[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets:

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter The WWE’s latest reset, the second draft in a six-month period ended up as kind of a nothing ... The idea was to present this like a sports draft, such as the NFL and NBA drafts, which are now major television events on ESPN. But from the start it didn’t work ... The idea was once again three picks for Raw for every two for Smackdown. Stephanie McMahon announced the picks. She was good in the sense of presenting the right emphasis on them, but it was bad with the idea she, and nobody else, was reading off names. The idea that the first pick would be determined by matches, but with alternating picks in rounds, Raw had to go 1-3-5. So in both first pick determining matches, Raw won ... In another snafu of sorts, when the WWE web site listed the wrestlers that would be drafted on the Smackdown show the day before the draft, with maybe one minor change, it was the exact order that they were drafted. What happened is that the day before the draft, the web site was sent the list of who would be drafted on Smackdown and then on Raw, and it was the order it was planned. They weren’t told that this was the order. And they were told to alphabetize each list. Somehow that got lost in the communications and they printed it in the order. The decision was made not to change the Smackdown order for whatever reason, and then people noticed and called attention to it like crazy. So for Raw, they at least changed the order of the picks somewhat. The only real take is that Raw seemed to get the stronger roster. Heyman picked up some of his key people that were on Smackdown, Flair, Black, Buddy Murphy (who he is said to be super high on) but did lose Lesnar, which had to happen since FOX wanted Lesnar or Rousey on the show as their big sports star. Lesnar’s winning of the WWE title was a key. Flair going to Raw seemed likely when she dropped her title after only five days, clean, to Bayley. But on the other hand, Flair had done extensive promotional work for FOX for the past six months, and the original crew FOX had been advertising around, led by Reigns, featured Flair prominently as well as Rey Mysterio, who is staying on Raw ... Nobody from NXT was drafted, past Humberto Carrillo, who was really more a 205 Live guy. So it appears they want to stick with the key stars on that show rather than bring guys up which gives the impression that NXT is a feeder brand and not a third brand ... The only major acts broken up were Erick Rowan & Luke Harper and R-Truth and Carmella ... With R-Truth and Carmella, it’s the thing of not breaking up couples. With Corey Graves on Smackdown, Carmella ends up on Smackdown. But since the whole 24/7 title idea came from the USA Network and they’ve decided that R-Truth is the focal point of that title, they put him on Raw, ending the unit.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter Even though Flair worked as a heel against Lynch, the plan is for her to be a babyface. There is a clear imbalance and heel weakness, although won’t be if Asuka and Sane work singles, and there has been a clear set up for both to work with Lynch. There’s also the possibility of Natalya as a heel, which was the plan last year to lead to a major program with Ronda Rousey, until Vince McMahon nixed it when Jim Neidhart died and he felt Natalya shouldn’t be turned ... Flair only worked heel on Raw this past week because they needed a name opponent to lose to Lynch in the match for the draft choice and the decision was made not to use Bayley in that spot, likely not wanting the Raw champion at that point to beat the Smackdown champion. With Asuka and Kairi Sane on Raw, while tag champions, expect both at times to be featured as singles. Lynch vs. Asuka is a planned direction at some point, and Sane pinned Lynch in a tag match on television as well.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsetter According to Levesque, Fury approached WWE years ago about doing something. Levesque said Fury was a big fan, and his approach to boxing promotion does feel inspired by pro wrestling and Muhammad Ali, with his charisma and promos. At the time, the two sides didn’t make a deal. With the Saudi Arabia show coming, and Saudi Arabia wanting to bring athletic celebrities into the country, WWE reached out to Fury and with the Saudi money, they could make a economically justifiable big money offer to him. Fury said that with him not fighting until February, against Wilder, he had free time, plus doing this would help keep him in shape. He’s training extensively at the Performance Center in Orlando until fight time. But this is a single event deal, and as far as going forward, both sides seem up for it if the timing aligns and it makes sense economically. Aside from the Saudi Arabia shows, WWE really doesn’t have an event that generates the revenue to justify the type of money one would think a heavyweight champion would want, although with their huge TV revenue, you could do it for a WrestleMania, but the added revenue for a Mania that Fury would generate is unlikely to be enough to match the kind of money he’d want.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter Even though Undertaker was used in the first announcement for the show [Crown Jewel] and he’s been a key part of the previous shows, neither he nor Bill Goldberg at this point are slated to be on the show, likely with the idea it makes no sense to have other outside attractions when you already have Velasquez and Fury. Kevin Owens and Daniel Bryan refused to work the last Saudi Arabia show and at this point neither are scheduled for this show either. Sami Zayn, who was not allowed to work any of the shows since this series began due to his ethnicity, is also not scheduled for the show at this point even though Shinsuke Nakamura is.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter Kushida suffered a hairline fracture of the wrist on 9/18 in doing the angle with Imperium, but continued to work on it to do the planned program with Walter, and is now taking time off with the storyline that he was hurt in their 10/11 television match. He’s expected out for about a month.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter The Wednesday night Wars on 10/16 saw AEW hold steady, although skew older in doing so, while NXT continued its decline. AEW did almost the exact same audience as the week before on TNT, doing 1,014,000 viewers as compared to 1,018,000. However, last week’s actual live number was 1,140,000 because of Tru, and they also had tougher competition with a Major League Baseball game that did 5,856,000 viewers ... On the positive side for a new entity, they were fifth on cable for the night, and second in their time slot behind only VH-1 programming in 18-49 overall, and second for the night, and first in their time slot, in males 18-49 ... They once again doubled NXT in 18-49, but even with no baseball, AEW dropped from 0.46 to 0.44 in 18-49 and NXT from 0.22 to 0.20 ... AEW did a 0.20 in 12-17 (down 13.0 percent from the prior week), 0.29 in 18-34 (down 12.1 percent), 0.59 in 35-49 (identical to last week) and 0.33 in 50+ (up 10.0 percent). So basically it was growth over 50 that made up for losses under 35. The huge teenage and 18-34 audience they opened with has whittled and the older audience has stayed more steady ... We didn’t get an AEW replay number but based on selected markets, it looks to have declined from the 360,000 the prior week ... NXT fell another 10.0 percent this week to 711,000 viewers. The show did a 0.14 in 12-17 (up 40.0 percent from the prior week, which was a good sign), 0.14 in 18-34 (down 6.7 percent), 0.26 in 35-49 (down 10.3 percent) and 0.35 in 50+ (up 29.6 percent).

