Week in Wrestling #15
Wrestling News From the week of
October 31 - November 6, 2015
October 31 - November 6, 2015
Rollins Injured and Out
On Thursday, WWE's injury and superstar woes got even worse as WWE.com announced WWE Champion Seth Rollins tore his right ACL, MCL, and medial meniscus during a match with Kane in Dublin, Ireland, and will be out of action six-to-nine months.
Rollins was doing a power bomb spot out of the corner when his knee buckled and he collapsed. He finished the match but then needed to be helped to the back afterwards.
Because of the severity of the injury, WWE has announced that his scheduled match with Roman Reigns will not take place at November 22nd's Survivor Series in Atlanta, GA, and he is being stripped of the WWE Title.
This is devastating because WWE now has to revamp all its championship creative for the next several months, as well as change WrestleMania plans.
Brock Lesnar is somewhere in Alberta on a big annual hunting trip. I don't know that they are blowing up his phone, but right about now you'd think they'd be wanting some new dates from him. But the company desperately needs a top heel.
For those keeping score, they are down Daniel Bryan, Randy Orton, John Cena, Rusev, and who knows if Brock wants to come back right now. Time to make some new stars, don't you think?
On Thursday, WWE's injury and superstar woes got even worse as WWE.com announced WWE Champion Seth Rollins tore his right ACL, MCL, and medial meniscus during a match with Kane in Dublin, Ireland, and will be out of action six-to-nine months.
Rollins was doing a power bomb spot out of the corner when his knee buckled and he collapsed. He finished the match but then needed to be helped to the back afterwards.
Because of the severity of the injury, WWE has announced that his scheduled match with Roman Reigns will not take place at November 22nd's Survivor Series in Atlanta, GA, and he is being stripped of the WWE Title.
This is devastating because WWE now has to revamp all its championship creative for the next several months, as well as change WrestleMania plans.
Brock Lesnar is somewhere in Alberta on a big annual hunting trip. I don't know that they are blowing up his phone, but right about now you'd think they'd be wanting some new dates from him. But the company desperately needs a top heel.
For those keeping score, they are down Daniel Bryan, Randy Orton, John Cena, Rusev, and who knows if Brock wants to come back right now. Time to make some new stars, don't you think?
RAW Ratings keep falling
Raw on 11/2 set yet another 18 year record low audience for the show, doing a 2.31 rating and averaging 3.24 million viewers (1.47 viewers per home). In this case, it was against a close NFL game with the Carolina Panthers vs. Indianapolis Colts, but the game did 12.40 million viewers which is normal levels for the season.
The prior low was on 10/12 at 3.27 million. It was the second lowest rating, trailing a 2.20 on 10/19.
The last two weeks were a little up, the 10/19 show because of having the star power and the 10/26 show being the day after the PPV. This week they had no John Cena or Brock Lesnar, nor are either in the storylines. Undertaker is in the storyline but didn't appear. Randy Orton is out of the picture, not that he's a ratings draw at this point, but it's still someone who has been pushed for more than a decade as a top star. This is really the Roman Reigns/Seth Rollins show. The first hour was unusually low, the second hour was the lowest second hour on record, while the third hour, with the Survivor Series style match, actually increased over hour two.
Raw on 11/2 set yet another 18 year record low audience for the show, doing a 2.31 rating and averaging 3.24 million viewers (1.47 viewers per home). In this case, it was against a close NFL game with the Carolina Panthers vs. Indianapolis Colts, but the game did 12.40 million viewers which is normal levels for the season.
The prior low was on 10/12 at 3.27 million. It was the second lowest rating, trailing a 2.20 on 10/19.
The last two weeks were a little up, the 10/19 show because of having the star power and the 10/26 show being the day after the PPV. This week they had no John Cena or Brock Lesnar, nor are either in the storylines. Undertaker is in the storyline but didn't appear. Randy Orton is out of the picture, not that he's a ratings draw at this point, but it's still someone who has been pushed for more than a decade as a top star. This is really the Roman Reigns/Seth Rollins show. The first hour was unusually low, the second hour was the lowest second hour on record, while the third hour, with the Survivor Series style match, actually increased over hour two.
Smackdown Moving to USA
It is now official that Smackdown will continue to air on Thursday nights at 8 p.m. when it moves to the USA Network, with the debut episode on 1/7. There had been talk of moving to Tuesday. It is possible they could still go live, as announcer Jerry Lawler had hinted, but due to the nature of scheduling, it's far easier to tape Monday and Tuesday than Monday and Thursday.
As noted, the company has been working on some significant changes to the show to coincide with the USA Network launch but it's unclear if those deals have been completed.
