[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets:

Originally Posted by Observer The return of Halloween Havoc saw NXT top AEW Dynamite in overall viewers for the first time since July. Last night's Halloween Havoc episode of NXT averaged 876,000 viewers on the USA Network, up 18.6 percent from last week. Dynamite averaged 781,000 viewers on TNT. That's up 3.7 percent from last week. Dynamite still won the night in the 18-49 demo with a 0.32 rating, up 6.7 percent from last week. The show finished 12th on cable for the night with no major sports competition, though cable news ratings were way up. NXT finished in the cable top 50 in the 18-49 demo for the first time in a month. The show averaged a 0.25 rating, up 36 percent from last week and good for 21st on the night. It's one of the best showings NXT has ever had on a head-to-head night against Dynamite. The combined audience of 1.657 million viewers was the highest on a week where Dynamite and NXT both aired on Wednesday night since February 5. The NXT audience was its highest since November 20 of last year -- and that's with or without head-to-head competition. The 95,000 viewer advantage for NXT was the show's biggest gap over Dynamite since June 24. It's also the closest NXT has come in 18-49 since that date. NXT's 0.25 rating in 18-49 is the best that it's done on a head-to-head night since December 18 of last year. Dynamite, as usual, won most of the individual demos, though they were much closer than normal. NXT won people over 50 in a big way with a 0.43 rating to Dynamite's 0.29. NXT also won in males 12-34 with a 0.2 rating as opposed to Dynamite's 0.14. Dynamite's best category was people 25-54. where it drew a 0.40 rating to NXT's 0.29. Another strong category for Dynamite was men 18-49. It did a 0.38 rating in that category and was the top non-news program on cable. Compared to the same week last year, Dynamite was up 2.9 percent in overall viewers but down three percent in 18-49. NXT was up 51 percent in overall viewers and up 38.9 percent in 18-49.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling NXT also had an eight-minute overrun with the Io Shirai vs. Candice LeRae main event, which likely helped the overall number ... In Canada, with all the playoffs over with, AEW was the #1 sports program in the country with 103,500 viewers and 68,200 in the 25-54 demographic on TSN2. They also topped the Toronto FC soccer game, which aired on the other four TSN channels and was more widely available.

Originally Posted by Observer Driven by their TV contracts, WWE's 2020 third quarter revenue finished at $221.6 million, up 19% from 2019's third quarter -- part of an optimistic call and overall upward trend in numbers. The company noted the increase was offset by the loss of both ticket and live merchandise sales due to the pandemic. On a similar vein, their ecommerce numbers grew to $9.1 million year-over-year, impressive considering they had 74 live events in the third quarter of 2019 in addition to online in which to sell merchandise. Operating income was up to $63.4 million, an increase of 9x year-over-year, thanks to the content rights fees increase and a decrease in event-related production expenses. WWE noted they paid out $5.5 million in severance pay due to pandemic related layoffs. On another positive note, average paid WWE Network subscriptions were up 6% year-over-year to 1.6 million. The third quarter saw the creation of the ThunderDome structure, which will add "an incremental $22 - $27 million investment" which includes "increased personnel expenses as employees return from furlough" in the fourth quarter ... Call Notes (audio below): WWE president Nick Khan announced a multi-part Vince McMahon documentary has been sold to Netflix with WWE and Bill Simmons (The Ringer, Andre doc) as executive producers. Khan noted the financial investment will make the series one of Netflix's most expensive on the documentary side. No release date was noted. Khan said they are still exploring options for WWE Network to reach a wider audience, a callback to when McMahon said earlier this year they were exploring options and partners for the Network that were put on hold due to the pandemic. There is interest and they are talking to partners, both domestic and global, on a regular basis about licensing. McMahon answered a question about ratings, saying they aren't the only thing they look at. He said they have far more fans than they have ever had. "WWE ratings are what they are, but you just can't hang a hat on ratings being down," he said. He said that while their TV programming is a mothership, they are being seen on other platforms all the time. He said they are doing everything they can and that viewers have been coming back, pointing to the ThunderDome, better writing, and better execution ... They are still negotiating the long-discussed Middle East TV deal with no timeline for completion. McMahon said it will get done ... On where ThunderDome could be moving to, CFO Kristina Salen said their assumption is they will be in "some kind of center for foreseeable future" into '21 with "lots of places for them to go." She didn't confirm when the Amway deal is up or when they would be leaving. Asked about NXT, Khan put over their ratings from Wednesday and didn't comment on length of the USA deal but that Network subs have held without NXT there.

The most laughable part of the Q&A session was Vince using Youtube to deflect their sagging tv ratings issues. Based on the way Youtube tracks views, its something like 6-8 Youtube views is the equivalent of a single tv viewer in the US but WWE's views for their videos are inflated a lot by certain international markets like India. Its why they make pennies on the dollar with their Youtube content compared to their tv deals.

