Tonight’s WWE Friday Night SmackDown will take place at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England as the Road to Survivor Series continues. the show will be pre-taped beginning around around 1:15pm ET.
Vince McMahon called a backstage meeting at around 3pm ET on Monday before RAW to address the travel debacle coming out of WWE Crown Jewel.
Vince reiterated that there were no issues between the company and officials in Saudi Arabia, and that a mechanical issue prevented the plane from leaving when it was scheduled to, nothing else.
Vince opened the meeting up for questions from talents and nobody asked any questions, and nobody said anything about the story given to them on what happened in the Kingdom. The Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports that there was a feeling that saying anything negative about the story given to them during the meeting wouldn’t do anyone good, and nobody spoke up. The Observer adds that the feeling on saying anything negative about the company’s Saudi story wouldn’t do anyone any good, was apparently the correct call.
Randy Orton said something during the meeting but he was just trying to break the tension by being funny. Vince responded and asked, “Anybody else want to just kiss my ass?”
The meeting was just about to wrap up when Triple H called out Karl Anderson for comments he made on Twitter, about who would be the locker room leader on Monday. As noted, Anderson tweeted, “Looking forward to seeing who the locker room leader is on Monday.. [popcorn emoji] [red heart emoji]”
Anderson reportedly didn’t say much of anything in response. There was apparently more heat to the Anderson situation as he and his wife also joked on Twitter about not going back to Saudi Arabia, but going back because they need a new pool or a second house. He tweeted, “Couldn’t pay me enough to go back .. Well that’s not true, I need a second pool, so…..”
Anderson’s wife responded, “2nd house!! Not a pool..but don’t ever go back AGAIN! We don’t need our daddy/papi/motherlover/absanderson/besttagteam etc. being held hostage while we’re at home worried to death [red heart emoji]”
You can see the Anderson tweets below.
WWE United States Champion AJ Styles spoke at the meeting but didn’t say much. Styles was very unhappy because the delay in the Kingdom caused him to miss one of his son’s wrestling matches. Rusev spoke some and mostly thanked Mark Carrano, WWE’s Senior Director of Talent Relations, for his work in quickly getting hotel rooms booked for everyone while they waited for a flight back to the United States. No one spoke about anything negatively, but there were some remarks about how at times during the debacle, the talents didn’t have access to Wi-Fi and were unable to contact their families.
Source: Wrestling Inc.
Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports that Sami Zayn had been having trouble with his shoulders in recent months. This is why he has been wrestling less and was put with WWE Intercontinental Champion Shinsuke Nakamura as his mouthpiece.
There’s no word yet on when Zayn will return to regular in-ring action, but word now is that he’s OK and can wrestle, but the current role is what they have him doing. Zayn has worked some live events since being put with Nakamura, including losses to Buddy Murphy while WWE was in Australia last month, but he hasn’t wrestled regularly on TV since August, when he took losses on RAW to Samoa Joe and Cedric Alexander.
AEW Dynamite has topped WWE NXT in viewership for the sixth week in a row, however it was by the smallest margin to date.
Wednesday’s Full Gear go-home edition of Dynamite on TNT drew 822,000 viewers, topping NXT’s 813,000 viewers on the USA Network by only 1.1%, according to Showbuzz Daily.
AEW ranked #8 in the Cable Top 150, while NXT ranked #12. AEW ranked #31 in viewership, while NXT ranked #32 in viewership.
For NXT, it was the best number for the show since its two-hour premiere on October 2nd. It was the second lowest number for Dynamite behind last week’s show which averaged 759,000, however that episode was against Game 7 of the World Series.
Last week’s Dynamite episode drew 789,000 viewers and ranked #6 in the Cable Top 150, and #28 in viewership, so the audience was up 4.2%. Last week’s NXT episode drew 580,000 viewers and ranked #32 in the Cable Top 150, and #42 in viewership so NXT saw a much larger 40% increase.
AEW drew a 0.35 rating in the 18-49 demographic while NXT drew a 0.30 in the same demo this week. Last week’s AEW episode drew a 0.33 in that demographic while NXT drew a 0.18.
