The final betting odds for most of the matches that will take place at the WWE Survivor Series pay-per-view event have been released.
The card for the show that takes place this Sunday (November 22, 2020) from Orlando, Florida at the Amway Center has likely been finalized as only six matches have been announced with WWE expected to announce a pre-show contest.
Survivor Series Betting Odds
The favorites to win are listed as – while the underdogs are listed with +. Odds call for all three titles to change. Here are the final betting odds courtesy of BetOnline:
WWE Champion Drew McIntyre +150 vs. WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns -200
RAW Women\’s Champion Asuka +120 vs. SmackDown Women\’s Champion Sasha Banks -160
WWE United States Champion Bobby Lashley -325 vs. WWE Intercontinental Champion Sami Zayn +225
RAW Tag Team Champions The New Day -120 vs. SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Street Profits -120
Team RAW -180 (Keith Lee, AJ Styles, Sheamus, Braun Strowman, Matt Riddle) vs. Team SmackDown +140 (Kevin Owens, Jey Uso, Seth Rollins, Baron Corbin, TBA) – Men\’s Traditional 5-on-5 Elimination Match
Team RAW +140 (Team Captains: WWE Women\’s Tag Team Champions Shayna Baszler and Nia Jax, Peyton Royce, Lacey Evans, and Lana) vs. Team SmackDown -180 (Bianca Belair, Ruby Riott, Liv Morgan, TBA) – Women\’s Traditional 5-on-5 Elimination Match
Make sure to join us this weekend for match recaps and our takeaways from this latest pay-per-view event held by WWE.
Monday’s edition of WWE RAW averaged 1.778 million viewers with a 0.51 rating in the key 18-49 demographic. This was up from last week in total viewers, which did 1.690 million viewers, but down for the 0.54 demo rating.
WWE went up against an NFL game that aired on ESPN, which was between the Vikings and Bears that had 11.450 million viewers.
To compare, just one year ago, RAW averaged 2.127 million viewers. This show not only served as the go-home show for Survivor Series but also featured WWE Champion Randy Orton vs. Drew McIntyre as well as RAW Tag Team Champions New Day vs. The Hurt Business. These matches were done to help boost ratings for a week.
Here’s the hourly viewership breakdown for Raw, courtesy of Showbuzzdaily.com:
Hour 1: 1.868 million, 0.55 in the 18-49 Demo
Hour 2: 1.740 million, 0.48 in the 18-49 Demo
Hour 3: 1.728 million, 0.50 in the 18-49 Demo
SmackDown Viewership
Friday’s SmackDown averaged 2.234 million viewers on FOX. This is down from the 2.315 that the show did for the previous week on FOX.
The overnight rating was 2.142 million viewers, which was down from 2.209 a week ago. The first hour did 2.111 million viewers while hour two did 2.172 million viewers. This was up from a week ago with hour one doing 2.312 and hour two doing 2.155.
SmackDown pulled in a 0.60 rating in the 18-49 demos, down from 0.70 rating as last week’s show.
Kurt Angle could\’ve made a return to Impact Wrestling earlier this year.
The promotion reportedly made a strong push to have Angle come back after being away for several years. PWinsider.com reports that Impact came up with for him to appear at the Bound For Glory pay-per-view event last month.
The report goes onto state that while they did have talks, those conversations stalled. It should be noted that he posted this photo on Twitter with the TNA title last month:
The WWE Hall of Famer has stated in previous interviews that his focus is now on his Physically Fit Nutrition business. Once he was let go as a producer for WWE, he was offered to be the manager of Matt Riddle but turned down the opportunity.
With Angle being outside of the WWE bubble, there’s been some hope from fans regarding him potentially going to AEW, a direct rival of WWE as they’re seen as the second biggest promotion in the United States.
“The thing is, when I came back to WWE, I wasn’t expecting what I got, and I was very grateful. I got the Hall of Fame. I wanted the Hall of Fame, but I didn’t want it first. I wanted it last, and I wanted to wrestle first.”
