Wrestling News & Rumors - 2018/2019

[Mr. Nerfect]

Wrestling could use some sex. Not the way they do it between Lashley/Lana/Rusev though.

[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets:

Originally Posted by Observer Going against a strong New York Giants vs. Dallas Cowboys game last night, Raw did 2.14 million viewers on average, the fourth lowest non-holiday number in modern history. The number was slightly up from the 2.13 million viewers last week. The NFL was up 40 percent from last week, doing 14.00 million viewers, so it actually would have been expected to do much worse ... The bad news was the first-to-third hour drop of 22 percent was one of the biggest in the history of the show ... The show built to an Adam Cole vs. Seth Rollins NXT title match in the main event position. The third hour was the third least watched hour Raw has had, beating only hour three this past Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve. The three hours were: 8 p.m. 2.36 million viewers 9 p.m. 2.21 million viewers 10 pm. 1.85 million viewers

Originally Posted by Observer Pro Wrestling Sheet’s Ryan Satin officially announced he will be joining the WWE Backstage show as a news correspondent.

Originally Posted by Observer The Hampton Boys from last night’s episode of Raw were WrestlePro wrestlers Bobby Wayward and Nikos Rikos.

Originally Posted by PWI The word making the rounds backstage at Monday Night Raw yesterday on Long Island, NY was that Randy Orton inked a new, multi-year deal with World Wrestling Entertainment. PWInsider.com has confirmed that is the case. Locking Orton, 39, into a new deal was a big priority for WWE as he had been using social media to tease the idea of a jump to AEW, which would have been a major hit to WWE's prestige.

Originally Posted by PWI Major League Wrestling's Saturday Night Super Fight PPV is now available for replay buys on all PPV providers and on FITE.TV. The early word on the PPV is that the numbers were in line with what MLW expected and they will move forward with another PPV next year. A date and venue for that has not been locked down yet. FITE was very happy with the numbers. There is a possibility of doing more than one PPV but that decision won't be made until the final Super Fight PPV numbers are in and the promotion decides its course of action. During the PPV, MLW announced a partnership with Mexico's AAA. We are told that Court Bauer and Dorian Rodan have always been on good terms, which opened up the door to discussions. PWInsider.com can exclusively confirm so MLW has ended their working relationship with The CRASH. Tom Lawlor's current MLW deal is coming towards its end. The two sides are in discussions for a new deal and we are told discussions are going well ... We are told there were several TV executives in attendance at the PPV as MLW is seeking to add additional partnerships beyond BeIN Sports and are in discussions.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling The WWE has come out and addressed the Crown Jewel event being delayed on MBC Action in Saudi Arabia last Thursday. The company issued a statement to Forbes.com contributor Alfred Konuwa and denied the allegations stating that the feed issues had nothing to do with payments. The company added that there is a strong relationship with its partners in Saudi Arabia. We did reach out to WWE regarding why the feed was delayed but have not been given a response.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Natalya was a guest with Jim Norton and Sam Roberts on Monday promoting tonight’s Raw in Uniondale, New York and was asked about last week’s travel delays: "I wasn’t stuck on a plane for too long because we were told to get off the plane. We boarded the plane after the show and the flight attendants said, ‘Hey, there is a mechanical issue’. So, when I’m told there is a mechanical issue on an airplane, I get off and I stay off until it’s fixed. It was a wild couple of days."

Link: https://youtu.be/C_1ZZJa1lSA?t=9394

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling On his Mixer account, AJ Styles outlined his experience from the past few days getting out of Saudi Arabia in the wake of the news coverage of the travel delays. Styles reiterated the mechanical problems that the charter flight experienced coupled with issues among flight personnel that had clocked out leaving the WWE talent and staff waiting. Styles said he did not know what when down between Vince McMahon and those running the show but added it’s not his job to speak about that. Below is a transcript from the two videos: "We got to the airport; they weren’t letting us board. What was the problem? Not really sure, I heard there was a fuel truck in the way and the guy that drove the fuel truck had left to go home. I know, this makes no sense. Why would the fuel guy leave when he knew he had a plane that was leaving, doesn’t make much sense? Then, there were some paperwork issues and then finally, after at least four or five hours we get on the plane. Then, they found something going on with the fuel ‘something or other’. It was broken. Now, people can say what they want, ‘No, it wasn’t broken, I don’t know’, but I talked to the pilot on that fourteen-hour flight, the pilot, I guess they take naps, too. So, he came out and we were all chatting and sitting around, talking. I said ‘Oh, so what happened?’ and he said, ‘Listen, there was a problem, that’s a real thing’ and I said, ‘Okay’. The problem was, is we spent all that time from 1 o’clock until 6 or 8 in the morning waiting to board this plane, then getting on the plane, then telling us we can’t go anywhere because the pilots and everybody had timed out. From the pilots, from the help, they can only go for so long before they’re not able to fly because they can’t go for 24 hours at a time. So, they had to go back to a hotel, we had to find a hotel. * Were there guns, did they come out and go ‘Everybody off the plane? No. That didn’t happen’. My wife called me in a panic, and she’s scared to death and I go, ‘Babe, listen, we’re just not able to go anywhere. It’s not a big issue, nobody has threatened to kill us. There was none of that going on, nobody was going to get murdered, none of that ever happened. There was no threat." "I had the best sleep of my life in this hotel because I hadn’t slept because of jetlag. So, I know it sounds worse, it’s almost blown up to as if, you know, we were on the verge of being killed. That wasn’t the case. I have no idea what happened with Vince and the Prince or the King, or whoever was putting on the show. I have no idea what happened. That’s not my job to say anything. My job is to go to work. Was I pretty angry about not getting home because I missed my son’s wrestling match? You have no idea; you have no idea how angry I was. But, if this is out of our hands, if it’s out of the pilot’s hands then there is nothing we can do. There is no point of getting mad and angry about something I have no control of. So, I’m home now and I’m happy to be here. We’ll find out as we go along why things happened, or we won’t. I don’t know what’s going to happen going forward, it’s just going to be what it’s going to be. And, I’ll deal with it when I need to but I’m not going to throw WWE under the bus either, that’s not how I work. I am a guy who is committed to making the best product that I can and it’s not going to do me any good to throw good people under the bus, there are a lot of good that people that work for WWE and I will not make them look bad. There are a lot of people that were on that plane with me. Until I know more, I’m not going to say more, I’m not going to say anything negative that’s not who I am as a person and if I did find out and I was offended, I will go to the source, believe me on that one."

Links: https://twitter.com/GIFSkull/status/1191169818369544192 , https://twitter.com/GIFSkull/status/1191171716485042176

Originally Posted by Observer Dave Meltzer was a guest on Sunday Night’s Main Event with Jason Agnew and discusses additional details that he has gathered from the circumstances behind the travel delay: "There were people who were working on the plane without a doubt, wrestlers told me there were people working on the plane and they were told there was a mechanical delay but they didn’t believe it. Again, I don’t know the situation, I think it was a combination of the fact that there was the showdown between Vince and the Prince earlier in the day. One person told me there were military guards that were there and the whole situation didn’t add up. Aside from Vince McMahon and a couple of other people I don’t think anyone really knows what happened. This is what we know, as of September 30th they were not paid for the last show and other money. They were owed about $66 million from the Saudis on September 30th, which may have been two shows it certainly included the last show. They also didn’t have a television deal that they thought they were going to have. Now, they did get $60 million of that money recently, exactly when we don’t know but it was sometime between September 30th and October 31st. Something happened with Vince, they pulled the feed in Saudi Arabia of the television show. It did air about forty minutes later, so it aired on tape delay rather than live and that had to do with something. People in the company, unofficially, were saying it was a money issue between the sides and then they did the show and when they tried to leave the plane had mechanical problems. They were sitting there waiting for six hours and then they were told that the pilot’s time was up and they couldn’t go until later, and then that flight ended up not happening. Later, they finally did go about 25 1/2 hours later."

Link: https://www.podbean.com/site/Episode.../PBC5E410CCPPC

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling After Natalya and Lacey Evans competed in the first-ever women’s wrestling match in Saudi Arabia, Yahoo! Finance chatted with Pascal Menoret who is a professor of modern Middle East studies at Brandeis University. Pascal stated that people should not look too much into the allowing of Natalya and Lacey to compete in Saudi Arabia. Menoret had the following to say about the subject: "The Saudi government is operating a worldwide propaganda campaign to whitewash its repression of activists, including feminists, and that one should take seemingly good news coming from there with a heavy pinch of salt."

Originally Posted by Fightful WrestleVotes is saying the vibe backstage at Raw is "weariness, with a majority of the Superstars still speaking about the events of the weekend."

Originally Posted by Observer More matches have been announced for both Wrestle Kingdom cards, including the double championship match. It was confirmed during tonight’s NJPW press conference that both titles will be on the line on the second night of Wrestle Kingdom 14 on January 5. This double champions match will be between the winners of two matches that take place on January 4: Jay White vs. Tetsuya Natio for the Intercontinental title and Kazuchika Okada vs. Kota Ibushi for the IWGP Heavyweight title. The two non-champions after January 4 will compete the following day in a special singles match.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Casey Michael of Squared Circle Sirens is reporting that Brandon and Brent Tate, formerly known as “The Boys” in Ring of Honor will be receiving a WWE tryout in December.

Originally Posted by Fightful Goldenboy" Alex Mendez tweeted that he'll be at AEW Full Gear to call the action.

TPWW Frontpage:

• Alexa Bliss Has a Shoulder Injury
• Seth Rollins Denies Giving Speech at WWE Meeting, Dave Meltzer Apologizes
• WWE Backstage Premieres Tonight: No CM Punk, Bray Wyatt Adds “Personal Touch” to Title
• WWE Confirms Signings of Scarlett Bordeaux, Shotzi Blackheart and More
• WWE: Adam Cole Wrestling With Fractu...arolina Update

[Simple Fan]

Originally Posted by Mr. Nerfect Wrestling could use some sex. Not the way they do it between Lashley/Lana/Rusev though.

Could Seth and Becky pull off Edge/Lita type stuff? That'd be their best go I think.

[Conspiracy Victim Vito]

I dunno, Lita had no qualms about traipsing about in her lingerie during that angle. Becky has self-admitted body image issues which is why her fear covers up her midsection despite the fact that she’s ripped.

[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets:

Originally Posted by Observer The ratings for the official debut of WWE Backstage on FS1 can only be described as disappointing. ShowBuzzDaily reported that WWE Backstage averaged 49,000 viewers last night, with a 0.02 rating in the 18-49 demo. It did not crack the top 150 shows on cable for Tuesday ... This was the first time that Backstage aired in its regular time slot at 11 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday. Two preview episodes aired last month and did significantly better in the ratings, though both of those shows had strong lead-ins. The first preview episode on October 15, which aired following an MLB playoff game, drew 597,000 viewers. The second episode on October 25, which followed SmackDown airing on FS1 due to the World Series, scored 426,000 viewers. WWE had promoted last night's show with appearances by Shawn Michaels, John Cena, and Rob Gronkowski. They also advertised an episode of Firefly Fun House featuring new WWE Universal Champion The Fiend Bray Wyatt.

Originally Posted by PWI This Friday's episode of 205 Live will indeed be taped at tonight's WWE NXT taping at Full Sail University.

