[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets (Observer Newsletter Edition):

The WWE draft, held on the 10/9 Smackdown and 10/12 Raw shows, with a few lower picks at other times, saw most of the talent stay with their brand, with a few switches ... Perhaps the most talked about aspect was the split up of The New Day, with Kingston & Woods moving to Raw as tag team champions and Big E staying a single. The idea is to get Big E away from the act and make him more serious for a singles push. Historically, WWE has broken up tag team acts in the draft before and while there are exceptions, most of the time they find out the combination of parts was more effective than the parts individually. One would suspect E getting a major singles push, which was talked about weeks ago and somewhat started. The idea is to get him out of the comedic mode. There is a logic to it even though, because the New Day has been established together for so many years and have been popular, there was going to be a negative reaction breaking them up without a storyline leading to it. Trying to use logic to explain the draft is a waste of time. Such as, if acts can be drafted together, why did Raw pick Woods & Kingston and not Big E when it was specifically stated acts will be drafted together and in the WWE’s own listings of who can be picked, The New Day was listed as all three together. But that wasn’t the only act broken up. Lucha House Party was a similar situation, with Lince Dorado & Gran Metalik moved to Raw while Kalisto stayed on Smackdown. So in this case, they had spent weeks building up the split and feud with Dorado and Kalisto with Metalik in the middle, and dropped it cold without so much as one match. Heavy Machinery was also broken up even though they were supposed to be grouped together. Tucker is a very good athlete and talented, but he’s going to have a very difficult time as a single. Plus, with his size, it looks silly to put him in a jobber role because he’ll make the heels look small. There was no reason to break them up, also because even if the idea is of Otis as a single, they actually had good believability as best friends, and Otis is far better playing off Tucker as the straight guy than on his own ... Of the switches, the biggest names were A.J. Styles, Braun Strowman, Wyatt & Bliss, Riddle and Hardy to Raw, and Rollins, Rey & Dominik Mysterio and Kevin Owens to Smackdown. Styles in particular was expected since he publicly complained about missing his son’s high school football games on Friday nights, just months after complaining about wanting to get off Raw because he blamed Heyman, who was in charge at the time, for Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows being fired. Rollins was his replacement and to keep his angle going, that meant the Mysterio family and Murphy had to go to Smackdown with him. It was noted to us by one key person in WWE that having the three big angles all on Smackdown was on purpose because Raw is a lock on USA no matter what because they need the show or USA Network collapses in the ratings. FOX doesn’t need Smackdown. FOX is heavily into sports and sports rights are escalating and the feeling is niche sports, and Smackdown on FOX could qualify as that, would be in trouble as far as being able to land a good deal. Smackdown will be fine with current numbers in two years, but if they drop 25 percent each year, that wouldn’t be good ... Andrade not being picked spoke volumes about where he stands after doing a quick job to Angel Garza after spending months breaking up the team, with the idea it was a blow-off to get out of it. His fiancé, Charlotte Flair, was a high pick for Raw even though she may not be back for a while. All indications are he stays on Raw. But we were told when Paul Heyman was replaced that the guys who would be hurt the most were Andrade and Aleister Black ... Retribution was kept as a group on Raw. For now they’ll likely face The Hurt Business since each side has four male members. For this week, Retribution is Mustafa Ali as the leader, T-Bar (Dominik Dijakovic), Mace (Dio Maddin) and Slapjack (Shane Thorne). Mia Yim as Reckoning is still part of the group based on the graphics. Mercedes Martinez was pulled from the group and will be put back in NXT. Then again, there was a graphic WWE had on 10/13 that still had Martinez but didn’t have T-Bar, so this situation is fluid past Ali as the leader.

