Cody Rhodes has made his return to AEW television. He did so during Wednesday’s episode of AEW Dynamite on TNT.
It happened from Jacksonville, Florida at Daily’s Place after Brodie Lee had successfully retained the TNT Title over Orange Cassidy.
Rhodes changed his hair color from blonde to black. He attacked members of The Dark Order while Lee retreated and ended the segment by stating tall.
The AEW executive has been off television since the August 22nd episode of Dynamite when he dropped the TNT Title to Lee. It was a one-sided dominant performance by Lee. After the match, Rhodes was stretchered out of the arena due to the damage that he suffered only to be attacked by members of the Dark Order.
Brody Lee cut a fiery promo on Cody and challenged him to a dog collar match.
Cody was kept off television for five weeks to sell the injuries he and the rest of the Nightmare Family suffered at the hands of the Dark Order. The hiatus came at an interesting time as it may have something to do with STARZ Heels series going into production in Georgia. Stephen Amell, who stars in the series, specifically asked Cody to take part in the project when casting was announced last year.
The next challenger to WWE NXT Women’s Champion Io Shirai will be Candice LeRae and it’s the second match to be added to the card of the upcoming NXT TakeOver event.
During Wednesday’s episode of NXT from Winter Park, Florida at Full Sail University on the USA Network, WWE held a Battle Royal to determine the #1 contender.
Shotzi Blackheart, Kacy Catanzaro, Indi Hartwell, Aliyah, Dakota Kai, Candice LeRae, Rhea Ripley, Tegan Nox, Raquel Gonzalez, Kayden Carter, and Xia Li were the competitors. It was a typical battle royal and the final four were Kacey, Blackheart, LeRae, and Nox.
The finish saw LeRae toss Blackheart off the steel steps and she landed on her back. The match went about 20 minutes.
Because LeRae was victorious, she earned the right to challenge Shirai for the NXT Women’s Title.
Dave Meltzer reported in the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that WWE officials have considered holding this event outside of Full Sail University in favor of holding it at the ThunderDome, which is hosted in Orlando, Florida at the Amway Center. There\’s still no word yet on the actual location.
Roman Reigns has given his public reaction to the comments made by The Rock regarding a potential match.
The former WWE Champion stated that if he ever went back to work a match at WrestleMania then the opponent that would make sense would be his cousin in terms of a box-office draw.
Reigns took to his Twitter account on Wednesday to give his response. He brought up defending his title against his other cousin, Jey Uso, at this Sunday\’s WWE Clash of Champions pay-per-view.
Reigns wrote, \”@TheRock at #WrestleMania… Jey @WWEUsos at #WWEClash, my responsibility is putting our family\’s name on top of the card and at the center of @WWE Universe.”
As of this writing, The Rock has not responded to Reigns\’ tweet. The Rock has noted in the past that he’s retired from the pro wrestling business, but perhaps this match can bring him back.
The future WWE Hall of Famer stopped wrestling full-time around 2002 and went on a hiatus for many years after his contract with WWE expired in 2004. The Rock returned to WWE part-time from 2011–13 and continues to make sporadic appearances for the company.
Brian Cage mentioned on social media that he’s not feeling well just hours after AEW announced the cancelation of the main event for Wednesday’s Dynamite episode.
Originally, Cage, Lance Archer, and Ricky Starks vs. AEW World Champion Jon Moxley, Darby Allin, and Will Hobbs in a six-man tag team match was booked for this show, but it got nixed after Archer tested positive for COVID-19. He announced the news in a post on social media.
Now, Cage is saying that he’s not feeling well, but is staying in good spirits. In the same post, he issued his first comments about the match being nixed.
Cage posted on both Twitter and Instagram after the Dynamite changes. It should be noted that just because Cage said he’s sick doesn’t mean that he has COVID-19. He has since deleted the post.
Cage wrote, \”Not feeling very well, but still looking GOOD! Best body guy even while sick and out of then gym [flexed biceps emoji] #machine #swolverine #redcon1 #bodyguy #luchaundergroundunderwear.”
The change to the main event caused AEW to book a World Heavyweight Title Match with Moxley putting it on the line in singles action against Eddie Kingston.
AEW aired its one-hour Late Night Dynamite special and pulled in impressive viewership numbers.