Originally Posted by PWI Impact Wrestling officially announced their next PPV, Hard to Kill, will take place on 1/12/20 at Gilley's in Dallas, Texas, which was the site of Slammiversary 2019: Hard to Kill - January 12th, 2020 - Dallas, Texas! pic.twitter.com/y9tgTjgHwq — IMPACT (@IMPACTWRESTLING) November 6, 2019

Originally Posted by PWI The XFL issued the following: Two commentator teams from ESPN’s college football and NFL rosters will call ABC and ESPN’s 22-game schedule during the inaugural XFL 2020 season. Play-by-play voice Steve Levy, analyst Greg McElroy, field analyst Tom Luginbill and reporter Dianna Russini will call the highly-anticipated XFL kickoff game – Seattle Dragons vs. DC Defenders (Feb. 8, 2 p.m. ET), the West Final (April 19, 3 p.m. ET), the XFL Championship (April 26, 3 p.m. ET) and weekly Saturday games on ABC in 2020 ... Play-by-play voice Tom Hart, analyst Joey Galloway and field analyst Pat McAfee will call weekly Sunday games on ESPN and ABC, beginning with the St. Louis BattleHawks vs. Dallas Renegades (Feb. 9, 5 p.m. ET, ESPN).

Originally Posted by PWI In an interview with Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated to promote his appearance on ABC's The Goldberg's tonight, WWE Hall of Famer Hulk Hogan disclosed that he's undergoing yet another back surgery next week. “I’m going in for another back surgery next Tuesday,” said Hogan. “They’re going to fuse six levels together, so we’ll see how I feel after that.” Hogan has pushed for one final Wrestlemania match, and with Mania 36 in his hometown of Tampa, Florida, it makes sense he would be envision that as the environment for a final Hogan hurrah.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling On Monday evening, Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter had reported in his daily update some notes from the meeting. Meltzer included that ‘Seth Rollins attempted to do a rah-rah speech while telling people to keep things like this off social media in the future’. On Tuesday, Rollins refuted the story in a pair of posts on his Twitter account. This included Rollins denying that he spoke: “before, during or after the meeting.” In a statement to Fightful, Rollins elaborated on his involvement at the meeting: "Vince and Triple H held an all talent meeting to explain the travel situation returning from Crown Jewel. They commended the talent for their conduct in a tough spot and fielded questions and allowed anyone to voice their feelings on the matter. Some talent spoke up and overall it was a productive forum. I said zero words. I made no speech. Pretty simple." Following Rollins’ posts on Twitter, Dave Meltzer issued an apology and retraction on his website on Tuesday evening.

Originally Posted by Fightful MJF says his "controversial" commentary needing to be edited out was the reason for the delay for the November 5 episode of AEW Dark.

Ended up causing a situation where AEW's Twitter account was live tweeting stuff that was supposed to happen but had not yet aired due to those tweets being pre-scheduled and the Youtube stream being delayed.

Originally Posted by Fightful On a recent episode of Prime Time with Sean Mooney, NWA Vice President David Lagana joined the podcast to discuss NWA Powerrr and his time in WWE. You can listen to the full podcast at this link. Fightful was sent the following highlights which can be seen below. On NWA's business model: "This is not a sustainable model. Meaning spending what we spend per episode, and putting it on YouTube.... I'll be transparent; the production is not being paid for right now on YouTube money alone. But what has happened since we launched was, the audience has grown so quickly, that we are a lot closer to being sustainable than when we started. Paying for this is ticket sales, merch and YouTube ad money. Our breaks will evolve...as long as it fits the genre, and we produce the content so it fits inside of our world, this show can be a marketing tool to anyone who wants to sell to this kind of audience."

Originally Posted by Fightful ROH World Champion RUSH's issues with CMLL have been well-documented, but he goes deeper on what the future of the CMLL/ROH relationship could be. In an interview conducted in Spanish with Solo Wrestling, RUSH said things could get complicated with him standing at the top of ROH because of the working partnership the two promotions currently have. CMLL stars have gone to ROH, especially during the annual Global Wars tour. But RUSH goes one step further and criticizes CMLL for not fully taking advantage of its partnerships with both ROH and NJPW. Like with ROH, CMLL sends stars to NJPW, especially every January for the Fantastica Mania tour. Yet, RUSH mentions the fact that top NJPW and ROH stars rarely, if ever, make the trip down to Mexico for their biggest shows. "I think there is [going to be issues] because I'm the champion, I'm the face of the company now and with the partnerships [CMLL] has had, honestly, they don't know how to make the most of it. They have a tremendous alliance with NJPW, but you never see their top stars in Arena Mexico, you never see top ROH stars. When they sent us to Japan, they sent their stars, but didn't take advantage of it. Why? I don't know but those were factors that slowly wore me out. I asked for opportunities, I wanted to face new people. I was one of the strongest, if not the strongest out of CMLL, but there was nothing, no big challenge for me there," RUSH said.

Originally Posted by Fightful The National Wrestling Alliance will be featured in the upcoming RetroMania Wrestling game. The deal was announced on Tuesday's episode of NWA Powerrr in a video package led by Nick Aldis. RetroMania Wrestling is a new take on the classic WWF WrestleFest arcade game. The game is set to release in 2020 and will be available on PC, Nintendo Switch, PS4, and Xbox One. The addition of NWA means fans can play in 3 new arenas, including NWA Powerrr, NWA 70, and Austin Idol's Universal Wrestling College and go for the 10 Pounds of Gold in an all-new game mode NWA Champion Nick Aldis and NWA National Champion Colt Cabana have been added to the game roster as well.

Originally Posted by Fightful On the latest episode of his After The Bell podcast, Corey Graves gave his account of what happened in Saudi Arabia and addressed theories floating around online. For those unaware, WWE talent was stranded in Saudi Arabia following WWE Crown Jewel due to reported mechanical issues ... While mechanical issues have been the given reason by WWE and Atlas Air, not everyone is buying it. Vince McMahon allegedly got into a dispute with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman over unpaid money, leading to the Crown Jewel feed in Saudi Arabia being delayed. After Crown Jewel, Vince immediately left the country, and some theorized that Vince perhaps knew there would be an issue and got out before anything happened, leaving the talent behind. However, Graves isn't buying this theory. "What really got to me was when the rumors started coming out. The first one being, that Vince left everybody in Saudi Arabia. That's not true," he stated. "If you work here, you know that every week, no matter where we are, as soon as the final bell rings, Vince gets on his jet and goes home or to the next city because the guy is busy running WWE. It might be a sexy headline saying, 'Vince left before everybody. Everybody was stuck except for Vince and Brock.' When you're Brock Lesnar, Tyson Fury, Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair; you've earned that. It wasn't like [Vince] said 'to hell with the talent.' Vince did exactly what he has done every week, without fail. It wasn't some, 'Gotta get the hell out of the country, there's something crazy going on.' It was exactly how it works. That's how things operate every week, this is no different." In fact, Graves is putting partial blame on WWE superstars for taking to social media and adding fuel to the fire that is was more than mechanical issues. "All these conspiracy theories that have been drawn up...and half of it comes from some of the boys that were on the plane. If you are that insecure and you feel so strongly that you're gonna get on Twitter and complain that our flight got screwed up, what's Twitter gonna do? All it is is fuel for these 'journalists,' and then everyone puts their two cents in and starts coming up with their conspiracy theories. If you're mad that your flight got delayed and you weren't one of the Saudi 20, that's on you. Quit crying about it on Twitter. You know who wasn't complaining? Randy Freakin' Orton. If anyone has the cache and the right to speak his mind, it would be Randy Orton. He got it. It was about doing the damn show," he explained.

Also claimed the top talent that left on a separate plane was only due to them being advertised for Smackdown the next night and not WWE playing favorites. Same for repeating the company line of mechanical issues being the cause of the delay and nothing else happened during that time.

Originally Posted by Observer The updated advertised lineup for WWE’s house show in Mexico City on November 30 lists that Rey Mysterio will now team with Humberto Carrillo against Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson. Mysterio teaming with Cain Velasquez had originally been announced for the show. Velasquez is still advertised to appear but doesn’t have a match listed.

Originally Posted by Observer WWE noted that Alexa Bliss' injury is minor and she’s expected to return to the ring soon. PWInsider reported yesterday that Bliss is dealing with a shoulder injury.

Originally Posted by Observer Shayna Baszler spoke to the Sporting News about NXT’s invasion of last Friday’s SmackDown: “It was very last minute. I'm sure people have heard but I got up that morning and went and did a workout. I actually wasn't booked for anything NXT-wise the rest of the week. I happened to have that Friday and Saturday off so I crushed it in the gym expecting, OK, I can kill myself in here right now because I can rest for a couple days finally. So, I was on my way home and got the call to pack up and be ready to leave on a word, be ready to leave right now. Got all ready, did that, and the timing worked out that, no exaggeration, that the shuttle to the arena... The plane landed and the show had started already. I left my bags on the shuttle and ran from the bus to the ring. That's not an exaggeration. It wasn't like we cut it close. I literally ran. There was someone waiting and I ran off the shuttle when we got to the venue to the ring. It was pretty wild.”

TPWW Frontpage:

• Ratings: Total Divas Ratings Tank, Impact on AXS Not in Top 150
• Women’s Title Match Announced for AEW Full Gear – Updated Card
• WWE: Firefly Fun House on WWE Backstage, Tyson Fury Will Be on SmackDown, SD Match Announced

[Mr. Nerfect]

So Graves is basically saying exactly what the reports said. Okay.

[The Dastardly One]

lol these fucking bootlickers

[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets:

Originally Posted by Observer NXT's invasions of Raw and SmackDown led to the show getting a boost in the ratings last night. This week's NXT averaged 813,000 viewers, the best audience for the show since October 2. This was the smallest gap there's been between NXT and AEW Dynamite, though AEW still finished slightly ahead with 822,000 viewers last night. In the 18-49 demo, AEW finished eighth for the night with a 0.35 rating. NXT came in 12th with a 0.30 rating ... AJ Styles, Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson appeared on last night's NXT, but them being on the show wasn't announced in advance. They attacked The Undisputed Era in an angle right before the episode went on the air and faced Tommaso Ciampa, Keith Lee & Matt Riddle in the main event. Last night's Dynamite was the go-home show for Saturday's Full Gear pay-per-view.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling AEW won all the key demographics except for females 12-34 and adults over 50, the latter being a demo that NXT has controlled since the head-to-head competition began. NXT showed enormous swings among the 18-49 demo and people 25-54 with increases of 66%, 61.5%, and 54.5% among those categories. Between both shows, the only decline came among AEW’s male 18-49 audience that fell 4% from last week’s number.

Originally Posted by Forbes According to Fightful Select (h/t Ringside News), WWE is actually decreasing its paydays for its Saudi Arabian shows for many of its superstars: “While the Saudi Arabia payouts to WWE talent started off very high, they’ve decreased for some since the initial show.”

Originally Posted by PWI For those who asked about pictures if pictures on social media that showed the hard camera side being completely empty at last night's [AEW Dynamite] show were legitimate, they were indeed. From what we heard the crowd was in the 5,000 range.

Originally Posted by PWI Many of the great AEW packages that are being put together of late are a mixture of Kevin Sullivan's post-production crew and the Atlanta-based Comeback Studios, a division of DDPY (Yoga). The Cody stipulation that was announced last night is meant to be that Cody will never challenge for the AEW title ever again, period, if he doesn't win the title on Saturday. Obviously, the idea is to tease that Cody is going to win the belt this weekend, just like the old days of Memphis where Jerry Lawler would have a big stip to put him up against the wall for a big Mid-South Coliseum main event. Interesting to note the timing here with Chris Jericho's band Fozzy having a new record coming out soon. The Full Gear PPV theme is Fozzy's "Nowhere to Run", the first single from that album ... ROH's Caprice Coleman was backstage visiting last night ... The matches taped last night for AEW Dark will debut on a special episode that will debut this week, with the current plan being for it to debut sometime Friday, in order for the matches to be seen prior to the Full Gear PPV. Arn Anderson provided guest commentary on the episode.

