revival, they can go as Forever the Revival using the FTR name that the Young Bucks mocked years ago when building the feud in social media back when people would debate which of the two teams was the best in the world before The Revival was brought up to the main roster and people stopped talking abut them as much

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter The Big Show return is only planned to be temporary, as they needed a babyface to team with Joe & Owens for a brief period of time. Mysterio was supposed to be the third person in that feud but they are working the short-term Mysterio vs. Andrade program until they work their way out of it. Originally, and this doesn’t appear to have changed, the idea was for Andrade to have a longer very serious program over the title with Carrillo as a way to get both guys over as singles Latino stars. But now with Murphy being added to the Rollins group, they are again one short on the face side

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter While not signed yet, the betting line is that Kevin Kaser, 34 (Killer Kross) ends up here. There was thought to be interest in him across the board in wrestling due to his look. Multiple sources said Kaser and Paul Levesque were to have met this week. Besides Impact he had worked a lot on-and-off in AAA and Konnan was a huge proponent of him as far as potential. During his time in AAA, he was booked like a monster and never asked to lose. While it never went anywhere due to WWE signing Cain Velasquez, they were planning on a Velasquez vs. Kross program in AAA and started teasing it in Velasquez’s first match. Kross had been one of Impact’s most pushed stars until he was in a contract dispute with the promotion which led to him being iced for months and eventually released. His girlfriend, Elizabeth Chihaia, better known as Scarlett Bordeaux, is in NXT although has not been pushed on television although she did a quick cameo in an outdoor shot on one of the TV shows. Paul Levesque is said to be high on him

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter In a deal that will make the company profitable in 2020 and beyond, TNT, Warner Media and AEW have renegotiated and signed a new four-year contract that would keep Dynamite on the station through the end of 2023. The four-year deal is worth $175 million in rights fees, just under $45 million per year, and includes TNT having an option to keep the show through the end of 2024 at a significantly increased price. The deal has annual escalators built into the contract. The move protects TNT because there can be no bidding war to increase the costs of Dynamite, like what happened with Raw and Smackdown in the last negotiation period. For AEW, the deal insures 2020 profitability and pretty much protects them for being taken off the air through the end of 2023 if ratings decrease. In television there are always ways to cancel programming or change time slots or move to a different station. But if the show gets hotter or the value of such a show changes as sports rights fees continue to increase, it takes AEW out of the negotiation game where its television value could greatly increase until the beginning of 2025. The new deal is now similar in scope to the kind of deals WWE has for Raw, Smackdown and NXT, in that the cost of production, which in the old deal was $500,000 per week, is no longer covered by TNT. The new deal will continue the ad split aspect of the original deal, and through adding a second show, a weekly one-hour taped show, it would increase the amount of ad time from what the company has been getting a percentage of. WWE does not have ad sharing in its television deals. Essentially it is an increase of about $18 million per year in value, which is said to be more than the difference between making 2020 and beyond profitable. While AEW President and CEO Tony Khan was hopeful when the promotion debuted that it would be profitable by the end of 2020, with the old deal that was not likely to happen, saying it would have taken a miracle for 2020 to end up as a profitable year and we just got that miracle ... While the deal pales in comparison to the $265 million that USA pays for Raw and the $205 million that FOX pays for Smackdown, but it is more than the $30 million per year that USA currently pays for NXT. The deal includes adding another weekly hour of television later this year ... The second show will air on a WarnerMedia station, with TNT its most likely destination. It would not air on Sunday, Monday or Thursday, because Khan has an agreement to not air wrestling against the NFL since his family owns the Jacksonville Jaguars. Tuesday is out due to NBA commitments as far as TNT goes, although it is possible it could air on TBS. Saturday would be tough with UFC, Boxing and College Football, plus it’s the night AEW runs its PPV shows and the night UFC and boxing run their biggest events. But every night has something, as Friday has Smackdown.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter Tessa Blanchard was the center of controversy on 1/12 for her past on the day she was booked to become the first female pro wrestler to win a male world championship on a PPV show ... Blanchard has been controversial for years, since she was a standout for WWE at the Mae Young Classic, but due to a number of issues, even with her looks, heritage and ability, they passed on signing her. There was always talk of attitude issues and other problems, including issues of not getting along with talent, that followed her career in its early years including in Japan. For whatever reason, the day before the PPV, Blanchard sent out a tweet saying, “Hey women, try supporting one another. Cool things happen.” This touched a nerve with women who had worked with her in the past. Most notable was Allysin Kay, who was women’s champion in Impact as Sienna in 2016, who wrote, “Remember when you spat in a black woman’s face and called her the N word in Japan? Was that you `supporting women?’ The audacity of this tweet.” The woman in question was La Black Rose of Puerto Rico, who later confirmed the story, as did Renee Michelle, the wife of James Curtin (Drake Maverick) who had a run on WWE television recently in her real-life role as the new bride, until it was dropped ... So the day of the show, Callis and D’Amore had a couple of major issues. Would they go ahead with the plans to put the title on her and conclude the story? And as a company, how would they handle it and how would they have her publicly handle it? ... From those there, there never seemed to be a serious consideration of not going through with the plans, but there was concern, very quickly alleviated regarding how the crowd would react. The question was more whether she should apologize in some form. She didn’t. Nor did the company make a statement. The decision, at least for the show, was to ignore it.

