[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets (Observer Newsletter Edition):

New Japan officially announced its G-1 lineups which will likely contain many if not most of the best matches of 2020. What’s notable is that every show, except for the finals, will consist of six singles matches, which would be five tournament matches from one of th two blocks, and a singles opener involving a match up with Yuya Uemura, Yota Tsuji and Gabriel Kidd. There will be no tag matches to build up the next card. The key is the shows will be shorter, but with the idea of not cutting back on match time in the tournament. All arenas will be sold to half capacity, so it is almost a lock that every show will sell out ... All shows will air live in Japanese on New Japan World. The belief is that at least some of the shows will also air live in English. Right now it is not clear what shows with air live in English past the final three shows likely will . In the B block anyone who beats Naito is likely to get an IWGP or IC title match in the fall. In the A block, people beating Takagi will likely be the ones challenging for the Never title between now and the end of the year. Those who beat Ospreay may challenge for the British title but that’s up in the air because of travel ... Another note is that this will be a different Ospreay than before as he’s gained 15 pounds during the pandemic. By only wrestling twice five months, when he wasn’t battling depression issues he was on a bodybuilding regime and now has one of the best physiques in the company if not the business. With guys known for flying, like Rey Mysterio, gaining a lot of weight, even when it’s muscle, does affect the flying. I’ve only seen one match of this with the new weight and it was a tag match and he was working a different style with less acrobatics and more wrestling. And that may end up a positive because he’s not a heavyweight rather than a junior heavyweight and the added weight can strengthen weak spots as far as bumping, but can also put more stress on knees and back. If you look back historically at people like Davey Boy Smith, Mysterio, Dynamite Kid and others, they did have their best matches when they were lighter. But with others, like Kenny Omega, they had better matches bigger so each case is different, but stylistically it’ll likely be a different Ospreay. While the lack of cheering crowds will hurt, from a health standpoint, the more days off and no tag matches between singles matches looks to be a positive as far as match quality and injury recuperation goes.

