[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets:

Originally Posted by Observer The much-hyped live debut of NXT on USA Network averaged 1.179 million viewers last night. That's almost 40 percent higher than when an NXT episode aired on USA during WWE Holiday Week in December 2017, although that was a taped show that aired out of prime time and was also simulcast on the WWE Network ... NXT did not finish inside the top 20 in terms of total cable TV viewers but did land fourth in the 18-49 demo with a 0.43 rating. The season premiere of American Horror Story did a monster 1.00 rating in the demo and 2.126 million viewers. Suits, which immediately followed NXT on USA, averaged 955,000 viewers for its penultimate episode. Last week’s Suits did a virtually identical 965,000 viewers, so the strong NXT lead-in appears to have had no effect, but it does give an indication of what kind of numbers USA Network might be expecting from programming in that time slot.

Originally Posted by Observer The last time WWE had a third television brand, ECW, it started with more than three million viewers and the number fell quickly. In presentation, there were some similarities to ECW, trying to present itself using terms like unapologetic. There was a wild brawl at the end of the second hour. But they pushed the wrestling and refrained from breaking tables. It was very organized and it was not about a blow out show, but more about building, with some stuff for next week and even more for the week after, when it goes head-to-head with AEW’s debut.

Some historical tidbits on the last time WWE debuted a third show on cable television although the key difference was ECW being doomed from the start because of Vince and the clashes in creative with Heyman.

Originally Posted by Observer Paramount Animation and WWE Studios are partnering together for a project that includes roles for Becky Lynch and Roman Reigns. It was announced today that Paramount Animation and WWE Studios will co-produce an animated film called "Rumble." The film "is set in a world where monster wrestling is a global sport and monsters are superstar athletes. Winnie seeks to follow in her father’s footsteps by coaching a lovable underdog monster into a wrestling champion." ... "Rumble" is expected to be released in the summer of 2020. It's being directed by Hamish Grieve. WWE Studios' Susan Levison and Richard Lowell are executive producers on the film.