* Monday’s Crown Jewel go-home edition of RAW on the USA Network drew an average of 2.133 million viewers, down from the previous week’s 2.342 million viewers. RAW was #4 in the 18-49 demographic on the Cable Top 150, with a 0.72 rating
To compare, this week’s pro wrestling viewership looks like this so far:
* Monday’s post-Crown Jewel edition of RAW on the USA Network drew an average of 2.136 million viewers, barely up from last week’s 2.133 million viewers, and the fourth-lowest non-holiday episode in RAW history. RAW was #12 for the night in viewership on cable and #4 in the 18-49 demographic on the Cable Top 150, for the second week in a row, with an average 0.76 cable rating
* Tuesday’s Total Divas episode on the E! network drew 191,000 viewers, down from last week’s 283,000 viewers for the lowest viewership in the history of the show. Total Divas ranked #93 on the Cable Top 150 this week with a 0.08 cable rating in the 18-49 demo
* Tuesday’s official WWE Backstage premiere on FS1 drew just 49,000 viewers in the 11pm hour. The show did not make the Cable Top 150 but drew an 0.02 cable rating in the 18-49 demographic
* Wednesday’s Full Gear go-home edition of AEW Dynamite on TNT drew 822,000 viewers, up from last week’s 789,000 viewers. Dynamite was #31 for the night in viewership on cable and #8 in the 18-49 demographic on the Cable Top 150 with a 0.35 rating
* Wednesday’s NXT episode on the USA Network drew 813,000 viewers, up from last week’s 580,000 viewers. NXT ranked #32 for the night in viewership on cable, and #12 on the Cable Top 150 with a 0.30 rating in the 18-49 demographic
Below is 2019 NXT Viewership Tracker:
September 18 Episode: 1.179 million viewers (one hour on the USA Network)
September 25 Episode: 1.006 million viewers (one hour on the USA Network)
October 2 Episode: 891,000 viewers (season premiere, both hours on the USA Network)
October 9 Episode: 790,000 viewers
October 16 Episode: 712,000 viewers
October 23 Episode: 698,000 viewers
October 30 Episode: 580,000 viewers with a 0.18 demographic in the 18-49 demographic
November 6 Episode: 813,000 viewers with a 0.30 demographic in the 18-49 demographic
Below is 2019 AEW Dynamite Viewership Tracker:
October 2 Episode: 1.409 million viewers (premiere episode)
October 9 Episode: 1.018 million viewers (on TNT, 122k on truTV)
October 16 Episode: 1.014 million viewers
October 23 Episode: 963,000 viewers
October 30 Episode: 789,000 viewers with a 0.33 rating in the 18-49 demographic
November 6 Episode: 822,000 viewers with a 0.35 rating in the 18-49 demographic
The estimated attendance for Wednesday night’s Dynamite episode from Charlotte was in the 5,000 range, according to PWInsider. A hot topic on social media has been the photos going around of the empty seats on the hard cam side, which you can see below:
https://twitter.com/JayNetwork2/status/1192245097557118977
Saturday’s AEW Full Gear pay-per-view from the Royal Farms Arena in Baltimore, MD, Ticketmaster shows more than 1,200 tickets left at this link. They are going for $30 – $125. There are also two floor seats that come together, and include the commemorative take-home chair, for $300 each.
Source: Wrestling Inc.
As noted, last night’s AEW Dynamite episode featured a heated promo from Cody Rhodes, who revealed that he will not challenge for the AEW World Title if he’s unable to defeat champion Chris Jericho for it during Saturday’s main event at the Full Gear pay-per-view.
The Rock took to Twitter this morning and praised Cody for the promo.
He wrote, “Rhythm, cadence, tone, intent, passion, execution. Great promo, brother. You [microphone emoji] dropped that MF. @CodyRhodes”
Source: Wrestling Inc.
The O.C. (AJ Styles, Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows) appeared last night on WWE NXT.
