[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets sponsored by Sting's arrival in the War of the Wednesday Night Rasslin:

Originally Posted by Observer Last night's Winter is Coming special edition of AEW Dynamite averaged 913,000 viewers on TNT. The show featured a heavily promoted AEW World Championship match with Kenny Omega winning the title from Jon Moxley in the main event. Winter is Coming also included the surprise AEW debut of Sting. WWE NXT averaged 658,000 viewers on the USA Network last night. The episode was the go-home show for Sunday's NXT TakeOver: War Games event. Dynamite was up 28.6 percent in total viewers from last week. The show also did a 0.42 rating in the 18-49 demo, the best number Dynamite has done in that category since October 2019. The 18-49 number was up 61.5 percent from last week. NXT was down 7.6 percent in total viewers and 20 percent in 18-49. The overall viewership for Dynamite was the highest on a night when NXT was also airing since March 18, the first show of the pandemic era that featured the AEW debuts of Matt Hardy and Brodie Lee. Combined Wednesday night wrestling viewership this week was 1.571 million, up 10.5 percent from last week and the highest since October 28, which was the night of NXT Halloween Havoc. The combined 18-49 demo rating of 0.58 beat Raw this week by 10 percent and Dynamite on its own came within 14 percent of tying the third hour of Raw in that demo. Year-over-year, Dynamite was up 7.3 percent in overall viewers and 31.3 percent in the 18-49 demo. NXT was down 44.8 percent in overall viewers and 22.1 percent in the demo.

Originally Posted by Observer Paul "HHH" Levesque conducted his traditional pre-TakeOver conference call Thursday, discussing the card and answering questions around NXT and WWE as a whole. He opened the call talking about the passing of Pat Patterson and how difficult Wednesday was for everyone. He put over Patterson's influence on WWE and the wrestling business which he said is only second to Vince McMahon. He talked about Patterson a lot on the call including a few quotes and said that during a Wednesday camera break, they showed the Sgt. Slaughter-Patterson street fight match inside the Capitol Wrestling Center and that both talent and personnel all stopped to watch. Here are some of the highlights from the call: He put over the NXT UK Heritage Cup as spectacular and put over A-Kid. He loves what they are doing and urges people to watch WALTER vs. Dragunov. He is looking forward to when talents can travel and forth post-pandemic. He was asked about his previous statement about Charlotte Flair's WrestleMania win over Rhea Ripley being part of a bigger plan and whether things are still going according to plan. He said COVID basically changed all plana and talked about how growing as a performer with up and downs, relating it to his own career. He still thinks there are some valuable lessons Ripley learned through that process and that she is a "way better performer" which came through that process. He was asked about whether they would be open to crossovers with other companies. He said "we're open for business" and that perceptions of their business from others are often incorrect. If it's the right thing and meaningful, he thinks Vince is open for anything. He put over Pat McAfee's desire to be a WWE wrestler, his athleticism, and dedication. He talked about critiques on "outsiders" when athletes come in and try to become wrestlers, but that McAfee has always wanted to do this. "It's a testament to him that he's doing this better than some who have done this their whole lives," he said. He said NXT being left out of Survivor Series was likely due to the pandemic and trying to keep the brands as separate as possible. He loves the current pacing of the product and continued to beat the drum of planning for the long-term.

I'd laugh if WWE started to be more genuinely open to other promotions or even their own partners as a result of the AEW & Impact partnership. Before, WWE pretty much treated their affiliates like dirt in the sense of seeing them as nothing more than just weapons to use against their competition in the US and UK. At times, they even treated their affiliate's worse than their enemies considering all the times they yanked big names stars away from their affiliates to use for their NXT brands with little care if they had already been booked for their affiliates big shows taking place around at the same time.

Originally Posted by Observer Ring of Honor has revealed how Television Champion Dragon Lee's challenger for Final Battle will be decided. It was announced today that Tony Deppen, Dak Draper, LSG, and Josh Woods will face off in a four-way match at Final Battle. The winner will go on to challenge Dragon Lee for the TV title later in the show.

Originally Posted by PWI As reported earlier this week, Dave Marquez's United Wrestling Network announced they were suspending PPVs going forward due to, in part, uncertainty brought on by the continuing COVID-19 pandemic. As it turns out, the promotion dodged a bullet with that decision as Thunder Studios, where the shows emanated from, has been shut down for the next 2-3 weeks due to the local Stay at Home order in Los Angeles, CA. By pausing the PPVs themselves, the promotion staved off having the shows canceled for them. UWN has announced they intend to resume PPVs in 2021, including a United Wrestling Network Championship match between Chris Dickinson and MIke Bennett.

Originally Posted by PWI Jon Moxley's promo last night on Dynamite closed with the line about driving the crowd "banana", which was a tribute to the late Pat Patterson that Moxley wanted to make sure was heard as the final word of the promo in honor of Patterson. The new AEW Sting shirt broke company history, selling more shirts in 24 hours than any other AEW shirt to date. Since we have received questions on this, Kenny Omega did not work the most recent slate of Impact tapings. He and Don Callis will be filming content that will be inserted into Impact on AXS this Tuesday.