CMLL: All four wrestlers who were pulled from the Anniversary show for testing positive for COVID, Bandido, Princesa Sugehit and the couple of Ultimo Guerrero and Lluvia, were back in action after having tested negative. All but Guerrero wrestled on the 10/9 Arena Mexico show. Bandido returning set the stage for a Volador Jr. vs. Bandido NWA welterweight title that was scheduled for the anniversary show. They announced the match for the 10/16 show but Bandido on 10/13 told CMLL officials that he was having trouble breathing in his 10/9 match and asked for more time to get back into top shape ... The hope now is for the match to take place on 11/6 if/when Bandido makes a full recovery by that time. It was noted that even though CMLL knew about this on 10/13, and announced it on 10/15, that on 10/14 they were still pushing the match for Friday. It’s not as bad as some companies in a sense since they aren’t selling tickets and iPPV orders usually all come the last day, but that’s splitting hairs because knowingly promoting a main event you know isn’t happening is false advertising even if some companies believe they are above it and because the biggest company does it routinely to the degree that the fan base who doesn’t care about matches or personas anymore, it’s all about the brand, doesn’t really care about it. The belief is that if Volador vs. Bandido doesn’t happen on 11/6, it would have to be moved until December because of talk of doing the Universal title tournament (the annual Champion of Champions tournament) from 11/13 to 11/27

Konnan did an interview talking extensively about Lucha Underground on The Masks, Mats and Mayhem show. He noted that he originally believed he would be the head writer for the promotion since he was head booker for AAA and it was supposed to be in conjunction with AAA, he was told in a meeting that they were going with Chris DeJoseph since he had WWE writing experience. He was told he would be an agent. He did suggest ideas but ended up on the wrong side politically. Chavo Guerrero Jr., and Vampiro, the other agents, felt that they needed to be like WWE to appeal to the U.S. audience. Konnan wanted it to be like authentic Lucha Libre. He said his breaking point was when they did a Sexy Star vs. Super Fly man vs. woman mask vs. mask match with no build up. He felt it was disrespectful to do a mask match out of the blue with no angle and wasteful to waste a stipulation that usually draws money with no economic value since it wasn’t advertised in advance. He noted that DeJoseph was disappointed in the match because he thought Sexy Star was a great worker, which is funny because everyone who followed Lucha Libre at the time knew that wasn’t the case. Konnan complained to the owners. That ended up leading to him being killed off as a character, as in they killed him and then stopped using him. He said he was also frustrated it was treated as some form of an art project and not a wrestling promotion. He wanted to run house shows, do merchandise. He also said that AEW has talked about using Taurus (Cody loves Taurus), El Hijo del Vikingo (who others see as a star), and Laredo Kid. That’s true but unless things have changed, AEW hasn’t really been into bringing anyone new in from Mexico of late He felt Laredo Kid hurt himself by doing the reality show. He also said that Kenny Omega vs. Laredo Kid is the plan for the next AAA heavyweight title match. He also said AAA would be fine if Omega defends the title in AEW

Vice is working on a third season of Dark Side of the Ring after the second season set record viewership numbers for the station. Vice is also coming off this commissioning a first season of Dark Side of Football. The idea the station has is Dark Side of Wrestling worked because it was a deep dive on nostalgic subjects as opposed to the idea wrestling in the past wasn’t well covered mainstream so most viewers knew next to nothing behind-the-scenes on these subjects. But it was notable that those at Vice were not interested in a pro wrestling television series based on the ratings of Dark Side and instead chalk this up to interest in as many different Dark Side subjects as they can. We know they are working on shows on Brian Pillman (I’d say the key people to get would be Kim Wood, Mark Madden, Brian Jr., Melanie Pillman, Liam O’Rourke and myself but obviously I’m not going to be asked but without Wood or O’Rourke it’ll be filled with flaws because O’Rourke is the student of Pillman and Wood worked with him on all his ideas), Dynamite Kid (Bret Hart hasn’t been interested in their shows in the past because of how Montreal was covered and he would be by far the best person to talk with, with Ross Hart second so hopefully they’ll at least get Ross), Grizzly Smith (getting family members which will be one dark story) and going back to WCW talking about the two shows in North Korea in 1995, which really is a fascinating story. I don’t think they can get Ric Flair, who would be tremendous, because WWE doesn’t allow its talent to participate in that series, but Scott Norton is somebody they need to talk with on that one, as well as Eric Bischoff and some of the other guys like Too Cold Scorpio who were on the trip or Antonio Inoki, which at this stage would be very difficult