Originally Posted by PWI A new jury trial date of 6/1/20 at 9:00 AM in Benton Courthouse has now been scheduled in the civil lawsuit brought by tattoo artist Catherine Alexander against World Wrestling Entertainment, Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc., 2K Games, Inc., 2K Sports, Inc., Visual Concepts Entertainment, Yuke’s Co., Ltd. and Yuke’s LA Inc. The lawsuitl, filed in April 2018 in the United States District Court of Southern District of Illinois, alleges that all of Alexander's tattoo work on WWE star Randy Orton are her original designs that she owns and that she has never given any of the defendants permission to recreate them in the WWE videogames, therefore they and other defendants have infringed on her copyrights ... Attempts at settling the case have, thus far, gone nowhere. The case was at one point scheduled to go to trial but was pushed back to after the original presiding Judge retired from the bench, requiring a new Judge, Judge Staci M. Yandle, to take over the proceedings. The trial was pushed back again to June 2020 at the request of 2K and several other plaintiffs. The court noted that barring "extraordinary circumstances" there would be no additional delays in going to trial on the scheduled date. All motions disputing materials filed to the case must be filed by tomorrow, 11/8, so unless that happens, the trial date should stand.

Originally Posted by PWI Current AEW Producer and former ECW and ROH Champion Jerry Lynn announced he would be missing this weekend's Starrcast and the AEW PPV due to some health issues that has come up, stemming from all the punishment he has put his body through over the three decades of his in-ring career. Lynn is slated for an MRI today and hopes to have results by Tuesday to pinpoint and treat the problem.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling WWE has confirmed to POST Wrestling that the recent changes for the upcoming live event in Mexico City this month are accurate ... A WWE spokesman responded to POST Wrestling’s inquiry regarding the changes that list Cain Velasquez appearing but no longer wrestling on the show: "Yes, that’s the correct match card right now. But as you know, the match card can and probably will change between now and the live event." Initially, Velasquez was advertised to be teaming with Rey Mysterio on the show and now, Mysterio is listed for a tag match with Humberto Carrillo against Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows.

Originally Posted by Fightful AEW Full Gear is going to have a bit of a different look compared to the typical AEW event. Responding to a question someone asked on social media, Nick Jackson of The Young Bucks revealed that the upcoming AEW pay-per-view will be unique. Different set for the PPV. https://t.co/6kXDRpCS4B — The Young Bucks (@NickJacksonYB) November 7, 2019

Originally Posted by Fightful WWE announced that Adam Cole will be a special guest on the November 12 episode of WWE Backstage

Originally Posted by Fightful In an interview with Sports Illustrated, Cena explained why a return to WWE at this time is unlikely. Cena said he was very appreciative of what the wrestling industry has to offer, but it has its advantages and disadvantages. With Cena's current projects and past comments about his body not being able to handle a full-time WWE schedule, a lengthy return to the company isn't something in the cards for now. “Professional wrestling is a wonderful industry, but it’s also extremely addictive. It’s addictive because it makes you feel relevant, it makes you feel important. It can fill the void of a lot of things that you may not be brave enough to face. It also pays really well, so you get attached to the financial security. It allows you to make irresponsible financial decisions because you think the money’s always going to be there," Cena said.

Originally Posted by Fightful Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson had some high praise for Cody Rhodes. Perhaps the talk of social media coming out of the November 6 episode of AEW Dynamite was Cody's promo on Chris Jericho heading into their AEW World Championship match at Full Gear. Among the many people praising the promo was Johnson himself, who tweeted about it the following day. Below is Johnson's tweet:

Link: https://twitter.com/TheRock/status/1192466512222674944

Originally Posted by Fightful NWA Powerrr keeps impressive viewers in high places. The NWA rebirth is on Youtube for now, and has gained the praise of wrestlers around the world. Among those, include Hollywood's biggest star in The Rock, who put over the hour-long program weeks ago. Now, Edge has joined the fold, touting the show heavily on Twitter and congratulating the creators of the program.

Link: https://twitter.com/EdgeRatedR/statu...00063756570625

Originally Posted by Fightful AAA's next major show will feature Mega Champion Kenny Omega and ROH World Champion RUSH. At a press conference in Mexico, AAA announced the full card for the TripleMania Regia show taking place at Estadio de Béisbol Monterrey in Monterrey on December 1. The show will see Omega defending the Mega Champion against Dragon Lee in Omega's first title defense since winning the belt back at Heroes Inmortales XIII on October 19. Also announced for the show is RUSH, who will face L.A. Park and Pagano in a three-way match, but RUSH's ROH title will not be on the line. The main event will be a multi-man steel cage match where the last man to stay in the cage will either have their hair shaved off or lose their mask.

TPWW Frontpage:

• Joey Janela vs. Shawn Spears Added to AEW Full Gear – Updated Card
• Injury Updates: Sasha Banks Cleared to Return, Alexa Bliss, Xavier Woods, Cedric Alexander
• Impact: Ratings Correction, TV Tapings Tonight, “Hard to Kill” PPV Info
• NJPW Announces Teams and Full Schedule for World Tag League 2019 Tournament

[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets:

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

SPOILER: show

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

Spoiler tag used since its related to potential Survivor Series plans.

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

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

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

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."

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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)

[Mr. Nerfect]

With the ratings being so close between AEW and NXT this week, it’s probably only a few boxes difference. Not really discernible as to which one was the more watched program. Especially when you figure in WWE Network numbers.

I was led to believe that AEW was slaughtering NXT with young people, but it’s only in the 18-49. In the 18-34 they are basically square (the week before this was like a 0.15 to a 0.14). Lots of spin to make AEW look hotter ticket than it really is.

Not horrible numbers compared to the rest of television, but some sneaky wording to try and make one look like it’s way ahead of the other.

[Seanny One Ball]

If anyone saw that Cornette Twitter thing it's pretty funny. The people complaining seem to think wrestling is all about making friends.

[Emperor Smeat]

Originally Posted by Mr. Nerfect With the ratings being so close between AEW and NXT this week, it’s probably only a few boxes difference. Not really discernible as to which one was the more watched program. Especially when you figure in WWE Network numbers. I was led to believe that AEW was slaughtering NXT with young people, but it’s only in the 18-49. In the 18-34 they are basically square (the week before this was like a 0.15 to a 0.14). Lots of spin to make AEW look hotter ticket than it really is. Not horrible numbers compared to the rest of television, but some sneaky wording to try and make one look like it’s way ahead of the other.

It also took NXT needing to appear on main roster programming, being included in the Survivor Series build, and hype of main roster invading NXT to bring the numbers that close though.

AEW might push the gap wider next week due to them coming off from a PPV and NXT unlikely having a big notable main roster star showing up due to the European tour.

The week after is likely when NXT beats AEW for the first time since that is the Survivor Series go-home show for all three WWE brands, NXT's go-home show for their own War Games event, and very likely when the big main roster invasion of NXT happens.

[ClockShot]

LIJ just got Hiromu back and now they're thinking of splitting off EVIL?

Eh, mixed feelings here. I thought he was great during the G1.

I wanna say maybe make a run at the NEVER belt?

Does Naito go on a recruitment drive if he leaves altogether?

Dunno.

[Black Widow]

TNA would seriously make a woman their main champ LAME!

[Fignuts]

[Simple Fan]

Yeah Sanada would make more sense. He's already had bangers with Okada and has a higher ceiling than Evil.

[Mr. Nerfect]

Originally Posted by Seanny One Ball If anyone saw that Cornette Twitter thing it's pretty funny. The people complaining seem to think wrestling is all about making friends.

They’re just happy to be there and love to have a good time.

Originally Posted by Emperor Smeat It also took NXT needing to appear on main roster programming, being included in the Survivor Series build, and hype of main roster invading NXT to bring the numbers that close though. AEW might push the gap wider next week due to them coming off from a PPV and NXT unlikely having a big notable main roster star showing up due to the European tour. The week after is likely when NXT beats AEW for the first time since that is the Survivor Series go-home show for all three WWE brands, NXT's go-home show for their own War Games event, and very likely when the big main roster invasion of NXT happens.

AEW might get a PPV bump, but honestly, I’m not sure enough people give a shit about it. I think NXT have turned this thing around on them.

[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets:

Originally Posted by Observer Going against what ended up as the biggest Monday Night Football game of the year, Raw set a record low for a non-major holiday show, doing 2.06 million viewers last night. The show was on Veteran's Day, but that is not considered the type of a holiday that impacts ratings. The episode was expected to do a weak number, with the combination of the San Francisco 49ers-Seattle Seahawks game, and that Raw was taped. The only Raw episodes in modern history to fall under this number were this past Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve. However, the third hour last night was lower than the third hour either of those nights ... The third hour was the least watched third hour in history, even behind Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve. That was likely due to the closeness and interest in the game, plus the six-man tag with Ricochet, Humberto Carrillo & Randy Orton vs. The OC wasn't going to keep viewers who had any interest in football. The main event segment itself did gain viewers from The Viking Raiders match with Flash Morgan Webster & Mark Andrews ... The 26 percent drop in audience from hour one to hour three was the largest in history, but given the excitement of the game, which went into overtime, that isn't a shock either ... The three hours were: 8 p.m. 2.36 million viewers 9 p.m. 2.06 million viewers 10 p.m. 1.75 million viewers

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling The demographics told an interesting story as Raw was hit most among 18-49 with men down 12.5% and women down 18%. They only fell 17.5% among people 25-54 from last week. Interestingly, men 12-34 was up 2% from last week while adults over 50 stayed even from the previous week, which is remarkable. The actual tune-out numbers from hour one to hour three were gigantic. While males 12-34 were up from last week, throughout the show they fell 31%, which tied the largest decline during the episode along with men 18-49. People 18-49 fell 30% from the first to the third hour, 25-54 fell 28% and people 18-34 fell 27%. Adults over 50 only fell 18% during the show, which was the strongest retention among the key demographics.

Originally Posted by PWI The John Cena narrated "Wrestlemania's Legendary Moments" documentary which aired on Fox last month is coming to WWE Network this Friday, 10 AM on demand A new "Beyond the Ring" presentation will be added to WWE Network this Friday at 12 PM Eastern. It will be the 2017 "1997: Dawn of the Attitude" which features a roundtable hosted by Renée Young featuring Shawn Michaels, Mick Foley, Ron Simmons, Kane, and the Godfather talking about the pivotal year in WWE history.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling There is a new edition of Table for 3 airing tonight on the WWE Network featuring Shane McMahon, Bruce Prichard, and John Laurinaitis. The company released a clip previewing the show with McMahon recounting a ridiculous story regarding the sale of WCW in March 2001 and going to Panama City, Florida for the final Monday Nitro. According to McMahon’s story, he informed the locker room in WCW that the company had been bought out and everyone was stunned as he delivered the news. Laurinaitis then chimed in that only he and some of the lawyers were aware of the sale. The news broke the previous week and was the biggest story in the industry well in advance prior to the day of the final Nitro. This isn’t even one of those stories where there were reports out there, but the company had kept quiet, the WWE issued a press release on Friday announcing the purchase. So, this story was quite insane.

Originally Posted by Fightful David Penzer doesn't believe Shane McMahon remembers things too well.