Matt Riddle dropped a petition on 9/7 in Orange County to get a restraining order against Samantha Tavel (Candy Cartwright), who had accused him of sexual assault on Twitter and in an article in Newsweek, and is now expected to file a slander/libel lawsuit against Tavel on 9/22 for alleging he sexually assaulted her. The first filing was simply to get a restraining order to keep her from the Performance Center, where she allegedly came and caused a scene on December 19, 2019. Tavel and her lawyers were given five-day notice of plans to file a suit by Riddle against her in Marion Country in Florida on or after 9/22 based on giving five day notice based on comments that came out after the petition was dropped, claiming Tavel made up the claim and was attempting to ruin his career after he broke up with her. Riddle and Tavel had a relationship for several years on-and-off and after it was broken off by Riddle a second time, Tavel accused Riddle of sexual assault from a few years earlier, said to be in a van that the two along with others from Evolve were traveling together to shows in. Her claim is that nobody else in the van was aware of it because they were sleeping. WWE was aware of the issues between the two for more than one year and had looked into the case at the time and it had not affected Riddle’s standing with the company. Riddle had contemplated filing for a restraining order against her last year but it was said that he decided against doing so after he talked with WWE about the situation. The two had a relationship at the time of the alleged sexual assault and continued the relationship after that time period. According to an article by David Bixenspan on the Babyface vs. Heel web site, Riddle alleged by checking a category when filing for the original restraining order that Tavel had committed stalking, previously threatened, harassed, stalked, cyberstalked or physically abused Riddle, threatened to harm Riddle or family member or individuals close to him, used or threatened to use weapons against him such as guns of knives, destroyed personal property, including but not limited to telephones and other communication equipment, clothing or other items belonging to Riddle ... Daniel Rose, the attorney for Riddle, alleged that there had been no public statements by Tavel in several months and they believed there would not be when they pulled the attempt to get the order three days prior. The article indicated they pulled it based on a filing from Tavel’s attorney trying to deny the order and to get it thrown out to where Riddle’s side would have to pay Tavel’s court costs. In Riddle’s original petition he was attempting to keep Tavel from coming to the Performance Center. Riddle’s statement was that he met Tavel in 2016, and they started having an affair on November 6, 2017. He said he tried to break up with her in June 2018, but they ended up still seeing each other under he broke up with her again in July 2019. He said Tavel systematically stalked, cyberstalked and harassed himself and hi wife since July 9, 2019. He said he blocked her on social media and changed his phone number, only for her to text him from a burner phone saying that if he didn’t leave his wife for her that he would be sorry and she would ruin his career. Days later he and attorney Daniel J. Rose talked about filing a restraining order, but didn’t do it, but did contact WWE about the situation. The petition also lists that this past February (it was actually believed to be December 19, 2019) that Tavel came from New York to Full Sail University where he was working and she created a scene and had to be escorted out of the building. On 6/19, Tavel accused Riddle of sexual assault during the Speaking Out movement back when both were working for Evolve. She said this took place in May 2018, alleging he forced her to perform oral sex on him out of fear when he grabbed her by the throat in a van when the two and three others were traveling together to shows. The reason she said there were no witnesses to this because everyone else in the van was sleeping. Riddle denied the charge and then filed for the restraining order this past July after she first made the claim. He admitted the two had a relationship and that after he broke it up she began harassing him. Riddle said these claims caused himself and his family “substantial emotional distress.” Rose claimed Tavel posted Riddle’s home address and wife’s number on Twitter causing her to receive numerous crank calls and death threats which he said were recorded and could be brought to trial. It should be noted that there was a Tweet that showed a people finder web site but it was not from Tavel but from a fan who was part of the conversation, listing Riddle’s last two addresses from a people finder web site. In a text Tavel released, Lisa Riddle’s phone number was blocked. Tavel’s attorney, Allison Lovelady, pointed to that and noted Tavel never released either their address nor Lisa Riddle’s phone number. However, there are people who have found evidence of people talking about Tavel’s texts that did have the phone number and noted it being deleted with a later text that hid the phone number. Riddle’s attorney claimed Tavel posted Lisa Riddle’s phone number on Twitter from a burner phone and then hours later deleted it and reposted it with the phone number covered up. The claim was this phone number, later deleted, still resulted in Lisa Riddle’s wife getting death threats and hate messages. There were also claims that Tavel left phone messages to Lisa Riddle during this period threatening her ... A release claiming victory after Rose and Riddle withdrew the injunction was sent out. The release claimed a false allegation that Tavel traveled to Orlando and caused a scene in February, which was listed in the petition, when she claimed she was never in Florida in February. The claim is that is now that the scene did happen in front of people on December 19, 2019 at Full Sail University. The release tweeted by Tavel claimed that after Rose sent out a release over the summer first saying that they were going to attempt to get an injunction that Tavel suffered online harassment and retaliation against her, as well as cost her an opportunity to work with WWE and made it difficult for her to find work. Rose claimed that the WWE has made clear they were never interested in Tavel and this did not cost her a job with the company ... Technically the claims were not dismissed, but withdrawn, and if anything the situation got more heated after the release with the claim by Rose that they were filing suit against her this coming week. Still, WWE teasing this as part of a storyline on Smackdown last week is mystifying at best, insane at worst given the touchy nature of the subject. Lovelady attempted to get the injunction dismissed saying there was no support for any claims of threats, destruction of property and/or use of weapons and text messages Riddle supplied showed no evidence of threats to ruin his career if he didn’t leave his wife. She claimed the petition should be dismissed with Riddle having to pay Tavel’s legal fees and claimed Riddle’s attempt to keep her from attending events at the Performance Center but not from his home or any other location says this is an attempt to harm, harass and silence her and not to protect him.

AAA: Konnan, on his podcast, said that they were hoping to be back running shows in October. He said it was not official and if there is an increase in the COVID-19 cases in Mexico it would be delayed

NEW JAPAN: While it’s not announced that Jeff Cobb has signed here, it’s pretty much a sure thing. Cobb has said that he’s signed with a promotion but would wait for them to announce it. It’s known that he turned down AEW and ROH. This is the only place he’s been working since the pandemic started and pretty much everyone New Japan ism using right now is under contract because there are limited spots with running shorter shows with fewer matches

Regarding Mexicans who can work in the U.S, besides Penta and Fenix, would be Laredo Kid, Black Taurus and Psycho Clown who all have visas. El Hijo del Vikingo doesn’t have a visa