The show, which aired after midnight on the east coast Tuesday night on TNT after game three of the NBA Western Conference Finals, averaged 585,000 viewers.
It also cracked the top 10 of the top 150 shows on cable for the night as it ranked ninth and did a 0.26 rating in the 18-49 demo. On the flip side, the NBA game, Los Angeles Lakers vs. Denver Nuggets, did 4.828 million viewers, topping all of cable and finishing third overall for the night.
The post-game show also did 1.743 million viewers on TNT as Dynamite started nearly an hour after the game ended. The men 18-49 was AEW’s strongest demo for the show as it did a 0.35 rating and was tied for seventh overall on cable.
These numbers for the AEW special do match the rating that WWE NXT did back on September 1st. That NXT episode didn’t go up against competition with AEW on a Tuesday night that was in prime time. The AEW special also beat the 0.22 rating that NXT did the following Tuesday.
Obviously, NXT didn’t have a lead-in from an NBA game that AEW had.
Miro did an interview with Sports Illustrated to discuss his WWE departure.
Earlier this year due to budget cuts related to the COVID-19 pandemic, WWE decided to release the former Rusev.
According to Miro, he doesn’t see a reason to be bitter towards WWE because he met his wife and that is the person that he cares about the most.
“People ask me why I’m not bitter. WWE gave me a platform. I have the best fanbase in the world. And that is where I met my wife. I love her to death. If nothing else came of it, I met my wife. So I can’t be bitter. There is no point to that.”
Miro stated that he came to America for an opportunity that he didn\’t have in his country and he feels the same way with AEW. He stated that he loves pro wrestling and it has so much left to offer him.
He stated that as soon as he got the call from WWE to inform him of his release, he knew right away about the two places he wanted to go. The first being AEW and “the second, you’ll find out when the time is right.”
Miro will make his AEW in-ring debut on Wednesday’s episode of Dynamite by working a singles match against an unknown opponent.
Monday’s edition of WWE RAW averaged 1.667 million viewers with a 0.49 rating in the key 18-49 demographic. This was down from last week, which did 1.689 million viewers, but up from the 0.50 demo rating.
Despite loading up the show last week that included a Steel Cage Match, RAW got hit pretty hard by the premiere of Monday Night Football for the league on ESPN.
This week, WWE only had to deal with one NFL game that aired on both ABC and ESPN. This was the Clash of Champions go-home show of RAW.
To compare, just one year ago, RAW averaged 2.210 million viewers. Here’s the hourly viewership breakdown for Raw, courtesy of Showbuzzdaily.com:
Hour 1: 1.746 million, 0.51 in the 18-49 Demo
Hour 2: 1.692 million, 0.50 in the 18-49 Demo
Hour 3: 1.565 million, 0.48 in the 18-49 Demo
SmackDown Viewership
Friday’s SmackDown averaged 2.037 million viewers on FOX. This is down from the 2.329 million viewers that the show did for the previous week.
SmackDown averaged 1.954 million viewers in the fast nationals, which was down from the 2.261 million viewers a week ago. This number measured the top metered markets.
The first hour drew 1.922 million viewers while the second hour did 1.986 million viewers. For comparison, the first show of last week’s show did 2.236 million viewers while the second hour did 2.286 million viewers.
SmackDown pulled in a 0.50 rating in the 18-49 demos, down from the 0.60 rating as last week’s show.
WWE had to deal with another outbreak of talent testing positive for COVID-19.
On Monday night, Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful Select reported that there were several positive tests in NXT the week of September 9th. As a result, it caused significant changes to NXT programming over the last couple of weeks. WWE knew of the situation ahead of last week\’s episode of NXT.
Per the report, many wrestlers who have been training at WWE\’s new makeshift training facility close by the Performance Center tested positive for COVID-19.
It was noted that NXT creative had to be \”conservative\” in some aspects of the shows because of this. While several classes at the PC ended up being canceled, some \”essential coaches\” were said to have remained.
WWE does have policies in place for training sessions that include mandating masks while outside the ring, but not while inside or in the gym area.
Earlier this month it was reported that the WWE Performance Center is currently “being renovated and remodeled.”
At this time, there are no further details on what WWE is changing or improving at the Performance Center.