Supposedly she also allegedly bullied others during the tapings of Women of Wrestling's first two seasons that led to WOW dropping all their major plans for her.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter As far as New Japan World went, I believe the increase was around 20,000 new subscribers, perhaps slightly more, roughly the same as last year. I don’t know what the figure was in December but that would traditionally be a lower month since we are now months removed from G-1, and it’s January and August when interest peaks. In hindsight, that Omega vs. Jericho year where they gained 40,000 is a ridiculous stat. What’s notable is that most of the growth was foreign. The reality is Japan isn’t big on paid streaming services. A lot of the growth was from the U.S

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter The movie “Crossface,” about Chris Benoit, that nobody has heard a thing about in years is apparently a dead project according to Matt Randazzo, Lexi Alexander and Chris’ son David Benoit. David Benoit told Chris Van Vliet in an interview that the filmmakers needed the permission of the family to do the movie but the family refused to give it to them. That’s the same reason attempts many years back to do screenplays on the Von Erichs fell through. David said that the family hired a lawyer to make sure it got shut down. David said the family would not be opposed to a documentary about Chris Benoit noting that he has a lot of home video footage. Alexander, who signed on to direct the screenplay in 2016, said the movie was dead but that story about why was made up. “They really just made up some stuff. I never sent anybody a script...but I did have a very nice and polite convo which I still have a copy of with Sandra Toffoloni (the sister of Nancy Benoit and who probably has the most understanding of what happened of anyone) who is lively and told me of her plans to bring the story to screen herself and I fully encouraged that.” Randazzo said that legal threats never happened. “After years of collecting option checks, I left because of repeated delays over casting, financing, etc., problems with the script and that Nancy’s sister was pursuing a movie. Never aware of any legal threat. Had no role.” The book “Ring of Hell” by Matt Randazzo was to be the template for the movie and Randazzo was one of the executive producers

