[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets (Observer Newsletter Edition):

The last PPV of the year, TLC, on 12/20, will be the first of the run from Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg. McIntyre vs. Braun Strowman was the only match settled on for the show going into Raw, and we’re still not sure what the story is on that. There was a story going around that Strowman was said to have been injured in the Survivor Series and they did a suspension angle on Raw to write him off, but he was not on the internal injury list and many believe McIntyre vs. Strowman was still set even though the company did follow up Raw with an announcement of a suspension for him attacking Adam Pearce. He also said something about a title match so seemingly no matter what, that title match is coming at some point and that strong angle would make you certain of it. There was a knee injury of some sort, believed to be from the Survivor Series match. because he was at the gym getting his knee worked on, but wrestlers are always working hurt and with a PPV main event, the injury would have to be pretty significant for him to miss it. Still, a tournament for the shot at McIntyre, coming down to Keith Lee vs. A.J. Styles vs. Riddle, on Raw on 11/30, is supposed to determine the new contender. So if Strowman is okay, they’ll have to create a storyline to get him the title match. If not, the three-way winner would likely be getting the shot. Roman Reigns vs. Daniel Bryan may be the Universal title match. As of early in the week, the decision was leaning toward that match at the Royal Rumble and something else at TLC, but at this point there’s nothing else set up. Bryan being in the TLC main event was very much part of conversations. Big E has done nothing in recent weeks and it’s too early to go with him in a title match. Kevin Owens has been booked as just a guy. They can always throw Rey Mysterio in as a sacrificial lamb, and Mysterio always comes through in these scenarios, but it would come out of nowhere. There is an interesting note regarding the piped in and fed crowd noise which is used for every match. We’re told this is exactly what management has always wanted, complete control of the crowd noise so it looks like everyone they want to get is over is and everyone they don’t want to get over doesn’t look like they are getting over.

Very quietly, WWE settled a multitude of different lawsuits regarding Securities Fraud and Insider trading related to Saudi Arabia, the Middle East TV deal and the October 31, 2019, Crown Jewel show and the alleged hostage situation for $39 million on 11/18. It would be the largest lawsuit settlement in the history of the pro wrestling industry, more than doubling the prior $18 million record set in the settlement of Martha Hart’s wrongful death lawsuit against the company over the death of Owen Hart. The City of Warren Police and Fire Retirement System, who owned stock in WWE, were one of a number of parties who filed what were essentially identical copycat lawsuits against WWE, Vince McMahon, George Barrios and Michelle Wilson, the latter who were the co-Presidents of the company at the time when they claimed were deceptive statements being made. Both Barrios and Wilson sold a large amount of WWE stock after saying an imminent television deal would be reached in the Middle East with the government of Saudi Arabia. Such a deal today, more than a year later, has not been finalized. The company expects that the entire $39 million settlement will be paid by its insurance carriers. In a release to investors, WWE wrote, “The company believes that resolving the matter is the right business decision and that it is prudent to end the protracted and uncertain class action process.” The City of Warren as well as other law firms representing other stockholders filed a variety of suits starting in June. WWE attempted to have the lawsuits dismissed in August through pleadings by Jerry McDevitt. However, in August, Judge Jed Rakoff of U.S. District Court in the Southern District of New York wrote sternly in response to McDevitt’s claim to throw out the suit, “Ultimately, none of defendants’ (WWE, McMahon, Wilson and Barrios) numerous arguments succeeds. Basically, this is because the complaint, while not a model of clarity, adequately alleges an overall claim of securities fraud that is not only plausible, but also complies with the relevant heightened pleading requirements applicable to this kind of action. While defendants have trotted out a virtual herd of objections to the (lawsuit), on close inspection, none is a winner.” The key is the claim by in the lawsuit that WWE misled investors by claiming a new Middle East television deal was close and forthcoming. The other regarded the large amount of stock sales shortly after that statement came out from key executives, most notably Barrios and Wilson. When Rakoff kept the case going, most with knowledge of the lawsuit and one person with knowledge of the judge felt a settlement had to happen. There was no way to risk allowing a jury to hear evidence, plus it would create a situation where name wrestlers would have to testify against the company related to the situation in Saudi Arabia and what really happened with the grounded flight ... Obviously when it comes to the arguments in the lawsuit, it is the television negotiations that were the key. If there was trouble after the October show, it’s been quelled since WWE has gone back and has been paid for shows they’ve done since. The lawsuit surrounds the idea that WWE misled shareholders and inflated the stock price based on statements without informing stockholders and the market that there were problems in the Middle East. While the situation from the October show was a news story at the time, the fact the deal is still ongoing means that it led to no long-term economic harm or changes in the lucrative live event deal, although there is still no television deal. A willingness to settle based on that would seem to indicate attempting to make sure actual details aren’t made public, or fear that testimony could likely lead to an even larger verdict.