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter In the segment-by-segment numbers, Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte Flair gained 265,000 viewers. Andrade vs. Ali and the draft picks lost 259,000 viewers. Viking Raiders vs. Robert Roode & Dolph Ziggler quarter first loss 176,000 viewers but the finish of the match and Aleister Black vs. Eric Young gained 144,000 viewers. Draft picks and the angle with the Street Profits vs. The OC lost 182,000 viewers. Ricochet vs. Shelton Benjamin and the Lana/Bobby Lashley segment gained 69,000 viewers. Asuka & Kairi Sane vs. Natalya & Lacey Evans in the main event segment plus the burning of the Firefly Fun house lost 132,000 viewers. The overall peak quarter was 2,699,000 viewers for Flair vs. Lynch. The low point was the main event and Fun House segment with 1,826,000 viewers.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter Regarding NXT Japan, here are a few notes that we know of. WWE was in talks in recent months to attempt to buy both Pro Wrestling NOAH and Stardom, which would have been the base of talent to start things out. However, neither group wanted to sell to an outside company which has a lot to do with a difference in mentality in Japan about selling businesses to foreigners. WWE was also involved in talks with a number of other promotions but we don’t know how serious they were. There were stories going around that WWE has hired or is in the process of hiring two major stars to be head trainers for a Japanese performance center. We have confirmed through WWE that Meiko Satomura, who may be the best woman wrestler in the world (most have either she or Io Shirai as the best) has been working for the company for some time, who was one of the names listed for that role, but that is the only name confirmed. At this moment, the other name going around, Daisuke Sekimoto, is not working for WWE. Jiro Kuroshio is slated to be one of the top stars for this group, which is notable because he’s been saying that he’s moving to the U.S. Another name going around is Sari Fujimura, 23, who is the current world champion of the Pro Wrestling Diana promotion under the name Saree.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter In addition, the belief is that Chris Jericho and Jon Moxley will be on at least one of the shows [NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 14]. Jericho would likely have a singles match with Tanahashi. Moxley could face Lance Archer, who captured the U.S. title at KOPW, which was vacated when Moxley couldn’t get to Japan in time for the show due to travel complications caused by the Typhoon Hagibis.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter World Wonder Ring Stardom, the Japanese women's pro wrestling company best known as Stardom, has been sold to Kix Road, a subsidiary of Bushiroad, in a deal announced 10/17 in Japan ... Ogawa had been approached in recent months by both Bushiroad and WWE, both of which wanted to buy the promotion. The WWE plans were to merge Stardom with a men’s promotion as NXT Japan and run it themselves. The Bushiroad idea was to keep Stardom as its own entity, allowing Ogawa to stay on and run the business ... Ogawa wasn’t looking at selling when first approached in February by Bushiroad. This past summer, both WWE and Bushiroad were, independently, and not with knowledge of the other, looking to buy the group. Ogawa never strongly considered selling to WWE. Part of the situation was that Bushiroad had a battle plan for what they wanted to do, while WWE really didn’t, past the point they wanted to use the women to start NXT Japan. But they really didn’t seem to have a battle plan past the point they wanted to do it. There was no plan on who would run it, how it would be run, and it was likely to be merged with a men’s group or the women would be put on shows with men as WWE does things. There were no decisions on house shows, as NXT U.K. was supposed to have house show and now only does TV tapings and one or two big shows a year ... However, WWE did offer to sign the entire roster to contracts and bring them in for WrestleMania week, and also to induct Ogawa into the Hall of Fame in 2020 if the deal went through. Bushiroad wanted to keep the Stardom structure as it was, with the same house show schedule, but build the stars and run occasional shows in larger arenas ... What this means, with all the Japanese talent under contract, is that it would likely become the premier place for Japanese women talent, and it would become more difficult for WWE to sign their top talent, like they did with Io Shirai and Kairi Sane ... With the company being backed by Bushiroad, it would enable them to pay more if necessary, if that is an issue, although WWE did not pay big money for Shirai and Sane, believed to be in the range of $60,000 per year for each to start, which is less than both were earning in Stardom. Sane likely makes more now working on the main roster than she did in Japan. Bushiroad believes they can also enhance the product by making the characters more interesting. They have looked at hiring a coach/producer to help the women with new characters. One former New Japan wrestler was offered that position but turned it down last month.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter Alex Greenfield, who has been one of the producers with MLW since its relaunch, is no longer with the promotion. He was an agent who would coordinate the crews and shoot stuff for the company at shows and coordinate some post production stuff. The company believed he was pitching himself hard to AEW but felt there were issues in how that was done, even though they consider themselves allies of AEW. Those internally said they felt they had no choice but to let him go.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter PCO’s contract expires on 12/1, but he is expected to stay and ROH has been working hard to keep him and he was very happy how he was treated in the last year

