Monday’s WWE RAW will take place from the Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids, Michigan for the last RAW before Elimination Chamber.
* Becky Lynch invited to Raw again by the McMahon Family after her controversial actions last week
* How will Seth Rollins respond to Brock Lesnar?
* Did Finn Bálor earn his Intercontinental Championship Match?
* Ruby Riott sets her sights on the Raw Women’s Championship
Earlier this week, a commercial aired in Canada during RAW for the upcoming RAW and SmackDown tapings in Montreal on April 15 and 16. The promo said that “the first international Superstar Shake-up” will occur at each show.
In the video below, WWE has confirmed those dates are indeed when this year’s Superstar Shake-up will take place.
Last year’s took place on April 16 and 17. The Shake-up saw Jeff Hardy, Samoa Joe, R-Truth, Mandy Rose, Sonya Deville, Asuka, Sheamus & Cesaro as the top stars moved from RAW to SmackDown. Kevin Owens, Dolph Ziggler, Jinder Mahal, Sami Zayn, The Riott Squad, Natalya, Baron Corbin, Bobby Roode, Chad Gable, Mojo Rawley and Zack Ryder were among the names moved to RAW.
Source: WrestlingINC
WWE Co-President George Barrios commented on the launch of a “new wrestling organization” during today’s fourth quarter 2018 WWE earnings call. The caller was presumably asking about All Elite Wrestling, wondering if AEW has caused an impact on the market for talent, and if WWE is seeing more cost inflation due to their launch.
“Yeah, too early to tell. We wouldn’t talk about specifics of that,” Barrios said. “From our perspective, we think we are the premiere global organization with the greatest wrestlers in the world, one of the greatest platforms. We have a lot of confidence in our ability to manage that.”
Source: WrestlingINC
WWE fourth quarter earnings showed the company brought in tens of millions in additional revenue for its Crown Jewel event in Saudi Arabia and Super Show-Down in Australia.
While the earnings report didn’t specifically break down numbers for each event, it noted the revenue jump from $20 million in the final quarter of 2017 to $64 million in Q4 of 2018 was “primarily due to the distribution of certain live, in-ring programming content in international markets as reflected in ‘other.’”
If you’re trying to do the math in your head, that means an additional $43 million — the bulk of which likely came from Crown Jewel and Super Show-Down.
Back in the second quarter of 2018, we reported The Greatest Royal Rumble generated an additional $40 million in revenue for WWE. Q2 earnings showed $60 million in “other” revenue versus $12 million in Q2 of 2017.
While we’d presume Crown Jewel generated more revenue that Super Show-Down, it doesn’t appear to have brought in the same amount as WWE’s original event in Saudi Arabia.
Crown Jewel took place November 2 in Riyadh amid a cloud of controversy over whether or not the show should be produced. The event followed the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Stars John Cena and Daniel Bryan requested to not appear at the show. The broadcast instead featured the in-ring return of Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels and WWE comeback of Hulk Hogan.
For 2018, the “other” category in WWE’s media segment saw nearly $100 million in additional revenue. The bulk of that would’ve come from Greatest Royal Rumble, Crown Jewel, and Super Show-Down.
It’s worth noting WWE saw year-to-year growth in all major media segments including network, core content rights fees, and advertising and sponsorship.
WWE continued to see revenue drop for live events, however. In Q4, WWE brought in $34 million compared to $35 million in the same time period the preview year. Full 2018 live events were off roughly $8 million from 2017.
Source: Pro Wrestling Sheet
2018 was the first year of the announced 10 year partnership with WWE and the Saudi Arabia. WWE is expected hold events in Saudi Arabia in May and November of this year.
Source: WrestlingINC
Former NFL player (Indianapolis Colts Punter) Pat McAfee has officially signed with WWE.
McAfee tweeted the following video and revealed that he has signed a multi-year deal to work as a WWE Digital correspondent. He thanked Triple H and Michael Cole, and wrote, “Good morning beautiful people.. today’s a pretty massive day for me. I can officially say I’m a @WWE employee. A real lifelong dream coming true thanks to @MichaelCole and @TripleH.. This opportunity means the world to me. Let’s. Go.”
