Viewership data is in for this week’s battle in the WWE NXT vs. AEW Dynamite Wednesday Night War. AEW won the night in total viewers and in the key 18-49 demo, but both shows were down.
Here is the breakdown of the live and same-night DVR viewership, courtesy of ShowbuzzDaily:
WWE NXT Viewership
NXT on the USA Network averaged 637,000 viewers, down from last week’s 665,000 In the 18-49 demo, they drew a 0.16 rating, down from 0.18 last week.
The episode featured NXT Women’s Champion Charlotte Flair vs. Mia Yim in a non-title match, North American Champion Keith Lee defending his title against Damian Priest, a Newly Bro Show segment with Matt Riddle & Timothy Thatcher, Candice LeRae in a squash match, two Cruiserweight Title Group matches
AEW Dynamite on TNT was watched by 693,000 viewers, down from the 731,000 viewers last week. In the 18-49 demo, Dynamite pulled in a 0.27 rating, up from the 0.25 rating that the show did last week.
AEW Dynamite featured bouts such as Shawn Spears in a squash match, Brodie Lee vs. Marko Stunt, Best Friends vs. Jimmy Havoc and Kip Sabian in a No DQ Match, and two TNT Title Tournament Semi-Final matches – Cody Rhodes vs. Darby Allin and Dustin Rhodes vs. Lance Archer.
The April 29, 2020 episode of WWE NXT aired live on the USA Network from the Winter Park, Florida at Full Sail University.
The show was headlined by NXT North American Champion Keith Lee defending the title against Damian Priest.
WWE NXT Results (4/29)
Isaiah \”Swerve\” Scott def. El Hijo del Fantasma – Interim NXT Cruiserweight Title Group B Match.
Candice LeRae def. Kacy Catanzaro.
Charlotte Flair def. Mia Yim
Dexter Lumis def. Shane Thorne
Drake Maverick def. Tony Nese – Interim NXT Cruiserweight Title Group A Match.
NXT North American Champion Keith Lee def. Damian Priest
Here are the 5 takeaways from this week’s show:
Isaiah \”Swerve\” Scott vs. El Hijo del Fantasma
To open the show, WWE booked Isaiah \”Swerve\” Scott vs. El Hijo del Fantasma in an Interim NXT Cruiserweight Title Tournament Group B Match.
A solid match with both guys working hard. Fantasma appeared to work a more stiff style in this contest while Scott let his athleticism shine.
In the end, it was Scott winning, which marks his first win in the tournament, with a quick roll up. Post-match, he cut a promo about the challenges of facing Fantasma. He stated that he needed the win more and how he’s the guy when the game is on the line to make the winning shot.
This was an interesting match choice to open the show considering that both guys aren’t proven as big stars. In fact, Fantasma only made his debut recently.
That will be something interesting to see in regards to the ratings as NXT continues to slip in the ratings war with AEW despite having a two-win streak going on for this month.
Thankfully we made some popcorn before this match. ??#WWENXT
Candice LeRae had her first match as a heel on WWE NXT television by taking on Kacy Catanzaro in a singles match.
LeRae got a new entrance and was joined by her husband, Johnny Gargano, who was doing the ring introductions for her.
He praised her for all of her good qualities, how much she means to him, and her foot being a great birth control (this was a reference to her kicking Tommaso Ciampa in the groin during their match a few weeks ago).
The match did get some time but it was all LeRae for the most part. LeRae was the one to go over. It appears that with the married couple now being heels and quite entertaining, LeRae will be getting more of a push going forward.
NXT Women\’s Champion Charlotte Flair faced Mia Yim in a non-title match on this show.
It was a fun back and forth affair. One of the best matches on the whole show. As expected, Flair went over in the contest with her finisher.
WWE set up this match last week after Yim picked up a win in a squash match. Following the contest, Flair came out and gave her a backhanded compliment.
The company is still holding off on Flair giving a rematch to former champion Rhea Ripley, which is still expected. However, there\’s still no word yet on when the contest will take place.
After the match, Io Shirai came out and gave a heated promo where she stated that next week, Flair was hers. Mauro Ranallo confirmed on commentary that this title match would take place next week.
NXT North American Champion Keith Lee made his latest title defense against Damian Priest in the biggest match on the show.
WWE saved the match for last and rightfully so. WWE had been building up this contest for quite some time as they have previously wrestled each other.
With that said, it was a stiff match that saw Lee hit two back-to-back powerbombs to pick up the victory and successfully retain the title.