Angle is a member of the Impact Wrestling Hall of Fame but hasn’t made an appearance for the company since March 2016.
There have been some changes to the card for Sunday\’s WWE Survivor Series PPV.
The biggest thing to note is Randy Orton no longer facing WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns. During Monday’s episode of RAW, “The Viper\” failed to successfully retain the WWE Title against Drew McIntyre. Instead, McIntyre won the title.
Due to WWE touting this as a champion vs. champion match, McIntyre will replace Orton in the bout to face Reigns. There’s no word yet on what Orton will do on this show.
WWE has also made a change to the Women’s Team RAW for Survivor Series by pulling Mandy Rose and Dana Brooke from the match. WWE did an injury angle with these two stars thanks to an attack on Rose by Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler in a match while Brooke was attacked by Reckoning backstage a little bit later.
Peyton Royce and Lacey Evans will be working the match in their places.
Updated WWE Survivor Series Card
WWE Champion Drew McIntyre vs. WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns
RAW Women\’s Champion Asuka vs. SmackDown Women\’s Champion Sasha Banks
WWE United States Champion Bobby Lashley vs. WWE Intercontinental Champion Sami Zayn
RAW Tag Team Champions The New Day vs. SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Street Profits
Team RAW (Keith Lee, AJ Styles, Sheamus, Braun Strowman, Matt Riddle) vs. Team SmackDown (Kevin Owens, Jey Uso, Seth Rollins, Baron Corbin, TBA) – Men\’s Traditional 5-on-5 Elimination Match
Team RAW (Team Captains: WWE Women\’s Tag Team Champions Shayna Baszler and Nia Jax, Peyton Royce, Lacey Evans, and Lana) vs. Team SmackDown (Bianca Belair, Ruby Riott, Liv Morgan, TBA) – Women\’s Traditional 5-on-5 Elimination Match
After having several matches over the last few months on pay-per-view, WWE decided to book a rare WWE Championship bout on Monday Night Raw.
Randy Orton put the gold on the line against Drew McIntyre during the main event of the show. Midway through, Orton teased leaving ringside until Adam Pearce announced that it was no disqualifications.
They tried to do a table bump, but the table wouldn’t break. They moved onto a normal table instead of the announce table. Orton was pushed off the apron crashing to the floor through the table, which sliced open the back of Orton.
The finish saw McIntyre hit the Claymore Kick for the win to begin his second WWE Championship reign.
McIntyre will move onto his next match, a non-title match against WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns. This bout, which is being touted as champion vs. champion, is slated to take place at the Survivor Series pay-per-view event.
This feud dates back to August. McIntyre successfully retained the WWE Title over Orton at SummerSlam with a backslide before going to the Payback show where McIntyre beat “The Viper” in an Ambulance match thanks to outside interference from a few legends.
The future WWE Hall of Famer dethroned McIntyre as WWE Champion at last month’s Hell in a Cell pay-per-view event.
Nia Jax has found herself under fire from fans thanks to comments she made regarding COVID-19.
People all over the world have dealt with the virus and numbers have skyrocketed in the United States over the past few weeks.
Some positive news came out last week regarding the COVID-19 vaccine that is currently in development. It’s been reported that Moderna’s vaccine is around 94.5% effective in preventing the spread of the virus. It should be noted that this is just based on interim data from a late-stage trial.
The WWE star took to her Instagram stories where she noted that she is in no way prepared to be vaccinated when it’s ready to hopefully eliminate the illness.
“The Covid Vaccine is 90% effective after 8 months of development, when the flu vaccine is 40% effective after 70 years of development. I’ll go with my immune system, as it’s 99.9% effective. God made my immune system and I trust him the most.”
It’s expected that there will be some people unhappy about her take on the matter considering that WWE has dealt with constant outbreaks of COVID-19. Because of this, it has caused a more chaotic backstage environment over the past couple of weeks and months.
In fact, WWE NXT has been hit the hardest and most recently due to a group of wrestlers attending a party.