One week after the identities of the core members of the Retribution group were reported, WWE basically confirmed the main stars.
It happened with the opening segment of Monday’s episode of RAW on the USA Network when they jumped the barricade and got into the ring. Before that during the intro of the show, it was messed up with various graphics.
They hit the ring and announced that they signed contracts to wrestle in WWE. Mia Yim grabbed the microphone and cut a promo before Dominik Dijakovic, who was sporting a new Bane-inspired look, took over.
Because of their masks, Dio Maddin and Mercedes Martinez were also clearly seen in the group as well, but one other individual remained unknown.
This led to the Hurt Business (MVP, Bobby Lashley, Shelton Benjamin, and Cedric Alexander) coming out and challenged the group to a fight.
This led to more members of Retribution showing up where they surrounded the group in the ring before beating down the rival faction. Dijakovic and Dio hit a double chokeslam on Lashley before the show went to commercial.
The word making the rounds in WWE over the weekend was that Retribution vs. a WWE team is being targeted as the main event of Survivor Series.
A new match has been announced for the upcoming WWE Clash of Champions PPV.
During Monday’s episode of RAW, a Triple Threat Tag Team Match to determine who would face The Street Profits for the RAW Tag Team Titles took place.
Seth Rollins and Murphy vs. Dominik Mysterio and Humberto Carrillo vs. Andrade and Angel Garza were booked.
Garza beat Murphy after hitting the Wing Clipper for the finish. It should be noted that Murphy was abandoned by Rollins, which allowed Garza and Andrade to double team him.
WWE presents the Clash of Champions pay-per-view event on Sunday, September 27, 2020 in Orlando, Florida at the Amway Center that will air on the WWE Network.
Updated WWE Clash Of Champions Card
WWE Champion Drew McIntyre vs. Randy Orton
WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns vs. Jey Uso
WWE SmackDown Women’s Champion Bayley vs. Nikki Cross
WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions Nia Jax & Shayna Baszler vs. Liv Morgan & Ruby Riot
WWE SmackDown Tag Team Champions Cesaro and Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Lucha House Party
WWE Intercontinental Champion Jeff Hardy vs. AJ Styles vs. Sami Zayn – Ladder Match
WWE RAW Tag Team Champions The Street Profits vs. Andrade and Angel Garza
Jon Moxley has given his thoughts on WWE pairing Roman Reigns and Paul Heyman together on WWE television.
The AEW World Heavyweight Champion did so in an interview with The Sun.
“The concept of him and Paul Heyman – that was very cool to me. I think that’s gonna work out really good. All my friends there (WWE) I wanna turn the TV on and I wanna see them kicking ass and doing great.”
Since his departure from WWE, Moxley has signed deals with AEW (All Elite Wrestling) and NJPW (New Japan Pro Wrestling). In fact, he had a run as the IWGP United States Champion under the NJPW banner.
Moxley was successful in his in-ring debut with AEW when he beat Joey Janela in a non-sanctioned match at the Fyter Fest event. He was postioned a top star in the promotion ever since he made his first appearance at Double or Nothing last year.
Reigns is slated to defend the WWE Universal Title against Jey Uso at the upcoming Clash of Champions pay-per-view event on Sunday, September 27, 2020 in Orlando, Florida at the Amway Center.
On the flip side, Moxley will defend the AEW Title against Lance Archer on the October 14th episode of AEW Dynamite.
Edge came up with artwork for a “Rated-R\” WWE Championship belt that he pitched to WWE officials. This was covered during the latest edition of WWE Untold on the WWE Network. This idea came during the memorable rivalry between Edge and John Cena in 2006.
Edge revealed that he hated Cena\’s spinner belt design. Thus, when it was mentioned to him that WWE wanted to come up with a different style of WWE Title, he drew up what he thought the design should be. However, the idea was ultimately nixed in favor of his logo being placed on the spinner belt.
\”When they approached me and said, \’We\’re going to do a Rated R Championship belt.’ I was like, \’Right, let me get to work.’ I got home and drew up this beautiful championship belt. This thing was badass.
\”When I got back, they were like, \’Well, no, we\’re just going to put your logo in it.\’ Like, that\’s it? Edge wouldn\’t want a spinner belt. That to me is the one championship that needs to look like a championship and not somebody\’s hub caps.\”
The former WWE Champion sustained a torn triceps during the re-takes of a spot for his latest match. Edge has been placed on the sidelines for the next few months if not longer.