The cast of GLOW is trying to push for a movie as a way to give closure to the series which had a scripted ending for the season that was just canceled. They are trying to build up social media support. The fact the show was canceled by Netflix, one of the services that most saw as benefitting from the current pandemic situation, and one that was considered among the best television series’ around, shows just how bad the economy looks right now for scripted television shows even on streaming carriers. They key is not just that it was canceled but with the general acclaim the show got, that nobody else picked it up

All the talent was brought to Baltimore early in the week to quarantine for the second set of tapings that take place over the weekend ROH made a decision that a number of talents brought in for the television tapings this week would not be used due to being in contact with people who tested positive for COVID-19 at The Collective series of wrestling events over the weekend in Indianapolis. A number of wrestlers were sent home to quarantine and the TV tapings had to be rewritten due to those missing who were expected to perform. Danhausen at press time was the only person to publicly state he was being sent home for precautionary reasons. It should be noted that ROH was paying all the talent that was booked and sent home. ROH has had some of the strictest COVID protocols of any wrestling company in the world since the outbreak in March, including a long period of not running any events nor taping new television shows ... ROH has also not brought in any wrestlers from foreign countries, which includes Rush, who holds their heavyweight title and Dragon Lee, who holds the TV title. Lee’s contract apparently expires on 12/1

This may be a second season spoiler. When asked about year two of AEW in screencrush.com, Matt Jackson said, “I think year two is going to be all about Kenny Omega. He’s been very, what’s the word I’m looking for, I guess unselfish and he’s ready to explode. So I would keep my eye on him. Another one off the top of my head would be Darby Allin. He’s got so much potential to be such a massive star for AEW that we have to use him in the right way, and he’s definitely going to be a top player.” Nick brought up that Adam Page will be a future world champion, although everyone pretty much knows that’s a long-term plan. They also talked about the idea of a tag team match as the main event on a PPV. He said they proved for years pre-AEW that they could draw all over the world with tag team matches as the main event

The company did a ton of media this week regarding the anniversary show. Tony Khan to Bleacher Report talked about bringing in and pushing different new talent, notably Orange Cassidy, Darby Allin, MJF, Britt Baker and John Silver. “I can talk all day about Orange Cassidy. There was stuff about his independent act that I hated and would never do on our show. Matt [Jackson] said this guy's really got something and he suggested putting him with Best Friends. I went to a PWG show and really got to know him and learn what makes him tick. I had no idea that Orange Cassidy was Fire Ant (for Chikara) until he told me that night and I was like, 'Oh my god, you're a great wrestler.' So I said what if we hold it all back and build it up little by little to make people want to see him wrestle. After seeing his work, Jericho wanted to work with him. Chris and I put together a lot of ideas, but Chris was so generous and did so much for him because he believes in him." “I can't name a person I have less in common with than Darby Allin, but I talk to him every single day, and he's a genius. He is a genius storyteller and a great filmmaker. Cody brought him to my attention, and now I work with him as closely as I work with anybody." “I was watching Being The Elite, and I went to John Silver and was ribbing him. He is one of the only people I rib. I called him into my office and said, 'I'm really upset with you. You've got this great personality and apparently, you choose to only show it in BTE. I want you to do that stuff on Dynamite.' So he is doing more stuff and developing his own personality, which is great. Another person who I am so proud of for the way they developed their character is Britt Baker. Her run as a heel has been outstanding, and she has gotten so much better as the year has gone on." “We bring in new people every month. We bring in people from the independent scene and a lot of times you will see those people on AEW Dark, too. Sometimes these are one-off things, but if somebody impresses us, we'll bring them back. Will Hobbs is a good example of somebody that I really took a liking to and is doing a really great job for us. We're always looking for different partnerships. We've had the AAA tag titles on the show. Kenny Omega is the AAA champion, and he's defended the title on Dynamite and Dark. Thunder Rosa defended the NWA women's title. We're always looking for ways to work with people, but I am also keeping my eye on the independent scene.

