[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets:

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter Double or Nothing is currently estimated at doing roughly 98,000 buys between television and digital PPV, with close to a 50/50 split between the two ... Because of the smaller building, the gate was not close to what New Japan and ROH got for the Madison Square Garden show. It would have to be considered the most successful debut event of a pro wrestling promotion, even if the attendance was less than what Roy Shire drew for his first show at the Cow Palace in 1961. And that’s the only comparison product ... Las Vegas historically is a great boxing and UFC market, and WCW and WWE did well at times when they were hot, but as a general rule it is not a strong wrestling market. WrestleMania in 1993 at Caesar’s was set up for less than 16,000 and didn’t even sell out ... Overall merchandise numbers for AEW were said to be excellent, including the convention. Merchandise at the live show was above what WWE would do in a similar sized building for a PPV, but not by that much, probably in the $120,000 to $130,000 ballpark. It was nothing like Mania level per-head merchandise buying. AEW was the second most searched item on Saturday night on Google, topping 220,000, trailing only the Toronto Raptors. All In, New Japan Tokyo Domes, and ROH/NJPW in Madison Square Garden never cracked the top 20. NXT has only once done so, hitting 50,000 for the most recent Takeover show in Brooklyn. It beat the last UFC show by 12 percent and beat Money in the Bank by 35 percent. However, when it came to second-day interest, it more than quadrupled Money in the Bank and was more than six times greater than UFC 237, and that’s with Raw the day after Money in the Bank and ESPN news coverage the day after UFC 237.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter AEW has announced two smaller shows that look to be streamed on B/R Live, a 6/29 show in Daytona Beach with Young Bucks & Omega vs. Pentagon Jr.& Fenix & mystery partner, Moxley vs. Joey Janela, Darby Allin vs. Cody and local promoter Alex Jebailey vs. Michael Nakazawa that has sold about 3,000 tickets; and a 7/16 show in Jacksonville with Omega vs. Cima, Young Bucks vs. Rhodes Brothers and Brandi Rhodes vs. Allie that at last word had several hundred tickets left in a building set up for 5,180.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter WWE’s unique Super Showdown card on 6/7 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, is a show with a unique dream match from 20 years ago, a grudge match from 15 years ago in a country outdated by about 100 years. The company is pushing the show with the tag line that it will be “as big if not bigger than WrestleMania.” While the show will put far more money into the company’s coffers than WrestleMania, the as big or bigger likely ends there. With a show scheduled from 2-6 p.m. on a Friday afternoon, the audience watching will be minuscule in comparison and the overall interest level will likely fall well below Double or Nothing from a group that has no television. Currently there are nine matches announced for the show that pretty much exposes that whatever principles WWE has regarding women and minorities are for sale, admittedly, for a high price ... By the way, you can say whatever you want about empowering women and being against racism but at the end of the day, real stands involve putting your money where your mouth is. Prejudice against ethnicity is just like skin color or any other banning of someone without any actions they have done. It can’t be justified and that’s the end. As for Reigns, he told Newsweek, “It gets a lot of mixed and negative reactions. The bottom line for me is, if we’re going to help promote change, if we’re going to set out to make an impact, then I have to be a part of it. I’m not going to sit on the sideline and talk about how we can get there. I want to be part of the action. I look at it a being part of the solution while still respecting cultures, but it’s a big world and I want to experience all of it. So if we can help make a positive impact that’s what we’re here to do. We’re here to put smiles on everyone’s faces. We don’t discriminate, that’s our goal to help and promote positivity and take that to every inch of the world.” I’m sorry, but yes, WWE doesn’t discriminate on their own, but based on the situation with Zayn and Black, it’s more than just doing business with people who do, which is one question and quite frankly a lot of companies do, but this is one step farther. It’s one to do business with those people, but this is different. This is being paid by people who are telling you that for what they pay you, you can’t hire people we don’t like, based on gender, religion or where they come from. This is allowing discrimination to be part of your own company and product on your own show, and you can make all the excuses you want for it, but I can’t believe that deep down people can’t see that. Anyone can talk the talk when they don’t have a hard decision to make. The test of if you’re real is if you walk the walk when you have a hard decision to make. They didn’t want Syrians in. They didn’t want women in. They could have easily said they didn’t want African-Americans, Canadians, Jews, Mexicans or Samoans because the principle we’re talking about is the same. If you really want to make change, the company should put its foot down and do what so many athletes and entertainers did a generation ago in South Africa. That’s what led to change, not taking money and going there while professing the company is behind women and against discrimination and racism. The lack of women proves their much-pushed Women’s Revolution, itself 50 years behind the times, is a buzzword that they won’t back up with actions. Freedom of religious thought was for sale, given Aleister Black not being allowed to go. Racism, well their Martin Luther King tributes are exposed as being convenient, but money means more, with Sami Zayn being held back. Or, the reality, that they have no beliefs, but profess to have them because it’s a nice marketing gimmick. What we’ve got instead is a show where they have banned mentions of the country it is taking place on their broadcasts. They’ll probably ban it during the show as well.

Originally Posted by Observer Season three of Netflix's GLOW has its premiere date. Netflix announced today that season three of GLOW will be uploaded on Friday, August 9. Like with the first two seasons, this one will have 10 episodes.

Originally Posted by PWI The Authors of Pain are scheduled to return to action next month, PWInsider.com has confirmed. Akam and Rezar are scheduled for Smackdown Live events in June, the first live events the team have worked since early 2019 when Akam suffered a knee injured and required surgery.

