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Former TPWW Royalty
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The Sheets:
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Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter
The Wednesday night wars had its closest week to date, as NXT, with the exposure on Smackdown and Raw, plus the appearance of A.J. Styles, Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson in the main event, took a big chunk out of the AEW audience and built its own, with AEW still winning 822,000 to 813,000.
AEW had a super strong show, but that means little coming off the angle and exposure that NXT had with the fresh new brand vs. brand angle. AEW still won in the 18-49 demo with 0.35 to NXT’s 0.30, but AEW had been doubling NXT in that age group ...
AEW was up 8.9 percent from last week, but it should have been up considerably more. NXT was up 39.8 percent ...
The key take in all this, is that while the NXT number has its reasons for rising, and we don’t know if this was a one-time thing or will change next week without main roster stars, AEW has not stabilized. The number it’s at is still a good number, but the continued drops among the under 35 audience that were so strong from week one is a major issue.
The key take on the show is AEW’s numbers opened well ahead and mostly declined, even with a hot show. NXT opened behind, and largely grew. By saying that, you’d think it was an audience switch as the two hours were going. Yet, an examination of the quarters tells you that wasn’t the case. While the AEW audience was tuning out, for the most part they were not switching to NXT.
In the overall, AEW started with a solid lead, 976,000 for Pac vs. Trent vs. 819,000 for the OC Invasion and TV main event build and the beginning of Pete Dunne vs. Damien Priest.
But NXT role and AEW fell as a general rule, with NXT winning the final 45 minutes.
In the second quarter, AEW with the Cody interview did 959,000 viewers, down 18,000. NXT with the ending of Dunne vs. Priest and the Killian Dain attack on both did 800,000 viewers, down 19,000.
In the third quarter, AEW with Private Party vs. Dark Order did 809,000 viewers, a loss of 150,000. NXT with Taynara vs. Santana Garrett did 813,000, winning slightly, with a gain of 13,000 viewers. So in both these quarters it’s not so much the same people switching.
In the fourth quarter, AEW had the ending of the Private Party vs. Dark Order match and the Chris Jericho video, doing 827,000 which was up 18,000. NXT had Shayna Baszler vs. Dakota Kai, which did 819,000, up 6,000. So again, not a switch.
In quarter five, AEW had Riho & Shanna vs. Emi Sakura & Jamie Hayter, which did 798,000 viewers a drop of 29,000. NXT had the post-Baszler-Kai wild women’s brawl and an interview segment with Tommaso Ciampa, Keith Lee and Matt Riddle, and did 793,000 viewers, a drop of 26,000. Once again, not a switch.
In quarter six, AEW did 698,000 viewers for the Brandi Rhodes video and Shawn Spears vs. Brandon Cutler, a loss of 99,000 viewers. NXT had Tony Nese vs. Angel Garza, and did 769,000 viewers, a loss of 24,000, so again, not a switch.
In quarter seven, AEW had the Jon Moxley/Kenny Omega video package and beginning of Jericho & Sammy Guevara vs. Omega & Adam Page, which did 739,000 viewers, up 40,000. AEW had Isaiah Scott vs. Dominik Dijakovic which did 784,000 viewers, up 15,000. That’s the issue with promotional videos, they are great for building characters and matches, but are not going to do the numbers of in-ring in most cases. This was not a quarter one would have expected AEW to lose. But again here, both groups rose at the same time.
In quarter eight, AEW had the end of Jericho & Guevara vs. Omega & Page match, and the big brawl at the end, which gained 29,000 viewers to 768,000. NXT had Lee & Riddle & Ciampa vs. Styles & Gallows & Anderson, which did 807,000 viewers, gaining 23,000, so again, not a switch.
What was a switch is that once AEW ended, NXT gained 190,000 viewers to 997,000 so the overrun, which had not helped the NXT rating in the past, did here. It’s not a major difference, as without the overrun, NXT would have averaged 802,000 viewers
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Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter
At TV this week, Styles pitched the idea of the OC against the Undisputed Era for Survivor Series. However, it looks right now that if the match will take place on NXT television down the line, or on television somewhere since they shot the angle for it on NXT. It could be moved to Survivor Series but Styles is currently booked in the three secondary title match on that show. So that led to a change because the original booking of Raw had The Street Profits & Humberto Carrillo beating the OC with Carrillo getting a shocking pin on Styles to heat up a longer program with the two over the U.S. title. The decision was then made that if the OC was going into a feud with NXT then they couldn’t lose this week on Raw. Since the Street Profits are being protected, that meant Carrillo had to lose again, and with the loss to Rollins in week one and losses to Styles in singles matches on TV and in Saudi Arabia, Carrillo has now started out on Raw with four losses in a row
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Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter
One of the craziest few days in WWE history included a problem with getting talent out of Saudi Arabia after the Crown Jewel show, the best episode of Smackdown which could change the trajectory of the Wednesday night wars, and the company announcing a new deal with Saudi Arabia ...