Shortly after Aleister Black’s wife was released by WWE on Friday, an interesting report came out about his status with the company.
WWE announced Zelina Vega’s release just minutes after she tweeted, “I support unionization.”
It turns out that Black had tried to go back to WWE NXT where he found success as a top star for the brand only to be turned down. This is according to a new report by WrestleVotes.
Although Black had hoped to work under Triple H once again, that request was denied. This all comes at an interesting time.
WrestleVotes tweeted, “There’s a bit more behind the scenes to the Zelina Vega release. Frustration from both sides is an understatement. While it can’t be directly tied to today’s news, Aleister Black recently requested to move back to NXT and was denied. Dissension amongst the parties involved.”
Of course, if Black could go back to NXT, a brand that he became the top champion in, it would mean that he would be away from Vince McMahon, who oversees all creative on the main roster – Monday Night RAW and SmackDown.
Black was traded to SmackDown from Raw during this year’s Draft. It should be noted that Black didn’t appear on Friday’s episode of SmackDown.
Sasha Banks has moved on from feuding with Bayley for the WWE SmackDown Women’s Title.
Digital Spy has an article covering this feud that has been on and off again for a few years now on the main roster.
2020 was the year that the feud came full circle from them being best friends to tag team champions to them facing off as a babyface and heel in singles competition.
During this interview, Banks was asked if a WrestleMania match between her and Bayley was the ultimate goal.
\”I just want to have the most fun time that I can have in WWE. Whether that\’s Bayley at WrestleMania, whether that\’s Liv Morgan, whether that\’s Ruby Riott – it could be anybody.
But, of course, to main event WrestleMania is still one of my biggest dreams and to do that with Bayley would be ultimately a dream come true.\”
Banks is slated to take on WWE RAW Women’s Champion Asuka in a non-title match at the upcoming Survivor Series pay-per-view event on November 22 in Orlando, Florida at the Amway Center that will air on the WWE Network. Bayley doesn\’t have a match lined up just yet.
Zelina Vega further commented on her departure from WWE when she made her return to Twitch.
On Friday, WWE announced that they had released Vega from her contract. It’s been reported that this release was due to the fallout from the recent edict from Vince McMahon about talent using third-party platforms such as Twitch and Cameo.
“I don’t know how to start this at all. I wouldn’t have the success that I have if it wasn’t for you guys, if it wasn’t for WWE. If it wasn’t for the people that believed in me from the start.”
She named people like Andrade, Norman Smiley, Terry Taylor, Tommy Dreamer, The Rock, Triple H, and Stephanie McMahon. Vega continued by noting that all she ever wanted was to be a WWE star and this was something that her late father wanted as well.
“Thanks to WWE, I was able to do it. For my match with Asuka, I had his name [on my gear]. I’m not mad at anyone. I’m not saying anything bad. I’m thankful. This is all I wanted to do … I’m sad. I’m completely heartbroken. Obviously, this isn’t the last you will see of me. I love you all and I’m thankful for every single one of you. If I go down as someone that stood up for themselves, so be it.”
In a surprising move, WWE announced the release of Zelina Vega on Friday evening.
Pwinsider.com has a report as to why she has been released from her contract. It was noted that this move was the fallout from the recent edict from Vince McMahon which prevents talents from continuing activity on third-party platforms such as Twitch and Cameo.
WWE is looking to spearheading those relationships and use talents under the umbrella of the company on these platforms as a part of their contractual duties.
Vega was told about the departure this afternoon and will be on the sidelines for a few months as she’s under the traditional 90-day non-compete clause. This will prevent her from working for any promotion with TV distribution through mid-February 2021.
It was said that her departure was not a result of her tweet in support of unionization. Instead, the word going around WWE is the departure was made before the twee was sent out.
The report states Vega had been extremely vocal about maintaining her Twitch account after the edict was issued last month.
Some people in WWE are speculating if Vega was released to \”send a message\” to others in the company in order for them to follow the third-party platform edict.
As expected, Chelsea Green is on the WWE main roster.