The good news is that he’s expected to be back by the time WrestleMania 37 comes about.
Although the card for this year’s WWE Clash of Champions isn’t finalized yet, the top matches for it have been revealed.
That includes WWE Champion Drew McIntyre defending the title in an ambulance match. As of this writing, McIntyre is scheduled to defend the title against Randy Orton, who has been off television for a week with a storyline injury.
There is a chance that WWE adds Keith Lee to the match and replaces Orton as there is an open-ended booking. Up to this point, there have been some signs in place of Orton potentially winning the title here although that isn’t confirmed.
Not only did he drop a loss to McIntyre in their first encounter at SummerSlam, but did get beat by Lee at Payback and there has been talk of Orton being the champion heading into the third match with Edge at WrestleMania 37.
Dave Meltzer noted in the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that “the one thing the ambulance match does is it allows them to protect McIntyre from taking a pin while getting the title off him.”
Two new matches have been announced for the upcoming WWE Clash of Champions PPV.
WWE SmackDown Tag Team Champions Cesaro and Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Lucha House Party and WWE Intercontinental Champion Jeff Hardy vs. AJ Styles vs. Sami Zayn in a Ladder Match will take place.
Friday’s episode of SmackDown saw Hardy throw out the idea of the match to both Styles and Zayn after Styles went over the former champion in a singles match. This comes after a few weeks of build between the three stars as Zayn was the champion earlier this year before he was stripped due to time off.
WWE presents the Clash of Champions pay-per-view event on Sunday, September 27, 2020 in Orlando, Florida at the Amway Center that will air on the WWE Network.
Updated WWE Clash Of Champions Card
WWE Champion Drew McIntyre vs. Randy Orton
WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns vs. Jey Uso
WWE SmackDown Women’s Champion Bayley vs. Nikki Cross
WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions Nia Jax & Shayna Baszler vs. Liv Morgan & Ruby Riot
WWE SmackDown Tag Team Champions Cesaro and Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Lucha House Party
WWE Intercontinental Champion Jeff Hardy vs. AJ Styles vs. Sami Zayn – Ladder Match
What are your thoughts on this match being added to the card? Sound off in the comment section.
AEW confirmed earlier this week that Will Hobbs had signed with the promotion.
This came after the indie wrestler recently impressed company President & CEO Tony Khan.
Dave Meltzer reported in the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his signing and ultimate push began at All Out in the Casino Battle Royale. This was after Khan was impressed by him after he originally worked for the promotion as an enhancement wrestler on AEW Dark.
In fact, Khan was hands-on in helping put together Hobbs’ match against Darby Allin on Saturday Night Dynamite last month. Khan had an idea behind the match to show that Allin could beat a physically impressive wrestler and Khan thought Hobbs performed great in that role.
The prospect first started working for the promotion back in July during a Dark TV taping and has worked several matches on the weekly show since then.
He picked up his first win when he defeated Sean Legacy on the September 8 edition of Dark. This came just days after Hobbs participated in the Casino Battle Royale at All Out. Hobbs then defeated Jessy Sorensen on this past Tuesday’s Dark episode.
The Rock had an interesting start to his day on Friday.
The former WWE Champion is currently filming the \”Red Notice\” action comedy thriller for Netflix. He made a post on Instagram about how he ripped the front gate open at his home as he was late to work.
The gate wasn\’t working as it should because of a power outage after severe storms in the area. Thus, he took matters into his own hands. He wrote the following in the caption:
“Not my finest hour [facepalm emoji], but a man\’s gotta go to work. We experienced a power outage due to severe storms, causing my front gate not to open.
I tried to override the hydraulic system to open the gates, which usually works when power goes out – but this time it wouldn\’t. Made some calls to see how fast I can get the gate tech on site, but I didn\’t have 45min to wait.
By this time, I know I have hundreds of production crew members waiting for me to come to work so we can start our day. So I did what I had to do. I pushed, pulled and ripped the gate completely off myself. Ripped it completely out of the brick wall, severed the steel hydraulics and threw it on the grass.