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter Jake Hager had an agreement that he wouldn’t wrestle until after his fight for Bellator at the Mohegan Sun Casino on 10/25 on a show that will air on Paramount ... Hager noted with his gimmick in AEW as a badass MMA fighter, he really can’t afford a loss. His agreement was that he’s doing TV every week and taking Tuesday and Wednesdays as his days off training while training the other five days, but wouldn’t wrestle matches until after the fight to avoid the injury risk

Originally Posted by Observer The full lineup for this year's British J-Cup is now set. Revolution Pro Wrestling has announced that PAC will be taking part in the eight-man tournament. It's being held at York Hall in London, England on Sunday, November 24. Robbie Eagles, Amazing Red, El Phantasmo, Barbaro Cavernario, Michael Oku, Rocky Romero, Senza Volto, and PAC are the eight wrestlers in the tournament.

Originally Posted by Observer NJPW has set a date for Jushin Thunder Liger's final match in the United States. It was announced tonight that Liger's last US match will take place at New Japan Showdown in San Jose on Saturday, November 9. Who Liger will be facing in the match has yet to be revealed.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling The NWA placed tickets on sale Friday for their December 14th “Into the Fire” pay-per-view at the GPB Studios in Atlanta, Georgia. The 255 seat studio sold out on the first day without any match announcements. The company will run the pay-per-view on Saturday, December 14th on Fite TV followed by two nights of television tapings on December 15th and 16th.

Originally Posted by Fightful Tribute to the Troops has been a WWE holiday tradition for 15 years now. A report from PWInsider has revealed the details for this year’s taping of the special event. It will take place on Friday 12/6 in Fayetteville, North Carolina at the Crown Coliseum. This will be a special dual event. That week's SmackDown will be held on the same day in the same venue. Tickets will be available next Friday, October 25, 2019.

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