Fightful Select reported today that creative was told that Green was slated to debut \”imminently.” The tentative plans call for her to be on the SmackDown brand as of this afternoon.
Fast forward to this week’s show, she competed in a Fatal Four-Way match to determine the final member of the Women\’s Team SmackDown at Survivor Series. Those involved in the bout were Natalya, Liv Morgan, and Tamina. The finish saw Morgan pin Tamina.
If you recall, Green was supposed to be called up from NXT to the main roster back in May to be placed on Monday Night RAW. However, once Paul Heyman was removed as the RAW Executive Director earlier this year, Green was put on the shelf. Vanessa Borne was also said to be in a similar position.
In fact, she hasn’t appeared on NXT television in several months. She had a brief run as a solo act after turning on Robert Stone, who had been serving as her manager.
Green did confirm back in September that she tested positive for COVID-19.
The 29-year-old wrestler is a graduate of Lance Storm’s Storm Wrestling Academy. Before joining WWE, she got over her “Hot Mess” Laurel Van Ness persona in Impact Wrestling. While with the promotion, she won the Knockouts Title.
WWE released several wrestlers back in April and since that time, continues to release employees. The company just fired a number of people who worked in the live event department of the company.
Due to the financial hit of the coronavirus and WWE needing to keep profits up, the company decided to do mass talent and staff cuts. It has to be noted that WWE is making more money than ever thanks to huge money deals from FOX and the USA Network.
Among the wrestlers released back in April includes the likes of Miro, The Good Brothers, Serena Deeb, No Way Jose, EC3, and others. Many of the released wrestlers have found new homes in Impact Wrestling, ROH, and AEW.
Dave Meltzer reported in the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that some of the released talents that eventually went to work elsewhere were offered to return for less money.
There is no word on who was offered lower-money contracts, but it was reported by Fightful that one of the names WWE is interested in bringing back is No Way Jose.
All the way back to June it was reported that WWE had been contacting wrestlers about possibly returning to the company.
Kane was asked a question that is on the minds of all fans these days when it comes to The Undertaker.
During an interview with Ryan Satin for WWE on FOX, “The Big Red Machine” commented on whether he thinks Taker is actually retired for good from in-ring action or if he thinks WWE Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon can confince “The Phenom” to come back one more time.
“Whether you can actually say this is gonna be it, it … I don’t know. WWE is one of those deals where it’s a little bit like the mafia, in that you never get to quite leave. I’m sure with someone whose been as important as The Undertaker, that he will be around in some form or fashion for quite some time.”
“Hotel California. You can check out, but you can never leave. That’s kind of the way it goes. It’s always the one more that gets you, right? Just one more. Then there’s always just one more after the just one more it seems like.”
The Undertaker originally debuted for WWE at Survivor Series 1990 so WWE officials decided to do a tribute to the legendary pro wrestler at next Sunday’s event, which is being
As of this writing, there’s no word yet on why she was exactly released by the company, but she did send out this interesting message on her Twitter account about unionization before WWE announced her departure:
While not to speculate about the reason she was released, it could be due to WWE’s ban on wrestlers using third-party platforms such as Twitch and Cameo. Vega is part of these platforms as she has a big following on them
Paige also summoned up what a lot of people thought of this decision:
Vega signed a full-time deal with WWE in 2017 where she was later paired up with Andrade as his manager. He became an NXT and United States Champion during this time.
WWE split up the duo this past September and Vegas was later sent to SmackDown.
AEW has a large number of wrestlers under contract these days ranging from various notable top stars such as Chris Jericho and Jon Moxley to lower-tiered stars who work on the undercard.
As expected, All Elite Wrestling has different contracts in place depending on the level of activity of wrestlers. Dave Meltzer broke down these different contracts in the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer.
For wrestlers who work Dark tapings, they are signed to per date deals. An exception to this rule was Benjamin Carter, who is now under contract with WWE. It was noted that the majority of wrestlers who appear on AEW television has “one deal or another.”