My security team was able to meet the gate technician and welders about an hour later — and they were apparently, \”in disbelief and equally scared\” as to how I ripped it off [laughing emoji]
Not my finest hour, but I had to go to work.And I\’m [100% emoji] ready to be BLACK ADAM [lightning bolt emoji] [muscle emoji].”
Along with being a full-time star for WWE, Pete Dunne has also got a new role in the company.
The former NXT UK Champion is now working as a producer for the WWE NXT UK brand. The news was revealed when Dunne was labeled as an NXT UK Producer on the latest episode of the weekly NXT UK show on the WWE Network this past Thursday.
It should be noted that he is still a member of the NXT roster in the United States. However, he has not wrestled since March due to travel restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Thus, when WWE relaunched the NXT UK brand at BT Studios, WWE put him to work in this new role while he\’s stuck in the country.
He’s slated to appear on next week’s episode of NXT UK as he’ll be doing a segment where he picks the match-ups for the Heritage Cup Tournament.
Speaking of Dunne, he took to Twitter to show off his new physique as he has lost some weight. He wrote the following:
“I’ve had quite a few mentions saying I’ve lost weight and asking if I’m unwell etc. I’ve used lockdown to get in the best shape of my life and I’m excited for an eventual in-ring return when travel is possible.”
I’ve had quite a few mentions saying I’ve lost weight and asking if I’m unwell etc.
WWE got fans talking when they paired Roman Reigns and Paul Heyman together on television.
It didn’t take “The Big Dog” long to find success with Heyman at his side.
Dave Meltzer reported in the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that WWE has plans to make the pairing have a dynamic as different as possible from Heyman’s pairing with Lesnar, who is good friends with Heyman. Meltzer pointed out how Lesnar smiled at his promos, laughed at his jokes, and long-time fans knew the relationship dated back to 2002.
When it comes to his pairing with Reigns, it’s the opposite as there is no friendship and the idea is that Reigns is in charge of the relationship. There’s also the idea of how Heyman was done in wrestling with Lesnar gone and had nothing left until he was approached by Reigns. Thus, Heyman feels that Reigns saved his career.
Meltzer noted that there will be catchphrases such as “Reigning, defending, undisputed champion.” There will also be a designation of him as the Special Counsel and Reigns will be the Tribal Chief.
This was said to be a takeoff on Peter Maivia’s role in Samoan culture in the 70s.
The September 16, 2020 episode of WWE NXT aired live on the USA Network from Winter Park, Florida at Full Sail University.
WWE NXT Results
Io Shirai def. Shotzi Blackheart
Tommaso Ciampa def. Desmond Troy
KUSHIDA def. Austin Theory
Breezango def. Imperium to retain tag team titles
Killian Dain & Drake Maverick def. The Undisputed Era via disqualification
Damian Priest def. Timothy Thatcher to retain North American Title
Here are the takeaways from this week’s show:
Non-Title Match
Io Shirai
NXT Women\’s Champion Io Shirai vs. Shotzi Blackheart in a non-title match took place, which was certainly an interesting dynamic with two babyfaces facing each other.
We’ve seen this type of booking before, but with Shotzi, who had been in a comedy feud with the Robert Stone Brand, it made for an interesting decision by NXT officials.
Io hit a moonsault off the top rope for the win. This was an excellent match with the announcers putting over Blackheart for taking the champion to her limit. It was a back and forth affair with both stars shining bright.
With such a performance, it will be interesting to see where Blackheart goes from here. Perhaps a title shot in the near future?
Killian Dain and Drake Maverick vs. Roderick Strong and Bobby Fish in a tag team match is in the books.
Of course, WWE set up this bout last week when Dain took on Strong in a singles match, which saw Strong go over thanks to outside interference by Fish. Post-match, Strong and Fish beatdown Dain until Maverick ran out, but he got taken out. Once Dain chased them off with a pipe, Maverick tried to make an alliance by shaking his hand, but Dain laid him out with a punch.
It turns out that for this contest, Dain didn’t want to be Maverick’s tag team partner as advertised. Thus, Maverick worked a handicap match instead. William Regal tried to talk some sense into Dain and go to the ring, which he did. He laid out Fish and Strong until Fish attacked him with a chair that caused the DQ.