Because USA will now have five hours of wrestling to sell, they've pushed hard to break down the walls of advertiser resistance to wrestling. While adding Smackdown will help the USA Network ratings average, it was considered risky because many of the networks core advertisers won't touch wrestling.
For the week ending 10/25, which was an unusual week because of the baseball playoffs, USA was No. 5 in prime time, averaging 1,511,000 viewers. Smackdown has been doing about 2.1 million viewers on Syfy, and the expectation is that number will increase significantly being moved to a stronger network. More important when it comes to the value of Raw, if you take Raw out of that week's ratings, the USA average for the week drops to 1,203,000 viewers, and would only be in 12th place, which would be considered disastrous for a network that for years was No. 1.
That's why even with Raw's ratings decline this year, it is at this point more important for USA to keep Raw than it would have been two years ago when Raw's numbers were higher, because USA is dropping at a far greater pace than its competition. While Raw always helped, until two years ago, USA would have been No. 1 even without Raw. Now they aren't No. 1 even with three hours of Raw and would be an also-ran without it. Based on NBC Universal's push of wrestling as family friendly, 37 new advertisers came on board. Zenith signed on for this year, for example, citing the good ratings and it reaches a young audience.
On the flip side, there are also advertisers shying away from USA because of having so many hours of wrestling programming in prime time next year. USA dropped 17 percent this year in ratings overall, far more than its competition. Raw's drop was 13 percent. Smackdown on Syfy dropped 16 percent.
It is now official that Smackdown will continue to air on Thursday nights at 8 p.m. when it moves to the USA Network, with the debut episode on 1/7. There had been talk of moving to Tuesday. It is possible they could still go live, as announcer Jerry Lawler had hinted, but due to the nature of scheduling, it's far easier to tape Monday and Tuesday than Monday and Thursday.
As noted, the company has been working on some significant changes to the show to coincide with the USA Network launch but it's unclear if those deals have been completed.
Because USA will now have five hours of wrestling to sell, they've pushed hard to break down the walls of advertiser resistance to wrestling. While adding Smackdown will help the USA Network ratings average, it was considered risky because many of the networks core advertisers won't touch wrestling.
For the week ending 10/25, which was an unusual week because of the baseball playoffs, USA was No. 5 in prime time, averaging 1,511,000 viewers. Smackdown has been doing about 2.1 million viewers on Syfy, and the expectation is that number will increase significantly being moved to a stronger network. More important when it comes to the value of Raw, if you take Raw out of that week's ratings, the USA average for the week drops to 1,203,000 viewers, and would only be in 12th place, which would be considered disastrous for a network that for years was No. 1.
That's why even with Raw's ratings decline this year, it is at this point more important for USA to keep Raw than it would have been two years ago when Raw's numbers were higher, because USA is dropping at a far greater pace than its competition. While Raw always helped, until two years ago, USA would have been No. 1 even without Raw. Now they aren't No. 1 even with three hours of Raw and would be an also-ran without it. Based on NBC Universal's push of wrestling as family friendly, 37 new advertisers came on board. Zenith signed on for this year, for example, citing the good ratings and it reaches a young audience.
On the flip side, there are also advertisers shying away from USA because of having so many hours of wrestling programming in prime time next year. USA dropped 17 percent this year in ratings overall, far more than its competition. Raw's drop was 13 percent. Smackdown on Syfy dropped 16 percent.
Wrestlemania 32 Pre-sale
Whatever allotment for tickets they had for the first-day pre-sale sold out in about seven hours. The expectation is they will sell everything that is on sale when they go on sale to the general public today.
It appears from the WWE.com story that the plan is to run a tournament at the Survivor Series pay-per-view to crown a new WWE Champion.
Whatever allotment for tickets they had for the first-day pre-sale sold out in about seven hours. The expectation is they will sell everything that is on sale when they go on sale to the general public today.
It appears from the WWE.com story that the plan is to run a tournament at the Survivor Series pay-per-view to crown a new WWE Champion.
Survivor Series Lineup
Everything is up in the air right now. With John Cena, Brock Lesnar, and Randy Orton among the major stars on hiatus for various reasons at the moment, the timing of this injury to Rollins could not be worse.
No word yet on what form the title tournament will take. I'm guessing they'll try and keep everything under wraps until Raw on Monday, but if they keep the Undertaker & Kane match as is, that keeps Bray Wyatt out of the tournament. They could do elimination matches on television as well to set up a final four or final eight on the PPV.