Wrestlers who AEW publicly announces to signing with the promotion are given weekly guarantees. On Thursday, AEW announced that Jade Cargill had signed a multi-year deal and she would be included in this category.
\’Newcomers\’ in AEW are making more than WWE NXT contracts as that’s the general rule, but if these same stars were on WWE main roster they would be making more in the sports entertainment company.
During his recent appearance on the AEW Unrestricted podcast, Cody Rhodes discussed AEW having different tiers of talent contracts and joked that the the top tier is the \’Jericho level.\’
The November 11, 2020 episode of WWE NXT aired live on the USA Network from Orlando, Florida at the Capitol Wrestling Center.
WWE NXT Results
Leon Ruff def. Johnny Gargano to win North American Title
Santos Escobar def. Jake Atlas to retain Cruiserweight Title
Candice LeRae def. Toni Storm
Timothy Thatcher def. Dexter Lumis
Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch def. Breezango to retain NXT Tag Team Titles
Here are the takeaways from this week’s show:
Toni Storm vs. Candice LeRae
Photo Credit: WWE.com
Toni Storm vs. Candice LeRae in a singles match took place. LeRae ended up winning the match.
Post-match, the mystery person came out and attacked Storm only for Shotzi Blackheart to try to make the save but the numbers were too much. The mystery person was revealed as Indi Heartwell.
Just last week on NXT, LeRae got involved in Storm vs. Blackheart, but that didn’t stop Storm from getting the win against Blackheart due to Blackheart being distracted by LeRae appearing on the video screen. Post-match, LeRae ran over Blackheart\’s tank and destroyed it.
Not only was the tank crushed, but the feelings of Blackheart. If you recall, Blackheart stopped LeRae from being able to cheat via outside interference in her TLC Match against NXT Women’s Champion Io Shirai on Halloween Havoc.
Blackheart laid the person in the Scream costume out and Shirai retained her title. Since returning to television last month, Storm has gotten wins against Aliyah and Blackheart.
Johnny Gargano defended his NXT North American Title against a mystery opponent, which turned out to be Leon Ruff.
In what turned out to be a short match, Ruff actually won the title when Damian Priest came out and distracted Gargano. This led to Ruff rolling up Gargano with a crucifix driver for the pinfall win. The match only went about four minutes.
On last week’s show, WWE aired a segment where Gargano cut a promo about having short title reigns and losing his first title defenses are the only blemishes on his legacy. Thus, he wanted a worthy opponent.
WWE picked his opponent by having names of several stars listed on a wheel that was spun to determine who he’d be facing. Priest, Roderick Strong, Pete Dunne, Dexter Lumis, Bronson Reed, Cameron Grimes, Austin Theory, Tommaso Ciampa, NXT Cruiserweight Champion Santos Escobar, Adam Cole, The Velveteen Dream, Kyle O\’Reilly, Kushida, and Timothy Thatcher were listed.
Gargano won the North American Championship by defeating Damian Priest in a Devil\’s Playground match at Halloween Havoc thanks to getting help from an unidentified person wearing a Scream costume.
Pat McAfee Wants To Talk
Pat McAfee walked out to the ring with the NXT Tag Team Champions Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch along with Pete Dunne. They showed off footage of their attack on Killer Dain from last week.
McAfee started out by saying that Dunne has been on a tear since coming back. He recalled attacking Kyle O’Reilly two weeks ago with a chair then slamming a door onto the head of Dain. He said that this is the best four-man group in the history of pro wrestling.
McAfee said that his business is worth $150 million, he got text messages from Tom Brady, and he almost died getting to Orlando due to a tropical storm. He called the fans the dumbest community on the internet. He joined commentary for the main event.
Once again, McAfee is a perfect fit to be the manager of this group.
Breezango got their rematch against NXT Tag Team Champions Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch.
This was a wild back and forth match. Lorcan and Burch successfully retained the titles as expected. This was their best match to date.
Another match between these two teams with the titles yet again being on the line. This division needs some help and quickly. As expected and despite the lack of booking, it was a fun match.