The latest angle done was last week when The Velveteen Dream & Dexter Lumis (replacing Lee) defeated Adam Cole & Roderick Strong in a tag team match. Lee was supposed to be the Dream’s partner but Lee was taken out when Priest hit him in the throat with a club.
It appears that WWE will be moving on from this feud.
WWE booked a wacky yet entertaining segment named “The Newly Bro Show” with Bryon Saxton serving as the host and Matt Riddle and Timothy Thatcher being the contestants.
It was like a dating or matchmaking show where Saxton would ask Thatcher a question and Riddle would write down what he thought Thatcher would say. It was all comedy and quite funny.
This led to Marcel Barthel and Fabian Aichner coming out that led to a brawl with the UK stars standing tall with the titles in hand. Thus, it appears this is the next feud for the NXT Tag Team Titles.
Of course, Thatcher is serving as the replacement for Riddle’s normal tag team partner, Pete Dunne, as Dunne is stuck over in the UK and can’t work NXT TV shows.
Fans now know who will be in the finals of the tournament that will determine the inaugural AEW TNT Champion as those competitors have been revealed.
The semi-finals of the tournament took place on Wednesday’s episode of AEW Dynamite on TNT at the Daily’s Place in Jacksonville, Florida. The pair of the matches saw Cody Rhodes vs. Darby Allin and Dustin Rhodes against Lance Archer.
As seen on the show, Cody went over Allin in the opening match while Archer beat Rhodes in the main event.
The finals between Cody and Archer will see to find out who will be the first-ever TNT Champion.
The finals of the tournament will take place at AEW’s next pay-per-view event, Double or Nothing.
All Elite Wrestling was planning to hold this show from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada on May 23rd but plans changed due to the outbreak of the coronavirus.
It’s been reported by Dave Meltzer of F4Wonline.com that the current plans call for the show to take place from Jacksonville, Florida. The belief is that the show will air from Daily’s Place.
As of this writing, no other matches for the show have been announced thus far.
WWE is loading up the first episode of May on WWE NXT television.
Not only are there two titles on the line but there will also be two appearances on the show. First up is Finn Balor making his return after being attacked last week before he could wrestle The Velveteen Dream.
Also, Karrion Kross, the former Killer Kross, is slated to appear on the show with his girlfriend, Scarlett Bordeaux. WWE didn’t clarify whether he’ll be wrestling on the show or doing another segment. This comes after he made his debut by attacking Tommaso Ciampa.
The first of two title matches will see Charlotte Flair put the NXT Women’s Title on the line when she defends it against the #1 contender in Io Shirai.
In the likely main event, The Velveteen Dream is set to challenge Adam Cole for the NXT Title. The match was ordered by NXT General Manager William Regal. This comes after the recent feud between the two competitors.
This comes at a time where there had been some speculation on WWE possibly taking Dream out of the main event scene due to recent accusations. He has stated on social media that he denies the allegations and he’s having a third party looking into the matter.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis continues to talk about the importance of the relationship between the state and WWE.
WWE managed to be deemed an essential business in the state of Florida because of DeSantis.News of this broke earlier this month.
Now, WWE is free and clear to hold TV events at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida.
DeSantis brought up WWE during a press conference on Wednesday where he talked about the importance of keeping a relationship with WWE.
“I helped recruit, I wanted the wrestling to be filmed in Orlando. I’d like them to do WrestleMania. They were going to do WrestleMania in April. That was hundreds of millions of dollars. I want to keep that good relationship. I want them to invest in Florida.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who classified #WWE, #AEW, #UFC and others among essential businesses, said he'd like to keep a good relationship with WWE and mentioned the $100 million+ that WrestleMania brings in. Also said they got UFC to come to Jacksonville. pic.twitter.com/xOlq4jjRqz
DeSantis also spoke about bringing UFC to Jacksonville with UFC 249 on May 9th and two fight night events on May 13th and May 16th in addition to a golf event that will be taking place in his state.
This is when he discussed fans eventually returning to live sporting events. While he doesn’t think they’re ready to have fans now, he believes that could change soon.
“I do think if the trends are good as you get into June-July. I think there is a window to have some fans. You’re not going to have everyone packed in.”
He continued by noting that in 90-degree weather in the state of Florida, people are going to want to go out and go watch a ballgame if other people are ten feet away from you. He thinks people may be able to do that.
AEW World Heavyweight Champion Jon Moxley recently did an interview with The New York Post where he spoke about a wide range of topics.
During the interview, he shared his reaction to WWE having Vince McMahon’s famous, “This is such good s–t, pal!\” line be part of an interesting match at WrestleMania.