The story is very complicated and left very bitter feelings among much of the crew, many of whom are saying they will never go back, although others are very skeptical whether that will be the case. And some have expressed questions regarding with working for the company, although the nature of the contracts and their ability to be frozen means that you really can’t quit until your contract expires if you want to stay working in the industry. The company is releasing nobody these days. In addition, saying you would never go back this week and actually doing so next summer when the next show is likely to take place are two different things ...
Most, but not all, of the talent, as well as those in the company not in Saudi Arabia who were in constant contact with talent and every person but two in the company who contacted us claimed the story that there was a mechanical problem with the flight was a cover story even before the early reports of that being the reason came out. WWE remains insistent that the mechanical problems were the entire issue and noted that the statement made by Atlas Airlines should have ended all speculation ...
The story with talent, and with all those who believed the mechanical problems were a cover, were they were told by a WWE official during the show that the Saudis owed WWE a huge money figure and that Vince McMahon had delayed allowing the television broadcast of the show in Saudi Arabia until they got it. According to people in the country, the broadcast strangely was delayed 40 minutes. Others in WWE claim that while the broadcast was delayed, that it had nothing to do with money payments and was a technical issue that caused the delay ...
The recent WWE 10-Q earnings report showed a major accounts receivable figure that was far higher than usual in the second quarter, and then even higher in the third quarter. In the third quarter, the accounts receivables was listed at $143 million and that 46 percent, which would be $65.8 million, came from one unnamed account. George Barrios, in the earnings conference, which took place less than 90 minutes before the show started, said that since 9/30, the date the report covered, that the company had received $60 million from an outstanding debt. There was also a listing in the 10-Q, which covers the period up through 9/30, about WWE not having been paid yet for the Super Showdown show on 6/7 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. But that was as of 9/30 and Barrios at the investors call talked about that $60 million payment being received after the current books they were discussing were closed, without saying what it was ...
The story going around from the talent was that they were told, after several hours, which included the appearance of military police according to one wrestler waiting for the flight, that the plane they were supposed to leave on at 3 a.m. after the show had a mechanical issue. Then, about six hours later, while in the plane the entire time, they were told that the pilots had timed out and thus, even if fixed, the plane couldn’t take off and they needed to leave the plane. They were told to leave the airport and go to hotels ... They were first told they couldn’t get another flight out until 8 p.m., but then that story changed and then they were told they couldn’t get a flight out until 3 a.m. They did get on that flight, although it left about 90 minutes late.
Keep in mind this is talent that probably does anywhere from 90 to 120 flights a year, and every one of them has run into mechanical problems and delays as a matter of course, likely multiple times per year, and that those are for the most part of the job and taken in stride. Perhaps it was being in a foreign country, and perhaps it was just that foreign country
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Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter
The story continued at Raw on 11/4. Vince McMahon called a meeting at 3 p.m. with the Raw locker room. Vince McMahon basically said the same story that the company has been saying. He said that there was no issue with Saudi Arabia and that the feed to the Saudi Arabian television network was cut at the request of Saudi Arabia, not himself. He opened up for questions and nobody asked any questions. Nobody said anything about the story given. It was noted that there was a feeling that saying anything negative wouldn’t do anyone any good and nobody spoke up.
There was a feeling that saying anything won’t do anyone any good and that was the correct call. Randy Orton said something but he was just trying to break tension by being funny and Vince said, “Anybody else want to just kiss my ass?” The meeting was about to wrap up when Paul Levesque called out Karl Anderson for making a remark on Twitter about who is going to be the locker room leader on Monday. Anderson didn’t say much of anything. The situation with Anderson was that besides that remark, he tried to be funny by teasing the idea he was mad and wouldn’t go back, only to joke about it, saying that he needed to pay for a new pool. His wife responded back saying that it’s actually a second house, but indicated not wanting him to go again for concerns about him being more important than the second house.
A.J. Styles spoke but didn’t say much. He was very unhappy that the delay caused him to miss one of his son’s wrestling matches. Rusev started and mostly thanked Mark Carrano of Talent Relations for his work in quickly booking hotel rooms for everyone while they were stranded. Nobody voiced anything negatively. There were some remarks about how at times during this ordeal they didn’t have access to Wifi and thus couldn’t contact their families.