The video includes footage of McAfee mixing it up at an indie event in 2008 or 2009. He teases an interest in returning to the ring, noting that signing with WWE is his childhood dream as he grew up during the Attitude Era and the Monday Night Wars. McAfee said he and WWE go side-by-side with each other.
The video also includes audio from Cole, who confirms that as of February 1, McAfee is officially a WWE contributor.
Source: WrestlingINC
It’s now confirmed by a network executive that WWE SmackDown will air live when it moves to Fox on Friday, October 9. However, it sounds like Friday nights may not be a permanent timeslot for the blue brand.
Fox Entertainment CEO Charlie Collier spoke about SmackDown during the Fox executive session at the Television Critics Association press tour this week. He confirmed that SmackDown will air live, which we had reported previously.
“It’s live, and what’s remarkable [is] these are people that know their audience,” said Collier, who admitted he is a longtime pro wrestling fan. “They’re great storytellers and I think it fits beautifully with what we’re doing.”
Gamespot’s Chris Hayner covered the speech and revealed on Twitter that Collier said WWE is on Friday nights for the “short term,” indicating that it could be moved to another night. Hayner tweeted: “‘Short term, Friday night is going to WWE,’ Collier says when asked about Last Man Standing. That show could go elsewhere. But WWE being ‘short term’ Fridays tells me they may move it around.”
https://twitter.com/ChrisHayner/status/1093233580216438785
It was also confirmed that more WWE content is planned for the new partnership with Fox as they look to treat wrestling more as a sport than a weekly, episode TV series.
“The Fox sports networks, FS1, and others, will have some other wrestling–not live Smackdown, not Raw, but other ties to the WWE world,” Collier revealed.
There’s no word yet on what kind if content they have planned but it was speculated that we will see recap shows and “talking head series” on FS1.
Sasha Banks missed this past weekend’s WWE live events because she was reportedly not cleared for competition after her match against Ronda Rousey at WWE Royal Rumble.
On the latest Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer explained that Sasha Banks is still not cleared for competition and she was not cleared prior to her tag team match on this past Monday’s RAW. This likely explains why Nikki Cross & Alicia Fox attacked Banks & Bayley prior to the match, forcing Bayley to work the entire match alone while Banks was hurt in the corner.
Meltzer notes that the decision to even allow Banks near ringside is rare and was likely done so they could progress the storyline and advertise all six teams for the women’s tag team Elimination Chamber match.
The extent of Banks’ injury is unknown but WWE is confident that Banks will be ready to compete at WWE Elimination Chamber on February 17.
Source: WrestlingINC
As All Elite Wrestling gears up for its Double or Nothing Ticket Announcement Party on February 7 in Vegas, the formation of the new promotion has already opened up the possibilities of siphoning away talent from other major promotions.
With Chris Jericho already on board, Kenny Omega reportedly on the way, and a potential TV deal that is reportedly the best deal any non-WWE wrestling show will have secured since WCW days, it was only a matter of time before offers began making their way to WWE Superstars.
According to @WrestleVotes, “AEW has made an ‘outstanding’ offer to a current, big time WWE Superstar. An offer that is almost too good to turn down.” In the comments people asked who it was, but the account said they wouldn’t release the name.
Wrestle Votes has broken stories in the past and first reported on Daniel Bryan’s new WWE Title before it aired on TV.
As noted, some bigger names in WWE have made news in regards to their WWE contracts. Dean Ambrose decided not to re-sign with WWE when his contract ends in April. Last week, AJ Styles shot down reports that he had re-signed with WWE.
Source: WrestlingINC
Tonight’s WWE SmackDown Live will take place from the Angel of the Winds Arena in Everett, Washington.
* WWE Champion Daniel Bryan vs. Jeff Hardy (Non-Title Match)
* Gallows & Anderson vs. Rusev (with Lana) and Shinsuke Nakamura
* Randy Orton vs. Mustafa Ali
Tonight’s WWE 205 Live will take place from the Angel of the Winds Arena in Everett, Washington.
* Why did Ariya Daivari disrespect Hideo Itami?
* Should Humberto Carrillo risk crossing Drew Gulak and Jack Gallagher?