AEW: The ending of the Chris Jericho & Jake Hager vs. Sonny Kiss & Joey Janela match on the 9/9 show did more than 580,000 18-49 viewers and almost 1.2 million total viewers The plan is to stay at Daily’s Place at least through November (and likely longer) and they’ve offered a plan for $175 for tickets for the next seven tapings which works out to $25 per show. As noted last week, they were going to have a lot of trouble running so frequently in the same location. WWE couldn’t even make this work in a population as large as New York and they only made it work in Orlando by having 400 seats and keeping ticket price low The one hour show that was originally going to air on 9/16 before it turned out there was no NBA game that night, will air after the NBA on 9/22 on both TNT and TSN in Canada. The show has Matt Sydal vs. Shawn Spears, Anna Jay vs. Brandi Rhodes and Scorpio Sky vs. Benjamin Carter. The latter match, if it’s given time, should be tremendous. Still, it feels like this is a throw away show because it’s on late at night and none of the major stars are on it. I’d like this, coming right after NBA coverage, to be a chance to make new stars for the product and have a more marquee show, although Sky vs. Carter could wow people but there’s still no established major star power past Chris Jericho announcing

Jericho on his Saturday night YouTube show said that he was the one who came up with Miro’s line that was anti-WWE. He told Miro the line and Miro couldn’t believe he’d be allowed to say that on television and Jericho told him here you can say what you want. "I've always been a fan of his. He's another guy, who, for whatever reason, fell through the cracks there and they are going to regret letting him go.” Jericho’s line was about “10 years under the same house, under the same glass ceiling" and chasing an imaginary brass ring. Well, you can take that brass ring and shove it up your ass," "I'm glad Miro came in and gave his mission statement," Jericho stated. "That said, we'll just leave it there now. This is not a place that wants to constantly bash another place. Obviously, when you come from another company, you have to acknowledge the fact that you came from there, because there's a history. But then you move on." Miro said he will not be talking about WWE going forward, although apparently he was not happy at all with Lana’s portrayal on the 9/14 Raw show since a lot of people were asking questions right after that angle aired whether that was done as a reprisal to his AEW interview Jericho also said that him debuting as Sabian’s best man is actually part of a long thought out storyline in the sense Miro will be “The Best Man” as his nickname, as a takeoff on Curt Hennig as Mr. Perfect. "The Best Man thing is not a one-time deal," Jericho said. “It is going to be his new gimmick. He's the Best Man at everything, similar to Mr. Perfect. You know, Miro has always been a great guy, very funny guy, which a lot of people don't know. It's very cool to have him with us.

I had figured the reason the [AEW] one year TNT anniversary show was 10/14 headlined by the Jon Moxley vs. Lance Archer title match, and not 10/7 (the actual first show aired October 2, 2019) was because the Vice Presidential debate is scheduled for 10/7. But actually the reason is they’ve got other ideas for 10/7 which will have a different theme

The signing of Will Hobbs and subsequent push starting with the Casino Battle Royale was because Khan was impressed with him when he saw him when he was brought in to job on Dark. He booked him on Dynamite against Darby Allin and was hands on in helping put together that match with the idea to show that Allin could beat a physically impressive guy and thought Hobbs performed great in the role

Chris McCumber, who was the President of NBCU’s entertainment cable networks, USA and SYFY, has left the company after 19 years. This comes after Mark Lazarus, Chairman of NBCU television and streaming changed priorities and put Lifestyle Networks president Frances Berwick in charge of the new Entertainment and Business television division. NBCU reportedly did try to find a new role for McCumber, but he felt it was time to leave. It’s about prioritizing streaming and also cutting back on scripted programming on USA and SYFY and the idea of relying more on reality shows and live sports. McCumber has headed USA since 2011 and headed USA and SYFY since 2016. He was the point person in USA’s relationship with WWE. What this means is too early to know. McCumber was known to be a Paul Heyman supporter and wasn’t happy when he was taken off his role with Raw. He had been sold on the idea of a time frame of declining ratings in order to rebuild and create a generation of new stars, and was less happy when the emphasis was put on older stars. Whether he still felt that way a ratings somewhat stabilized is unclear