We actually saw the title change just two weeks ago when Pat McAfee returned to NXT to help Lorcan & Burch win the NXT Tag Team titles from Breezango. This started a four-person group with the introduction of Pete Dunne, which is a way to feud with The Undisputed Era.
Raquel Gonzalez vs. Xia Li in a singles match was set up when William Regal agreed to give Li the match after she asked for it last week.
Raquel has been pushed more and more lately after just being an enforcer for Dakota Kai. She had been in a feud with Rhea Ripley that recently ended. On the flip side, Li has been left on the sidelines to the point where she had to demand a match from the NXT General Manager.
It turns out that the match never happened. Instead, Big Boa, Li’s manager, came out to the ring to inform Raquel that there wouldn’t be a match tonight. As a result, Raquel attacked Boa and threw him into the barricade.
After Raquel hit her finisher to Boa, a mystery older man came out and gave a letter to Boa. He marked the hand of Boa then the two of them bowed. That was the segment.
AEW booked an interesting segment during this week’s episode of Dynamite. Cody Rhodes made his way out to the ring to cut a promo about how he wants another match with MJF and congratulated AEW TNT Champion Darby Allin on his win.
This led to Jade Cargill coming out, which marked her debut, to cut a promo about how Rhodes is a so-called, \”giant killer.\”
She’s been at ringside for several weeks and has been not only watching her competition but Cody as well. She noted she knows a giant of her own and revealed it was Shaquille O\’Neal, or \”Shaq.\”
This led to Brandi Rhodes coming out and trading words with Jade. For those who may not know, O\’Neal was backstage at this past weekend\’s Full Gear. Shaq has previously teased wanting to wrestle Rhodes.
Jon Moxley did an interview with Fight Game Media and during it, he revealed that Eddie Kingston was not originally planned to be his most recent title contender.
Moxley successfully retained the AEW World Heavyweight Title against Kingston at the Full Gear PPV.
\”I had a whole other set of plans for everything I was going to do with Lance (Archer), I had a whole different thing. I won’t reveal it in case I go back to it and do something similar. The thing with Eddie (Kingston), it was just a bridge for the night, like we have this big advertised main event but it’s 2020.”
Moxley continued by noting that the fans are sympathetic to the shows being changed at the last minute due to one of the wrestlers being in contact with someone who has COVID. Thus, his original match with Lance Archer was nixed and a new match with Kingston on Dynamite was made.
He knew as soon as the match was over after he had choked out Kingston that they had something as Kingston was saying he never tapped out and it was so obvious.
\”So then, I Quit Match – four weeks of promos, easy money. I haven’t handpicked any opponent – whatever they’ve put in front of me for this whole title reign, whatever opponent, whatever style I just try to take on that new challenge every single time but this one I kind of gave a nod, it just makes all the sense in the world because we hadn’t finalized the plans yet for the pay-per-view.\”
Moxley stated that Kingston said he never tapped and he instantly saw the whole story in his head. Moxley also noted that Tony Khan knew this as well so he gave them the confidence of doing the match at Full Gear.
#AEW champ Jon Moxley recorded another podcast with us. It will be up in a couple of hours.
James Storm made his return to Impact Wrestling as a surprise entrant in the Call Your Shot Gauntlet Battle Royal at the Bound For Glory pay-per-view event.
Just because he made an appearance at the show doesn’t mean he\’s back in the promotion full-time.
The former TNA World Heavyweight Champion recently responded to fans on Twitter to clarify that he is not fully back with the promotion. Instead, he felt that he just couldn\’t pass up the opportunity to come in to help out.
No. I was asked to come in and help out and that’s what I did. It was fun as wrestling should be and they have a lot of upside for sure. https://t.co/TVFFUheM7I
For those who may not know, the \”one more\” Storm is referring to is this Saturday at Impact Turning Point special. This is where he’ll team up with Chris Sabin to take on XXXL (Larry D and Acey Romero).
In addition to working for Impact, he’s still working shows for the NWA via UWN Primetime Live. This past Tuesday on the show he teamed up with Eli Drake in an NWA Tag Team Title bout against Aron Stevens and JR Kratos.