Post-match, Dain and Maverick cleared house, but Dain laid out Maverick before leaving.
Breezango put the NXT Tag Team Titles on the line against Marcel Barthel and Fabian Aichner.
The NXT tag team division is lacking so this felt like just another endless match between these two teams.
The match was fine and there were some nearfalls. At one point, it looked like Imperium was going to win as Breeze missed a leg drop off the top rope and Aichner caught him with a running knee strike followed by a german suplex for a near fall.
In the end, Breeze scored a roll up win to retain the titles. Let’s hope there are some new challengers in the wait and we move on from this feud.
Damian Priest put the NXT North American Title on the line against Timothy Thatcher.
The match was really fun and that was expected as Priest has found his groove in the last few months while Thatcher is always going to put on a fun match just because he’s so talented.
Thatcher got the majority of the offense in this contest and brought the champion to the peak of abilities. Priest made a comeback that was capped off with a heel kick to the face and his finisher to retain the title.
Thatcher has been finding his character as of late and it’s no secret that Triple H is a big fan of his as he has been pushed hard since his pairing with Matt Riddle.
WWE had promised that there would be two major announcements made on this show and it was delivered.
William Regal did so in a pre-recorded video to announce that a Gauntlet Eliminator Match will determine the new #1 contender to the NXT Title, which is held by Finn Balor.
This contest will take place next week. The rules of this match is as followings:
Two men will start in the ring
Ever 4 minutes, another competitor will enter
The only way to be eliminated is via pinfall or submission
The last man standing will be named the #1 contender for the NXT Title and will go on to face Balor for the strap at NXT TakeOver.
There will also be a #1 contender battle royal to determine who will challenge Io Shirai at TakeOver for the NXT Women’s Title.
Shotzi Blackheart, Kacy Catanzaro, Indi Hartwell, Aliyah, Dakota Kai, Candice LeRae, Rhea Ripley, Tegan Nox, Raquel Gonzalez, Kayden Carter, and Xia Li are the competitors.
Wade Barrett has officially signed with WWE to remain on the NXT broadcast team.
The news was first reported by Sports Illustrated and later confirmed by WWE. He has been part of the announce team in recent weeks alongside Vic Joseph and Beth Phoenix after being away from the company for a few years.
Barrett decided to leave WWE in 2016 and hasn’t wrestled a match since then. He has stayed in the pro wrestling business where he has worked as a wrestling commentator for various promotions.
“I hope this lasts for a long time, that’s our intent,” Barrett told SI. “So there is no bad news to share, but never forget, there is always a little bad news up my sleeve.”
Part of that was due to his passion for acting as well as there were not being many viable alternatives in terms of wrestling promotions in the United States.
Up until his WWE return, he had replaced Jim Cornette on the announce team for the weekly NWA Powerrr show on YouTube.
Barrett also sent out these tweets about signing with the company:
Daniel Cormier and WWE have had an interest in working with each other for the last few years.
That possibility appears to be getting closer as the former UFC Light Heavyweight and Heavyweight Champion confirmed to Sports Illustrated in a new interview that the two sides are talking, but it’s still early.
“We’ve been talking. We’ve spoken to some of the people over there in very, very early conversations. WWE is a company I’ve watched and loved my entire life.\”
Cormier also shared that he would rather be a commentator at first instead of being an in-ring performer. He thinks WWE should let him call matches and tell people how great the wrestlers are in the ring for six months. He said he would love that and not faking it as WWE is something that he loved his entire life.
\”Then, after those six months, what if I’m sitting next to Michael Cole, and Roman [Reigns] comes over and smacks the microphone out of my hand? But I’m an announcer. Will I hit him back? Then you’re asking if this will happen or not.”
Cormier stated that is what he wants, which would be a slow build to a story that fans want to see and the hearts of fans feeling like it will explode while waiting for it. Thus, he wants it to simmer before getting into the ring.
Cormier just retired from being an MMA fighter when he lost in a trilogy fight against Stipe Miocic in the headliner of UFC 252 last month.
Monday’s edition of WWE RAW averaged 1.689 million viewers with a 0.50 rating in the key 18-49 demographic. This was down from last week, which did 1.725 million viewers, but up from the 0.47 demo rating.
