Read on for my thoughts on Friday's Main Event and 205 Live.
Sunday, November 1, 2020
WWE Q3 2020 financial Reax
WWE released their financial results from the third quarter of 2020:
- COVID cutting travel costs has greatly benefited WWE.
- The outdated live event schedule will hopefully be revamped to be more profitable when they're able to return to arenas.
WWE held a conference call on the earnings, recapped here:
- I can't help but think the praise for the current management team is a shot at the departed co-presidents.
- I am ALL FOR a Vince McMahon documentary.
- Licensing the Network sounds like a good move.
- Cool to see localized programming in the works. I can't help but think of Ring Ka King and wonder if Jeff Jarrett is involved this, too.
- Not a shock they deflected the question about TV viewership by pointing to digital views.
- I'm very interested in the future of streaming, but TV rights are still by far the biggest driver of revenue in the business.
Stephanie McMahon is now overseeing global sales and partnerships.
More wrestling coming up.
WWE looking for music hire, assorted wrestling press, AEW talent updates, Road To special coming to TNT, Raw talent renamed, Dynamite+NXT audiences, Hager MMA result, and Questions on Reckoning's Raw behavior, Aces & 8s vs. RETRIBUTION, WWE pulling Riddle, and moving Thunderdome
WWE is seeking a music group coordinator.
Poppy has a special Halloween Havoc T-shirt. Very cool!
Dynamite's Serena Deeb vs. Leyla Hirsch match was a replacement for Tay Conti vs. Abadon. Hirsch is expected to appear more in AEW after this appearance.
AEW will feature the team of Anthony Bowens and Max Caster more going forward.
Brodie Lee is on the latest AEW Unrestricted podcast.
World Series champions Los Angeles Dodgers received a custom WWE Championship.
Michelle McCool discussed wanting to face Charlotte Flair on The Bump. I am all for that!
Road To Full Gear will air on TNT Friday night.
Matt Riddle has been officially renamed Riddle. WWE has become a parody of itself with moves like this. The process of integrating NXT stars on other brands needs a complete overhaul. Before someone moves to Raw or Smackdown, things like ring name, look, etc. need to be finalized. Frankly, the higher-ups need to be keeping better track of what talents are being paid so much to do in NXT. If they want to make changes, it should be done earlier in the process when a talent is still "training" for what they'll eventually be on Raw or Smackdown.
Dynamite drew 781,000 for its latest episode, a pretty decent number.
Halloween Havoc drew 876,000 viewers, a very significant increase from last week's 644,000. That's even better than the weeks when they went unopposed. I'd like to think that's a message that the brand needs to be more "fun" and less about athletes winning matches and titles with little in the way of characterization.
Big Swole is on Brandi Rhodes' latest podcast.
Jake Hager won his Bellator bout by split decision.
For my take on Thursday's PWInsider.com questions:
Nothing to add to 1.
2. I'm starting to wonder if even WWE knows what they're doing these days. They're throwing anything and everything they can to try to get people paying attention to WWE TV.
3. Aces & 8s was definitely more of a threat and wasn't as thrown together.
4. Previously I said they'd be lucky to make it to WrestleMania. At this point they might not make it to Royal Rumble.
5. WWE is firmly in his corner, having been aware of this situation for years.
6. There is interest in doing it in other states, too, though of course a lot of WWE talent and staff are local to Florida.
More wrestling coming up.
Tracy Smothers passes at 58
Tracy Smothers passed away at 58 after a long battle with cancer.
Smothers' career was covered by PWInsider.com.
Smothers was remembered on social media by the following, among others:
- AAW
- AEW
- AIW
- Bobby Fulton: Tweet 1 Tweet 2
- Chris Hero: Tweet 1 Tweet 2 Tweet 3
- C.M. Punk: Tweet 1 Tweet 2 Tweet 3 Tweet 4 Tweet 5
- CZW
- Eddie Kingston, who dedicated Full Gear's main event to him.
- Edge: Tweet 1 Tweet 2 Tweet 3
- Impact
- Jim Ross
- Katie Forbes: Tweet 1 Tweet 2
- Nunzio
- NWA
- Ricochet
- Santana
- Taz
- UCW
- Warhorse
- WWE
Highspots.com released a Tracy Smothers tribute video.
Jim Cornette discussed Smothers on his podcast.
Tom Prichard wrote about Smothers at length on PWInsider.com.
More wrestling coming up.
Saturday, October 31, 2020
Assorted wrestling press, wrestling content updates, AEW game trademark, MLW signs new BeIN deal, AEW PPVs now on DVD, WWE executive move, AEW matches announced, Full Gear match adds stipulation, and Questions on altering the draft, RETRIBUTION, pushing Braun, Ricochet's abilities, and WWE's use of Riddle
Raquel Gonzalez promoted Halloween Havoc with PWInsider and TVInsider.
Impact Plus features Halloween content for free this week.
University of Minnesota wrestler Gable Stevenson discussed his WWE aspirations.
The Knockout Tag Team Championship tournament begins November 17.
AEW has trademarked "AEW Games," which should tell you something about their video game plans.
MLW and BeIN Sports have signed a new deal ahead of the promotion returning to weekly TV. Court Bauer discussed this with Forbes.
Maven and Elias will be on "The Bump" next week.
Wade Barrett discussed Nexus and more.
Shotzi Blackheart spoke to Sports Illustrated before Halloween Havoc.
Big E spoke to Sportskeeda ahead of Smackdown.
Ilja Dragunov spoke to Inside The Ropes before NXT UK.
AEW has released all its PPVs on DVD.
WWE has shifted its vice president of the Middle East and North Africa to be vice president of Asia and the Pacific.
Dynamite has announced:
- MJF and Wardlow vs. Sammy Guevara and Ortiz
- Cody, Billy, and Austin Gunn vs. Colt Cabana, John Silver, and Preston Vance
- Miro vs. Trent Beretta
- Scorpio Sky vs. Shawn Spears
Full Gear has added:
- Kenny Omega vs. Hangman Page for the number one contendership to the AEW Championship
- Hikaru Shida vs. Nyla Rose for the AEW Women's Championship
- Chris Jericho vs. MJF. If MJF wins, he joins Inner Circle.
- Orange Cassidy vs. John Silver on The Buy In.
If the Young Bucks lose to FTR at Full Gear, they can never challenge for the AEW Tag Team Championship again.
For my take on Wednesday's PWInsider.com questions:
1. Ideally there would be a middle ground where some movement can happen without it being too common or only happening at an arbitrary point of the year. WWE has been pretty haphazard with draft implementation, a sign of how frequently they shift gears creatively.
2. The point of RETRIBUTION was a rather sudden idea to "make something happen" to affect ratings. Ultimately we're seeing there are reasons the talent weren't being pushed before this angle. Giving them new names and looks and putting them together didn't drastically change how they were valued by those making the booking decisions. I would be very surprised to see them last past WrestleMania, and they could easily fall apart before then.
3. Fans would have complained he was being shoved down their throats and turned on him before six months were up.
4. He absolutely can do more than fly around, but that's obviously his strength. I hope at some point he can grow as a character beyond that, but he's got his work cut out for him at his size.
5. They have known of the situation for quite a while before it became this public. They are firmly in Riddle's corner.
More wrestling tomorrow.
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