This is inaccurate. There was an announcement made online the WCW website, a few days before Nitro, that WWE had purchased the company. We had no details of our future when Shane addressed us but we did know that the company had been sold. https://t.co/xC3GGO8R44

— David Penzer (@davidpenzer) November 11, 2019

Originally Posted by Sportskeeda During his promo on at the Oct. 9 episode of AEW Dynamite, Chris Jericho shut down a "We The People" chant by saying, "'We The People' sucks. It's dead and buried. It was a stupid idea from bad creative and all of that's gone." The "We The People" phrase was popularized by Jake Hager (Jack Swagger in WWE) and Cesaro during their time as a tag team. Speaking to Sportskeeda, Cesaro revealed that "We The People" may not have been an idea from "bad creative." “I was lucky to be in some very great tag teams with people I’ve gotten along with tremendously well: Jack Swagger, Tyson Kidd and Sheamus. ‘We The People’, by the way... That was our idea and it’s still over!"

Originally Posted by Fightful At WWE SummerSlam 2019, Goldberg made short work of Dolph Ziggler, laying him out with a spear and jackhammer in less than two minutes. After the bout, Ziggler continued to egg on Goldberg and received a few more spears for his troubles. Speaking to Alex McCarthy of TalkSport, Ziggler revealed that he did everything in his power to get more time for the match. "As a kid, yeah. You know now, I’m a grown-up and I see these guys and I go ‘Ok, I’m here to do business and special things’ So I try not to be like ‘the fan’. I find out what the business is and I’m like ‘Cool, this will be a special moment’. But yeah, as a kid, big time [fan]," he said. "Then having that ‘You’re the guy to do this’ to set the record straight and give this guy and awesome match you go ‘Fantastic’. And they go ‘It’s going to be a bell, spear, pin’ and I go ‘come one’. I fought all day long, threatened to leave, threatened to quit, did everything I had to – ‘Give me two damn minutes!’ And I got a minute, whatever, what you going to do?"

Originally Posted by Observer EVOLVE has revealed WALTER's matches for their December events. WALTER will be in action at EVOLVE 141 in Livonia, Michigan on Friday, December 6 and EVOLVE 142 in Chicago, Illinois on Saturday, December 7. He'll face Timothy Thatcher at the Livonia show. The next night in Chicago, it will be WALTER vs. EVOLVE Champion Josh Briggs in a non-title match.

Originally Posted by Observer Jerry Lynn on Twitter: “Went over the MRI with the doctor today. Getting surgery for a bulging disc on Nov 29th. Good news is 3 to 4 week recovery!”

Originally Posted by Observer Retrosoft Studios announced today that RetroMania Wrestling is officially the sequel to the 1980s arcade game WrestleFest. They reached an agreement with Arc System Works Co. Ltd, who obtained the IP rights to WrestleFest and Mat Mania from defunct developer Technos of Japan. The developers noted in the press release that characters from the Mat Mania series will appear in the new game.

Originally Posted by PWI Former WWE and ECW star Francine announced this [Monday] evening that she was being re-admitted back into a hospital in New Jersey from issues she did not disclose pending from a surgery last week for an abdominal reconstruction as well as a hernia repair. This had the third such surgery the "Queen of Extreme" has undergone with doctors placing mesh to secure her stitching, which came underdone prematurely after the first two surgeries.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Rusev spoke with The Sun in the U.K. earlier this week and discussed the storyline involving his Lana and Bobby Lashley: There’s adjustments that we make, but that’s just life. We’re committed to our characters on TV, so we just have to make slight adjustments, but we’re professionals and we’re coping with it. It’s great, I think we are in the best storyline currently going on and the best storyline that’s been around for years. It’s getting a lot of views and a lot of eyes on it. Some people like it, some people love it, but at the end of the day, it’s the hottest storyline going on. In the interview, he added that if he were to team with a female on the roster it would be Asuka and noted that he began taking lessons to speak Japanese earlier this year.

Originally Posted by WrestlingInc From almost the beginning, All Elite Wrestling has made it well known that wins and losses will matter heavily in the company. When wrestlers head to the ring, the graphic that displays their name also includes their record (in singles competition and overall). On Twitter, a fan asked AEW EVP Nick Jackson how AEW will handle things down the road to avoid booking problems in regards to wrestlers' records, "Do you have a way of booking around the possible problems down the road that you may encounter with the win-loss record?" Jackson retweeted the question and confirmed, "It'll reset." Rather than wins-losses just going on and on, it sounds like AEW will have something of a "season" where wrestlers will get an opportunity for a start fresh.

Originally Posted by Fightful During their panel at Starrcast IV, a fan asked Brandi what her thoughts are on which women would she like to bring in to the division. Brandi, who had spent years working in WWE, said she'd bring in former Raw and Women's champion Alexa Bliss into AEW, adding that she is a big fan of her work. "I would take Alexa Bliss in a heartbeat. I love Bliss, I love her. She's got something. She's multi-dimensional and talented," Brandi said. Of course, Cody had to step in and show off his appreciation for Bliss by not only saying she has the best theme song in WWE, but also briefly playing her theme song on his phone. "It's a good song! Literally at the top of my playlist," Cody said. Brandi then asked Cody what his pick would be and Cody jokingly said if he mentioned anyone from WWE, then that person would get locked up under a brand new contract. So he decided to go in another direction and go for someone that is actually a member of IMPACT Wrestling. "The tricky thing about it is if I say someone from WWE, then Vince [McMahon] will sign them for $18 million. They would appreciate it... I think Tessa Blanchard would be a good addition," Cody said.

Originally Posted by Fightful Next IMPACT Plus special announced. IMPACT Wrestling announced the promotion will return to IMPACT Plus for a special on Saturday, Dec. 7. IMPACT No Surrender will take place in Dayton, Ohio and will be headlined by an IMPACT World Championship match pitting Sami Callihan defending his title against Rich Swann.

TPWW Frontpage:

• WWE Announces Starrcade Special + Card
• Updated Survivor Series Card: New Matches + Team Raw Announced
• AEW: Dynamite Coming to Miami, Backstage at Full Gear

[Simple Fan]

Anthem could probably offer her just as much but they'd probably be more interested in just working with AEW. Pretty sure they'll give her the World Championship to boot. She also has WOW which is in bed with AXS TV.

I'd really like to see Tessa vs Charlotte but have no faith in WWE. If they were to do the 4 Horsewomen and then have Tessa come into fight them it'd be pretty cool.

AEW is a bit too new to really see her there. She's way above those Joshi girls but they'd probably have some killer matches.

She'll be the biggest free agent since AJ Styles though.

[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets:

Originally Posted by PWI CM Punk's return on WWE Backstage tonight was kept a secret from everyone on camera with the exception of Renee Young as a way to prevent the return from leaking. Obviously, FOX was successful. PWInsider.com has confirmed that Punk signed a deal with FOX but has not signed anything with World Wrestling Entertainment as of this writing. The decision to bring Punk on was 100% a FOX call, but we are told that WWE gave the return their personal blessing. The two sides had circled on a deal but it was finally completed within the last few days. Punk will be appearing regularly on WWE Backstage going forward, but will not be on every week we are told. The return led to CM Punk's name and WWE Backstage trending on social media.

Originally Posted by PWI When CM Punk returned on WWE Backstage last night, it was the first time since 2005 in Ring of Honor that he and Samoa Joe appeared on the same show for the same promotion. Joe noted on WWE Backstage that he would be out of action for a few more weeks due to his broken thumb.

Originally Posted by Observer On WWE Backstage last night, it was announced that Gargano will not be medically cleared to wrestle at NXT TakeOver: WarGames due to a neck injury. WWE is claiming that the injury happened when Finn Balor turned heel and attacked Gargano on NXT three weeks ago. Bryan Alvarez said on today's Wrestling Observer Live that the injury to Gargano is legitimate, though he didn't know if that's when the injury happened.

Originally Posted by Observer MLW has announced their first matchup for next month's Opera Cup tournament. TJP vs. Brian Pillman Jr. is set for the first round of the tournament. It's being held at MLW's television tapings at the Melrose Ballroom in Queens, New York on Thursday, December 5. There will be four opening round matches in the Opera Cup, with MLW hyping that they've "invited some of the best wrestlers from around the world to compete in this one-night single-elimination tournament."

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling In his piece for the New Japan Pro-Wrestling website, NJPW President Harold Meij commented on the report from the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Kenny Omega was stopped from entering Japan for his recent match for DDT Pro Wrestling. It was noted in the report that this incident was the third time Omega had trouble entering Japan since departing from NJPW in January of 2019. Here’s how Meij responded to the report: “By the way, a few days ago, there were some unbelievable rumors that New Japan Pro-Wrestling tried to prevent Kenny Omega from entering Japan, but there was no reason why a company could not do that. I don’t want to do that. I thought it would be through because it was rumors spread from somebody’s speculation, but I mentioned that it was important to tell the fact by denying it once. Kenny Omega has made a great contribution to New Japan Pro Wrestling, and I wish him success.”

Originally Posted by PWI Deadline reported that due to the cancellation of the computer-animated feature film adaptation of "Rugrats", the WWE Paramount Animation project "Rumble" has been moved back six months to January 21, 2021 to fill the void.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated interviewed Jim Ross and Ross talked about how proud he is of Jon Moxley and Kenny Omega for their match at AEW Full Gear. Ross said their match challenged him as a broadcaster: “Its been years since I was this proud of two guys in a match like I am with Moxley and Kenny. I’ve never seen a main event like that. They should be congratulated. The effort they put forth was absolutely amazing. This match was a great indication of the in-ring spirit of AEW. We want to be about innovation and delivering a great effort. The match gave us stunts, it gave us wrestling, it gave us drama, it gave us uniqueness. This was about two guys that were given a chance to lay out their own game plan and execute their match, and that’s what they did. I loved that the Mox-Kenny match challenged me as a broadcaster. People kept telling me, ‘JR, this match isn’t for you.’ How do you know that? I wasn’t with ECW; that was Joey Styles’ gig. I never got to call a lot of the hardcore stuff. I don’t find it distasteful, I don’t find it bad. We’re supposed to have something for everybody, and AEW offers a variety of styles and presentations that fans are going to like. This is not a one-dimensional company.”

Originally Posted by Fightful NWA Into The Fire PPV and subsequent television tapings in Atlanta have all sold out.

Originally Posted by Fightful During the post-Full Gear media scrum, Chris Jericho was asked about AEW's unblemished record over WWE NXT in the Wednesday night TV ratings competition ... Chris would go on to say NXT lost its uniqueness and is now just another WWE show. He would even go so far as to say he sees it in the same light of the ECW brand a decade ago. He also said the NXT Arena should prepare to feel the power of Hulkamania soon with the way the show is going. "So, am I surprised that we're winning? Of course not. I knew we'd win," he continued. "Our star power crushes NXT's star power and exactly what I knew was going to happen. NXT, what made it cool before, it was a standalone thing. Now it's just another WWE show. It's like, you know, 2009 ECW, so good for them. God bless them. I'm sure at some point Roman Reigns will be on NXT now, and Hulk Hogan will return to a TV studio for the first time since 1981 in Memphis. That's fine. All we're going to do is continue to worry about ourselves, concentrate on our storylines, our matches, and our characters, building stars."