WWE surprised many people with various things in the FireFly Funhouse Match between John Cena and Bray Wyatt at WrestleMania 36 – Night 2 in Orlando, Florida at the WWE Performance Center on the WWE Network.
Wyatt went over in the contest but this line was one of the highlights of it. It turns out that Moxley even mentioned the fact that he brought up that line during an interview when he first left WWE. He did so by reflecting about how McMahon would pitch different creative ideas to him.
\”I kind of popped for it, honestly. I thought it was pretty funny,\” Moxley said. \”But it\’s like, I think I might have popularized that or made it into a pop culture thing, but everybody knows that\’s what he says. He\’s been saying that for decades. People who were probably doing Vince McMahon impressions have been saying \’that\’s good s–t\’ before I even got into wrestling.\”
Moxley departed from WWE last year and signed with its rival promotion, AEW (All Elite Wrestling) where he has become a top star for the company.
Chris Jericho recently did an interview with Newsweek where he discussed AEW going back to holding shows again.
This comes after AEW held a string of TV tapings that lasted them for the majority of April. Now, the promotion plans to resume live TV events and also hold TV tapings for future episodes.
The plan right now is for AEW to go back starting on May 6th by holding the shows from Daily’s Place in Jacksonville, Florida. These episodes will build to AEW’s next pay-per-view event, Double or Nothing, on May 23
According to Jericho, he thinks it’s time to get back to holding shows again despite the coronavirus outbreak all over the world.
“We’re trying to start slowly and integrate back into life and I think it’s perfect. Obviously, we’ll take precautions and all that sort of stuff but it’s time to get back on track and I’m looking forward to it.”
Jericho also talked about the passion of the AEW roster despite having no fans in attendance.
According to the former AEW World Heavyweight Champion, he thinks the most important thing is to put on an entertaining show.
He also thinks that the wrestlers having great matches in front of nobody just shows the amount of dedication they have.
Pete Dunne knows better than most people how the travel restrictions due to the coronavirus have impacted WWE being able to use stars.
The WWE NXT Tag Team Champion spoke with Alex McCarthy of TalkSport.com about his hiatus from WWE television. This is due to the outbreak of the coronavirus as most countries in the world have locked down their borders.
This means it’s difficult if not impossible for wrestlers traveling internationally for work. In the case of Dunne, he’s in the UK and not able to make it to the United States to work weekly NXT TV shows.
According to Dunne, he sees this as a much-needed break in some type of way.
“I think for years and years we talked about maybe, is there a way that wrestling could have a kind-of off-season. I think this is a good trial for that for some of us.”
Dunne continued by noting that being home with his family and able to train is different from how he would if he was on the road and wrestling all the time. He added that he’s just trying to put a positive spin on something that’s hugely negative.
“But if I was going to [have an off-season], then spending time with the family, training hard, recouping and then coming back better.”
The topic of an off-season in WWE has been a topic among fans and wrestlers alike for years due to WWE’s tough touring schedule. However, the case of having it has been dismissed.
Whether that’s due to revenue that WWE would lose from not holding shows or impacting their large TV deals. With this virus, it has proven the point that WWE can survive without holding events in front of fans.
Marty Scurll has sounded off on whether he thinks a partnership between ROH and AEW is possible.
Scurll, who is the booker of ROH, did so on the inaugural ROHStrong podcast. This is where he wouldn’t rule out a working relationship. In fact, he thinks it’s quite possible but comes down to timing.
“Both parties are definitely willing to work with each other. It’s just a matter of timing, I guess,” he said. “I’m not saying anything will happen, I’m just saying I wouldn’t rule it out. There’s no reason why we wouldn’t. It’s just that the timing needs to be correct and it needs to be a fitting situation for us to work together. I personally would like to see it happen at some point.”
Scurll also stated he’s on good terms with AEW President and CEO Tony Khan.
There are two reasons as to why the two sides haven’t worked together thus far. First up is due to the departures of talents such as The Young Bucks, Cody Rhodes, Hangman Page, and SoCal Uncensored from ROH as they joined AEW (All Elite Wrestling).
Also, Ring of Honor has a working relationship with NJPW, which doesn’t have a working relationship with AEW as some stars left the promotion to join AEW full-time.
It should be noted that talent such as Jon Moxley and Chris Jericho do work for NJPW despite being under contract with AEW.
Monday’s edition of WWE RAW averaged 1.814 million viewers in Orlando, Florida at the WWE Performance Center on the USA Network, which is down from the 1.842 million viewers the previous week.