Originally Posted by PWI During today's WWE Earnings Call, it was noted by Vince McMahon that Chief Brand Officer Stephanie McMahon now has "increased responsibilities" within the company. In asking around, we are told that the company's Global Sales and Partnerships now fall under Stephanie's purview, which would include sponsorships and other relationships. John Brody, who was heading that area, is still with the company in the same role, but now reports to McMahon. McMahon took over these responsibilities in August but her involvement was not publicly announced until today's call.

Originally Posted by Observer Tickets to this year's AEW Full Gear pay-per-view are set to go on sale this week. AEW has announced that Full Gear tickets will go on sale to the general public at 10 a.m. Eastern time this Friday (October 30). A pre-sale for AEW season ticket holders began today. Full Gear is being held at Daily's Place in Jacksonville, Florida on Saturday, November 7 with a limited audience capacity and socially distanced seating chart. This will be the third straight AEW PPV that's been held at Daily's Place due to the COVID-19 pandemic. AEW began selling limited tickets to live Dynamite episodes at Daily's Place this August. There was also a limited crowd for September's All Out PPV.

Originally Posted by Observer Renee Paquette, formerly known as WWE's Renee Young, announced a release date for her forthcoming cookbook today. "Messy In The Kitchen: My Guide to Eating Deliciously, Hosting Fabulously, and Drinking Copiously" will be available on May 18, 2021. It was made available for pre-order today on Amazon.

Link for those interested: https://www.amazon.com/Messy-Kitchen.../dp/1682619389

Originally Posted by PWI TNT will air a special, Road to Full Gear on Friday 11/6 at 11 PM EST.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling On today’s episode of NXT UK on the WWE Network that was headlined by WALTER versus Ilja Dragunov for the NXT UK Championship, it was promoted during the show that 22-year veteran Rampage Brown is joining the WWE and will be a part of the NXT UK brand. Brown, real name Oliver Biney has been a fixture on the UK wrestling scene. He has held gold in Insane Championship Wrestling, PCW UK, PROGRESS, RevPro, World of Sport, Southside Wrestling and more promotions across Europe. Per Cagematch.net, Brown last wrestled prior to the Coronavirus pandemic for the ‘British Wrestling Revolution’ promotion. Rampage worked with WWE in 2011 and appeared on their ECW brand. He was also a part of Florida Championship Wrestling. While in WWE, Brown was known as “Monty Lynch” and worked with the likes of Thomas Latimer, Titus O’Neil and Aron Stevens. Rampage was released from WWE in the Summer of 2011.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling This past Tuesday on United Wrestling Network’s Prime Time Live show, Thunder Rosa was defeated by Serena Deeb for the NWA World Women’s Championship. Thunder Rosa reigned as NWA Women’s Champion dating back to January and after dropping the title, there were questions surrounding her status with the National Wrestling Alliance. NWA owner Billy Corgan responded to a question about Thunder Rosa’s status on his Instagram story and noted that she’s under contract to the organization until 2021. Rosa is preparing for her next MMA bout and while appearing on the Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling podcast to promote her title defense against Serena, she stated that she may be taking time off from wrestling to focus on her fight camp. Yes, yes, absolutely. I talked to Combate [Americas] and we’re seeing either before they start or when they start, I wanted have one more fight… so I can get my feet wet again, and so I’m more ready for the bigger stage. I probably will have a local fight, by February. That’s what we’re looking at. Yeah, so that means I might be taking a little bit of time from professional wrestling so I can focus on my fight camp. Thunder Rosa added to the conversations about herself on social media when posting a video at a gym with “AEW? WWE? NWA?” written on her body.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling wXw in Germany did a thread on social media about their forthcoming events and what’s to come in the future in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. All events up until February 28th have been postponed. Their Catch Grand Prix tournament will continue as it was taped in September. As far as their signature 16 Carat Gold tournament, one of their solutions is to postpone the tournament for six months to a year, change dates and venues or reduce audience numbers. They’ll reevaluate in January. Contact sports in Germany are banned until November, therefore the wXw Academy is closed until late November.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Chris Van Vliet caught up with Chavo Guerrero for an exclusive interview. Chavo told the story of how the “Kerwin White” character came to life and the lengths he was willing to go with the character. Chavo stated that the basis of the character was to be a man of color who wanted to be white but is also mimicking white people. Chavo added that he pitched to come out in a KKK sheet as well. “There was no conversation. I got off the plane in Japan and it was — I came to RAW, Vince McMahon looks at me and he goes, ‘Well hello Kerwin,’ and I’m like okay, so what’s going on? ‘Well today you’re going to denounce your Hispanic heritage and you’re going to become a white guy, [Vince laugh]’ and I was like alright. I had two options. You either say no and possibly go back on the back burner for a while, or get fired or you say, ‘Alright, let’s do it’ and at the time, the political climate was different and I literally told Vince, I go, I had a meeting with him. I said, ‘If we’re going to do this, let’s do it right.’ I’m supposed to be a brown guy playing a white guy, saying, ‘This is how you white guys are’ and they’re saying no, so the Hispanics hated me because I was denouncing my Mexican heritage. I had the whites because I was kind of making fun of them and they’re like, ‘That’s not how we dress.’ I’m like, ‘Oh yes you do’ and then — I would say, ‘If it’s not white, it’s not right’ and I had Caucasians going, ‘That’s not the way we are.’ I said, ‘That’s exactly how you are’ so, I had everybody hate me and a true heel wants everybody to hate them, and then I told Vince, I go, ‘Look, at the end of the day, I wanna come out in a white sheet’ and he was like, ‘Oh! Oh! Yes. I love it.’ Now of course, we never ended up doing it. It got too risque, a little too racist for a network. I wanted to [come out in a KKK sheet], absolutely. I wanted to come out — I grew up in the time of wrestling that the more heat, the better. I wanted to fight my way back to the dressing room every night. I wanted to have to sneak out the back window, I wanted to be in the streets and people yell, ‘We hate you’ because that’s heat, that’s what I wanted. I didn’t want them going, ‘Hey, it’s Chavo. Hey, what’s up?’ I want them to look at me and go, ‘God, we hate you’ and still to this day, and I was a heel. That’s what you have to do as a heel.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Scorpio Sky was the most recent guest on Colt Cabana’s Art of Wrestling podcast. Sky recalled doing extra work in WWE along with The Young Bucks and when John Bradshaw Layfield saw them in the locker room, he shook his head and yelled “TNA” because of their respective sizes. “I remember sitting in a dressing room one time and it was me and The Young Bucks and one other guy, and obviously we’re four smaller guys and JBL walks past the dressing room, he looks in, he shakes his head and he keeps walking and you hear him go, ‘TNA! TNA! TNA!’ Because obviously we’re small guys so, it’s like TNA and so…”