As seen below, The Undisputed Era (NXT Champion Adam Cole, NXT North American Champion Roderick Strong, NXT Tag Team Champions Kyle O’Reilly and Bobby Fish) was attacked by The OC outside of the NXT Arena before tonight’s episode. The beatdown aired on the USA Network at 7:50pm ET tonight during Mauro Ranallo’s weekly preview.
They then came to the ring for a promo and were ultimately interrupted by Tommaso Ciampa.
Styles pointed out how Ciampa was outnumbered which prompted Keith Lee and Matt Riddle to come out in support of their brand and to setup a 3-on-3 match later on.
In the closing moments of the match … Ciampa looked to hit his finisher on the WWE United States Champion, but Finn Balor’s music hit causing a distraction. Balor then attacked Riddle on the entrance ramp and AJ Styles threw up a Too Sweet. Finn reciprocated with his finger guns.
Unfortunately, the celebration didn’t last long. Adam Cole interfered shortly after and stopped AJ from hitting the Styles Clash, causing the match to end in no contest. He also hit hit The Last Shot on Ciampa as well for good measure.
The NXT champ and Finn Balor stared each other down to end the show.
Cody Rhodes announced last night on AEW Dynamite that due to the criticisms of him being in a title match and an AEW Executive Vice President, if he doesn’t beat Chris Jericho he will never challenge for the AEW World Title again in his career.
https://twitter.com/AEWonTNT/status/1192254321049526272
Rhodes will take on AEW World Champion Chris Jericho this Saturday at Full Gear in Baltimore.
WWE Hall of Famer Hulk Hogan will be appearing on ABC’s The Goldbergs tonight at 8pm ET. The Goldbergs executive producer Adam F. Goldberg was a huge fan of WWE growing up. As creator of the comedy series that bears his last name, Goldberg often inserts real-life moments of his youth into his show. In a press release sent to Wrestling Inc., Goldberg named attending WrestleMania IV as one of the greatest moments of his life when he was a kid.
“Growing up, I was the biggest wrestling fan,” recalled Goldberg. “One of the greatest moments of my life was attending WrestleMania IV in Atlantic City for my birthday when I was a kid. I went with my Dad and brother Barry and even though we had the worst seats in the house, we still had the time of our lives.”
In tonight’s episode, entitled Wrestlemania, Murray decides to buy WrestleMania tickets to spend time with Barry and Adam, but he buys fake tickets so they can’t get in.
“That was the day that turned my Dad into a wrestling fan, and his favorite was Hulk Hogan,” recalled Goldberg. “It was bittersweet to have Hulk guest star on the show and not have my Dad there to see it.”
Goldberg and his father bonded over that Wrestlemania experience.
“Because my Dad loved The Hulk, I chose The Ultimate Warrior as my favorite,” said Goldberg. “One of the greatest moments in making The Goldbergs was to discover that The Ultimate Warrior was a huge Goldbergs fan and shared it with his daughters before he passed away. I got to meet his family and talk about my experiences growing up with my own father watching wrestling and it was an amazing healing moment for all of us.”
Hogan is not the first WWE Superstar to appear in The Goldbergs. Bill Goldberg often appears in The Goldbergs as the school’s gym teacher, Nick Mellor.
“WrestleMania” was written by Erik Weiner with a story by Adam F. Goldberg and Erik Weiner, and directed by Lew Schneider. Adam F. Goldberg, Doug Robinson, Alex Barnow, Chris Bishop and Annette Davis are executive producers. “The Goldbergs” is produced by Happy Madison, Doug Robinson Productions and Adam F. Goldberg Productions, in association with Sony Pictures Television.
NWA is coming to RetroMania.
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.
You can find more information about the game by clicking here.
If you missed anything from Tuesday’s NWA Powerrr, you can watch the episode by clicking here.
Source: Fightful
Tonight’s AEW Dynamite will air live from Bojangles’ Coliseum in Charlotte, North Carolina. Tonight is the go-home show for this Saturday’s Full Gear PPV in Baltimore.
* Cody Rhodes makes his big career announcement
* Kenny Omega and Adam Page vs. Sammy Guevara and AEW World Champion Chris Jericho
* PAC vs. Trent