Since the start of 1999 and through the end of September, Linda McMahon has contributed $4,544,560 to Donald Trump’s campaign and at least another $1.5 million to other Republican candidates. America First Action, a SuperPac that McMahon is the chair of, has raised $82 million for the election campaign as of 8/31

Total Bellas will return on 11/12 in the Thursday at 9 p.m. time slot on E! So the idea is Total Bellas on E! and then Miz & Mrs. On USA right after with the idea that WWE fans, mostly younger women, of the reality show genre will spend Thursday switching channels. The last season, built around Nikki & Brie being pregnant at the same time was a big success, up from previous years at a time everything has been declining. The show also does great numbers via DVR, far more than any traditional pro wrestling show. If you include DVR viewers, the season finale did 1.3 million viewers and 764,000 in 18-49, which beats a lot of Raws & Smackdowns even throwing in DVR numbers, and kills every wrestling show with Woman 18-49 at 489,000 including DVR viewers. In live viewers, it would be behind all the shows except Miz & Mrs. and NXT

Raw Underground for right now is considered done. At first it was dropped because of the COVID breakout and fear the extras who are in the crowd may have been exposed so it was shut down for a few weeks. But almost everyone who was part of that breakup is now back. Then again most were back either this week or last and this week with the draft it wouldn’t have fit as easily. There was fear that bringing all those people, both the wrestlers and the people they used as the audience, to Raw tapings could start a spread to the Raw roster and the idea is to keep NXT talent away from Raw and Smackdown talent as much as possible

During Bloodsport, a WWE rep was filming the Davey Boy Smith Jr., match for a documentary that is being done on Davey Boy Smith, who they will be inducting into the Hall of Fame whenever they can do that ceremony, likely at this coming year’s WrestleMania. The WWE Network is also working on a story about Davey By Smith for next year. WWE was filming Smith Jr. all weekend from training at the gym to the show

The most-watched shows of the past week on WWE Network: 1. WWE Day of 2016 Draft; 2. Hell in a Cell 2019; 3. Talking Smack; 4. Raw Talk; 5. Uncool with Alexa Bliss with Bella Twins; 6. WWE Storytime season four episode one; 7. Best of Yokozuna; 8. Clash of Champions 2020; 9. Takeover 31; 10. Smackdown from 9/11. NXT was 13th. NXT U.K., 205 Live and none of the independent content cracked the top 25 this week

WWE Ratings, AEW vs. NXT Ratings:

SPOILER: show

Raw on 10/12 averaged 1,854,000 viewers, so the draft clearly helped the show by about ten percent, and also did 0.57 in 18-49. It was the best numbers the show has done since 8/31, or since the beginning of football season. The big gains from last week were with the 35-49 age group, and far more with women than men, as the men’s gain was 3.8 percent but the women’s gain was 41.3 percent. Under 35 the numbers were pretty much the same as the prior week. The chief competition was the usual NFL game on ESPN with the Los Angeles Chargers vs. New Orleans Saints that did 10,694,000 viewers and 3.35 in 18-49 and the National League championship series game with the Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Atlanta Braves that did 4,202,000 viewers and 1.2 in 18-49 on NBC. Raw’s first hour topped two million viewers, but it’s 16.5 percent first-to-third hour drop was larger than it has been of late. It’s pretty clear people were interested in the top stars in the draft, and they went early. After that interest declined with the women’s Battle Royal as the main thing advertised besides the draft for hour three. Raw was 32nd on cable overall, trailing only NFL related programming and news programming. It was No. 5 in 18-49 on cable behind three NFL-related shows on ESPN and Home Deck Mediterranean (0.59). It was fourth in Males 18-49, seventh in 18-34 and fifth in Males 12-34. As compared to the draft show last year, the decline was the lowest for Raw year-to-year for a long time, with an 18.6 percent decline overall, 23.0 percent in 18-49 and 39.6 percent in 18-34. The first hour did 2,006,000 viewers. The second hour did 1,884,000 viewers. The third hour did 1,676,000 viewers. The first-to-third hour declines were 16.3 percent in women 18-49, 11.3 percent in men 18-49, 17.1 percent in teenage girls, 7.5 percent in teenage boy and 16.3 percent in over 50.