Originally Posted by WrestlingInc Rusev recently spoke with Digital Spy and once again defended his current WWE RAW storyline with wife Lana and Bobby Lashley ... "How can I not be happy?" he said. "It's the hottest storyline in the whole WWE, it's been the hottest storyline for years. So of course, I'm happy with it." Rusev also addressed criticism on the storyline potentially doing damage to his marriage, saying this is no different than what any other actor would do. "Not many people are willing to do something like this, but we're professionals so, of course, we're used to it," he said. "(Being professional) is what any other actor does, you know, when you're going to step on stage or whatever. This is no different than that." Corey Graves recently called the storyline ridiculous on WWE's "After The Bell" podcast and called on the company to "let it end." Rusev responded and incorrectly claimed that they are drawing the highest views on YouTube ... "Just because Corey Graves doesn't like it or somebody else it doesn't mean anything. Obviously, the numbers speak for itself, we're the highest viewed YouTube video in a long, long time. I'm stoked about it," Rusev said. Rusev continued and said when he meets fans, he receives positive reactions, and that the naysayers are just "internet warriors" who like to complain about WWE. "We have fans that are not even fans of WWE that tune in because they like the drama," Rusev said. "That's what I don't understand, when you watch Game of Thrones or any of your favourite shows there's always a scandal, there's always things like that. That's why I don't understand why some people are trying to reject that. It's just those super ultra fans in their basement that are trying to reject it, which it is what it is, you know, if you don't like it, you don't have to watch it."

Originally Posted by WWE Network News With Survivor Series a little over a week away, it makes sense that the WWE Network’s Hidden Gems spotlight would finally begin to focus in on the last “big 4” pay-per-view of the year. And with that in mind, it makes sense for what is steadily becoming a modern tradition to continue as well; the release of corresponding TV hype specials to the streaming service. After being graced by a Sunday Night Slam special for SummerSlam 1994 earlier this year, we’re now set to receive the followup of the same name for Survivor Series 1994, which taped on November 8, 1994 at the Fernwood Resort & Country Club in Pennsylvania but didn’t air until the 20th, just 3 days before the PPV. While the August show was 2-hours long, the runtime was cut in November as the era of standalone TV “spectaculars” began to run its course ... Also of note for the purists out there is that the video has a perfectly healthy runtime of 44:58 and zero significant edits have been made to the presentation. Meaning that both a Bob Backlund vs. Bret Hart recap and a Survivor Series Report segment with Todd Pettingill are completely intact ... As always, we wrap up with WWE’s official description: Sunday Night Slam: November 1994 [Duration: 00:44:58] Yokozuna, The British Bulldog, The Smoking Gunns and more compete in exciting matches just days before Survivor Series 1994.

Originally Posted by PWI The Boys, formerly of ROH and Dalton Castle proteges, are backstage at AEW Dynamite in Nashville. Dustin Rhodes worked as a commentator for AEW Dark.

TPWW Frontpage:
Ratings: WWE Backstage and Total Divas Both Up
ACH (Jordan Myles) Quits WWE – “I Hate That F*cking Company”
Ali’s Name Changed Back to Mustafa Ali
Five Members of Team SmackDown Announced – Updated Survivor Series Card
CM Punk Joins WWE Backstage

[Mr. Nerfect]

I don’t trust Omega or The Bucks, but Meij also came out and called Meltzer a liar when he reported that US talent was unhappy in New Japan before.

Rusev trying really hard to justify being Marc Mero.

Jericho is awesome on-air, but he better be careful that joshing around or not, he doesn’t paint AEW in arrogant tones, because they’re probably not going to win and a lot can be said to criticize AEW too, and them looking like hypocrites is not going to be good for their perception.

[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets:

Originally Posted by Observer After a week in which NXT came its closest to beating AEW since the beginning of the Wednesday Night Wars, AEW Dynamite ratings were up 16 percent from last week, averaging 957,000 viewers. Dynamite finished fifth for the night on cable in the 18-49 demo, averaging a 0.43 rating in that important category. That number is up 22 percent from the previous week. NXT on USA Network was down eight percent in total viewers, averaging 750,000 viewers. In the 18-49 rankings, they finished 22nd on the night with a .25 rating. That's down 17 percent from last week. AEW beat NXT in every demo except for persons over 50, which is the case most weeks. NXT had an edge of 0.35 to 0.29 in that demo. Dynamite was strongest in the males 18-49 category, with a 0.55 rating, almost doubling NXT's 0.32. The AEW number was almost identical with where the show finished on October 23. The NXT audience has grown eight percent from that date, which is likely the effects of the current angle involving the NXT invasion of Raw and SmackDown leading into Survivor Series.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling AEW saw gains across the board led by females 12-34 that rose an incredible 91% from last week and up 200% from two weeks ago where the show went against Game 7 of the World Series. The 18-34 demo was up 48% for AEW and women 18-49 grew 35% from last week’s among the biggest jumps. For NXT, they were hit hardest among the female 12-34 demo that AEW benefited from with NXT down 23% in that category. A small positive for NXT was a rise among males 12-34 which was up 6% and the over 50 audience was up 3%.

Originally Posted by Observer Two members of The Dynasty will face off in the opening round of MLW's Opera Cup tournament. MLW has announced that MJF will face his Dynasty stablemate Alexander Hammerstone in the first round of the Opera Cup. The one-night single-elimination tournament is being held at MLW's television tapings at the Melrose Ballroom in Queens, New York on Thursday, December 5.

Originally Posted by PWI The Ronda Rousey Story: Through My Father’s Eyes A Lionsgate documentary on UFC Hall of Famer and former WWE Raw Women's Champion Ronda Rousey will be released for digital streaming and on demand orders next Tuesday 11/9. Written and directed by Gary Stretch (former WBC International Light Middleweight Boxing champion), the documentary follows Rousey from her difficult, humble beginnings through her rise to the top of the male-dominated mixed martial arts and sports entertainment worlds to become one of the most recognizable and iconic superstars in the entire world.

Originally Posted by PWI Jordan Myles has deleted his Twitter account. In a move that can't make WWE happy, People Magazine picked up on the Myles story.

Link: https://people.com/sports/jordan-myl...-citing-racism

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling On November 13th, Jordan Myles (ACH) made it clear on social media that he is quitting WWE. He stated during a Twitter Live video that he does not want to be a part of the company. Last week, Myles noted on Twitter that if WWE didn’t reach out to him following the offensive and racial t-shirt situation, he was going to continue speaking out. Myles’ Twitter account is not activated at the moment. WWE Hall Of Famer Booker T talked about the situation during the latest edition of his ‘Hall Of Fame’ podcast and shared his thoughts about the entire situation and where it is now: “I don’t know if Jordan Myles has quit the company but on social media he says he quit the company. My thing is, I’m not gonna sit here and judge or anything like that. I’m not gonna sit here and say, ‘The guy should’ve did this’ or, ‘The guy should’ve did that’. I’m gonna lay out on that because I don’t want any backlash before someone’s saying, ‘Oh Booker said this’ and ‘Booker said that’. I’m just gonna say this: The situation to where… it all started with the t-shirt and now its gotten to this and I don’t know where it’s gonna go from here but I do know, some of the stuff he was saying as far as the company goes, I cannot… I’ve been on this earth for 54 years and if you think one person is something, call it that. If you think that person is something, call it that. But I cannot judge a group and say everybody is that and when you make a blanket statement like that, you do no justice for yourself or the culture… like I said, I say this because I’ve had a lot of years and a lot of experience and I do know I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for a white guy by the name of Bruce Gasarch who made this all happen for me as far as changing my life. That’s another story, and I easily could’ve judged everyone the same way after my situation — going to prison, being a kid who had never been in trouble before. First time being in the back of a police car, getting locked up and saying, ‘The system did me wrong. I hate everybody of that color.’ You know what I mean? And if I would’ve did that, I would’ve did myself an injustice more than anything and I think that’s the situation I wanna make clear here that the way he’s going about this, he’s doing himself an injustice and that’s my take on that and I’m gonna leave it at that.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Comicbook.com interviewed Jim Ross and asked him about CM Punk’s appearance at the conclusion of WWE Backstage. Ross said he was not surprised and shared that he was offered the co-hosting spot for Backstage along with Renee Young but had already committed to Tony Khan and All Elite Wrestling: “[I wasn’t] big-time surprised. I thought [they’d get him when] they got the pay in line with what he’s looking for to work part-time. The other thing is that he doesn’t have to [be on WWE TV]. That’s my understanding, he won’t be going back to the WWE community at TV. He’ll be going to LA, very different deal. I was offered that opportunity. Not his opportunity, I was offered an opportunity to be on a show with Renee, but I already had already committed to Tony Khan and AEW. I’m not big on breaking my commitments or breaking my word… I’m glad to see him going back on TV. He’s got a lot to offer. He’s creative, he’s smart, he’s a great polarizing performer. He’s a great talent, one of the best talents I’ve ever been around. Would I have wanted him to work for us? Of course I would. We would love that too. But it wasn’t in the cards right now and it may never be in the cards.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling According to Squared Circle Sirens, independent wrestler Karissa Rivera will be backstage at Friday Night SmackDown in Philadelphia.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Adam Cole did a Q&A that the WWE on FOX Twitter account posted. During the Q&A, Adam Cole shared that Bobby Fish recently lost a tooth and Fish went to Britt Baker to get it fixed.

Originally Posted by Fightful In an interview with Gary Cassidy of Sportskeeda, Page spoke about the current Raw superstar and believes McIntyre could succeed really well if WWE were to let him be himself. Page added that he doesn't believe that he has been portrayed as the "Scottish Psychopath" as he has been nicknamed as such. "I think they just have to let him be himself, you know? With WWE, it's a lot of stories. Guys have different stories that they have to live out. Like, I never saw him as a psychopath. Do you know what I mean? A warrior? Okay, but psychopath? I never saw that. You know, so, I think that, in the big picture, they've just got to let him be himself, and sometimes it takes time," Page said. Page shared examples of past wrestlers who have done tremendously well being themselves, namely "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and Ted DiBiase. "Look at Stone Cold Steve Austin. When he came in, when he was the Ringmaster, and he was working with Ted DiBiase, he was the same wrestler. He just wasn't the same guy. They had to let Steve be Steve, and eventually they did. And we know what happened," Page said.

Originally Posted by Fightful Raven is a fan of Pac, writing on Twitter, "Saw AEW last night & if you’re a young wrestler & u want to learn how to wrestle & do more than just high spots, @BASTARDPAC is who u should watch! He sells, he begs off.. he’s the most acrobatic guy there but he uses his acrobatics judiciously. Plus, who doesn’t love a bastard?"

Originally Posted by Fightful WWE Survivor Series is "the one time a year where brands collide over brand supremacy." And though the Wild Card Rule has led to plenty of inter-brand matches this year, brand supremacy remains at stake when Raw, SmackDown, and NXT battle at Survivor Series on Nov. 24. But Corey Graves wishes there was something larger on the line. "I understand the battle for brand supremacy. But, does anybody in the WWE Universe, really identify with a particular brand?" wondered Graves on his After The Bell podcast. "The whole brand supremacy thing doesn't seem to matter to anybody outside the doors of WWE. We need some stakes. It's becoming like the NFL Pro Bowl. How about, which ever brand wins the most matches at Survivor Series, you reward them with something. Maybe the 30th spot in the Royal Rumble matches. Maybe [the winning brand] gets the main event spot at WrestleMania. Give the WWE Universe a reason to be excited for the entire pay-per-view. That way, one brand walks away with 'bragging rights,' which is the only reason we can give for why these guys are trying to fight each other and form these weird alliances, but something tangible to look forward to in the future." Graves continued, addressing the title situation at Survivor Series as well. "I don't think I'm the only one who thinks there are too many freakin' titles in WWE. Why not consolidate all of them? How much bigger would Survivor Series be if all these champion vs. champion vs. champion matches were winner take all? Then let the champion float (between brands)." As of now, no extra stakes have been attached to Survivor Series.

TPWW Frontpage:

• Former MLW World Champion Filthy Tom Lawlor Leaving MLW
• Three Matches Advertised for WWE TLC PPV
• Aliyah and Mia Yim Bloodied and Injured at NXT
• WWE: Title Match & Segment Announced for SmackDown, Lacey Evans Joins Team SmackDown
• The Rock Announces He’ll Star in a “Black Adam” Movie

[Mr. Nerfect]

WWE are in a tricky situation. They won’t want to set a precedent of encouraging talent to speak out in order to get released, but it looks awful keeping a black person locked under contract.