This week’s show was the lowest viewership for 2020 thus far, which continues the streak of ratings being down for the flagship show of the company as the world battles the coronavirus outbreak. It was also the lowest viewed episode since December 23, 2019, which drew 1.835 million viewers. Monday was the second all-time for a non-holiday show.
RAW Viewership
Here is the hourly viewership breakdown, courtesy of ShowbuzzDaily:
Hour 1: 1.945 million (1.940 Last Week), 0.56 Demo (0.59 Last Week)
Hour 2: 1.888 million (1.866 Last Week), 0.53 Demo (0.56 Last Week)
Hour 3: 1.619 million (1.720 Last Week), 0.43 Demo (0.54 Last Week)
Some of the matches that took place include Aleister Black, Apollo Crews & Rey Mysterio vs. Andrade, Angel Garza & Austin Theory in a six-man tag team match, Liv Morgan vs. Ruby Riott, United States Champion Andrade (w/Zelina Vega) vs. Apollo Crews, and Cedric Alexander & Ricochet vs. Ever-Rise (Chase Parker & Matt Martel).
RAW featured the return of Samoa Joe, who had been off of WWE television since February, as he replaced WWE Hall of Famer Jerry Lawler on commentary. The in-ring return of former WWE Champion Jinder Mahal occurred after she was on the sidelines for nearly a year due to injury.
Finally, the main event saw the contract signing between WWE Champion Drew McIntyre and Seth Rollins.
Jinder Mahal has made his return to WWE television.
The former WWE Champion did so during Monday’s episode of RAW in Orlando, Florida at the WWE Performance Center on the USA Network by beating Akira Tozawa in a singles match.
Mahal, who has a new look as he cut his hair short, squashed the 205 Live star in a short match that was capped off with his finisher to win the contest.
The last that fans saw him, Mahal hadn’t been doing much on television since last year on RAW or SmackDown. He had been involved in recent WWE 24/7 Title chase segments where he became a two-time WWE 24/7 Champion but lost the title.
Last June, Mahal went to Birmingham, Alabama to undergo knee surgery at Andrews Sports Medicine & Orthopaedic Center.
At the time of the injury, he noted in an Instagram post that while wrestling Ali, who won the match, at the WWE live event in Denver, Colorado on Saturday, June 15, he ruptured his patella tendon.
One positive thing going for him at the time was that Mahal had signed a new deal that is said to be for 5 years.
As expected, Samoa Joe made his return to WWE television on Monday’s episode of RAW in Orlando, Florida at the WWE Performance Center on the USA Network.
While Joe didn’t return to in-ring action, he did rejoin the announcement team. Earlier in the day, his return was reported by Ryan Satin of Pro Wrestling Sheet. He replaced WWE Hall of Famer Jerry Lawler.
Joe had done commentary for the flagship show of WWE before. Last year, he replaced Dio Madden on the team.
It was reported back in November that Joe, who received rave reviews from fans, was being recognized backstage for how good he is in that role.
The reason that Joe was chosen for this role was due to him being out of action after suffering a thumb injury back in September. It turns out that injury also put him back in the chair as a color commentator in 2020.
The “RAW: Must Be Monday” commercial was filmed in February and released in March.
It turns out that this is the same commercial where Joe suffered a concussion while filming it. At the time, it was reported Joe suffered the concussion while taking a bad table bump during a commercial shoot.
As recent as last week it was reported that Joe wasn’t medically cleared from his concussion.
Luke Gallows is attempting to gain the trademark rights to the term “Sex Ferguson.”
He did so under his WrestleMerica promotion on April 22nd with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). WrestleMerica had filed trademarks for Good Brothers, Big LG and Talk’n Shop in the past as well.
The filing for the trademark notes that it is for the following:
“G & S: Hats; Hooded sweatshirts; Pants; Shirts; Sweatshirts” as well as “G & S: Entertainment in the nature of wrestling contests; Entertainment services, namely, live appearances by a professional wrestling and sports entertainment personality; Entertainment services, namely, personal appearances by a professional wrestling and sports entertainment personality; Entertainment services, namely, wrestling exhibits and performances by a professional wrestler and entertainer; Entertainment services, namely, providing podcasts in the field of professional wrestling, sports entertainment, and pop culture; Entertainment services, namely, providing video podcasts in the field of professional wrestling, sports entertainment, and pop culture; Presentation of live show performances; Presentation of live comedy shows; Providing wrestling news and information via a global computer network; Providing online interviews featuring a professional wrestler, sports entertainer, and podcaster in the field of professional wrestling, sports entertainment, and pop culture for entertainment purposes”
The former WWE star had previously filed for the trademark in July 2017. However, in April of the following year, he allowed it to expire. He previously used the Sex Ferguson gimmick on Colt Cabana’s Wrestling Road Diaries.