The only match official is Charlotte vs. Paige for the Divas title. The New Day's tag title opponents look to be the Lucha Dragons (who won the four-way for the shot last week but then got destroyed on Smackdown this week by the Wyatts) and/or the Usos (who returned and beat the New Day for two falls in an elimination match on Raw). Other matches probable are Ziggler vs. Breeze, and Del Rio vs. Swagger for the U.S. title.
Everything is up in the air right now. With John Cena, Brock Lesnar, and Randy Orton among the major stars on hiatus for various reasons at the moment, the timing of this injury to Rollins could not be worse.
No word yet on what form the title tournament will take. I'm guessing they'll try and keep everything under wraps until Raw on Monday, but if they keep the Undertaker & Kane match as is, that keeps Bray Wyatt out of the tournament. They could do elimination matches on television as well to set up a final four or final eight on the PPV.
The only match official is Charlotte vs. Paige for the Divas title. The New Day's tag title opponents look to be the Lucha Dragons (who won the four-way for the shot last week but then got destroyed on Smackdown this week by the Wyatts) and/or the Usos (who returned and beat the New Day for two falls in an elimination match on Raw). Other matches probable are Ziggler vs. Breeze, and Del Rio vs. Swagger for the U.S. title.
WWE on ESPN
ESPN is happy thus far with the numbers they've been getting for the Tuesday night at 9 p.m. SportsCenter on ESPN News, which includes the WWE interview. The numbers are up from what that hour had been doing.
WWE and Vince McMahon have signed off on allowing ESPN to use archival Flair footage for the 30 for 30 special they are currently working on. The special is supposed to cover Flair's entire career, the plane crash, personal life and financial issues, his son's death and everything else, with a focus on his heyday in the 80s. Flair was interviewed this past week for four hours for the special.
ESPN is happy thus far with the numbers they've been getting for the Tuesday night at 9 p.m. SportsCenter on ESPN News, which includes the WWE interview. The numbers are up from what that hour had been doing.
WWE and Vince McMahon have signed off on allowing ESPN to use archival Flair footage for the 30 for 30 special they are currently working on. The special is supposed to cover Flair's entire career, the plane crash, personal life and financial issues, his son's death and everything else, with a focus on his heyday in the 80s. Flair was interviewed this past week for four hours for the special.
Another Possible Network Special
The 12/19 return to the Forum in Los Angeles is a high priority show, since Lesnar is booked. It has not been announced as a network special at this point, but given that every other Lesnar house show appearance has turned into one, and those shows are the most viewed of anything on the network except PPVs, it would make sense.
The only issue is that it's only six days after the TLC PPV show from Boston, which seems too short a time to promote another show. Cena is also advertised locally for the card which is being billed as "WWE Super Show."
The 12/19 return to the Forum in Los Angeles is a high priority show, since Lesnar is booked. It has not been announced as a network special at this point, but given that every other Lesnar house show appearance has turned into one, and those shows are the most viewed of anything on the network except PPVs, it would make sense.
The only issue is that it's only six days after the TLC PPV show from Boston, which seems too short a time to promote another show. Cena is also advertised locally for the card which is being billed as "WWE Super Show."
Orton out for awhile
Orton will be undergoing surgery on his shoulder most likely. Orton had been working on a bad shoulder that was giving him some trouble, but it wasn't anything wrestlers don't work through. But three weeks ago, while taking out the garbage, the shoudler dislocated and it was out of its socket for several hours. He underwent an MRI a few weeks ago which came back that he has a Bankart lesion in his shoudler, some stretched ligaments, a dislocated shoulder and a partially torn rotator cuff.
If he doesn't undergo surgery, he was told the shoulder would continue to dislocate easily. Orton has had shoulder problems since early in his career. If he has surgery, he would be out of action four to six months. If he gets the surgery soon he has a shot at being back for WrestleMania, but if it's delayed, then that window would start to close.
Orton will be undergoing surgery on his shoulder most likely. Orton had been working on a bad shoulder that was giving him some trouble, but it wasn't anything wrestlers don't work through. But three weeks ago, while taking out the garbage, the shoudler dislocated and it was out of its socket for several hours. He underwent an MRI a few weeks ago which came back that he has a Bankart lesion in his shoudler, some stretched ligaments, a dislocated shoulder and a partially torn rotator cuff.
If he doesn't undergo surgery, he was told the shoulder would continue to dislocate easily. Orton has had shoulder problems since early in his career. If he has surgery, he would be out of action four to six months. If he gets the surgery soon he has a shot at being back for WrestleMania, but if it's delayed, then that window would start to close.
Rusev Injury not as Bad as they thought
Rusev suffered a ruptured biceps tendon in his match with Neville on 10/27. Apparently it's not that serious because he's not having surgery and is expected back in action in three or so weeks. Surgery actually may have been better because he'd come back fresh, and whatever heat there is would be long forgotten in six months. Plus they'd be looking for a hot new character and he could be it.