The summer is over and that means that the NFL is back. Monday featured the premiere of Monday Night Football for the league on ESPN, which had two games. Pittsburgh Steelers vs. New York Giants did 10.762 and Denver Broncos vs. Tennessee Titans had 7.697.
To compare, just one year ago, RAW averaged 2,.272 million viewers. Here’s the hourly viewership breakdown for Raw, courtesy of Showbuzzdaily.com:
Hour 1: 1.812 million, 0.52 in the 18-49 Demo
Hour 2: 1.734 million, 0.52 in the 18-49 Demo
Hour 3: 1.521 million, 0.45 in the 18-49 Demo
SmackDown Viewership
Friday’s SmackDown averaged 2.329 million viewers on FOX. This is up from the 2.129 million viewers that the show did for the previous week.
SmackDown averaged 2.261 million viewers in the fast nationals, which was up from the 2.066 million viewers a week ago. This number measured the top metered markets.
The first hour drew 2.236 million viewers while the second hour did 2.286 million viewers. For comparison, the first show of last week’s show did 2.018 million viewers while the second hour did 2.113 million viewers.
SmackDown pulled in a 0.60 rating in the 18-49 demos, the same from the 0.60 rating as last week’s show.
Retribution has been wreaking havoc on WWE televisions for several weeks now.
After various theories among fans about who could be in the group, WWE\’s internal roster has confirmed the five members of the stable.
On Monday evening, John Pollock of Post Wrestling reported Dio Maddin, Mia Yim, Shane Thorne, Mercedes Martinez, and Dominik Dijakovic are in WWE’s internal roster. Dave Meltzer has confirmed this report.
All of the stars mentioned above have been appearing in promos in the last couple of weeks on Monday Night RAW. Martinez and Dijakovic have been used in speaking roles.
On Monday’s episode of RAW, the group did a promo where they talked about the machine and how everyone is bad for liking the machine. They ended the promo with a number of extras appearing by wearing the same apparel as the group.
In recent weeks on NXT television, Yim and Martinez have both been used as Martinez lost a steel cage match to Rhea Ripley on last week’s show.
This ended her storyline with the Robert Stone brand as Stone had been her manager. WWE did a storyline where he filed a restraining order against her, which ended up cutting ties with Martinez.
No one knows what the future holds with COVID-19 and that includes the status of WWE WrestleMania 37.
WrestleMania 37 is scheduled to take place on March 28th, 2021 at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. The stadium holds 70,000. Along with it comes other events that take place during the week.
Those events include Friday Night SmackDown, NXT TakeOver, and Monday Night Raw at Staples Center, WrestleMania Axxess at the Los Angeles Convention Center as well as the 2021 WWE Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony.
It appears that WWE is dealing with some scheduling conflicts that week as musical group Grupo Firme announced in August that they will play the Staples Center that week.
Now, the arena is selling tickets to the shows on Friday, March 26, 2021 and Saturday, March 27th. As a result, this would conflict with SmackDown and NXT TakeOver.
As of this writing, WWE has yet to announce any changes to its schedule for this week.
WWE hasn’t been able to hold shows with fans in months and plans to do so again have been pushed back month after month starting back in June. WWE wanted to have fans for SummerSlam, but instead, they decided to go with the ThunderDome.
It’s no secret that WWE Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon is high on Dominik Mysterio.
Although he’s still new to WWE let alone the pro wrestling business, he has been positioned as one of the top stars on Monday Night RAW.
According to PWinsider.com, WWE officials consider Dominik to be in the top 25%, or one of the top 3 or 4 babyfaces on RAW. It was noted that he has impressed officials so far in his tenure. Thus, with him being so highly regarded in the company, his push will continue.
He has wrestled just 5 matches since making his in-ring debut. His first official match was a Street Fight with Seth Rollins at SummerSlam last month.
WWE booked the son of Rey Mysterio his first-ever Steel Cage match against Rollins on Monday’s episode of RAW on the USA Network as a way to boost viewership when the show goes up against two NFL games on ESPN.
Over the weekend, the WWE Network released the new WWE Day Of documentary on SummerSlam. During it, the footage was shown of how McMahon was impressed with Mysterio’s match.
He thanked Vince for the opportunity when he returned to the Gorilla Position after the loss to Rollins. The WWE boss congratulated him on the performance.
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