Once he went to WWE, he changed it to “Tex Ferguson” as more of a PG version of the character in order to use it for WWE’s Southpaw Regional Wrestling mini-series.
Gallows and Karl Anderson were released from WWE two weeks ago when the company decided to make mass firing of staff and talent.
Longtime WWE employee Gerald Brisco has been furloughed by WWE.
Brisco has been with WWE since 1984. He\’s been key figure behind the scenes for decades. Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer noted on Monday night that Brisco was released. However, the 73-year-old legend set the record straight that he is not officially gone from the company.
What a writer made a mistake, to set things right. I have not been let go yet I’ve been placed on furlough don’t know who leaked the wrong news. I hope get back to helping young folks find there dream. If not it been on heck of a run #cantkeepawrestlerdown
Earlier this month, WWE decided to release or furlough several wrestlers as well as producers from their contracts with the company.
Brisco worked with McMahon at the WWE Headquarters in Stamford, CT and later became one of McMahon’s most trusted advisors. In fact, he was only a few people who knew ahead of time about the 1997 Montreal Screwjob on Bret Hart at the Survivor Series pay-per-view event.
Brisco also served as a character on WWE RAW during the Attitude Era and later became the company\’s top talent scout.
During his time as a scout, he had connections in the amateur wrestling world as a former Oklahoma State wrestler.
In fact, he discovered Brock Lesnar as a junior at Minnesota. Not only did he sign Lesnar to a WWE deal but also did so for various top amateur wrestlers of the last 25 years who worked for WWE.
WWE Hall of Famer Jerry “The King” Lawler found himself in hot water with fans after making a joke during an episode of RAW earlier this month.
Lawler was on commentary for the show that included a match that saw Austin Theory score a win over Akira Tozawa. During the match, Lawler referred to Tozawa’s senton as the “Ramen Noodle Moonsault.”
Towards the end of the latest episode of his podcast (around the 53-minute mark, Lawler addressed the joke that was controversial.
“Are we not going to talk about the elephant in the room from last week? I said the word ramen noodles on Raw. [The] next thing you know, the internet blows up and I’m a big racist. Let me go back and explain what I was doing and why being racist was the furthest thing from my mind.”
Lawler recalled a situation in 2016 where he was doing commentary with Mauro Ranallo and they were calling a match. Ranallo called a move that was like, orange crush Tiger Bomb blah blah senton.
Lawler points out despite his history in the business, he doesn’t know the names of these crazy moves being performed. At the time, he thought somebody was making up crazy names for these moves.
This is when he wrote down some names of what he thought would be funny moves to go back to Mauro when he called one of these moves. He stated that he was doing it just to play devil’s advocate with Mauro.
He also stated that if he was still doing commentary with Michael Cole or Jim Ross, they had the chemistry to where each one of those guys would have known that he was almost making a fool out of himself by claiming like he knew what the move was.
Lawler continued by noting that at that point Cole or Ross would’ve made light of the situation by saying that Lawler knew better than that. However, it’s different from working with Bryon Saxton and Tom Philips because they don’t have the chemistry of working together yet.
Thus, with them working together for a short period of time, they didn’t even acknowledge it so it kind of went out, and they just kept talking and he kept talking.
The Point
“I didn’t think anything about it either.” That’s where me, Bobby Heenan, Jesse Ventura, and all of the heel commentators do that sort of stuff. The joke is on yourself. The people out there say, look at that idiot, he doesn’t even know what he’s talking about and he thinks he does.\’”
WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle recently did a Q&A on Facebook and commented on a number of interesting topics.
Right off the bat, one fan asked him about what a dream match he thinks could take place between two WWE superstars who have never wrestled before.
This is where he named a match that could realistically happen soon perhaps taking place at WrestleMania 37. Angle picked Aleister Black challenging Drew McIntyre for the WWE Title.
Angle wrote, “Aleister Black vs Drew Mcintyre. Could be next year WrestleMania main event. Both are exceptional talents.”
WrestleMania 37 will take place on March 28th, 2021 at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. The stadium holds 70,000.
The belief is that seating can be expanded for an event like WrestleMania to hold upwards of 100,000 fans. Whether the event actually takes place at this venue remains to be seen.
WWE has been grooming Black as a rising star and McIntyre has been positioned as the top star on the RAW brand. Both guys are well-liked by RAW executive producer Paul Heyman.
Angle was one of the many WWE producers who were released and/or furloughed by the company last week as a way to save money.