Smackdown on 10/9 did a 1.40 with 2,178,000 viewers (1.29 viewers per home) viewers and an 0.65 in 18-49 (839,000 viewers) and 0.4 in 18-34 for the draft show that also featured the first Bayley vs. Sasha Banks title match since their split. The show had real competition with both the final game of the NBA playoffs and a huge baseball game with the New York Yankees being ousted from the playoffs, but the draft still should have done considerably better on a show that also included Bayley vs. Banks. There was growth over last week but it was far less than should have been expected for such a show. The rating was equal to last week. Due to the increase in viewers per home, the audience was up 1.1 percent and the 18-49 audience was up 8.5 percent, which is a solid increase, and 18-34 was up 25.0 percent so the younger audience was still interested. As compared to the draft show last year, it was down 22.7 percent in households, down 24.3 percent in viewers and down and down 32.2 percent in 18-49 and down 42.9 percent in 18-34. The Lakers-Heat game on 10/2 on ABC did 6,609,000 viewers, 2.41 in 18-49 and 2.0 in 18-34 and baseball did 2,599,000 viewers with 0.59 in 18-49 and 0.50 in 18-34. This week the NBA finals did 8,890,000 viewers with a 3.20 in 18-49 and 2.7 in 18-34. The Yankees game did 3,723,000 viewers with a 0.89 in 18-49 and 0.70 in 18-34. As far as network programming went, Smackdown was tied for third in 18-49 behind the NBA pre-show and NBA game. I was also tied for third in 18-34. In total viewers, it was next to last place among network shows beating only a rerun of American Ninja Warrior. The first half hour had 2.29 million viewers for Big E vs. Sheamus falls count anywhere. The second half hour had 2.22 million viewers for the Roman Reigns/Jey Uso/Paul Heyman interview segment and Matt Riddle & Jeff Hardy vs. Miz & John Morrison. The third half hour did 2.19 million viewers for Bayley vs. Sasha Banks for the women’s title, Kevin Owens show with Alexa Bliss and Shinsuke Nakamura & Cesaro losing the tag title to Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods. The final half hour did 2.02 million viewers for Kevin Owens vs. The Fiend.