[Black Widow]

Yeah they should keep them locked in chains see if he would prefer that.

[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets:

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter The Wednesday night wars on 11/13 saw AEW up 16.4 percent coming off the PPV to 957,000 viewers (1.55 viewers per home), while NXT fell 7.5 percent to 750,000 viewers (1.29 viewers per home). AEW was back to a 0.43 in the 18-49 demo to 0.25 for NXT. AEW was No. 2 in its time slot in 18-49, trailing only an NBA game on ESPN that did a 0.64 in the demo and 1,664,000 viewers. NXT was 12th in its time slot in the key demo ... The pattern remains that AEW has won every week, and dominated under 50 every week but one (which is still won, but didn’t dominate), NXT has won every week with the over 50 audience) ... In the segments, AEW opened with a Kenny Omega promo, Jon Moxley vs. Michael Nakazawa and a Moxley promo and did 1,080,000 viewers and 600,000 in 18-49. NXT opened with Lio Rush vs. Angel Garza in a title mach that drew 738,000 viewers and 312,000 in 18-49. AEW’s second quarter was Dark Order vs. Jungle Boy & Marko Stunt, plus a post-match angle to bring back Luchasaurus. It did 975,000 viewers overall and 542,000 in 18-49, or losses of 105,000 total and 58,000 in 18-49. NXT had the ending of Rush vs. Garza plus Xia Li vs. Aliyah. It did 774,000 viewers and 327,000 in 18-49, gains of 36,000 and 15,000 respectively. The third quarter saw AEW have Shawn Spears vs. Darby Allin vs. Peter Avalon. It did 861,000 viewers and 489,000 in 18-49, losses of 114,000 and 53,000 in 18-49. NXT had a Finn Balor promo, Matt Riddle attack and angle for War Games with Undisputed Era, Tommaso Ciampa and Keith Lee. It did 755,000 viewers and 334,000 in 18-49, a loss of 19,000 viewers but a 7,000 gain in 18-49. The fourth quarter saw AEW with a Nyla Rose squash, an Allie interview and attack by Awesome Kong and Brandi Rhodes, plus the beginning of the Chris Jericho interview. That did 916,000 viewers total and 527,000 in 18-49, a gain of 55,000 total and 38,000 in 18-49. NXT had Keith Lee vs. Roderick Strong. That did 709,000 viewers and 316,000 in 18-49, a loss of 46,000 and a loss of 8,000 in 18-49. The fifth quarter was after MJF came out so it was the Jericho/MJF show, with the Cody run in and debut of Wardlow. That did 1,013,000 viewers and 585,000 in 18-49, increases of 101,000 and 55,000. NXT had the end of Lee vs. Strong and another post-match brawl with the War Games angle. That did 766,000 viewers and 339,000 in 18-49, gains of 57,000 overall and 23,000 in 18-49. AEW followed with Adam Page vs. Pac, which did 940,000 viewers and 560,000 in 18-49, a loss of 77,000 overall and 25,000 in 18-49. NXT had Isaiah Scott vs. Bronson Reed. That did 723,000 viewers and 289,000 in 18-49, drops of 43,000 overall and 50,000 in 18-49. AEW next had the big Young Bucks brawl with Santana & Ortiz and the SCU ring entrance. That did 899,000 viewers and 547,000 in 18-49, drops of 41,000 overall and 13,000 in 18-49. NXT had the Pete Dunne vs. Killian Dain non-match with Damien Priest running in, which did 672,000 viewers and 275,000 in 18-49, drops of 51,000 overall and 14,000 in 18-49. The battle of main events saw AEW have Chris Jericho & Sammy Guevara vs. Frankie Kazarian & Scorpio Sky for the tag titles, which did 968,000 viewers and 584,000 in 18-49, gains of 64,000 overall and 37,000 in18-49. NXT had Io Shirai vs. Mia Yim in a ladder match which did 747,000 viewers and 308,000 in 18-49, gains of 75,000 overall and 33,000 in 18-49. After AEW ended, the NXT overrun gained 215,000 viewers, the largest to date, with 422,000 in 18-49. These were clearly AEW fans because not only did they pick up viewers, but their median age dropped two years immediately. The overrun improved the overall show number from 735,500 to 750,000.

Originally Posted by Observer The high point of the show was the Kabuki Warriors vs. Charlotte Flair & Becky Lynch title match that did 2,454,000 viewers. The low point, of 1,680,000 viewers was for the beginning of the OC vs. Ricochet & Randy Orton & Humberto Carrillo match, although the audience did grow during the match. The Kabuki Warriors vs. Lynch & Flair grew 75,000 viewers from start-to-finish. R-Truth vs. Singh Brothers lost 280,000 viewers continuing the trend of the 24/7 belt doing poorly. The Seth Rollins interview leading to the Walter match gained 64,000 viewers. Rollins vs. Walter turning into Rollins & Kevin Owens & Street Profits vs. Imperium lost 59,000 viewers. Cedric Alexander vs. Andrade lost 319,000 viewers. The Lana/Rusev/Lashley segment gained 85,000 viewers, Erick Rowan’s squash lost 12,000 viewers, Viking Raiders vs. Flash Morgan Webster & Mark Andrews lost 245,000 viewers, Orton & Ricochet & Carrillo vs. OC in the main event spot gained 16,000 viewers.

In regards to this past Monday's episode of RAW.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter In the latest example of never say never, C.M. Punk showed up at the end of WWE Backstage on 11/12, and announced he would be starting on the show next week. The news was something of a surprise, even though it was known he had pushed for the spot and had taken a screen test, and at the time it was widely expected he’d be hired ... The first episodes of the show were hardly the type of show those involved with the station had promised, with the idea they would surprise people with in-depth and real journalistic coverage ... Even though there were definitely people within WWE negative of the idea of Punk, because of how he left, what he said on the Colt Cabana podcast that led to a lawsuit, the nature of the WWE business is such that if he wanted back, he’d be back. Now was the right timing because he was the last free agent AEW could have signed that may have been a game changer. Still, some expected him to be the exception to the rule with the idea he would be adamant about never going back ... Times are competitive and Punk did get offers from AEW, which opened talks with him in 2018, long before anyone knew there was an AEW. When Tony Khan first decided to explore the idea of starting a wrestling company, Punk was one of the first people he contacted. According to those with knowledge of the deal, he was given a money offer and obviously he didn’t accept the offer. He had one personal meeting with Khan and the two had dialogue over time. But it went cold at the time AEW as a promotion became very serious and started having legitimate success, although there was contact as late as June based on what Punk has said ... FOX at one point pushed for him to co-host the show. Those in WWE who were aware of it, noted negativity about it at first, because of the past bad blood. But later, when he got a tryout, we were told that the expectation was that an offer would be made to him. He had claimed to have not gotten an offer when asked. That could have been true, or it could have been to build for the surprise moment.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter Apparently one of the reasons little WWC content has shown up on WWE Network after they purchased the tape collection is that Hurricane Maria, which paralyzed Puerto Rico in September 2017 damaged some of the tapes. There is said to be a ton of tape and film reels that have been salvaged as well as some that can’t be restored

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter For Survivor Series, it appears that Bryan was originally earmarked for almost a dream match three-way with Roderick Strong and A.J. Styles in a non-title match of secondary title performers. We were never specifically told it was Bryan, but were told last week, before the match had been teased, that such a match would take place with Strong and Styles, and that Nakamura would lose the title. The Nakamura-Bryan program that started on Smackdown has been completely dropped, and Wyatt attacked Bryan in an interview segment to start their program. Nakamura at this point is not scheduled to drop the title and has been put into this match.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter As far as Full Gear goes, the show got a largely positive response, with most, but not all of the negativity regarding the polarizing Lights Out match. Chris Jericho beat Cody in the main event to retain the AEW title when MJF threw in the towel ... As far as the stips go, Cody had said that if he didn’t win the title, he would never challenge for it again. Those in the company are insistent that is exactly what will happen, and that this is step one in trying to teach people stipulations matter. Most modern fans, who only know of stipulations never adhered to, are hardly going to buy it. That’s probably one of the reasons the stipulation probably didn’t increase buys, because it’s a generation taught not to believe anything and think of the loophole and not even consider that it’s real. Time will tell here but so much damage has been done to stipulations in wrestling that it may not be able to be undone. Nick Jackson sent out a tweet when people were coming up with their own loopholes and how Cody will get another shot, saying that they were going to 100 percent live up to stips.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter The big question regards talent whose deals are up within the next few months, most notably Marty Scurll, Brody King, Jeff Cobb, and Bandido. Scurll’s deal expires on 11/30 and people have believed he was AEW bound when his deal was up from the moment AEW was formed. ROH is said to have been making a strong offer to try and keep him and there’s always WWE, because he’d be a lock to be a top star in NXT with his ready-made name to that audience. Cobb’s big thing is still wanting to work as much New Japan as possible, and Bandido is the same, but one would think everyone wants Bandido. In the case of Bandido, another option those close to him have noted to us is that he signs nowhere, with the idea he could be the top guy who is a pure indie and could work for anyone, the way Pentagon & Fenix have been

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter It hasn’t been announced but the belief is Jon Moxley is working the Tokyo Dome. From those in AEW, they believe that to be the case but weren’t 100 percent on it. The logical match would be Lance Archer for the U.S. title since Moxley never lost the belt in the ring. They did a set-up for Archer vs. Juice Robinson in San Jose. They could do a three-way, although hopefully not, or they could do title matches both nights

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter Takaaki Kidani, the head of Bushiroad, did an interview for Tokyo Sports regarding their goals in building up Stardom. The first thing he said was that they are looking at bringing back Io Shirai and Kairi Sane after their current WWE deals expire. Whether this will happen or not really depends on things down the line when their deals are up, in some form with Shirai if she’s making main roster money. The key is whether or not they would like to return to living in Japan and in the end, the WWE main roster money is strong ... Bushiroad takes over the company officially on 12/1 and have started marketing, setting up media and photo shoots for the top talent. The goal is to take the company from sales of $2 million per year to $6 million by 2022 or 2023. They are pushing media that hits young women in Japan, trying to change the audience base from almost exclusively young men to both men and women, in particular trying to get the teenage girls that made Japanese women’s wrestling such a hit on television and live in the 70s and 80s, or the mixed audience of male wrestling fans and women fans that attended in the 90s. At the press conference when they bought the promotion, they pushed attracting more women fans. He also brought up the idea of creating an IWGP women’s championship belt, with the idea that the IWGP name of the title has become big in Japan

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter The Austin Idol wrestling school commercials on NWA Powerrr, which were a spoof, is now a reality. Idol, 70, real name Mike McCord, has opened the Austin Idol Universal Wrestling College in Greenville, SC, where he’s lived since 2007.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter The NWA officially sold out the third night of their 12/14 to 12/16 tapings at the PBS Studios in Atlanta. The first night PPV and second night tapings were already sold out. It is 150 to 250 tickets

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter There was an altercation on 11/7 at Tony Schiavone’s birthday party at Jimmy’s Seafood in Baltimore. The gist of the story was that Jimmy Havoc had too much to drink, was being talked with, apparently took a swing at Excalibur, who then choked him out. From those who were there, they said it really wasn’t as dramatic as it reads nor was the swing as big a deal as it sounds, although Excalibur did choke him out. One person who was there was actually on the phone with me when it happened and I didn’t even know it until two days later as he said it was so nothing if you were there that he didn’t even think it was a big enough deal to stop the conversation or mention it and pretty much felt it was a nothing and was shocked it became this story afterwards. Tony Khan at the post-show press conference said it happened but categorized it as nothing big and called it a draw

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling IPW in the U.K. has decided to end its tenure as a live event promotion. The company, which has been in operation since 2004, issued the following statement on Friday: "IPW can confirm that after several internal discussions, the company will cease being a live wrestling events promotion at the end of 2019. The company has a rich history of over 15 years, however with many changes in the British wrestling climate in the last 2 years, it has been decided that this is an appropriate time to draw an end to live events. Therefore, the IPW World Championship will be defended for the last time at Undisputed III, taking place at Mote Hall in Maidstone on December 15th, where we plan to celebrate IPW’s successful years of live events."