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Originally Posted by PWI
On today's "Jerry Lawler Show" Podcast, The King discusses Monday's talent meeting this past week at Raw.
Regarding the issues discussed at the talent meeting regarding Saudi Arabia travel this past Monday, Lawler states that Vince addressed the roster saying, they never saw so many issues happening with travel at one time. The King states he was not aware of any of the issues before the talent meeting. The Hall of Famer explains how many were frustrated that things were not explained to them regarding issues with fueling the plane and an onboard sensor. He discusses the language barrier that causes more problems.
According to Lawler, AJ Styles and Karl Anderson spoke up about talent concerns not knowing what the hell was going on. Lawler states everything was explained in detail, debunking rumors and talking about the new Saudi deal through 2027.
According to Lawler Vince said that they would not be using that charter company anymore. The King says that wrestlers are their own worst enemy when it comes to believing what they hear.
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Lawler joining Graves in blaming WWE's talent for complaining online and claiming all they were doing was spreading rumors. Also PWInsider feeling the same way in regards to talent making the issue into a bigger mess based on a recent Q&A article.
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Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter
Even with Cain Velasquez and Tyson Fury on the show, likely because the show took place on a Thursday afternoon and most people weren’t even aware, Crown Jewel became the first WWE PPV show not to crack the top 20 in Google trends, falling under 100,000. Even the Australia show in the middle of the night did so and previous Saudi shows. This indicates the least interest in such a show.
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Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter
The finish of the Flair & Natalya vs. Asuka & Sane match was also changed. The original finish was Asuka getting the fall on Natalya, since there is, or at least was, a direction in a few months of Asuka challenging for the title which is why the announcers had pushed that Asuka beat Lynch at the Rumble. Notably, that wasn’t touched this week. I don’t know the reason for the change, but the presumption, and this does make sense, is that with Natalya shining so big at the Crown Jewel show and mainstream media in the wake of it, that having her lose in her first television match back wouldn’t be the right thing. And I’d agree with that call. That doesn’t mean Asuka had to lose to her, because you could have taken the fall on Sane just as easily and Lynch has already beaten Sane. Really, this shouldn’t change anything because by the time they were going to get to Asuka challenging for the title, the fact she tapped out in a tag team match would be largely forgotten
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Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter
NXT has booked January dates at Full Sail University. They had been talking with buildings for Wednesday night television dates in 2020. The last we’d heard was the idea they would run Full Sail some weeks and from arenas other weeks
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Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter
For Survivor Series, the plan was for a three secondary title match, Nakamura vs. Roderick Strong vs. Styles. I don’t know this is happening, and was only told the plan was that it wouldn’t be that exact match, meaning either Nakamura or Styles loses before that date. Styles stuff has all been changed due to the NXT program he’s doing. But the most interesting aspect is that Bryan is doing a program with Nakamura, so there is a chance of a Strong vs. Bryan vs. Styles match if Nakamura was the change expected for that match. If given time, that could be as good a main roster bout as there has been this year. Keep in mind that is reading something into it and when it comes to something like that, even if planned this week, that can change five times in the next week. But we do know that before the Styles program with NXT was put together, he was earmarked to be champion on 11/24
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Spoiler tag used since its related to potential Survivor Series plans.
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Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter
[AEW Dynamite] Numbers for the U.K. were down this past week. ITV 4 moved the show from 10 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Friday night which led to a decline to 78,000 viewers, although it is better than the first week at 10 p.m. and they did move the slot again. The Monday at 11:45 p.m time slot on ITV did 148,000 viewers, down from 221,000 the prior week ...
For WWE, with less penetration on Sky, Raw on 11/5 did 49,000 viewers, and once again had a huge quarter hour for the segment with HHH, Seth Rollins and the debut of the NXT crew. However, the live Smackdown on 11/2 only did 11,000 viewers
In Canada this past week, Smackdown on 11/1 did 139,500 viewers, NXT on 11/1 didn’t crack the top ten (less than 82,000 viewers), Raw on 11/4 did 255,900 viewers and AEW did 109,100 viewers. The 10/30 AEW show didn’t make the top ten in the sports ratings in Canada which means it did less than 121,200 viewers. The World Series and all the sport news shows on the different sports stations covering the World Series is what knocked them off the listings
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Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter
In an update on Jesus Huerta (La Parka), the doctors have said that his injuries could have been fatal had they not done immediate surgery to reduce pressure. There have been other surgeries to stabilize his spine as well as a tracheotomy. He has been unable to talk but can communicate. He was moved out of intensive care in the past few days and he has gotten feeling back and some movement back in his arms and legs
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Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter
One idea talked about for 2020 is breaking Evil away from LIJ and Sanada and giving him a strong singles push
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Originally Posted by Observer
Tessa Blanchard is getting a World Championship shot at Impact Wrestling's next pay-per-view.