The Revival has decided to have some fun with their latest t-shirt design by playing off an idea that recently surfaced online.
Last week, photos of the artwork for the new idea that WWE Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon had for the tag team emerged.
Last year, WWE was once again trying to get them to sign new long-term deals. However, the tag team didn’t want to do so but rather wait out their current contracts until they expired.
At the time, McMahon had plans to turn The Revival into a comedy tag team. He came up with the idea to them portray a comedy version of The Fabulous Ones tag team.
After McMahon finally realized that they were not going to sign new deals, plans were dropped for them and they were eventually pulled from television. They would’ve had new gear and music.
Scott Dawson has changed his name to Dax Harwood while Dash Wilder has changed his name to Cash Wheeler. Dax Harwood’s real name is David Harwood and Cash Wheeler’s real name is Daniel Wheeler.
Harwood showed off the new t-shirt that has the planned artwork for their comedy characters featured, which you can see here:
An update has surfaced online regarding the futures of Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson.
The two stars were released from WWE last week when the company decided to make mass firing of staff and talent. The wrestlers who were released are now under a 90-day non-compete clause, which prevents them from officially signing a deal with any promotions.
Since being let go, Anderson and Gallows have gone back to the gimmicks that they portrayed in NJPW (New Japan Pro Wrestling) on social media.
It was reported by Dave Meltzer in the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that NJPW has not offered contracts to Gallows and Anderson that would see them make a return to the promotion.
It should be noted that NJPW hasn’t held a show since March due to the outbreak of the coronavirus. Meltzer noted that if NJPW wasn’t dealing with the financial impact of the virus, “such a deal would be a given as far as getting an offer to return.”
Thus, it’s possible when NJPW starts running shows again, perhaps a deal will be offered to Anderson and Gallows.
Anderson and Gallows had reportedly turned down lucrative five-year deals due to being unhappy last year.
There was speculation that they would leave the company in the fall once their contracts expired. That changed when WWE offered them more money and they signed new deals.
WWE Hall of Famer Triple H recently spoke with Newsweek to talk about a wide range of topics.
During the interview, he was asked whether he wishes he was able to work a Money In The Bank Ladder Match.
\”I have no desire to climb a high ladder and get pushed off of it,\” he said. \”There are certain guys that are built for ladders and guys who are and I\’m not one of them.
My ladder matches have normally involved me whacking someone with it or getting whacked with it a lot. So climbing and falling off of it is not my forte.”
Triple H continued by noting that when these types of matches started to come around, it was built around an additional match at WrestleMania. He pointed out how he had various storylines going on at the time of these matches taking place and was never involved in the matches.
Triple H noted that he has worked ladder matches in the past but not working the Money In The Bank Ladder Match is something that he never regrets not being able to do because no one has ever seen him do a moonsault before.
WWE holds the Money In The Bank pay-per-view event on May 10th with both men’s and women’s ladder matches taking place at WWE’s headquarters.
While original plans for AEW’s next pay-per-view event, Double or Nothing, didn’t go accordingly, the promotion is moving forward with the show.
All Elite Wrestling was planning to hold this show from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada on May 23rd. However, the impact of the coronavirus on the world including the United States has changed that.
With Las Vegas being shut down like many other cities and states, the promotion will have to hold the show at a different location.
According to a report by Dave Meltzer of F4Wonline.com, current plans call for the show to take place from Jacksonville, Florida. The belief is that the show will air from Daily’s Place, which is the same venue as the Dynamite and Dark TV tapings that will start on May 6th.
AEW Double or Double or Nothing will be available for purchase via BR Live, iN DEMAND cable operators, DirecTV, DISH. AEW fans outside the United States can order via the FITE streaming service.
No matches for the show have been announced thus far. We do know the finals of the AEW TNT Title Tournament will be held at the show.
Dustin Rhodes vs. Lance Archer and Cody Rhodes vs. Darby Allin has been confirmed for next week’s episode of Dynamite. The winners of these contests will then square off in the finals to determine the inaugural champion.
Viewership data is in for this week’s battle in the WWE NXT vs. AEW Dynamite Wednesday Night War. AEW won the night in total viewers and the key 18-49 demo. NXT did crack the top 150 shows on cable after recently not making the list.
Here is the breakdown of the live and same-night DVR viewership, courtesy of ShowbuzzDaily:
WWE NXT Viewership
NXT on the USA Network averaged 665,000 viewers, down from last week’s 692,000 In the 18-49 demo, they drew a 0.18 rating, up from 0.17 last week.