The plans are to make the Reigns/Heyman dynamic as different as possible from Lesnar/Heyman. The idea is that everyone knew that while Lesnar was a mercenary, he was also friends with Heyman. He smiled at his promos, laughed at his jokes, and long-time fans knew the relationship dated back to Lesnar’s start on the main roster in 2002. With Reigns it is the opposite. There is no friendship. The idea is that with Reigns, he is completely in charge oft he relationship and that, at least in idea, Heyman was done in wrestling with Lesnar gone and had nothing left. Reigns made the call to bring him back so he’s indebted to Reigns for saving his career. There will be catch phrases such as “Reignsing, defending, undisputed champion” and there will be a designation of him as the Special Counsel and Reigns will be the Tribal Chief, as a takeoff on Peter Maivia’s role in Samoan culture in the 70s

There has been talk on both sides of the aisle in the Florida legislature to introduce a bill that stems from the Daria Berenato/Sonya Deville case. It hasn’t been worded that I know of, but the idea of the bill would be to allow celebrities who have purchased homes confidentiality to where, for their own protection from crazed stalkers, it would be more difficult to get their home addresses. It’s been conceded that with Berenato, the guy was so intent that the guy may have been able to get it anyway but the case showed it was far too easy. The idea is that major sport pro athletes, wrestlers who appear on television and actors and actresses from SAG cards would be able to get their home addresses made confidential within the state

Right now they are looking for ideas for television after the contract in Orlando expires at the end of October. They don’t want to go back to the Performance Center and they do want to do shows with paying crowds. The idea is to try and run outdoors where it is safer and continue to run live

Right now the plan for Retribution, is that the main five characters will be Dominik Dijakovic, Shane Thorne, former Raw announcer Dio Maddin, Mercedes Martinez and Mia Yim. On Raw they cut a promo where they made it clear they were disgruntled talent who had been at the Performance Center who felt they hadn’t been given a fair chance. As noted last week, the decision has been made to only do this angle on Raw

Jaxson Ryker, who not only disappeared from TV, but ended up taking his partners Wesley Blake & Steve Cutler down the tubes with him when the team was set to do a program with The New Day by his pro-Trump tweets in early June which went over great in the dressing room (including both partners publicly trying to separate themselves from him to no avail) was back on 9/15 with a Tweet saying, “Lay down your freedom brother. Raise those masks that do not (sic) good.” In fairness, even if he didn’t make those tweets, there were those in the company who felt The Forgotten Sons gimmick was probably not the right thing to put on television at the time. And yes, we do know that people were furious at Ryker while having to keep their mouths shut about Linda McMahon heading a Super Pac for Trump’s re-election fund raising

The current market value of the company is $3.836 billion. Loop Capital, which had recommended selling until the stock hit $38 per share, is now listing as a hold and a $42 per share number saying that the decline in recent months now has the company about where it should be as far as value. In the projections of Alan Gould, he expects numbers to be lower than projections for the remainder of this year but increases in 2021 and 2022. Basically WWE hoped to get a boost from laying off 60 to 70 employees last week but that didn’t happen. But with the layoffs and cost cutting, the feeling is next year when things get back to normal with live events, plus cutting out a lot of the events that were money losers with a cutting back of shows, then profits will be higher than originally anticipated. Gould also felt a strong positive with the addition of Nick Khan. WWE really right now is a domestic and somewhat international based television rights fees business predominately, as is AEW. The feeling is Khan gives them a great person to handle negotiations. The decline in ratings is concerning but Gould believes right now that the next negotiations will lead to an increase in domestic rights from the current $470 million per year to about $658 million starting in October 2024

Regarding the most-watched shows on the WWE Network for the past week: 1. WWE Day of SummerSlam 2020; 2. Clash of Champions 2019; 3. Talking Smack; 4. Steve Austin’s Broken Skull Sessions with Jerry Lawler; 5. Raw Talk; 6. Payback 2020; 7. Smackdown form 8/7; 8. Clash of champions 2018; 9. NXT from 9/8 (Adam Cole vs. Finn Balor show) 10. SummerSlam 2020. The only independent show in the top 25 was the wXw Shotgun to the Top show at No. 19

WWE Ratings, AEW vs NXT Ratings:

SPOILER: show

All things considered, the 9/14 Raw number has to be looked at as if it could have been worse. The show averaged 1,689,000 viewers and 0.50 in 18-49 against the season opening Monday Night Football doubleheader. While it was the sixth lowest audience in the history of the show, given the competition, had the lineup not been strong it could have easily been a lot lower. It was down only 2.1 percent in viewers, when it often can drop 10 percent or more, and was actually up with younger viewers, 4.2 percent in 18-49 and 26.1 percent in 18-34 from the prior week. It was the first time since 2012 that Raw went up in 18-49 the first week of the NFL season, but they did really load up the show ... For a comparison Raw was down 25.7 percent in total viewers from the same week last year, 30.6 percent in 18-49 and 34.1 percent in 18-34. Raw was fourth for the night in 18-49, trailing only the two NFL games and the SportsCenter show at 1:31 a.m. after the second game ... The first hour did 1,812,000 viewers. The second hour did 1,734,000 viewers. The third hour fell to 1,521,000 viewers. Hour three was the fourth lowest hour in the history of the show, which featured the ending and post-match of Dominik Mysterio vs. Seth Rollins in a cage, Raw Underground, Kevin Owens vs. Aleister Black, Lana & Natalya vs. The Riott Squad and Drew McIntyre vs. Keith Lee ... Regarding the first-to-third hour drop of 16.1 percent, above the recent norm, the drop was 8.8 percent with women 18-49, 15.7 percent with men 18-49, 3.8 percent with teenage girls, 13.7 percent with teenage boys and 15.7 percent over 50. The show did an 0.25 in 12-17 (down 7.4 percent from last week), 0.29 in 18-34 (up 26.1 percent), 0.71 in 35-49 (down 2.7 percent) and 0.82 in 40+ (down 2.4 percent)

Even with strong sports competition, Smackdown on 9/11 did a huge increase of 9.4 percent in viewers for its best numbers since the week after WrestleMania with a 1.43 rating, 2,329,000 viewers and 0.6 (824,000 viewers) in 18-49. The show had 1.35 viewers per home. The rating was up 12.6 percent from last week while 18-49 numbers were up 3.9 percent. The rating continues to be fueled by the return of Roman Reigns as a heel and the Bayley turn on Sasha Banks. The show also remained even with an 0.4 in 18-34. Smackdown tied with a first-run episode of 20/20 for first in 18-49 and won among network programming in 18-34 and men 18-49. Each network had first run programming and reruns combined. Smackdown beat two first run shows, Love Island on CBS (1,805,000 viewers) and Dateline on NBC (2,180,000) in total viewers and beat an America’s Got Talent rerun, placing in total viewers out of eight shows when it usually finishes last, although a number of cable shows like the NBA and Fox News also beat them. The early NBA game head-to-head on TNT did 2,563,000 and 0.95 in 18-49 and the late game did 4,691,000 and 1.87 in 18-49. The NHL on USA did 986,000 and 0.29. Last year on the same week FOX had rerun shows in the time slot and averaged 934,000 viewers and 0.3 in the demo, so they were up 149.4 percent in viewers and 100 percent in 18-49. In the segments, the first half four with the Roman Reigns & Paul Heyman interview and most of the Jeff Hardy vs. A.J. Styles IC title match did 2.35 million viewers. The second half hour with the end of Hardy vs. Styles and the Shinsuke Nakamura & Cesaro vs. Lucha House Party and interplay with the Street Profits fell to 2.26 million viewers. The big segment once again was the Bayley promo and footage of her turning on Sasha Banks, and the Lacey Evans vs. Tamina vs. Alexa Bliss vs. Nikki Cross match for the title shot at 2.39 million viewers. The Otis vs. John Morrison, Firefly Fun House and Reigns & Jey Uso vs. King Corbin & Sheamus match did 2.32 million viewers.