Originally Posted by PWI Warner Bros. announced today that their entire 2021 movie slate, which includes The Suicide Squad featuring John Cena and Dune featuring Dave Bautista, will debut on HBO Max on the same day as their scheduled theatrical release date. The Suicide Squad film is slated for a August 6, 2021 release and is the second Squad film, based on the DC Comics series with the premise of the United States government forcing incarcerated super-villains to go on suicide missions under threat of death. Cena will play Peacemaker, the first ever live action incarnation of the character, a soldier and super-hero who loves peace so much he is willing to kill for it. The character was originally created by Charlton Comics but acquired by DC in the mid-80s. HBO Max will also feature a spinoff series that tells Peacemaker's tale leading to the film. That series is shooting now in Canada. In Dune, an adaptation of the classic science fiction novel, Bautista will be playing Glossu 'Beast' Rabba, the nephew of the leader of the Harkonnen, who once lorded over Dune. The character (if they maintain it as it was presented from the original novel in this feature film adaptation) is a sadist and cruel warrior. The role makes Bautista one of the top four characters in the film, which reunites him with Blade Runner 2049 director Denis Villeneuve. The film will release on October 1, 2021. The films will only be available for the first month of their release date before leaving the streaming service.

Originally Posted by PWI Be advised, WFLD-TV (FOX 32) in Chicago will have Bears postgame coverage on Sunday, so “WWE Tribute to the Troops” will air on WPWR-TV (My50 Chicago), instead at 3:30 pm central.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Tony Schiavone and Aubrey Edwards welcomed Wardlow onto the AEW Unrestricted podcast. Prior to joining All Elite Wrestling, Wardlow had a tryout with WWE. He feels that he did immensely well at said tryout and even went to the lengths of selling his home and committing to moving to Orlando. He did not get the job but that led to him training with Kurt Angle. “I think [WWE was an option]. I know people know that I did have a tryout, and I smoked that tryout. I mean, I was literally the only dude there in a suit, speaking of suits. It was mind blowing. Dudes are there in shorts and t-shirts. That’s because they’re not recruiting wrestlers, they’re recruiting ex-NFL athletes or college wrestlers, people that have never watched wrestling, don’t care about wrestling. Like the comments these people were making made me sick to my stomach that they were there getting an opportunity. Of course my roommate, he’s like, ‘Man, I’ve never even watched wrestling. I don’t even like it.’ I’m just like, ‘Get out of my room. Like why are you here?’ And it was his second tryout. These people are getting multiple chances. So I smoked that tryout. I’m like, ‘I have this in the bag’ and so much so, I literally sold my motorcycle, sold my house. Like literally got rid of everything because I’m like, ‘I’m gonna put everything into moving into Florida.’ So when the email came in that I was not, man I remember I actually had to pull over on the side of the road because I just couldn’t believe it and then I started training personally with Kurt Angle, when he was getting ready to make his comeback for his final couple matches and me and Kurt just clicked in the ring, really well, and him and I talked a lot and he expressed that he had-had a conversation with a certain somebody there about bringing me in and he told me, ‘It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when" ... He reflected on some of his favorite matches that he’s had and he looked back at the bout against Hangman Adam Page in the AEW World Title Eliminator tournament. He went on to detail the style of wrestling he prefers and that Hangman match matched up with Wardlow’s mindset. “Now that’s my favorite style of match. The bigger and harder you hit, the better. Wrestling for me, you know, this is what I do, this is what I know, this is very real to me. When I go out there, I am competing, I’m an athlete, I’m a wrestler. I’m not an entertainer, I’m not an artist. When I’m out there, am I entertaining? Absolutely. Do I create art? Art of war, sure. I’ll create a painting with their blood, but I like hard hitting wrestling, beat the sh*t out of each other and that’s what I had with Adam.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Powerhouse Hobbs was in the ring along with Ricky Starks, Taz and Brian Cage when Sting made his AEW Dynamite debut. While appearing on Busted Open Radio, Hobbs talked about the moment and what it was like to see Sting in-person. “I’m very happy. Sh*t shocked the hell out of me… it was almost unreal. Like, I’m standing there, ‘Oh my God, oh my God.’ I almost felt like I had an out of body experience but… growing up watching Sting over the years, I saw him come out, we gotta bounce. That sh*t was just unexpected.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling The pro wrestling career of the late Edward Fatu (Umaga) was the focus of Jim Ross’ latest podcast. Back in 2003, Fatu was released from WWE after an incident he had at a bar. Ross recalled having to deliver the news to Fatu about his firing ... Elsewhere during the podcast, JR spoke about the mentality in WWE internally when it came to utilizing older talents who were out of their prime years during the early 2000s. Here’s what he had to say: “Well, we believed in my run as the Head of Talent Relations that we can not continue to keep recycling older talents. They had a place, but they’re not the building blocks that they were when they were younger. They can contribute to the success of the brand, but they don’t need to be the focal point entirely. You gotta build youth and new and things of that — wrestling fans love new ideas, they love new characters. They love all that stuff.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling In a December 3rd SEC filing, it’s noted that WWE Executive Producer Kevin Dunn sold $1 million worth of his shares in WWE. Dunn remains with over 70,000 shares.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Longtime WWE official Charles Robinson joined Corey Graves on the After The Bell podcast. Robinson dove into his brief in-ring career and said that an injury caused by ‘Macho Man’ Randy Savage put an end to the wrestling portion of his time in the business. “But a week later, Ric Flair and I, we teamed up to take on Madusa and [Randy] Savage. They called it a mixed tag match. I think they were saying I was part of the other mix. I don’t know what they were trying to say. But of course, Savage and Madusa, they were going over, they were gonna be the winners and Savage was gonna do the elbow on somebody and Ric Flair looked at me and said, ‘It ain’t gonna be me’ so I was volunteered to take the elbow drop from Savage and unfortunately he landed on me and he put me in the hospital for a couple weeks. Yeah, he collapsed my lung, cracked some vertebrae in my back and my wrestling career was over.”