A few months ago, Storm made headlines by revealing that WWE was planning to bring him in and work on the main roster. However, the COVID-19 pandemic nixed those plans.
Jake Hager reflected on winning the WWE World Heavyweight Championship while talking with Chris Jericho.
Hager went by the name of Jack Swagger in WWE and in March 2010, he was the holder of the Money in the Bank briefcase. This allowed him to cash-in to challenge for the WWE Championship or the World Heavyweight Championship at any moment.
Ultimately, he won the World Heavyweight Title by beating Jericho. However, original plans called for him to win the WWE Title from John Cena.
During an appearance on Talk Is Jericho, Hager talked about how things change.
\”I had a little inclination, but I had no idea what was going to happen. The night before, I teased it on Raw. I hit Cena with the briefcase, I snuck up on him when he had one of his brilliant promo segments. Later, come to find out, he refused to do the job for me for the [WWE] Championship. We won\’t talk about that. Ugh. \’The most unselfish top man in the business.”
Hager also recalled how his night to win the title came about as he was in Phoenix and got a call about coming to Vegas. He got to the arena early and he’s waiting around for a meeting to start. He saw John Laurinaitis go into an office room then Jericho and Edge. He entered the room to get more details.
Hager recalled Jericho telling him to not screw up this chance and was being dead serious and very sincere. This made him think of his wrestling coach and that was the start of him looking up to Jericho while knowing that he knew he could trust him.
The title change happened on an episode of SmackDown in less than a week after he won the Money in the Bank briefcase at WrestleMania XXVI.
If it was up to The Young Bucks, they wouldn’t be the AEW Tag Team Champions right now.
Nick and Matt Jackson recently spoke with Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated to discuss their title win over FTR at last Saturday’s Full Gear pay-per-view event.
In this interview, Nick revealed that they wanted to wait until 2021 to win the straps because they didn’t think it would hurt them to not be the champions. However, AEW President & CEO Tony Khan wanted them to win the titles now so the title change was made.
\”If we\’d won them right away, there wouldn\’t have been a struggle for our characters,\” Nick said. \”We actually wanted to hold back for another year, so winning now was a Tony [Khan] call, but I\’m glad it happened at the pay-per-view. It felt special, and winning it from FTR in this rivalry, in a match we never thought would happen, took it over the top.\”
Matt noted that they wanted their story to be painful by losing and when fans thought they would start winning again, they’d lose more matches. He noted that they know the feeling of when that pain turns to celebration. However, they believe the right time for them was now after talking with Khan.
Matt thinks they worked in arguably the biggest tag-team match of the last five years and did so by coming out with the titles in the company we helped start.
Tony Khan did an interview with TSN to talk about a wide range of topics involving AEW. During the discussion, AEW\’s President provided an update on the status of a third AEW show, which will be the second series to air on TNT.
It’s been well documented that Dynamite isn’t getting a third hour, but rather aside from Dynamite and Dark, which airs on YouTube, AEW will be having a new program arrive on TNT.
For the longest time, the belief was that the new show would air in 2020. However, Khan noted that the show is set to arrive on TNT in the coming months.
“It’s going to launch in 2021,” Khan said of the new show. “We’ve worked it out with TNT. It’s 100 per cent going to launch in 2021. I don’t have the exact date yet, but I would look out for it soon and it’s right around the corner.”
Khan continued by noting that he hopes to see growth for the promotion 2021 after a successful 2019 and 2020.
If the pay-per-views come in higher in 2021 than in 2020, that would be incredible and I’d like to see us hit new highs for Dynamite.”
Hoping to build upon the momentum AEW has built in 2020, Khan is confident that the company will continue to grow next year. Once again, he teased that AEW has some aces up their sleeve to help achieve this goal.
“I think we’ve got some big matches and some big surprises ahead where it’s going to be really possible to do that,” Khan said.
Other topics discussed include Le Dinner Debonair, the possibility of working with NJPW and wanting AEW to serve as a \”hub\” for other promotions. Check out the full interview here.