AAA: TripleMania is now official as an empty arena show on 12/12. Space listed it as having an 8 p.m. Eastern time slot. Broadcast details aren’t available but the only way it makes economic sense to do the show is having sponsorships and a paying broadcast deal. It is set at this point to be at Arena Ciudad, which is its usual location, but that’s a 21,000-seat empty arena. Kenny Omega vs. Laredo Kid for the AAA Mega heavyweight title was one of the key matches on the show. We know that both sides were trying to make it happen but there are obvious issues regarding COVID. At this moment AEW and Omega have agreed to the date but the reality is in this world that could change on a moment’s notice. A few Americans are scheduled including Taya and some who are scheduled to debut as Marvel Comic characters. At one point they were looking at 12/19 but decided against it due to the Canelo Alvarez fight.

NJPW: What seemed almost a sure thing is now official, in that Fantastica Mania, the joint shows with CMLL that take place every January are out. The company released its schedule up through 2/3 and the tour is gone. After New Year’s Dash, they will return on 1/17 at Korakuen Hall for the New Beginning tour, which usually starts about two weeks later. The dates that were scheduled for Fantastica Mania will be part of that tour. They announced the first major show after the Dome shows as 2/1 in Nagoya, as New Beginning in Nagoya. There will likely be other major shows on that tour in early February but have not been announced yet CMLL had been telling talent as recently as two weeks ago that the tour was happening even though with the restrictions it seemed difficult to impossible. That’s a huge blow to the top CMLL stars since they earn their biggest paychecks of the year during this tour and they are augmented by sponsor money and huge merchandise sales that the top talent can garner

Masahiro Chono in Weekly True Story magazine explained in detail about his not working as a color commentator at the 2019 G-1 Climax was due to Harold Meij and portrayed him as a CEO who knows nothing about pro wrestling. It’s very rare for a Japanese wrestler to publicly criticize the head of the company in public and was the first wrestler to do so regarding Meij at that level. What he actually said, translated to English, was, “I worked as a commentator at this year’s G-1 final. Last time was 2018. I didn’t do it last year that was caused by Meij’s intervention. Back then there was an issue between TV Asahi and New Japan and he complained to TV Asahi about using me who was TV Asahi’s choice. TV Asahi tried to protect me, but I accepted not working because I didn’t want to cause trouble to TV Asahi. Because Meij quit, I had no reason not to work at G-1 this year. It’s said he made more wrong decisions that’s another story. He was same as Seiichi Kusama who was New Japan’s president circa 2004. Meij is a professional but seemed not to fit pro-wrestling that is different to normal business. Meij didn’t understand the value of New Japan’s history. He may be only well aware of New Japan since they were acquired by Bushiroad. I think the staff at New Japan understand both New Japan's pre-Bushiroad history and me and made me an offer this year because they thought 'when it's G-1, it must be Chono.’” One person very close to the situation explained this to us as, “When Meij joined New Japan, Chono worked as a commentator and expressed on air his concern about Westernization of New Japan by Meij that was legit. He wasn't used since then until this year’s G-1. Though he didn’t refer to it, it’s apparent what he said led to Meij’s unwillingness to work with Chono. Chono describing Meij same kind of businessperson as Kusama is a huge insult from insiders’ perspective because those who are old enough still remember Kusama as the worst president in New Japan’s history.” The column was posted online but later taken down without explanation and is now available only in the printed issue that led to natural speculation of another intervention from somewhere, but it would not have been Meij