AEW had a strong showing on 9/16 considering it wasn’t really a marquee show on paper, even if the end result was one of the best two hours shows the company has put on. The key is that AEW showed where they are on a night without major sports competition, since neither the NBA nor NHL had games, but they were head-to-head with NXT. AEW did 886,000 viewers and 0.34 (445,000 viewers) in 18-49, placing third on the night in the key demo in the first head-to-head battle with NXT since 8/12 ... NXT did 689,000 viewers and 0.18, (229,000 viewers, or barely half), good for the No. 31 spot of the night ... The last time the two shows went head to head, AEW did 792,000 viewers and 417,000 in 18-49, while NXT did 619,000 viewers and 206,000 in 18-49, but that was also against NBA and NHL competition ... We don’t have breakdowns for Raw and Smackdown, but in 18-34, AEW did fewer viewers than both and we don’t have the women 18-34 numbers broken down at press time for the other two shows. AEW doubled NXT in both men and women 18-34 and handily won in both groups 35-49. AEW won every demo by a sizeable margin except 50+ won 0.36 to 0.32. AEW did 107,000 viewers in male 18-34, up 17.6 percent from last week’s unopposed show and up 64.6 percent from the last time they went head-to-head. AEW did 62,000 in women 18-34, down 3.1 percent from last week, but up 3.3 percent from the last head-to-head night. AEW did 186,000 in males 35-49, down 21.2 percent from last week but up 2.2 percent from the last head-to-head night. And AEW did 90,000 women 18-49, the same number as last week but down 18.2 percent from the last head-to-head night. NXT did 41,000 viewers in male 18-34, up 5.1 percent from last week and 5.1 percent from the last head-to-head night. NXT did 26,000 in women 18-34, down 3.7 percent from last week but up 23.8 percent from the last head-to-head night. NXT did 106,000 in men 35-49, down 27.4 percent from last week but up 8.2 percent from the last head-to-head night. NXT did 56,000 in women 35-49, down 24.3 percent from last week but up 16.7 percent from the last head-to-head week. AEW won every quarter and of course 18-49 big. The only quarter AEW didn’t win 18-49 by at least 200,000 viewers was quarter No. 7. AEW doubled NXT in quarters No. 4 and No. 8 and nearly in No. 1. In the main event battle, AEW with the Best Friends vs. Santana & Ortiz street fight, an incredible visual, did 871,000 viewers and 420,000 in 18-49 while NXT with Damien Priest vs. Timothy Thatcher for the North American title did 599,000 viewers and 186,000 in 18-49. AEW opened with 960,000 viewers and 504,000 in 18-49 for the Young Bucks angle and FTR vs. Jungle Boy & Luchasaurus. This was one of the best opposed quarters for AEW all year and was its high point with both men and women 18-49. NXT opened with 803,000 viewers and 253,000 in 18-49 for Io Shirai vs. Shotzi Blackheart. In quarter two, AEW had 857,000 viewers and 451,000 in 18-49 for The attack on Matt Hardy and beginning of Frankie Kazarian vs. Adam Page, which was a loss of 103,000 viewers and 47,000 in 18-49. NXT did 801,000 viewers and 267,000 in 18-49 for the finish of Shirai vs. Blackheart, Tommaso Ciampa vs. Desmond Troy and a Jake Atlas interview. This was also NXT’s high point in both male and female 18-49. In the third quarter, AEW had 935,000 viewers and 477,000 in18-49 for the end of Page vs. Kazarian and MJF vs. Shawn Dean. NXT did 747,000 viewers and 248,000 in 18-49 for Austin Theory vs. Kushida. In the fourth quarter, AEW had 891,000 viewers and 438,000 in18-49 for an MJF promo, Taz technique, Eddie Kingston with Penta El Cero M, Rey Fenix, Butcher & Blade, and the beginning of Chris Jericho & Jake Hager vs. Private Party. NXT did 613,000 viewers and 202,000 in 18-49 for a Johnny Gargano & Candice LeRae interview and most of the Tyler Breeze & Fandango vs. Fabian Aichner & Marcel Barthel tag match, which lost 134,000 viewers and 46,000 in the key demo. In the fifth quarter, AEW had 904,000 viewers and 451,000 in 18-49 for most of Jericho & Hager vs. Private Party. NXT did 679,000 viewers and 232,000 in 18-49 for the end of the tag title match Kacy Catanzaro & Kayden Carter vs. Xia Li & Jessi Kamea. In the sixth quarter, AEW had 869,000 viewers and 425,000 in 18-49 for Thunder Rosa vs. Ivelisse for the NWA title and Jake Roberts & Lance Archer & Taz in the ring for a promo. NXT did 631,000 viewers and 230,000 in 18-49 for a Tegan Nox promo and the beginning of Bobby Fish & Roderick Strong vs. Drake Maverick. In the seventh quarter, AEW had 796,000 viewers and 390,000 in 18-49 for the Jon Moxley attack by Brian Cage & Ricky Starks and Will Hobbs save. NXT did 638,000 viewers and 211,000 in 18-49 for the ending of Fish & Strong vs. Maverick with Killian Dain coming out, Maverick & Dain and a William Regal announcement. Best Friends vs. Ortiz & Santana gained 75,000 viewers and 30,000 in 18-49. The Priest vs. Thatcher main event lost 39,000 viewers and 25,000 in18-49.