Monday’s edition of WWE RAW averaged 1.690 million viewers with a 0.54 rating in the key 18-49 demographic. This was up from last week, which did 1.656 million viewers and 0.48 demo rating.
WWE went up against an NFL game that aired on ESPN, which was between the Patriots and Jets that had 9.828 million viewers.
To compare, just one year ago, RAW averaged 2.135 million viewers. The biggest thing to note is the third hour rebounded after setting its all-time low last week with 1.455 million.
Here’s the hourly viewership breakdown for Raw, courtesy of Showbuzzdaily.com:
Hour 1: 1.847 million, 0.58 in the 18-49 Demo
Hour 2: 1.690 million, 0.53 in the 18-49 Demo
Hour 3: 1.532 million, 0.49 in the 18-49 Demo
WWE Champion Randy Orton, The Miz and John Morrison vs. Drew McIntyre and RAW Tag Team Champions The New Day served as the main event.
SmackDown Viewership
Friday’s SmackDown averaged 2.135 million viewers on FOX. This is up from the 2.286 that the show did for the previous week on FX.
The overnight rating was 2.209 million viewers. The first hour did 2.312 million viewers while hour two did 2.155 million viewers. This was up from the 2.133 a week ago with hour one doing 2.115 and hour two doing 2.151.
SmackDown pulled in a 0.70 rating in the 18-49 demos, up from 0.60 rating as last week’s show.
Alexa Bliss made an appearance on Alison Rosen “Is Your New Best Friend Podcast” where she discussed a wide range of topics including WWE labeling their talent as independent contractors.
A fan asked the question and about the criticism that WWE faces for doing this. Bliss defended the company over this topic.
“WWE takes care of us 100%, we all are in a contract, and anything that happens inside the ring, WWE takes care of. Our health is 100% priority, our health and safety is 100% priority in the company.
Unfortunately, we’re living in the middle of a cancel culture, where people try to start rumors, and make their assumptions of things. There has never been a time where I’ve ever felt uncomfortable about being in the ring, or ever felt forced about being in the ring.
Even when I was injured, I had concussions, and Vince said ‘Alright, well we’re going to send you to the best specialists there are’, and he did, and I saw a concussion specialist, and they went above and beyond to take care of me. I know everyone feels that way.”
For decades this has been a hot topic among wrestlers. Despite the minority of wrestlers being vocal about it, there has never been a union in the pro wrestling business let alone WWE.
This topic was brought back up when WWE decided to ban wrestlers from making money off third party platforms such as Twitch and Cameo.
D-Von Dudley will be tuning in to watch this week’s episode of AEW Dark as his sons will be working a tag team match.
All Elite Wrestling released the card for this Tuesday’s episode that will air on YouTube. Terrence and Terrell Hughes will make their AEW in-ring debuts when they face Chaos Project (Serpentico and Luther). They’ll be going by the tag team name of TNT.
The 25 year old twins are the sons of the WWE Hall of Famer and current WWE producer. Some fans might recall them appearing on a previous episode of Impact Wrestling a few years ago.
There are 8 other matches featured on the card that will air at 7pm ET.
AEW Dark Card
TNT (Terrence and Terrell Hughes) vs. Chaos Project (Serpentico and Luther)
Lucha Bros (Penta El Zero M and Rey Fenix) vs. David Ali and Ashton Starr
Jurassic Express (Luchasaurus and Jungle Boy) vs. Sonny Kiss and Joey Janela
\”5\” Alan Angels of The Dark Order vs. Fuego del Sol
The Acclaimed (Anthony Bowens and Max Caster) vs. Justin Blax and Louis Valee
Ivelisse and Diamante vs. Jennacide and Dreamgirl Ellie
Leva Bates vs. Dani Jordyn
Top Flight (Angel Dorado and Air Wolf) vs. Frankie Thomas and Baron Black
TheHybrid2 (Angelico and Jack Evans) vs. Shawn Dean and Adam Priest
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