David Hill, a labor organizer who is Vice President of the National Writers Union, was on Kenny Herzog’s Outside Interference podcast talking about pro wrestlers unionizing. “Wrestling is a part of the entertainment industry in the United States. The entertainment industry is probably the most unionized industry in the United States. It is one of our biggest exports around the world. It's highly unionized across the board, and the people who work in that industry who belong to the unions are incredibly well compensated.... The fact that wrestling already exists in that sector of the American economy is good for its ability to get organized or become unionized at some point, versus the tech industry or a lot of the gig economy.... We have a very clear and obvious model for how, if wrestling was going to become unionized, what it would probably look like. What does it take to bring a completely non-union industry organized? Well, it would be a fight because in the early going. The employers will resist it tooth and nail. In this case, the centerpiece of the industry -- WWE -- run by kind of avowed conservative Republicans, anti-union folks who beat back attempts.... But it's not a fight that's unwinnable, and it's a fight that -- if it was won -- the end product would look a lot like the film industry, where unions have been really good for labor, both above the line and below." One of the fears expressed is that a wrestling union due to costs would kill independent wrestling and smaller companies and thus limit opportunities to wrestle. “I understand that they're saying we couldn't pay higher standards because we're at the bottom rung here. We couldn't afford to pay better, or we can't afford to uphold a standard that a bigger company can. That makes sense. But what does having a union ultimately mean? This is just about the workers having some agency, right? It just means some democracy at work, that the people at that workplace have the legal right to negotiate collectively with the employer over the terms of their employment. That's all it means. Now what comes out of those negotiations could be anything. For an employer to say, 'We couldn't have a union here,' what they're saying is if we had to actually allow our employees to negotiate with us, we would lose the ability to do business because our business model depends on our ability to kind of screw over our employees at will. I don't think that's an argument that holds much water. What has to be discussed is: What are the standards that people are looking for? In a perfect world, the best paid wrestlers would unionize first and all these benefits might trickle down, but it doesn't have to happen that way. There's no reason at all why an independent company who would like to set a good example [couldn't] allow their employees to have some small degree of agency. And if more independent companies did that, those standards wouldn't immediately go through.... So it would actually be good to see some of the smaller companies thumb their nose at the big companies and say, 'If we can do this with as little money as we're bringing in, why can't you with all the sort of truckloads of money you're making?'" It should be noted that Pro Wrestling EVE in the U.K., an all women’s promotion, was not only behind its talent joining the entertainers union, Equity, in the U.K., but financially helping the deal be put together. The holdback has been scared talent who believe that if they are part of a union, it would kill their chances to work in WWE. There had been a lot of union talk in the U.K., but it fell apart because the most outspoken advocate, David Barsky (David Starr) is out of the business due to allegations against him in the Speaking Out movement. "Another example that might be more applicable to the way that professional wrestlers see themselves is professional athletes, who also are unionized in the United States. Even if you're a lower-rung player, you make a lot of money outside of your job through endorsement deals and public appearances and, you know, your brand is also real, probably useful to you.... How much a player is able to do that is a function of having a strong union that can work with the leagues to make sure that the players individual rights are retained and protected." Regarding SAG-AFTRA talks of late, “Unions aren't these outside third-party entities that come in and advocate on your behalf. If wrestlers formed a union, the wrestlers would run the union. It's really up to the workers to decide that they're going to do this, and then workers who already have formed unions in the same space can bring some of their resources to assist.... I think it's probably a mistake to have gone to SAG-AFTRA and to try to do this under that umbrella. It will raise a lot of unnecessary questions among wrestlers and wrestling fans to say, 'We're not actors. Why are we doing this?' It probably would have been smarter to try to figure out how to form a union that's just a union of wrestlers. Kind of charter a brand new organization, maybe get another union to seed it with some seed money or bless it some in some other way, but really try to build something new. [They] could sidestep all those inevitable questions that will come up about, 'Is this the right union for us?' and wrestlers could say, 'We know it's the right union for us, because we're going to build it. We're going to define what it is we're fighting for and how we're going to fight for it.' I think that's the path they should take. If they are serious about this." Personally I would be a lot more comfortable with wrestlers being part of a large union like SAG-AFTRA that has power and is successful than trying to start their own. The question of whether wrestlers are actors is moot, since stunt men in are in that union. Wrestling are entertainers and stunt men who are athletes as well. There are a lot of issues with unionization and the obvious reason why there never has been one past some territories in the past would have all the wrestlers contribute a small percentage of their weekly pay into a fund that would then benefit injured wrestlers out of work. I know people who have been in wrestling their entire lives as both management and talent and have been adamant to me that there will never be a union in the U.S. because talent will never band together. Historically, that has been proven accurate