Originally Posted by PWI Lio Rush officially returned to WWE NXT tonight. Returning to WWE NXT has been the plan for Rush since last April/May when he was pulled from the main roster. Rush defeated Oney Lorcan to become the top contender for the Cruiserweight Championship, so we'll be seeing a lot more of him soon.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Paul “Triple H” Levesque spoke with the media following the 9/18/19 edition of NXT on the USA and WWE Networks. Here are a few notes from the media call: * Triple H expressed to the NXT roster that it would be difficult to top what they did on the debut show. * One major concern was the pacing of the show due to commercials. Triple H feels that things were handled well. * He stated that last night’s episode was about character building being presented in a different manner than usual but a matches-only format won’t always be on the schedule. * In regards to Lio Rush’s return, that has been in the works for quite some time and he praised Rush and Oney Lorcan for their performance[s]. * Vince McMahon kept in contact with Triple H throughout the day and was seemingly excited. Triple H received a congratulatory text from Vince after the show and added that Vince embraces the uniqueness of NXT. * Triple H stated that Tommaso Ciampa is close to being cleared to return. * Triple H expressed that there is no wiggle room on the USA Network as they have hard outs that NXT would not have on the WWE Network.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Former WWE star Marc Copani, better known by most as Muhammad Hassan was profiled by Syracuse.com. Copani is currently the principal at Fulton Junior High School in New York. Copani shared that he was heartbroken by how quickly his WWE career came to an end because he gave his all to the company: “I was heartbroken,” he said. “I put everything I had into the WWE and had it all taken away from me. I just withdrew from wrestling altogether.” Marc returned to in-ring competition in 2018 for ‘The Dynasty’ promotion. He wrestled on three separate occasions for said promotion but told Syracuse.com that he is never wrestling again because he does not enjoy it the way that he used to.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter NXT debuted on the USA Network on 9/18 as the third straight night of pro wrestling that week on the station. The first show consisted of two dark matches, a one-hour show on USA followed by another 51 minutes on the WWE Network. You got a lot of hard work, an emphasis on in-ring and building matches for the future. There was less time for interviews, and much higher quality of wrestling than on Raw or Smackdown. Indeed, if it wasn’t a WWE product, the push of no B.S., had any other company said it, would be taken as a knock on the WWE main brands themselves ... The negative is that of those on the first show, few had ever been on any sort of major television before. Mia Yim was in Impact, using the name Jade, but very few new viewers would know her. Cameron Grimes was in Impact as Trevor Lee, but that was long after Impact left Spike. Roderick Strong spent years in ROH, as did Adam Cole, Kyle O’Reilly and Bobby Fish. There was no attempt to educate people on who these people were, or bring up to speed who were the champions and what were the programs. Considering this show was there to reach a new audience, the assumption that everyone knew was a mistake. That was a clear weakness. But if they did that they’d have to cut back on the ring time. At some points, notably some of the backstage stuff, it did feel low rent. The 400-seat arena came across like you’d think, but the crowd was very hot for the first hour, and quite normal for the second. Of course this crowd understands the game and their role and they were there to do their part. Whether it can last for two hours is a question, as those there said it was almost like a switch went off after the first hour ended. They knew the stakes weren’t as high on USA and the reactions were toned down. But for the first hour, the crowd was said to be as up as it has been since the first night of the first Mae Young Classic. The show sold out the 400 seats at Full Sail, and it’s likely every show will do that for at least the next few months. With all the talk of Twitter trending, the real stat that correlates with public interest, the Google searches, saw it not crack the top 20, where No. 20 was 50,000, meaning it fell well below that. By contrast, Clash of Champions had 200,000.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter The next PPV, Hell in a Cell, only has a three week television build, taking place on 10/6 in Sacramento. The show is not selling well. At this point only six of the 22 upper deck sections are on sale and even three lower deck sections on the side of the hard camera aren’t for sale, and Sacramento has always been an historically strong WWE market . There were 781 secondary market tickets out with an entry price of $43.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter Anthem’s purchase of AXS TV last week, which led to a number of major executives being let go, has led to more changes. As expected, Impact Wrestling was announced as starting on the station in October, right after the 10/20 Bound for Glory event. No day or time slot has been announced. One of the reasons Impact had taken a 10 p.m. Friday night slot earlier this year was the idea that when Smackdown went to FOX and ended at 10 p.m., they’d have an audience of a few million fans already watching TV. Given Anthem’s ownership of the station and the company, they will get what Anthem feels is the best time slot and I’d think Tuesday or Thursday would be better ... Nothing has been said regarding New Japan or WOW. Some will jump to conclusions because on 9/21, neither show will air, but that was a planned preemption before the sale. Still, when Ed Nordholm made the comment to the Observer last week, it hardly sounded like a vote of confidence for either show. WOW was and still is scheduled to tape 12 weeks of television this week in Los Angeles at the Belasco Theater. There are already ads on AXS touting Impact coming to the station, in October, debuting after Bound for Glory, calling it a redemption. They ran them all through the New Japan show on 9/14. When the sale of the station story started being known, there were those in Impact who felt that the sale would lead to a New Japan/Impact relationship, even though those in New Japan, with no knowledge of what was going to happen, were said to be loyal to ROH. Still, New Japan running ROH arenas in the Northeast on their own, with a far greater ticket demand than ROH has, on the same weekend ROH is having a PPV with no New Japan talent, says something. New Japan, for the first time in years, was not part of the War of the Worlds tour, and ROH talent, since Jeff Cobb appeared for G-1, has not been on New Japan shows either in Japan or the U.S. It was notable that there was no ROH talent in the Super J Cup, nor advertised for the next California shows. At this point there is some relationship with Pro Wrestling NOAH and Impact, with Naomichi Marufuji at Bound for Glory and Rhino at NOAH’s major show on 9/16 in Osaka. NOAH has also worked with MLW.