AEW’s anniversary show with four title matches and a PPV lineup on 10/14 did 826,000 viewers and 0.30 (383,000 viewers) in 18-49 while NXT did 651,000 viewers and 0.17 (225,000 viewers) in 18-49. The AEW number has to be considered a big disappointment, particularly in 18-49. It had competition from both baseball championship series games which overlapped during the show, and the news channels did monster numbers. AEW was No. 15 in 18-49, behind the two games, 10 news shows all on FOX News and Real Housewives of Orange County (1,051,000 viewers and 0.34) and a Lifetime movie (1,191,000 viewers and 0.33), both shows heavily geared for women ... AEW took a big hit with women, being down 41 percent over the usual number in women 18-34, which had been a strong demo, and down 11 percent in women 35-49 over the usual level ... It’s interesting to look at the same chart last year. The competition is far stronger this year, in particular news channels. Head-to-head with AEW, Tucker Carlson was up 43.9 percent and Hannity was up 48.6 percent for the Supreme Court seat hearings. Last year AEW only lost to the NBA and three entertainment shows. This year they lost to two entertainment shows, baseball (there was none head-to-head last year) and the news shows (which they beat in 18-49 a year ago). As far as year-to-year drops, AEW was down 18.5 percent in viewers, 31.8 percent in 18-49 and 37.9 percent in 18-34. That’s overall less than WWE shows have been doing most weeks, but not appreciably less. NXT was down only 8.6 percent in viewers and 15.0 percent in 18-49. Compared to last week, when both shows were against the Vice Presidential debate and that was going to hurt a lot and this week was going to be up somewhat, AEW was up 9.7 percent overall but down 4.5 percent in 18-49. But most of the gains were over 50. NXT was up 1.9 percent from last week in viewers and up 6.1 percent in 18-49. AEW doubled NXT in men 18-34 and almost doubled in men 35-49. In the key demos, AEW did 80,000 men 18-34 (up 31.1 percent from last week) to 32,000 for NXT (up 10.3 percent). AEW did 46,000 in women 18-34 (down 32.4 percent from last week) to 35,000 for NXT (up 29.6 percent). AEW did 183,000 in men 35-49 (down 10.3 percent) to 94,000 for NXT (up 2.2 percent). AEW did 74,000 in women 35-49 (up 8.8 percent) to 64,000 for NXT (same as last week). Another key figure is that teenage girls for AEW dropped 47.0 percent from last week while teenage boys were up 1.3 percent from last week. In the main event battle, AEW with Jon Moxley vs. Lance Archer for the AEW title did 825,000 viewers and 378,000 in 18-49 while NXT with Damien Priest vs. Dexter Lumis did 569,000 viewers and 187,000 in 18-49. AEW doubled NXT in two quarters in 18-49, the main event and also when AEW had Cody vs. Orange Cassidy, which was by far the biggest thing on either show, going against Candice LeRae vs. Shotzi Blackheart. In the first quarter, AEW did 880,000 viewers and 378,000 in 18-49 for FTR vs. Best Friends. NXT did 781,000 viewers and 239,000 in 18-49 for Undisputed Era out plus Bobby Fish & Roderick Strong vs. Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch. As usual, NXT did well at first based on its huge lead-in. In the second quarter, AEW did 804,000 viewer and 367,000 in 18-49 for the end of FTR vs. Best Friends, the post-match angle with Miro & Kip Sabian, Miro & Sabian vs. Sean Maluta & Lee Johnson and a Moxley attack by Archer. NXT did 685,000 viewers and 225,000 in 18-49 for the end of Strong & Fish vs. Lorcan & Burch, an Ember Moon promo and Jake Atlas vs. Ashante Adonis. In the third quarter, AEW did 876,000 viewers and 400,000 in 18-49 for the MJF/Chris Jericho segment plus Tony Schiavone and Britt Baker at the spa. NXT did 669,000 viewers and 230,000 in 18-49 the Johnny Gargano and Candice LeRae interview and Gargano vs. Austin Theory. In the fourth quarter, AEW did 765,000 viewers and 377,000 in 18-49 for the beginning of Cody vs. Orange Cassidy. NXT did 644,000 viewers and 229,000 in 18-49 for the end of Gargano vs. Theory and a Raquel Gonzalez/Rhea Ripley backstage brawl. In the fifth quarter, AEW did 920,000 viewers and 453,000 in 18-49 for Cody vs. Cassidy and the Matt Hardy interview. This was the high point of the night in just about every category. NXT did 658,000 viewers and 218,000 in 18-49 for LeRae vs. Blackheart for a title shot. In the sixth quarter, AEW did 761,000 viewers and 369,000 in 18-49 for the angle with all the tag teams setting up next week’s four-team match and the beginning of Hikaru Shida vs. Big Swole. NXT did 654,000 viewers and 216,000 in 18-49 for a vignette with Killian Dain & Drake Maverick, Toni Storm vs. Aliyah and William Regal with Xia Lee and Boa. In the seventh quarter, AEW did 781,000 viewers and 340,000 in 18-49 for the end of Shida vs. Swole. NXT did 560,00 viewers and 184,000 in 18-49 for Imperium vs. Maverick & Dain and the post-match attack by Ever Rise. In the main event quarter, Moxley vs. Archer gained 44,000 viewers and 38,000 in 18-49. Priest vs. Lumis gained 9,000 viewers and 3,000 in 18-49. NXT went back to an overrun but it only did 625,000 viewers and 200,000 in 18-49. My gut is that if AEW fans were aware of it, it would have picked up a lot, but since nobody knew going in, the growth was minimal. Because NXT didn’t crack the top 50, we don’t have complete charts. AEW did a 0.10 in 12-17 (down 23.1 percent), 0.18 in 18-34 (down 2.3 percent), 0.42 in 35-49 (down 5.5 percent) and 0.35 in 50+ (up 34.6 percent). The audience was 68.7 percent male in 18-49 and 65.2 percent male in 12-17, much higher male skews than usual by a wide margin in both categories.