IMPACT: There was a COVID test positive from the last tapings. A few wrestlers were notified to get checked due to a positive, but were not told who it was. Others in the company were not notified. One wrestler noted to us that most of the wrestlers were not told and were very hot having to hear the news through gossip. The wrestler was believed to be part of a group of several people who all traveled together and were tight. The company has been lucky up to this point with no positives, since they had only done temperature checks and not testing, a practice that should have been changed to testing once it became clear that WWE had major problems from the same policy. One wrestler noted to us that they were the only major company not testing which they felt was very irresponsible

AEW: What is being pushed as the biggest match in AEW television history, and that’s probably the case, Jon Moxley vs. Kenny Omega for the AEW title headlines Winter is Coming on 12/2 in Jacksonville. The rest of the show has a Battle Royal for a Diamond ring, the same thing they did last year with MJF winning, Chris Jericho vs. Frankie Kazarian, Cody Rhodes & Darby Allin vs. Ricky Starks & Powerhouse Hobbs and Britt Baker vs. Leyla Hirsch Tickets for 12/2 went quickly as far as the origin allotment of 650 first day with the Jon Moxley vs. Kenny Omega match. So they’ve increased from TV seating to the PPV seating of more than 1,000. There were 156 tickets left at press time so it’ll be the largest paid, including Full Gear, since the pandemic started I know that there is a story going around that Moxley loses the title so he can quarantine and go to the Tokyo Dome. I don’t know the finish but IF he was going to the Tokyo Dome show, he wouldn’t have to lose the title. But at press time he’s not going to the Tokyo Dome show. If conditions change regarding Japan allowing athletes into the country without having to quarantine that could change, but I have my doubts they’ll let that happen right now with Americans. But either way, that’s immaterial to the result of the match

Ryan Barkan at Pro Wrestling Tees told Chris Van Vliet that the top five best selling T-shirts of the year thus far have been Orange Cassidy shirts at No. 1 and No. 2, Owen Hart at No. 3 and Chris Jericho shirts at No. 4 and No. 5. Jericho put out a ton of shirts over the year and was by far in total the biggest seller with Cassidy second

A clarification from the first thing we’d written in the print edition last week. WWE’s final night at the Amway Center in Orlando is the Raw on 12/7 in Orlando and not Smackdown on 12/4. So they go directly from Orlando to Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg for the 12/11 Smackdown show and all Raw & Smackdown shows and PPVs for the foreseeable future. Regarding Tropicana Field, what we’ve been told is the stadium is huge and the sound is awful, although WWE can pipe stuff in and control that aspect. There is also a colony of pigeons who live in the Dome’s roof

The Bella Twins did a video and clarified the point about coming back and going for the tag titles. They both said they were looking to do so but not until their new babies are about two years sold, which would be about 21 months from now. Brie did say maybe next year but probably two years

According to Ringside News, and confirmed, the reason the Wobbly Walrus character was dropped from the Firefly Funhouse is it was an obvious spoof on Heyman, and was to lead to the Reigns vs. Wyatt title program which was then nixed when the decision was made to move Wyatt to Raw to work with Orton and keep him away from Reigns. There are forces who are working at protecting Reigns from bad booking and the idea that a feud with Wyatt will do him no favors

The WWE Network was all about Undertaker in viewing this past week. Most of the top 25 shows were related to Undertaker including seven of the top ten. 1. Survivor Series 2020; 2. Broken Skull Sessions with Undertaker; 3. Survivor Series kickoff show; 4. Best of Survivor Series; 5. Brothers of Destruction; 6. Undertaker’s Last Ride episode one; 7. Break it Down with Undertaker; 8. WWE Chronicle: Lana; 9. Survivor Series 2019; 10. Mortician: The Story of Paul Bearer. The only new wrestling show in the top 25 from the past week was NXT at No. 18, so 205 Live, Main Event and NXT U.K. didn’t place, nor did any independent related shows