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter The company [ROH] opened its checkbook big with major signings this past week of the two most in-demand talents that had become free agents, in Marty Scurll and Bandido. Both signed multi-year deals. Scurll got what was said to be the most lucrative contract in company history and will work in creative as a co-booker with Hunter Johnston (Delirious) and basically as things are working out will be the lead. The two are working together with Johnston still as the Executive Producer of television and he and Scurll listed as booker. Johnston didn’t disagree with any of Scurll’s ideas or directions this weekend so Scurll did get all his ideas through. Johnston had been full-time booker as well as run the wrestling school since 2010 and had booked since 2010 and been lead booker since 2012 when Jim Cornette left. There had been other people involved in booking in recent years as well but he was always the titled head booker. The plan right now is for Scurll to determine the direction and for Johnston to run the television shows using Scurll’s ideas and adding in details and formatting it for television. Johnston has said that he doesn’t want to get in the way of Scurll’s creative vision. Johnston was said to be thrilled by not having to be in full charge of creative and called it a new lease on life, and hoping that his level of pressure and anxiety would decrease. Essentially Scurll is getting WWE main roster money guaranteed for maybe 40+ dates per year, plus he can work just about anywhere else he wants without the restrictions that ROH talent had in the past ... It’s notable because when he was not allowed to work the Super J Cup, the feeling was he was going to leave, but the offer was said to be significantly better than the big offer Matt Taven got. He also be working other shows that he wants to. We know the deal won’t allow him to work WWE, and WWE wouldn’t use a guy from another company anyway, and when negotiations were going on, we were told it may not exclude him from AEW although others have said the deal will only exclude AEW and WWE. Scurll’s role when it comes to office work will be to work as a liaison to New Japan, the NWA and other organizations including AEW, which ROH will try and get a working relationship with. That may be difficult because I don’t know what AEW has to gain at this time from an ROH relationship because you never know the twists and turns of the future. Scurll has a lot of friends in AEW so it makes sense to be guy to try and open up communications and boundaries. Those at New Japan love Scurll and they would want to send him more talent this year but they are running so many shows themselves in the U.S. and Japan that it’s hard

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter [AEW] Regarding the booking which has come together better over the last three weeks, Tony Khan took more control after the negativity from the Corpus Christi show and you can see more seeds of long-term planning and layers in storylines, like in the four team tag match and other angles. But that’s also related to all involved

Originally Posted by Observer For the first time since 2009, KENTA is returning to Ring of Honor. KENTA will be in action at Supercard of Honor XIV in Lakeland, Florida on Saturday, April 4. He's the third Bullet Club member and fourth NJPW wrestler announced for the show. It will also feature Jay White, El Phantasmo, and Will Ospreay.

Originally Posted by PWI Impact Wrestling's Twitch channel remains suspended as of this writing.

Originally Posted by PWI Major League Wrestling's Zero Hour event in Dallas on Saturday 1/11 drew 1,387 paid with about 1,500 in the building. The promotion saw a ride in advance tickets sold for that event and their pre-sales for the 5/2 return are already well ahead of any previous pre-sale in the Dallas market. The promotion added capacity by 10% in Dallas and still sold out ... The Dallas event was also the best merchandise night in the history of the promotion with about 40% of the sales coming from Marshall and Ross Von Erich merchandise ... The promotion is negotiating with a major entertainment company about holding a live event in Hawaii later this year, likely built around the Von Erichs, who live there. This was something that was originally planned to be MLW's first PPV last year but then when it didn't come together, Chicago became the first PPV market ... While he has wrestled his final match for MLW, MJF will remain on TV for several months as there has been content pre-taped. He's local to MLW HQ so he can always come in if needed to shoot promos. His official deal expires in a few months and at that point, he'll be exclusively locked in with AEW as part of a five year deal.

Originally Posted by PWI On 1/13, WWE applied to trademark Harlem Heat ... This is especially interesting given the tease for the team's return after the Revival challenged Booker T to have Harlem Heat to return and face them, which has yet to be followed up upon on TV. The 2020 Royal Rumble is being held in Harlem Heat's hometown of Houston, Texas next week.

Originally Posted by Fightful The WWE United Kingdom Championship is now under the NXT banner as the belt has officially been renamed. During the NXT UK TV tapings on Friday, Jan. 17, WALTER was presented with the new NXT UK Championship during an unveiling ceremony held by NXT UK General Manager Johnny Saint. The new title reportedly has an NXT logo in place of the WWE logo. You can see highlights from the ceremony below.

Link: https://twitter.com/WrestlingRoyal1/...60966116380672


TPWW Frontpage:

• Marty Scurll Was Reportedly Set to Be the Leader of the Dark Order
• Kalisto Re-Signs With WWE
• Injured Wrestlers Possibly Set to Return at the Royal Rumble (Possible Spoilers)
• The Rock Comments on the Passing of His Father, Rocky Johnson
• Tessa Blanchard Responds to Racial Slur Allegations