[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets:

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter While to an extent Vince-speak was still on display, the idea was there was more spontaneity, including Corey Graves saying “Holy shit” after the explosions, on the air, at about 8:10 p.m. Unlike angles that may happen and aren’t talked about again, or maybe get talked about once, this angle was constant brought up, by a number of talents, both babyfaces and heels, at the start of their promos. The term “hospital,” as the destination of the two, a formerly banned word in Vince-speak, was used at least twice during the show, although “local medical facility,” the Vince-speak word was also used. Vince McMahon and Ed Koskey were the ones running the production meeting, although it was clear the Strowman/Lashley segment, the Mike & Maria Kanellis segment were clearly Heyman ideas, which has been confirmed. Heyman is also known to be a strong advocate of Ricochet, who got his second television main event in a row with Styles, Aleister Black, Lacey Evans and many others, and one of his first moves was to bring in the Street Profits. The addition of Heyman and Bischoff comes for a variety of reasons and goes back several weeks. The key reasons were an expected negative reaction from Wall Street in the declining indicators of brand popularity, such as arena attendance, merchandise and WWE Network numbers based on he prior year ... The second is that competition. It’s no secret that WWE audience declines have been terrible with those under the age of 30,and whatever stability the audiences have are because the over-50 audience has stayed more steady. The problem is, the aging audience isn’t being replenished. Once person who is involved with the company noted to us months ago, that in the real world, you never meet anyone who is a fan today that wasn’t a fan in the attitude era. The basic idea is that for two decades, very few new fans are being made, and the business is being carried by the 24 year olds in 1999 who are now 44. And even worse, because the median viewer age, which actually was as low as 23 during the Attitude era, was 54 last year and is probably older than that now given the huge declines over the last year in the younger age group. While a lot of people are in denial about AEW, one person in the company noted to us that the most concerning thing are the stats that show that AEW fans are not WWE fans, and the belief is they come from two camps, those who despise WWE and want an alternative, and a new fan base they’ve created through social media and one-on-one marketing through appearances that is a younger audience that doesn’t care enough about WWE to hate it. The combination of declining indicators, and no matter what is said publicly, privately Vince McMahon isn’t fooled by fake stats and understands there are problems, Wall Street starting to figure it out, and the competition, most notably the All Out ticket sale demand in Chicago, have led to the moves ... In wrestling, the reaction to Heyman on Raw has been mixed, but more positive than negative.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter Heyman and Bischoff will never have full control, because creative is one division Vince will never give up on. It’s will always be Vince’s company, but both will have enough input to either sink or swim. Part of this deal was also to lock both up, with the idea that both could provide help for AEW ... The most interesting aspect is that Bischoff was chosen for FOX, which has both major advantages and disadvantages, and those Paul Levesque wasn’t chosen. As far as why, that would be speculation, but FOX being a success is far more important in 2020 than NXT. Unlike Bischoff, Levesque has followed the modern scene, has put together far better shows on a regular basis than Bischoff ever did, knows the modern fans and the modern talent. One person involved with this noted that Bischoff has even less modern product knowledge than feared, but that doesn’t mean he won’t adapt, learn or be successful ... Still, Wall Street has largely praised the move ... Bischoff’s meeting in Stamford for the job was said to have taken place a few days after the 6/10 and 6/11 Northern California tapings. If there was a timetable of when the Bischoff deal was finalized, it looks to be around or before 6/25. We were told that day that Bischoff had just canceled a series of appearances in Canada citing that he had just signed a contract that would prohibit him from doing the shows. Many also questioned Bischoff getting the Smackdown position, because it’s actually the key position because it’s very much sink-or-swim. Even if Raw continues its declines, it’ll always be a fairly strong cable property that USA Network, which hasn’t made any hit shows in recent memory, needs to avoid becoming an also-ran network. FOX hardly needs wrestling. They believe they will be getting a reliable 52 week a year sports-like show that they can use to cross-promote their other major weekend sports. But the ratings demands for network programming are higher, and Smackdown has been, for the past 15 years, less popular than Raw ... But Smackdown should increase greatly and will almost certainly look good in a year in direct viewer comparisons. FOX is in nearly 120 million homes while USA is in 89 million. Also, FOX has a far greater base audience. Just staying the same, Smackdown should improve 34 percent in viewers starting in October just from the increase in homes, not to mention a second jump just based on being on a stronger station. Smackdown got a big bump moving from Syfy to USA a few years back, and this bump should be considerably larger. That will be offset by about 20 percent because of the move to Friday