WWE Ratings, AEW vs. NXT Ratings:

SPOILER: show

Raw on 11/23, with the post-Survivor Series bump, averaged 1,808,000 viewers and 0.57 in 18-49, the best numbers the show has done since the 10/12 draft show. The first two hours of the show were the best 18-49 numbers since 8/31. The show placed 24th overall and fourth behind three NFL-related shows in 18-49. It also went against one of the biggest Monday night games of the season, a Los Angeles Rams vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers game that did 12,612,000 viewers and a 3.62 in 18-49 and 2.51 in 18-34. The show was up 1.6 percent from the prior week which got a big boost from the Drew McIntyre title win over Randy Orton. More important, it was up 11.8 percent in 18-49 and 20.8 percent in 18-34 from last week. The drop from last year was also less than the show has been doing most of the past year, being down 14.3 percent in viewers, 19.7 percent in 18-49 and 37.0 percent in 18-34. The first hour did 1,904,000 viewers. The second hour did 1,826,000 viewers and the third hour did 1,694,000 viewers for an 11.0 percent first-to-third hour drop, which is normal level ... The drops were 17.8 percent in women 18-49, 13.2 percent in men 18-49, but stayed even in girls 12-17, had a 1.1 percent increase in teenage boys and 10.3 percent drop in over 50. The show did a 0.29 in 12-17 (up 16.0 percent from last week), 0.29 in 18-34 (up 17.2 percent), 0.85 in 35-49 (up 9.0 percent) and 0.83 in 50+ (down 2.4 percent).

Smackdown on 11/20, featuring the influx of Raw talent like Drew McIntyre and New Day, as the Survivor Series go-home show, did a 1.46 rating and 2,326,000 viewers (1.32 viewers per home) and 0.67 in 18-49 (867,000 viewers). The viewer number was the best since 9/11 and second best since April. As compared to the big rating two weeks ago for the Bayley vs. Sasha Banks match, 18-49 was almost identical (up 1,000) and viewers were pretty much the same, but for whatever reason, this show had far more homes watching. Smackdown was second to Shark Tank on ABC in 18-49 and 18-34, but FOX won the night overall since 20/20 did lower numbers taking down the ABC average. CBS only ran reruns so the competition is still weak for this time of the year. Smackdown was the most watched show on television Males 18-49. Of the big for networks, even with CBS in reruns, Smackdown had by far the lowest audience, as the second lowest, a Magnum PI rerun from last year on CBS, did 2,816,000 viewers. There were no cable shows that came close it the key demo. As compared to last week, the show was up 4.3 percent in homes, 4.1 percent in viewers and 5.1 percent in 18-49. As compared to the same week last year, which had far tougher competition, the show was down 8.2 percent in homes, 8.6 percent in viewers, 13.9 percent in 18-49 and 20.0 percent in 18-34. But those drops are far less than most wrestling programming has been doing. The half hours were the usual pattern and don’t tell a big story. It opened at 2.42 million viewers for The Street Profits-New Day stuff leading to them teaming up against Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode & Sami Zayn & King Corbni. The second half hour was the weakest at 2.21 million viewers with the Daniel Bryan interview, Natalya vs. Tamina and Roman Reigns video. The third segment did 2.35 million viewers for the McIntyre-Reigns contract signing and Murphy vs. Seth Rollins. And the final half our did 2.33 million viewers for Banks and Asuka’s in-ring plus the Bryan vs. Jey Uso main event.

AEW on 11/18 did 1.63 viewers per home, among the biggest in its history. It was tops in the category for the week among all sports shows. The number of homes watching on 11/11 and 11/18 was virtually identical (520,000) but the big 18-49 number and overall increase had to do again with people watching together at a higher rate than usual. It also had the second youngest viewing audience by median age of any sports television show of the week and second highest percentage of viewers 18-49, behind a U.S. vs. Panama soccer game on FS 1.