Originally Posted by Fightful In a recent media call, MLW's Court Bauer addressed a number of topics, including MLW's next big event. That will be Kings Of Colosseum and more info will be revealed next week. "That will be Kings of Colosseum. We’ll have more on that on next week’s FUSION," Bauer said. - In addition, Bauer spoke about MLW's viewership and noted that its Restart episode "destroyed" the show's previous episodes in terms of viewers. Here is what he said. "Fubo is very happy and we were once again at the top (of the ratings) for beIN. On YouTube we’re way up compared to where we left off in the Spring. We’re waiting on DAZN data for episode 111 but the restart episode destroyed all of our prior episodes in terms of viewers. In a nutshell: we’re growing and getting more eyes on the product. But I’m never satisfied with what we just accomplished. I want more, which is why we’re continuing to talk with different networks and services about expanding our programming footprint domestically and abroad. More eyes, more awareness. This is my mantra," Bauer said

Originally Posted by Fightful The Inner Circle was one member short on Wednesday's AEW Dynamite. Fans may have noticed that Santana was absent during the Chris Jericho vs. Frankie Kazarian matchup and post-match segment where the Inner Circle began to unravel. According to Cassidy Haynes of Bodyslam.net, Santana was not in Jacksonville, Florida, and missed the show due to personal reasons. Haynes reports that Santana’s absence was not health-related, as he was said to not be sick. Haynes goes on to report that Santana was not at the Dynamite tapings on Thursday, meaning he won't be on next Wednesday's show.

Originally Posted by Fightful Christopher Daniels gives an update on a potential AEW comic book. Speaking with Wrestling Inc, Daniels spoke on the possibility of an AEW comic book being worked on and if such a thing would ever come to fruition. Daniels said there hasn't been much movement on it given that AEW's TV product takes precedence. Last year, AEW collaborated with DC Comics for new art pieces featuring Chris Jericho, Awesome Kong and Jon Moxley. DC Comics is owned by Warner Media, which also owns TNT, the home of AEW Dynamite. The pieces were drawn by Justice League and Flash artist Howard Porter. "Yeah, because TNT has ties with Warner Bros. who also has ties with DC Comics. We did a little bit of a thing especially because we did our Revolution PPV earlier this year. It was a part of C2E2, which is the big comic book convention in Chicago. It was great. We had some DC artists, Ramon Villalobos and Howard Porter, did some great cover art of some AEW stars. There was some great shots of Cody, and Chris Jericho, and Nyla Rose and they did an SCU piece that I really dug. It was very cool. Because we've got that tie, we're looking into doing an AEW comic book I'm sure. I don't think there's been any movement on that just because of the stuff that we're doing with the television show right now that takes precedence, but we're always in the market to sort of find new ways to get new fans to get their eyes on the AEW product," Daniels said. Wrestling is no stranger to comics/manga. WWE has had comic book tie-ins in the past and NJPW recently unveiled a manga centered on Tetsuya Naito.

Originally Posted by 411Mania Tribute to the Troops films this Friday, and Vince McMahon was very gung-ho on making sure the event went down according to a new report. Fightful Select reports that the WWE Chairman was insistent on doing the show this year, even with an altered format. WWE is filming the special on Friday, and it will air on FOX in different time zones on Sunday depending on NFL schedules. The site notes that talent apparently have a very early call time, and as we already know, the lineup includes both Raw and Smackdown talent. The card is as follows: * Daniel Bryan, Rey Mysterio, Jeff Hardy & The Street Profits vs. King Corbin, Elias, Sami Zayn, Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode * Drew McIntyre vs. The Miz * Sasha Banks & Bianca Belair vs. Bayley & Natalya

TPWW Frontpage:

• Impact Wrestling on AXS TV Ratings – Dec. 1, 2020
• Davey Boy Smith Jr. Done With MLW, Now a Free Agent
• New Match Added to NXT TakeOver: WarGames – Updated Card
• Six Matches, Two Segments Announced for Next Week’s AEW Dynamite
• Kenny Omega Wins AEW Championship, Will Appear on Impact on Tuesday