Originally Posted by Observer Booker T, after agreeing to come, has pulled out of All Out. He evidently said when pulling out that he found out the WWE vs. AEW war was very real and he didn't want to be in the middle of it. I've been told to expect another major counter by WWE shortly

Originally Posted by Observer WWE has a two-for-one ticket offer out for the 7/14 Extreme Rules show at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.

Possible sign that Extreme Rules is selling lower than WWE expected. Doubt it will be as dire as Stomping Grounds was due to Philly being a stronger rasslin market than Tacoma.

Originally Posted by Observer Perro Aguayo, who at his peak was one of the biggest draws in lucha libre, has passed away at the age of 73. Perros del Mal’s Facebook page first announced the passing. Both AAA and CMLL have since confirmed the news with their condolences. Aguayo started wrestling in 1968, mainly working for the now defunct UWA. He helped found AAA in 1992 and continued his run as a top star, with a three way feud between Konnan and Cien Caras drawing huge business. He jumped to CMLL as part of a retirement tour where he was successful in taking the hair of brothers Cien Caras and Mascara Año 2000. In 2001, he lost what was billed as a retirement match against a third brother, Universo 2000. Aguayo would return to lucha libre a few years later in 2005. His last match on record is a tag team bout teaming with Rayo de Jalisco to defeat Mascara Año 2000 and Universo 2000 in Tijuana on August 24, 2007. His son Perro Aguayo Jr., also a notable wrestler in Mexico who founded the Los Perros del Mal group, passed away in 2015 at the age of 35 following an in-ring accident that caused severe whiplash, breaking three vertebrae in his neck. Aguayo withdrew from public life following his son’s passing.

Originally Posted by Fightful NJPW has released part two of their interview with KENTA and he minced no words when he stated that if this run does not work out, he is done because he simply just wants to enjoy wrestling. "It took a lot of thought for me to decide to come here. Quite frankly, if this doesn’t pan out, I’m done. That’s the resolve I have going into this. I’ve deliberately chosen a situation for myself where I have no excuses, and that’s my mindset. That said, I want to enjoy wrestling. Plain and simple." He explained.

Originally Posted by Fightful Dustin Rhodes has 31 years of experience in wrestling and with the young roster that AEW has, he wants to pass on some of his tips and tricks to the next generation of pro wrestlers. While speaking with Jim Varsallone of the Miami Herald, Rhodes stated that his way of passing on that knowledge would come by way of an All Elite Wrestling school that he plans on talking to AEW President Tony Khan about opening. “I think, and I was planning on talking to Tony [Khan] about this: I’ve been wanting to open up a wrestling school for quite some time, and I think Texas would be a good place for it and a good place for an AEW/Dustin Rhodes wrestling school to get these kids ready and I would be all for that. Yes, I definitely think they need a place, just like the other company [WWE] has the other place [Performance Center], and I think it’s important when you’re bringing in talent that is hungry and young, and need a place to train and learn and learn how to do things properly, learn how to speak properly, learn how to cut your promos and whatever else is offered. Yes, definitely. That is something that I think is 110% needed.” He said.