Originally Posted by PWI Chris Pierce sent word that Matt Striker is now working as a fantasy baseball expert: The impact of sabermetrics on fantasy baseball? Brian Kenny talks about it with wrestler-turned-fantasy baseball expert @Matt_Striker_. #MLBNow pic.twitter.com/p50Eqa0vaS — MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) May 31, 2019

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling SPOILER: show On Friday’s Best of the Super Juniors card, Shingo Takagi clinched the A Block by defeating Taiji Ishimori in their final tournament match. Takagi ran the table with a 9-0 record in the A Block matches and will face the winner of Monday’s match between Will Ospreay and Ryusuke Taguchi. The finals of the tournament take place next Wednesday from Sumo Hall and the winner receives an IWGP junior heavyweight title shot against Dragon Lee at Dominion.

Spoiler tags used since it reveals the winner of A block for those who haven't watched today's show nor have been spoiled yet.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter So this is how things stand with Penta 0M & Rey Fenix. On the 5/24 show in Tijuana, they lost their Crash tag titles to Bestia 666 & Mecha Wolf in a match where Black Danger helped Bestia & Wolf. Penta then teased after the match that this would be their last match with the promotion. There has been a lot of talk that they’ll be finishing up indie dates and signing a deal in some form with AEW that would also allow them to work regularly in AAA. They’ve been under a Lucha Underground contract so AEW has been able to use them, but not sign them. But obviously they want them and reports are they were given a big money offer. WWE wanted them as well. But then the 6/15 show was announced and while no match was listed, Penta and Fenix were both announced. The tag title match was originally a TLC match, which sounded scary the day before Double or Nothing. I guess they were able to get that changed.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter New Japan’s television audience is 10 percent under the age of 20, 14 percent between 20-29, 26 percent, 36 percent from 40-49 and 13 percent over the age of 50. Unlike WWE, where the median age of the television viewer is 54, New Japan is 39. But WWE does attract more kids. Of the New Japan fan base, 39 percent became fans over the last year, 17 percent have been fans one to three years, 11 percent four to five year and 29 percent more than six years. Only four percent were winning back lapsed fans. The television audience is 66 percent male, which isn’t much different from WWE. But at live shows, the audience is 50/50, so New Japan does a better job of translating their women’s audience into being ticket buyers, but one can argue they don’t do as good a job as WWE with the male audience becoming ticket buyers. Harold Meij said that all entertainment is their competition. His goal is to make Japanese wrestling into something known worldwide culturally, similar to Mexico, where one of the thing non-wrestling fan tourists do when they go to Mexico City is go to Friday night Arena Mexico shows. He’d like to create a situation where tourists coming to Tokyo feel one of the things they need to see is New Japan wrestling. He said the goal is to attract more children, maybe through card games or comics. Meij said when he signed that he would consider himself a failure if he can’t get New Japan annual revenues to $100 million within three years of his taking over. They are closer to $40 million and he’s about one year in. The only way to reach that number is to be able to get a strong series of international television deals.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter A bill that could change the very face of pro wrestling contracts, known as AB5, passed in the California state Assembly on 5/29. The bill provided specific rules as to the difference between an employee and an independent contractor and would affect WWE, UFC and AEW competitors most likely. It would also affect Uber and Amazon drivers, manicurists and exotic dancers. All people classified as employees would get labor protection, unemployment insurance, health care subsidies, paid parental leave, overtime pay, workmen’s comp and others. The bill classifies independent contractors as workers who are completely free of company control, doing work that isn’t a central part of the company’s business and has an independent business in that same industry. Wrestlers simply don’t meet those standards. This would mean that if talent from these companies perform on shows in California, they would then be considered employees. The bill still has to pass the state Senate and be signed into law. It also could lead to similar bills introduced in other states

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter The health issue that Ric Flair was hospitalized for was blood clots in his leg and chest. He was already scheduled for a heart surgery that week. The blood clots were why they had to delay the surgery a few days until they were able to clear them up. Flair suffered blood clots in his leg years on two different occasions in 2013 including the first time while going to Japan where he was going to do a match for All Japan Pro Wrestling at the time his son Reid was going to start as a full-timer for the promotion

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter A-Kid, who was at the last NXT U.K. tapings, is expected to be signing if he hasn’t already. He’s the guy who had incredible matches in Spain with the likes of Will Ospreay, Zack Sabre Jr., and Ricochet

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter Ideas have been batted around for the 24/7 title to be defended on YouTube, Instagram and at the Performance Center between shows

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter WWE employees told security to watch out and get any AEW signs or any signs bashing WWE as an entity (it was okay to have negative signs on specific talent). There were multiple AEW chants throughout the show, but in a positive note, they were never loud enough that it came across strongly on television. There were chants after Zayn made the remark that were audible, but not loud and they played Rollins’ music immediately when they started.

Originally Posted by Observer Steve Austin announced that his Steve Austin Show podcast will return on June 18.

TPWW Frontpage stuff:

• Joey Ryan Isn’t Going to AEW or WWE, He’s Staying in Indie Wrestling
• Sasha Banks Had a Meeting With Vince McMahon Last Week and Things Are “Better”
• Update on Which Day of the Week AEW’s TV Show May Air
• Chris Jericho vs. Hangman Page Announced for AEW All Out