Impact confirmed today that Sami Callihan will defend his World title against Blanchard in the main event of Hard to Kill. The PPV is taking place at The Bomb Factory in Dallas, Texas on Sunday, January 12, 2020.
The match is being promoted as "the first time in professional wrestling that a woman will challenge a man for the top title live on pay-per-view."
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Originally Posted by PWI
During a media scrum at Starrcast, AEW star The Luchasaurus said he is targeting a January 2020 return from his hamstring inury.
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Originally Posted by Post Wrestling
Cody held a conference call with members of the media on Friday ahead of Full Gear. We have posted the entire call on the site and below are some of the highlights ...
* He doesn’t like the term ‘mid-card’, acknowledges it exists and he toiled there, but no one considers themselves ‘mid-card’ mentioning how the Intercontinental title when on last at SummerSlam 1992. He said in the next month or so, there would be a ‘prize’ for those on the rise. He added that all the titles need to be treated the same as the AEW title.
* They are releasing top five rankings for each division tonight and will hopefully be updated every Friday
* Cody debriefs every department after each week’s show. He mentioned the music is piped into the mix because they want to hear the crowd over top of it and Cody monitors the music each week. Mikey Rukus is the composer who has developed many of the theme songs in AEW.
* Christopher Daniels and Chris Harrington have been working hard on getting international talent into the country legally through visa work, etc.
* Kenny Omega is trying to do something different with the women’s division and praised the Joshi talent while the women’s division will grow after the pay-per-view this weekend ...
* Jim Ross has told him that they need to bring up what happens on AEW Dark on the Dynamite show. He doesn’t want to make all their shoulder programming ‘mandatory’ and Dynamite is the hub for everything. The shoulder program is there for you but as long as you see Dynamite, you aren’t missing anything.
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Originally Posted by Post Wrestling
Regarding the excellent video from the Inner Circle that aired on Dynamite this week, there were no writers involved in the making of the video. Those involved were instructed to put over Chris Jericho and do so in their own unique way. It was also edited tremendously and came off as one of the better-produced comedy bits in a wrestling show that I can recall.
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Originally Posted by Squared Circle Sirens
According to a report from bodyslam.net Big Swole impressed AEW officials so much in her match at AEW Dark, that she was offered on contract with the company as soon as she made her way to the back.
We have learned that she has in fact signed a contract and the announcement of her signing with the company is coming soon ...
She’s no stranger to AEW having been one of the partici[ants on the All Out – The Buy-In Casino Battle Royal and teaming with Mercedes Martinez on AEW Dark in a losing effort to Allie and Sadie Gibbs.
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Originally Posted by Fightful
The standout performer has made a name for himself quickly within the ranks of All Elite Wrestling. As one of the top independent names in wrestling over the last several years, Allin had options, but points to one specific point of appeal as to why he ended up joining AEW instead of the likes of WWE.
"Creative freedom, hands down. A lot of people if they see me at first, they don't know how present me. AEW is like 'how do you want to be presented?' instead of 'this is how we're going to present you.' Give me that creative freedom. WWE would have probably made me a creepy figure in a boiler room jacking off or something. No, I'm fine. I want to skateboard and represent that culture," said Darby Allin at the Starrcast IV media scrum on Friday.
Allin joined EVOLVE and WWN very early in his career and worked dozens of matches there over the course of several years. However, it seems as if any good will between the two sides, as Allin said "Tell EVOLVE to go fuck itself" during the scrum.
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TPWW Frontpage: - AEW: Full Gear Ticket Sales, Theme Song, New Set, Show Length
- Newest WWE Signee Indi Hartwell Debuts at NXT House Show
- WWE SmackDown Taping Results – Nov. 8, 2019 – Manchester, England (Spoilers)
- WWE Raw Taping Results – Nov. 8, 2019 – Manchester, England (Spoilers)
- WWE Injury Updates: Aleister Black, Sami Zayn, Alexa Bliss
- Impact Taping Results – Nov. 7, 2019 – Night 1 from Queens, NY (Spoilers)
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11-02-2019, 08:44 PM
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