Originally Posted by Fightful Triple held what is being described as a "secret interview" with Sareee. Over the past several years, WWE has brought in a plethora of talents from the independent scene, other wrestling companies and promotions and have signed said wrestlers to exclusive deals. NXT founder and senior producer Triple H has done scouting for WWE and according to a report from Yahoo! Japan, while WWE was in Japan for their two house shows last weekend, Triple H held a secret meeting with the former JWP Junior Champion Sareee. The 23 year old Sareee currently wrestles for the 'World Woman Pro-Wrestling Diana' promotion in Japan where she is the World Champion. Triple H spoke with Yahoo! Japan and told the publication that he was originally coming to Japan for business, outside of the tag matches he had with The Club and Shinsuke Nakamura at Sumo Hall. The report notes that Triple H held the aforementioned meeting at Sumo Hall and talked briefly talked about the meeting.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows have either agreed to, or actually signed their five-year contracts. Company sources say they are there long-term. But unlike with The Revival where the push with Shane McMahon and the tag belts are an attempt to keep them from going to AEW next year, Anderson & Gallows have reportedly made their decision, and are to be focused on in he new Club group with Styles. This, and the Styles turn, were said to be written out before Heyman was given power.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter Fyter Fest drew 4,200 paid and about 5,000 in the building ... The show was considered a success on BR Live. The three-and-a-half hour broadcast averaged 140,000 viewers if you were to figure it like a television show. There were a total of 350,000 different viewers during the course of the live show and those numbers likely increased significantly with replay viewing. This is still very knew so establishing what this means is difficult. The 350,000 doesn’t correlate with YouTube numbers, since every view, including multiple by the same people, or just views inflated when YouTube sends you to a new video, isn’t the case here. We do know that AEW and BR Live had first talked about the idea of signing up more than 100,000 new subscribers to the channel, although after more input the feeling was that number would be higher. Not all 350,000 were new sign-ups, because there were 35,000 who signed up previously buying Double or Nothing on PPV. In addition, some of the 350,000, although likely not a high percentage, were already BR Live subscribers ... Outside North America, the show was broadcast on Fite TV, and did about 14,000 iPPV buys. That’s a very good number. Nobody expected Double or Nothing level of buys. Double or Nothing did 20,000 outside the U.S. but DON aired on ITV Box Office while Fyter Fest did not. The U.K. iPPV buys were up, but that’s also because you had the DON television buyers that, if they wanted to see this show, had to do so through Fite.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter A lot more will be learned in two weeks with Fight for the Fallen. The iPPV price will slightly higher since that will be part of the charitable contribution. In the U.S., it’ll be live on BR. At press time, five matches have been announced, headlined by Cody & Dustin Rhodes vs. The Young Bucks, plus Kenny Omega vs. Cima, Hangman Page vs. Kip Sabian, Jimmy Havoc & Joey Janela & Darby Allin vs. MJF & Shawn Spears & Sammy Guevara, and Brandi Rhodes vs. Allie. There is a storyline with MJF and Spears on the same team, as MJF, even though a heel, is friends with Cody and helped him to the back and they showed Spears and MJF having words backstage after Spears had laid out Cody with the chair shot.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter Ring of Honor’s Best in the World show on 6/28 from the UMBC Arena in Baltimore was far from a good night for the promotion. The show got the weakest reaction for any ROH show in recent memory, as the company has fallen badly from its spot as the No. 2 group in the U.S. that it had last year. Interest levels are down. The current programs and new champion Matt Taven hasn’t gotten a lot of attention. The PPV show appeared t have run long, leaving Taven vs. Jeff Cobb in the main event for the title to go just 9:45 and Cobb’s unbeaten streak ended cleanly with Taven’s climax. The feeling seems to be that Taven had to win, since Cobb is going into G-1 for the next month, and will likely lose several matches in his first tournament and the old-school feeling that it doesn’t look good for your world champion to lose repeatedly outside the promotion. But it’s been a tough creative period for the company after losing so much key talent, both in the ring and office ... The show drew 1,200 fans, which is better than ROH has been doing and a lot stronger than the advances going forward are. But in a 5,000 seat arena, there were visible empty seats everywhere. The early PPV numbers don’t look strong, as the previous show, the 17th anniversary show in March, did an estimated 2,800 television buys. The recent NWA/ROH Crockett Cup show did 2,600. This show was down to an estimated 1,200 based on early reports. Now, most ROH viewership will be on Honor Club and not traditional PPV, but it’s still a gigantic drop