Originally Posted by Fightful Multiple WWE superstars are suspending their Twitch streams for the time being. AJ Styles took to his Discord server and posted that he will be suspending his Twitch channel as WWE is making changes regarding streaming. He said that they will "see what the future holds" but that it isn't goodbye. He reiterated that it isn't the end of the stream, just a pause. Mia Yim took to her social media and announced she is also suspending her Twitch stream for the time being. During his livestream on Thursday, Cesaro signed off by saying that he doesn't know when he'll stream again and he'll likely find out more news when the rest of us do.

Originally Posted by Fightful This week’s RAW show saw The Hurt Business defeat RETRIBUTION in an eight-man Elimination Match. One odd moment came during the match when Reckoning (Mia Yim) provided a distraction by dropping down and causing a scene, which looked like some sort of seizure. In an update, Fightful Select reports that Vince McMahon initially wanted Reckoning to mimic a seizure during the spot, but she, and others, spoke up and said the method originally pitched was not in good taste. Vince reportedly liked the spot as it played out, as more of a “possession,” outside of Reckoning being referred to on commentary by her real name.

As someone who has suffered from multiple seizures in the past, Vince can go fuck himself with that shit idea he had. Even the changed idea was still very stupid to begin with since it didn't even lead to any real benefit for Retribution since they quickly lost the man advantage and match itself afterwards.

Originally Posted by Fightful The MLW Restart is upon us. Major League Wrestling announced that the restart will get underway on Wednesday, November 18. MLW has taken back control from CONTRA and set to begin running events again. MLW taped multiple episodes of television earlier this month from GILT Nightclub in Orlando, FL. MLW previously aired events Saturday on beIN Sports, but moved to Wednesday nights when they moved to the fubo Sports Network. New episodes will air at 7 p.m. ET with a replay airing at 10 p.m. ET.

Originally Posted by RingsideNews.com Xia Li had an amateur kickboxing fight, and she didn’t tell WWE about it. They had to read about it online. According to Fightful Select, WWE didn’t learn about Xia Li’s fight until everyone else. It came out during an interview with the event’s promoter. WWE pulled her from an event, and that upset her. Everyone understood why WWE pulled her from the show, but she didn’t understand. She thought that “WWE wasn’t giving her respect.” Several people also said that Xia Li has “grown frustrated from not being used much on NXT TV after years with the company.” She went right to Triple H to let him know what was wrong. She expressed her feelings to Triple H, and it’s uncertain how the conversation went, but Triple H “appreciated the initiative.” Xia Li was also “adamant” she could “hold her own” if given an opportunity in NXT.

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• Matt Riddle Now Just Going By “Riddle”
• Thunder Rosa Still Under Contract With NWA, But Has Interest From WWE & AEW