The episode featured The Velveteen Dream & Keith Lee vs. Adam Cole & Roderick Strong, Tegan Nox and Shotzi Blackheart vs. Dakota Kai and Raquel Gonzalez, and three Interim Cruiserweight Championship Tournament matches – Kushida vs. Tony Nese, Drake Maverick vs. Jake Atlas, and El Hijo del Fantasma vs. Jack Gallagher.
AEW Dynamite on TNT was watched by 731,000 viewers, up from the 683,000 viewers last week. In the 18-49 demo, Dynamite pulled in a 0.25 rating, the same from the 0.25 rating that the show did last week.
AEW Dynamite featured such as Dustin Rhodes vs. Kip Sabian and Sammy Guevara vs. Darby Allin in AEW TNT Championship Title Tournament matches, Jimmy Havoc vs. Orange Cassidy, Kenny Omega, Brodie Lee, and Wardlow in action.
El Hijo del Fantasma def. Jack Gallagher – Tournament Match
The Velveteen Dream & Dexter Lumis (replacing Keith Lee) vs. Adam Cole & Roderick Strong
Here are the 6 takeaways from this week’s show:
Drake Maverick Wrestles After WWE Release
An Interim Cruiserweight Championship Tournament Match between Drake Maverick and Jake Atlas took place.
This was one of the most interesting matches of the night. Not because of the storyline of the bout because there wasn’t one, but the situation that Maverick finds himself in right now.
Atlas went over after hitting a cartwheel DDT for the win.
Last Wednesday, it was a dark day in WWE as the company decided to release several wrestlers and staff members as a way to cut costs due to the coronavirus. Maverick was one of those talents who were released by the company.
Despite this, WWE is pushing forward with booking Maverick in this tournament, which was announced prior to the releases that were made. Clearly, the likelihood of him winning the tournament is very small but the mentality that WWE has is quite intriguing.
.@WWEMaverick gives his ALL in this high-stakes Interim #WWENXT Cruiserweight Title Tournament Match against @iamjakeatlas. pic.twitter.com/XrDGOxK9xT
Kushida vs. Tony Nese in an Interim Cruiserweight Championship Tournament Match took place.
The expectations of this match lived up to it as it was a fun high paced bout. In the end, it was Kushida who went over.
Since his arrival in NXT, Kushida has seemed lost in the way of the brand as he wasn’t necessarily booked badly but didn’t have a ton going on and outside of his accomplishments in NJPW, WWE never gave a reason for fans to like or even invest in him.
This tournament will be a good way to do that. Clearly, the issue isn’t his in-ring work as he can put on a compelling match with anyone.
The feud that seems will never end continued on this show with Tegan Nox and Shotzi Blackheart vs. Dakota Kai and Raquel Gonzalez in a tag team match taking place.
It was a fine match with Gonzalez going over after she pinned Shotzi. This feud dates all the way back to November at the NXT TakeOver: War Games event once Kai turned heel by attacking her good friend in Nox.
Since then, Nox and Kai have worked several matches including a Steel Cage Match.
Now, with the additions of Gonzales as the heater for Kai and Shotizi backing up Nox, there’s still no end in sight.
Just one week after the initial start of the program, WWE went straight to booking a match between Velveteen Dream and Finn Balor. It was the biggest match featured on the card and due to the star power of both stars, rightfully so.
WWE set up the match last week when Dream was doing a promo. Balor interrupted and told him that he doesn’t know or like Dream.
The only problem is that the contest didn\’t take place. WWE did an angle where there was a backstage incident involving Balor and the match was pulled.
NXT Champion Adam Cole came out and cut a promo while Dream was in the ring. Cole talked about how many thought Dream vs. Balor was a #1 contender match and now with Balor no longer being found, he thinks Dream is trying to sneak his way into a title match.
Cole said that Dream would never be the champion. He said that he doesn’t know what happened to Balor but does know what will happen to Dream.
This led to The Undisputed Era attacking Dream. Keith Lee ran out to make the save.
Some fans might be mad about the false advertising but it appears that WWE is holding off on the match.
So with The Velveteen Dream vs. Finn Balor not taking place, WWE went in a different direction for the main event. Following the opening segment, WWE booked Dream and Keith Lee vs. Adam Cole and Roderick Strong.
When WWE first announced Dream vs. Balor, some thought it was just a hiccup in the eventual showdown with NXT Champion Adam Cole for Dream, who has been trading promos with Cole for the past several weeks.
Many fans could argue that WWE could’ve held off on booking this match in order to gain some momentum and perhaps pull in good ratings. It appears that is what WWE is doing.