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter The other big news is the expected deal between AEW and ITV4. While not announced yet, because it can’t be finalized until TNT finalizes the time slot for the show. Wednesday 8-10 p.m. Eastern starting 10/2 is the current plan but that still could change, but at this point I’d say the odds that’s the slot are extremely strong. which would be 1-3 a.m. in the U.K. ITV 4 would be available in most of the U.K.’s 18 million television households. It’s not a powerhouse like ITV, and AEW’s first show, the one-hour Buy In pre-show for Double or Nothing, did 74,000 viewers as a one-off with little promotion, a number WWE shows rarely come close to. And going forward, they probably never will unless they can get a more widely distributed outlet. Sky was in about 8.6 million homes, while BT is in about 2.4 million homes based on figures at the end of May ... WWE’s popularity has fallen significantly, most notably in the last two U.K. tours where most of the arenas for live shows drew well under what they had been doing historically. Whether the lesser number of homes the show is in, and the viewership numbers that in theory would be cut drastically, lead to more of a decline isn’t known. Unlike in the U.S., where big live business is related to live big numbers of television viewers (it’s not as big a correlation as you would think, but there is some correlation), in the U.K., with far less viewership, it has remained the company’s No. 2 market and the major arenas until recently did sellout or near sellout business for the two annual tours. Impact, which had larger television viewing numbers for years, was never able to draw at anywhere near the level WWE did even with that advantage. Similarly, even though, if the ITV4 deal goes through, that AEW’s television numbers will be multiple that of WWE, that by no means makes them the No. 1 promotion in the market. WWE is still the market leader and has 30 years of live history. However, that television difference does put AEW in a strong position to pick up an audience that WWE will lose by going to the smaller platform and at least narrow a gap. Because of this, WWE is attempting to get other programming on a free-to-air station. Because of what BT has is an exclusive on the key shows, WWE is attempting to sell one of the highlights packages shows for a January start

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter AAA is now looking for help from AEW for the Madison Square Garden show. AEW seems willing to send them top guys for major shows, such as TripleMania, but their attitude seems to be to not want their own guys working in the U.S., at least in a place like Madison Square Garden, for somebody else’s show

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter Davey Boy Smith Jr., who is under contract here, has had offers from both All Japan and Pro Wrestling NOAH since leaving New Japan. There has been AEW talk with him as Jim Ross has always been high on him. They have used guys like Jimmy Havoc and MJF who have MLW deals, but everyone expects when these deals are up that they would be gone. I don’t think once AEW has television they’ll want to use guys under MLW contract, but I also think they’ll make whatever exception they have to for MJF. For MLW, having a guy on AEW shows that they are pushing is a positive, to a point. If Smith is going to be in the MLW title picture, which is the case, he shouldn’t work AEW as just a guy, and that’s tough. Obviously with MJF it’s not an issue

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter A correction from last week. WWE didn’t approve the David Starr stomping on Walter’s NXT U.K. title belt. Nobody knew ahead of time. Walter and Starr made the call to shock people live knowing it would get over huge. As you can imagine, the reaction from WWE was not positive. Many wrestlers thought it was disrespectful and the higher-ups weren’t happy either

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter The semi-main event of AAA TripleMania will be a rematch from Fyter Fest with the Young Bucks & Omega vs. Pentagon Jr. & Rey Fenix & Laredo Kid. At one point the idea was to have Impact champion Brian Cage teaming with Pentagon & Fenix in this match, but wrestling politics got in the way. Right now AEW is going with the idea that if they are wrestling on outside shows, they are going to wrestle against partner promotion wrestlers (AAA or OWE at this point) and not wrestlers from other groups.