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter After years of talk about AAA coming to Madison Square Garden, it didn’t exactly happen, but Invading New York did take place on 9/15 at the Hulu Theater in the MSG complex ... The PPV numbers were so low you wouldn’t believe them. In more than one market with a high percentage of Hispanics, there were 0 buys, as in not a low number, but zero. Based on actual numbers we have, it would indicate less than 60 buys nationwide and even that may be high because the early market actuals included heavy Hispanic markets. There must have been some iPPV numbers, but our response level was very low. They had a great walk-up and were nearly sold out, with 3,000 fans. It was a mostly Mexican fan base, as opposed to Puerto Rican, since the New York-based Puerto Rican combo of LAX (without Konnan, who never appeared on the show) were not the crowd favorites when challenging Pentagon Jr.& Fenix for the AAA tag titles ... Between visa problems and injuries, there were 18 wrestlers and referees that were listed as appearing in original announcements who weren’t there. La Parka, in particular was a part of all the advertising and was never mentioned. In all, 20 visas didn’t come through by the time of the show, even though they were applied for months ago. All 20 were expected to come in this week, and those wrestlers will be available for Los Angeles. Every performer on the show already was a regular worker in the U.S., whether getting visas years ago through Lucha Underground or other prior U.S. work, or not being Mexican. The only exception was Dave the Clown, and odds are he must have had a visa going in given he was the only exception to that rule. Others who at one point were scheduled on the show were Amazing Red, Dezmond Xavier and Homicide.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter Some notes from the Bushiroad annual financial report. New Japan grossed $50 million during the period from August 1, 2018 to July 31, 2019, which would be the biggest year in its history. It was up 10.8 percent from last year. New Japan drew 436,000 paid for live attendance during the year, which makes the sixth year in a row live attendance has increased. Profits for New Japan were down from last year. Actual profits were not listed, but there was a category Bushiroad reported for sports companies, which means New Japan and their other sports company, Kixroad, their kickboxing company. In that category, which is dominated by New Japan, profits dropped from $7 million to $5.6 million. The difference, with revenue up, is that the company made more investments in visual content (all the videos) and in expansion into international markets (U.S., Australia and U.K. in particular) ... House show revenue for New Japan was up 12.8 percent from the previous fiscal year. They actually ran fewer live events, but because they ran more shows in larger buildings, the total attendance was up with less events. Also, New Japan’s overseas merchandise revenue was way down, which is due to the loss of the big U.S. merch movers after January. They did about $25 million in ticket sales (average ticket price at $57.33 per head), $15 million in merchandise and $10 million in content, which would be basically New Japan World and television. The only mention of New Japan World listed the number as above 100,000. If we go with that number as the average for the year and about $8.33 per sub monthly, you get to the $10 million mark, but that’s split with TV-Asahi, the co-owners. So it looks like $5 million from World and $5 million from television. That’s the difference between the Japanese and American markets, as in the U.S., television (and some streaming services) will pay big money for rights fees of pro wrestling. New Japan is not strong enough in the U.S. to do so, and in Japan, paying big for pro wrestling doesn’t exist because their television is so different. The strength of the business is merchandise, with LIJ and Bullet Club leading the way. The business plan for this coming year is to grow attendance by running more larger arena shows, which, in turn, will continue the growth of merchandise. New Japan does, when it comes to per-head at events, roughly double the merchandise sales as WWE. Long-term, the goal is to follow the lead of WWE and UFC in growing the content business ... The plan to grow the content business is running more live events in the U.S., and making New Japan World more user-friendly for those speaking English.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter Session Moth Martina, who signed here last week, also had a WWE offer. There are ups and downs. The ROH deal allows her to work her indies in Japan and the U.K. without any restrictions, past the dates ROH runs shows. There’s also a lot quicker ascension to the spotlight in ROH that in NXT due to the difference in roster size. WWE has its obvious advantages, notably more talented women overall and a bigger spotlight and money for those who break out of the pack, but it’s also much harder to do so.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter There is nothing new regarding Kacy Catanzaro. From what we’ve been told, she hasn’t been around the Performance Center of late and she’s on a leave. There is no definitive word of whether she will come back and wrestle again or not. She’s just in a situation of deciding what she wants to do

Originally Posted by Observer Newlstter WrestleNomics noted some things about roster growth. In 2014, WWE had 90 wrestlers on the main roster and 59 in training. Now they have 129 wrestlers listed on the main roster and 136 in training. So for the first time they have more wrestlers on the roster than WCW did at its most bloated

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter Maria Kanellis angle back on Raw this week, the eventual plan is to reveal who the father is and build to that as a mystery for a ratings boost. Rusev is not the answer. It was described that this will be more a running joke than an angle building to a major reveal

Some other stuff:

• Because of the upcoming Wednesday Night War, Meltzer reported that the Observer Newsletter will be going on a new weekly release schedule from late Wednesday to now a late Thursday release. Main reason is due to AEW & NXT ratings news being too important to hold off for the following week under the current schedule.

TPWW Frontpage:

• NXT Injuries: Velveteen Dream, Joaquin Wilde, Kona Reeves, Arturo Ruas
• Kenny Omega Cuts a Promo on NXT, Says AEW Is on Another Planet
• Updates: The Usos, Sheamus, Jason Jordan
• AEW’s TNT Show Will Officially Be Called “AEW Dynamite”
• NXT and SmackDown Reportedly Won’t Air Live on the West Coast, AEW Will