Lee was taken out early by Damien Priest, who hit him in the throat with a nightstick. Dexter Loomis eventually came out to be the Dream’s new tag team partner. The match was a lot of fun with Dream going over.
WWE did this segment with Johnny Gargano and Candice LeRae at their home right before they were about to eat dinner. The video kept going in and out of black and white and color.
Gargano and LeRae talked about how for years, they took a backseat to everyone. They put NXT first and themselves in second place. They questioned where that got them. Exactly nowhere.
Gargano and LeRae both vowed that they wouldn’t be second anymore and would make those who put NXT first pay for doing so as they learned the hard lesson.
LeRae is now showing off a new look with a different hairstyle. It was a unique vignette and perhaps we’ll get more of it going forward.
"The #WWENXT that I love has been turned into a ????? ????????? where the good people are taken advantage of and the horrible people ?????? and are ???????? for it." – @JohnnyGarganopic.twitter.com/EtfUneVREd
Cody Rhodes took part in an \”AMA\” (Ask Me Anything) on Wednesday with Bleacher Report where he addressed the status of the fabled AEW video game.
Cody gave a candid update on the project. He let fans know this is a big project and they are taking it seriously. AEW does a great job with their \”Road To\” hype videos for pay-per-views and big events. They plan to take a similar approach with this game.
“I’ll give the honest update: the AEW video game will be something all fans know about as we begin the process and as we move forward. If we were to make a very good game, which is our intention, it’s going to take time.\”
He continued, \”Game development is arduous, it’s a very creative space, and we want to do it right. We will keep people updated, it won’t come as a surprise, we want them to take the journey with us. Be extra patient so we can deliver.”
The discussion of a possible video game for All Elite Wrestling started back in July 2019 when Matt Jackson confirmed there had been talks of a potential game for the promotion but didn’t disclose any other details.
Fast forward, Kenny Omega, who is a big video game fan, has also stated that he’s made it his personal mission to bring back the classic AKI game engine used for famous wrestling games.
Games such as No Mercy and WrestleMania 2000. Back in March, Cody also talked about the game at C2E2. This is where he noted that there is a very specific type of game that people want.
He also pointed out that there is a very specific engine that people want and Omega would make an announcement about it soon. Thus, it appears we’ll just have to wait for it.
The Young Bucks (Nick and Matt Jackson) did an interview with Sports Illustrated to talk about a wide range of topics.
During the interview, the AEW executives gave high praise to the inaugural AEW World Heavyweight Champion Chris Jericho.
Nick Jackson stated, “I always call [Jericho] our Hulk Hogan. He’s done it all, and there is something about that. Even though he has been in the business for 30 years or so, he still wants to give back and get characters over. You never see that.”
Matt Jackson chimed in by noting how most wrestlers want to be over, and they don’t care about anybody else. He thinks that is the prevailing attitude in pro wrestling. He thinks the mentality is that wrestlers want others to do good but not as good as them.
“Jericho wants everyone to be elevated. We made the right call.”
Matt praised Jericho for helping establish guys like Darby Allin, Jungle Boy, and Scorpio Sky. He stated that Jericho watches their matches as well and people don’t realize he’s the guy that pulls us aside.
Matt added that Jericho will tell them what they did well and what they could do better. He also stated, “We don’t have enough of those guys in the business.”
The Elite (Young Bucks, Kenny Omega, Adam Page, and Matt Hardy) are currently feuding with The Inner Circle that is led by Jericho on AEW Dynamite.
Rob Gronkowski is looking to put his stint in the WWE on hold in order to make a return to the NFL.
On Tuesday, NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported that Gronk has told his old team, New England Patriots, that he wants to make a return to playing pro football. However, he doesn’t want to play for the team.
Instead, he wants to join former Patriots quarterback and good friend Tom Brady in Tampa Bay as part of the Buccaneers.
A trade between the two teams would have to be worked out for this to happen, which is underway, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter. It was also noted that Gronk has been putting on weight for a return to football. Brady has also reportedly shown interest in having his friend join the team in the tight end position.
Sources: Retired #Patriots TE Rob Gronkowski has told New England that he’s interested in playing football again — and would want to do it with the #Bucs and QB Tom Brady. A trade would have to be worked out for this to happen.
This comes just after a month that news broke of Gronk signing a deal with WWE. He made an appearance back on the March 20th episode of Friday Night SmackDown and served as the host of WrestleMania 36.
This is where he pinned Mojo Rawley, who is friends with the former NFL star, to win the WWE 24/7 Title.
At the time of his signing, it was reported that he’s expected to wrestle at least a few matches under his WWE contract.
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