Originally Posted by Voices of Wrestling Thanks to BritWres Roundtable's Robin Reid for compiling this list of companies that have died/scaled-down since NXT UK was announced. For the record, not all of these companies are dead BECAUSE of WWE or NXT UK but it's undeniable that the scene has seen a collapse: Defiant Southside IPW:UK Clash Chaos Breed (hiatus) ICW (running a 1/4 of the shows they used to) Lucha Forever 5 Star Fight! Nation Pro Wrestling Kingdom Great Bear Pro Wrestling Pride Fight Forever (Haven't run a show since March) World of Sport PWU CCW Shropshire Wrestling Alliance (Haven't run a show since March) OWE:UK PROGRESS (drew 5k for biggest show last year, down to below 2.5k this year & far less shows)

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling During Friday’s NXT UK television tapings, they announced NXT UK TakeOver: Blackpool II for January 2020. Wrestling INC is reporting that the show is set for Saturday, January 11th.

Originally Posted by PWI During this week's episode of Total Divas, it was revealed that the original Wrestlemania 35 plan was for Asuka to defend the Smackdown Women's title against Sonya Deville at Metlife Stadium, but creative plans changed, leading to the Smackdown title and the Raw title both being defended in the Ronda Rousey vs. Charlotte Flair vs. Becky Lynch bout that main evented the PPV.

Originally Posted by Fightful Moxley, who wrestled as Dean Ambrose for years in WWE before signing with AEW, spoke about feeling unhappy during his final year with WWE on a panel at Starrcast IV. Moxley, who cited frustrations with the direction of his character as a key reason for leaving WWE, had hoped a heel turn done correctly would entice him to stay. But even that ended up not being enough and Moxley explained his feelings in those final months with WWE. Moxley called WWE so incomeptent that it basically forced him to walk away from what was surely a lot of money if he had decided to re-sign with the company. "The whole time from when I came back to about the beginning of the year, I knew I was leaving. But I was pissed about it. I wasn't excited to leave, I was bitter about it. I can't believe that they're going to make me leave. I can't believe they're going to make me walk away from all this money. Can [WWE] not write just one good storyline? Can they just give me one good promo? Does everything have to be f***ing stupid? Does everything have to make me look like an idiot? For f***'s sake, you're going to make me walk away from all this f***ing money because it's not like I wanted that money. Yeah, I want it, but I'm not doing that sh*t. So I was pissed. I can't believe they were so incompetent that they're going to make me walk away from all this money. Jesus Christ, now I have to go back to the indies, f*** it, let's go," Moxley said. Moxley said he started to map out what his post-WWE career would be like during a hike with his wife Renee Young at the start of the year. Moxley said he figured he would wrestle in Japan, go to the indies and make his own schedule, which he sounded excited to do.

TPWW Frontpage:

• Nick Jackson vs. Fenix Announced for AEW Dynamite
• WWE: ACH in Contact With Another Promotion, Hulk Hogan Has Surgery, CM Punk Behind the Scenes
• AEW Full Gear PPV Buy Estimates
• AEW Releases Their Top Five Weekly Rankings as of 11/15
• MLW Re-Signs World Champion Jacob Fatu to Multi-Year Deal

[Mr. Nerfect]

Moxley didn't need WWE's help to make him look like an idiot in the Full Gear match.

[Seph]

I know there's more nuance to it, but I think Mox looks stupider now than I ever though he did in WWE. And that interview makes it worse because it confirms what I had suspected.

He left his wife (and a shit ton of money) in WWE so he could go massacre himself with weapons like he used to in CZW. That's the creative freedom he was hung up over; he wants to be more violent and do ridiculous levels of hardcore shit. I honestly think he might have a couple of screws lose for real and I'd be willing to wager he for sure is suffering from CTE.

[The Dastardly One]

That match actually was nowhere near as bad as people made it out to be. Very similar to Cactus Jack vs HHH from Rumble 2000 but with some bigger bumps and with glass instead of thumbtacks. My only gripe was it was too fucking long, therefore, self-indulgent.

Mox is way more over now than he was in WWE, especially by the time he left. At the end of the day, if you were a fan of Foley as Cactus Jack, I don't understand what's wrong with Moxley. I think he's great.

[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets:

Originally Posted by Observer Raw last night was up from last week, but still the second lowest non-holiday number in modern history. The show did 2.13 million viewers, slightly below two other episodes that also did very close to that number. Only last week's episode, which did 2.06 million viewers against a monster football game, would have been lower. The key points were that the audience started lower than even in bad weeks, but also declined less during the show ... The number can't be considered good given all the brand invasion stuff that did help SmackDown ratings at first. The three hours were: 8 p.m. 2.25 million viewers 9 p.m. 2.21 million viewers 10 p.m. 1.93 million viewers

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling The three-hour show leading into the Survivor Series averaged 2,127,000 viewers, which was up 3% from last week’s figure. It would still place this week’s episode as the third-lowest of the year behind last week’s episode and the June 10th show going against the NBA Finals ... Raw opened with 2,245,000 viewers in the first hour, which was their lowest first hour of the year. That is a remarkable statistic given that last week’s show aired on a three-day delay and opened with 2.36 million viewers.

Originally Posted by Observer After originally announcing that Pete Dunne vs. Damian Priest vs. Killian Dain would be on this week's NXT, WWE has noted that the match will instead take place at TakeOver: WarGames on Saturday night. The winner will challenge for Adam Cole's NXT Championship at Survivor Series.

Originally Posted by Observer Kenny Omega's first defense of the AAA Mega Championship will take place on AEW Dark. AEW has announced that Omega will defend the AAA Mega title against Jack Evans on the episode of Dark that's being taped in Indianapolis, Indiana tomorrow. It will air on YouTube at 7 p.m. Eastern time next Tuesday (November 26).

Originally Posted by Observer Next month's Opera Cup event will see CIMA make his MLW debut. MLW announced this morning that Strong Hearts (CIMA, El Lindaman & Shigehiro Irie) will face CONTRA Unit (MLW World Heavyweight Champion Jacob Fatu, Ikuro Kwon & Simon Gotch) in a six-man tag match at the Opera Cup television tapings. In storyline, the match was set up after an incident that CONTRA Unit got into in Japan. CIMA is signed to AEW, where his Strong Hearts stable has also been featured. Lindaman & T-Hawk vs. The Young Bucks will air on this week's episode of AEW Dark.

Originally Posted by Observer Bill Goldberg told Sports Illustrated that his match with Dolph Ziggler at SummerSlam was not his last: “It’s by no means my farewell performance, nor was it my best performance, but you have to be realistic and take all things into consideration. It’s a very good possibility I’ll be back, but you don’t know it until it’s done.”

Originally Posted by Observer A WWE 24 episode on Trish Stratus and her match against Charlotte Flair from SummerSlam will premiere on the WWE Network after Starrcade on December 1.

Originally Posted by PWI Funko announced a new line of WWE Pop Figures which include "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt, "Mean" Gene Okerlund, Diesel, The Miz Naomi, "Thuganonics" John Cena and Hulk Hogan.

Originally Posted by PWI Cody Rhodes applied to trademark "The Match Beyond" for: * G & S: Hats; Shirts; Golf shirts; Hooded sweat shirts; T-shirts * G & S: Entertainment in the nature of wrestling contests; Entertainment services, namely, wrestling exhibits and performances by a professional wrestler and entertainer; Providing wrestling news and information via a global computer network

Originally Posted by Fightful Since Kylie Rae left All Elite Wrestling, rumors have run rampant on why she left. Kylie Rae became AEW's first release this summer, and has since returned to the independent wrestling circuit where she competed in the past. She hasn't spoken on what led to her departing the company as of yet, but that hasn't stopped fans and wrestlers from theorizing. One fan sent AEW Chief Branding Officer Brandi Rhodes a tweet saying "Did you bully Kylie out of AEW because that’s What literally everyone seems to say in private?" Rhodes would reply with the first public, on the record comments from an AEW employee outside of Tony Khan. No. If that were true “literally everyone” would be saying it in public. — Brandi Rhodes (@TheBrandiRhodes) November 19, 2019 We feel it is important to disclose that we don't know specifically why Kylie Rae left All Elite Wrestling. As specified on our Fightful Select service, Fightful has spoken to no less than two dozen wrestlers on the matter, with various stories on the matter going around via multiple sources. It's reckless to speculate on the story, but with Rhodes going on the record publicly about a rumor, deemed it appropriate to publish.

Even former Deadspan's David Bixenspan was unable to find the reason why she left in regards to it fitting with the rumors going around regarding her departure. Also the apparent originator of these rumors is a known hated person in the IWC. That person recently had a Twitter feud with Bixenspan trying to get dirt on this situation to prove his rumors only to be told by Bix that there is none.

Originally Posted by Observer The NWA announced a new series called The Circle Squared, where talent will be given the opportunity to showcase their skills with the possibility of earning an NWA contract. The first episodes of the series will be recorded at the next NWA tapings, which take place December 14 -16 at the GPB Studios in Atlanta, Georgia.

Originally Posted by Observer AEW announced that going forward, KultureCity will provide sensory bags for every taping of AEW Dynamite.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling The major show tonight is not one with any wrestling matches but rather, CM Punk’s first official episode of WWE Backstage where he will serve as an analyst ... Tonight’s show should see a gigantic leap in viewership from the paltry numbers the last two shows have generated with 49,000 and 100,000 respectively. Tonight’s show will be an interesting look to see what is covered with Punk and more importantly, what is avoided. You would think this episode should be treated as their version of the Art of Wrestling interview from 2014 with Punk being interviewed and discussing his fallout with the company and why he agreed to join this show, which he has pointed out is a deal with Fox and not WWE. Punk’s tweet from Monday hinted that he’ll be giving his thoughts on what he’s missed over the past five-years. Ember Moon and David Arquette will also be guests on WWE Backstage tonight.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling TSN has finalized their programming schedule for December and all episodes of AEW Dynamite will air on TSN 2 next month. There is no episode on Wednesday, December 25th due to Christmas.

Originally Posted by Fightful The NWA has issued a statement on a controversial remark that was said during NWA Powerrr. NWA Vice President David Lagana wrote a statement on Twitter apologizing to fans for comments "one of our talents made" that were offensive that took place during the November 19 episode of Powerrr. Although Lagana never mentioned who the talent was or what specific comment was uttered during the episode of NWA Powerrr, a clip floating across social media, which can be seen below, showed Cornette saying the following in the middle of a match between Nick Aldis and Trevor Murdoch. "Trevor Murdoch is the only man that I've ever known that can strap a bucket of fried chicken on his back and ride a motor scooter across Ethiopia," Cornette said on Powerrr.

Link: https://twitter.com/CeeHawk/status/1196936758363119618

Originally Posted by Fightful We're told by those close to Orton and Khan that neither really sold the argument, outside of Khan wanting to clarify that the article Orton posted was baseless. Orton seemed to laugh off the situation after Raw. WWE wrestlers that we reached out to weren't surprised that Orton spoke up, and we're told that in regards to his controversial game stream comments, he apologized privately to at least a few members of the roster back at the WWE Smackdown debut on Fox in LA. "Randy didn't mean it, and was sorry. Hulk meant it, and was sorry he got caught" is what one wrestler has indicated to us. One wrestler noted to us that they were just glad it was someone besides Seth Rollins, because even if he made good points, certain divisions of Twitter "have it out for him."

TPWW Frontpage:

• Various: Updated WWE SmackDown Ratings, Upcoming WWE Network Additions, Indies
• WWE: Aliyah Not Really Injured, Cain Velasquez’s Next Match, NXT UK Sells Out
• Updated Survivor Series Card – Team Raw Women’s Team Announced
• Randy Orton and Tony Khan Go at It on Twitter
• Flamita Signs With Ring of Honor
• MLW: Alicia Atout Joins MLW, New Fusion Logo Soon, TV Talks

[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets:

Originally Posted by PWI The 11/19 episode of WWE Backstage on FS1, featuring a CM Punk interview brought in 180,000 viewers, up from last week's 1000,000.

Originally Posted by Observer On today’s NXT conference call, Triple H said people will find out the final member of Team Ciampa for TakeOver: WarGames on the day of the show. He called it epic and said people will be very excited. Tommaso Ciampa, Keith Lee, Dominik Dijakovic, and a partner will face The Undisputed Era (Adam Cole, Roderick Strong, Kyle O’Reilly & Bobby Fish) in the men’s WarGames match this Saturday.

Originally Posted by Observer Randy Orton, Rhea Ripley, and Steve Austin were guests on today’s episode of After the Bell with Corey Graves. During his appearance, Orton spoke about re-signing with WWE and the teases he did on social media before signing: “Yeah, I was just having fun man. I’ve been, more-so now than ever, I’m aware of other guys like Will Ospreay and other guys that work with Cody. I’m watching a little more wrestling. I’m not in the WWE bubble as much as I’ve been for almost the last two decades and I’m learning to appreciate other styles a little more instead of just quickly seeing something that isn’t how I would do it or isn’t how I would sell it and I’m realizing in its own way, it’s good. This might be upsetting for some people, but I never really saw myself leaving WWE. To me, it was about getting to a point where I’m happy and what I’m doing to my body, the amount of time I’m gone from my family. In the end, it’s all gonna be worth it and that’s where I’m at right now, so I’m definitely happy being a WWE superstar.”

Originally Posted by Observer AEW's return to the Sears Centre Arena will include a rematch from their last trip to the venue. AEW has announced that Kenny Omega will face PAC on next Wednesday's episode of Dynamite in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. It's a rematch from All Out, where PAC defeated Omega after replacing Jon Moxley due to Moxley's MRSA infection. AEW noted that we'll also hear from Omega on tonight's Dynamite. He doesn't have a match on the show, but he'll be defending his AAA Mega Championship against Jack Evans on tonight's AEW Dark tapings. That match will air on YouTube next Tuesday.

Originally Posted by Observer WWE COO Paul "Triple H" Levesque held his traditional pre-NXT TakeOver conference call Wednesday morning and answered several interesting questions including one about talents asking for releases. When asked by Jason Powell about wrestlers going to social media, Levesque said he hoped talent would talk to management instead of going to the media and social media to air their issues. He said that people get frustrated in the moment and say things they later would like to take back. "It's a maturity issue and not how you handle it. You handle your business like a professional."

Considering the stories of Harper and others who dealt with Triple H regarding work related issues, he's not going to be any different and maybe even worse than Vince when it comes to handling talent issues.

Originally Posted by PWI For those who have asked, Dio Maddin is still, as of today, officially part of the Raw broadcast team. He is currently off TV selling the Brock Lesnar attack.

Originally Posted by PWI Championship Wrestling of Arkansas (CWA) is pleased to announce that legendary Memphis wrestling announcer, Dave Brown is scheduled to make a rare appearance at CWA’s “No Surrender” event on Saturday, January 18th, at the Maumelle Event Center in North Little Rock, Arkansas.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Rhino chatted with Mirror Sport ... Rhino was asked about the possibility of a union forming in professional wrestling. He is not keen on the idea and feels that it could destroy the industry: “It wouldn’t work, it would kill the industry. When you look at unions for things like movies, it works because movies are planned so far in advance and actors/actresses get the scripts and have to accept it or turn it down. But wrestling is so fast paced and changes, that it just wouldn’t work. I come from Detroit which is a union town, so I get having unions in certain industries, but it wouldn’t work in wrestling. It would kill the independent scene and a lot of start-up promotions. Lots of states in America have commissions and stuff that creates more hoops for them to jump through and we all know that most companies don’t make a lot of money as it is, so to have these extra hurdles would kill a lot of companies.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Sami Zayn’s ‘Sami vs. Generico’ t-shirt on Pro Wrestling Tees has brought in $12,000 which has been raised for a mobile clinic in Syria. Sami and Pro Wrestling Tees have extended the availability of the shirt.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling AEW President Tony Khan joined WrestlingINC’s WINCLY podcast and talked about CM Punk tagging him in a tweet along with Vince McMahon and members of WWE Backstage that eventually led to Khan’s back and forth with Randy Orton on Twitter: “You know what’s funny? I never once brought him up. I’ve never once brought his name up to bring him into the conversation but whenever I get asked a question, I try to be good about answering questions. People, especially when people travel to go to the scrums and stuff, and I always made it really clear that I had conversations with him but, never tried to lead anybody on to think that he would be doing anything with us and whatever. I haven’t talked to him in a long time, but I wish him the best. I’m not sure why he tagged me, but he kept talking about wrestling. I think it would be hard to talk about all the great things happening without talking about what we’re doing in AEW. But yeah, I got the sense he felt like we would bring him up and it’s like, ‘If you actually watch…’ not that he’s gonna actually take the time to watch because he’s getting tagged in that stuff too. Not by me, but by all the people asking the questions.”

Originally Posted by WWE Network News In the past, WWE has shied away from releasing any Survivor Series Showdown or SummerSlam Spectacular specials before 1993 via Hidden Gems. This was always presumed to be because they very openly used the Prime Time Wrestling branding and thus would be released as classic content within that series. Well, as stated above, the company has spiced this one up considerably so that it isn’t merely “as seen on TV”. Of course, we do initially have Survivor Series Showdown 1992, as it aired with the following card: Repo Man vs. Tatanka Marty Jannetty vs. The Brooklyn Brawler Kamala (w/Harvey Wippleman & Kim Chee) vs. Red Tyler Earthquake vs. Irwin R. Schyster (w/Jimmy Hart) Barry Horowitz vs. The Big Boss Man Red Fox & Royce Royal vs. The Headshrinkers (Fatu & Samu) (w/Afa) But then, the fun truly begins after that ending copyright notice, with over an hour of the following “dark footage”: Nailz vs. Big Boss Man A Jimmy Garvin interview with Mean Gene WWF Championship: The Mountie vs. Bret Hart © Virgil vs. Bam Bam Bigelow Razor Ramon vs. “Macho Man” Randy Savage WWF Championship: Papa Shango vs. Bret Hart © Nailz vs. Ultimate Warrior Yes, both Nailz and Bret have 2 matches and yes, the raw footage timestamp confirms that all of this happened after the show. Speaking of raw footage, we can confirm that none of the post-TV footage has commentary.

Originally Posted by Fightful Tickets for NXT at Full Sail through the end of January will be on sale soon, indicating the show will remain at Full Sail through at least January.

Originally Posted by Fightful WWE Backstage might not be afraid to address the hot topic issues in wrestling. But even they want nothing to do with Jim Cornette. Cornette, who resigned from his position as NWA Powerrr commentator on Wednesday after making a racist comment on Tuesday's episode, promoted his upcoming podcast, hinting that he'll explain everything behind the decision. A fan suggested Cornette go on WWE Backstage to explain the situation, tagging host Renee Young, frequent panelist Paige and other members of the show. Neither Young nor Paige were very receptive to the idea.

Links: https://twitter.com/RealPaigeWWE/sta...29353618165760 , https://twitter.com/ReneeYoungWWE/st...30737780441088


TPWW Frontpage:

• WWE Announces a New Podcast From The New Day
• CM Punk Responds to Seth Rollins Challenging Him, Says Rollins “Needs to Stop Tweeting”
• Ember Moon Out With a Torn Achilles
• Jim Cornette Resigns From the NWA
• CM Punk Asked About Possible In-Ring Return During WWE Backstage

[Seph]

LMAO that Jim Cornette bit needs more attention. Like wtf was he even thinking when he said that shit? LOL Jesus

[Simple Fan]

He was thinking of putting over Trevor Murdoch.

[Seanny One Ball]

Sometimes your bluntness is a gift, Fan.

[The Dastardly One]

Seanny, why is this so hard for you to understand?

I love Jim... and I think he was being his usual cheeky self. It's a joke he's made a bunch of times and got away with. Unfortunately, when you break down the statement, there's no excusing it.

I mean, was it the worst thing ever? No. Do I want Jim Cornette on my TV? Yes. Is he actually racists? I'm guessing no. Did he put his company in a shitty spot by saying something that'd never fly in today's climate? Very much so.

Just be real with about what happened and quit with the mental gymnastics.

[Simple Fan]

You'd have to do mental gymnastics to be offended by the comment.

[Simple Fan]

Also the NWA put themselves in a shitty spot not Jim. They obviously didn't have a problem with it but someone's pussy wast hurt and they panicked. Had they done nothing it would have just blown over and not been such a big deal. Whats the point t of having Jim Cornette if he can't offend people?

[The Dastardly One]

Originally Posted by Simple Fan You'd have to do mental gymnastics to be offended by the comment.

Fan. Come on man. I get that you're a good old boy. But how do you not understand the offensive connotations of the comment?

Again, it was most likely said without malice (in fact, I'd say said with literally zero malice).

But it's similar to making a joke about jews burning in the oven on the boradcast. If you made that joke to me in person, fan, as a Jewish guy I'd LOL cuz we're cool with one another. However, you don't have that benefit when your audience isn't people you know personally. In fact, Cornette puts a massive fucking target on his back with his controversial takes. So, as much as it's a money-getter for him, his volatile personality creates these problems.

I get you understand this but it's not just "WOW PC CULTURE." What he said is a shitty, awful thing to say. I mean... it was a funny, shitty awful thing but it sets a bad precedent and I fully understand him being let go.

[Simple Fan]

It's a joke.

[Seanny One Ball]

Originally Posted by The Dastardly One Seanny, why is this so hard for you to understand? I love Jim... and I think he was being his usual cheeky self. It's a joke he's made a bunch of times and got away with. Unfortunately, when you break down the statement, there's no excusing it. I mean, was it the worst thing ever? No. Do I want Jim Cornette on my TV? Yes. Is he actually racists? I'm guessing no. Did he put his company in a shitty spot by saying something that'd never fly in today's climate? Very much so. Just be real with about what happened and quit with the mental gymnastics.

I think you've just broken down exactly why me being okay with it took no mental gymnastics at all.

He's not a bigot, he was being cheeky and it's a joke he has made before. I can't call "inappropriate" on something that actually shouldn't offend anyone at all.

I think trying to find the offence in that comment is akin to pretending to be high when somebody gives you a placebo.

[Seanny One Ball]

Jim Cornette's comment was the 51st State of offence.

It had every element necessary to sound racist but if you add it all up it's completely inert.