Rusev suffered a ruptured biceps tendon in his match with Neville on 10/27. Apparently it's not that serious because he's not having surgery and is expected back in action in three or so weeks. Surgery actually may have been better because he'd come back fresh, and whatever heat there is would be long forgotten in six months. Plus they'd be looking for a hot new character and he could be it.
Nikki "Injured"
Nikki Bella will be out of action for an as yet unspecified period of time. The official WWE word is that she's resting a sore back. She posted photos with a neck collar on talking about rehabbing a neck injury. She had hinted of taking time off on Twitter a week ago, but did Raw in San Diego after that and was still being advertised for the European tour. She's been working hurt for a long time.
It just so happens that John Cena is off as well.......
Nikki Bella will be out of action for an as yet unspecified period of time. The official WWE word is that she's resting a sore back. She posted photos with a neck collar on talking about rehabbing a neck injury. She had hinted of taking time off on Twitter a week ago, but did Raw in San Diego after that and was still being advertised for the European tour. She's been working hurt for a long time.
It just so happens that John Cena is off as well.......
Lucha Underground
For the new season, we're told the cost-cutting will not be so much cutting the production costs of the show itself, but taping fewer episodes of the show. The new season has 12 taping dates, and if they do two episodes per taping, as they were doing at the end of last season, that would be 24 shows, down from 39 the first season.
For the new season, we're told the cost-cutting will not be so much cutting the production costs of the show itself, but taping fewer episodes of the show. The new season has 12 taping dates, and if they do two episodes per taping, as they were doing at the end of last season, that would be 24 shows, down from 39 the first season.
Young Bucks ROH Deal
The Young Bucks deal was a one-year contract, which means that in about six to nine months we'll have all the rumors all over again about them going to WWE. Just for a clarification, the deal with ROH is exclusive for North America with the exception of PWG, so that means U.S., Canada and Mexico. New Japan strongly encouraged them to sign the deal because they knew how hard they were working on the indies and didn't want them to get hurt by working so many dates. Plus, since they work with ROH, both sides will be able to coordinate the dates. They are supposed to also do a ten week minimum with New Japan on a separate deal . Essentially, between the two, they are guaranteed more money than they've ever earned before and will be working considerably less dates.
The PWG aspect of the deal was something they insisted on, and they also get to keep their merchandising rights and Pro Wrestling Tees business. Nobody else under ROH contract, even those with non-exclusive deals, are allowed to be affiliated with Pro Wrestling Tees. The similar exclusive to North America deals that ROH has signed with guys (Jay Lethal, Bobby Fish, Kyle O'Reilly, Adam Cole, Mark & Jay Briscoe and most recently ACH) do not allow them to work PWG or anywhere else. The deal Roderick Strong signed does allow him to work PWG, where he is the current champion.
The funny part about that is the exclusive contracts started because ROH didn't want guys working PWG, because they didn't want their champions losing on somebody else's cards (unless it's worked out with New Japan) and more not getting hurt on somebody else's cards because of Cole getting hurt working in PWG in the first place.
Those on the indie scene have remarked that this is a major landmark deal, because, among other things, it shows that Sinclair was willing to spend more money than ever before for talent. It'll be interesting to see the locker room reaction, as others under contract like the Briscoes mayb be looking for raises when their deals are up based on the new precedent set. Part of it may also be that ROH doesn't want to lay dead knowing that WWE is both coming after their current talent, and the word on the streets for upcoming talent is to go to Evolve and not ROH because it's the road to NXT.
It's also a significant deal on the indie scene. While no major indie group except PWG relied on The Young Bucks, they were a strong special attraction that was more affordable to smaller groups than the bigger names out there, would boost attendance for most companies they worked for, and also have very good to blow away matches every night. There was no other act like that with that value at their price range, plus they worked a ton of dates so were more available than most on the indie scene.
The Young Bucks deal was a one-year contract, which means that in about six to nine months we'll have all the rumors all over again about them going to WWE. Just for a clarification, the deal with ROH is exclusive for North America with the exception of PWG, so that means U.S., Canada and Mexico. New Japan strongly encouraged them to sign the deal because they knew how hard they were working on the indies and didn't want them to get hurt by working so many dates. Plus, since they work with ROH, both sides will be able to coordinate the dates. They are supposed to also do a ten week minimum with New Japan on a separate deal . Essentially, between the two, they are guaranteed more money than they've ever earned before and will be working considerably less dates.
The PWG aspect of the deal was something they insisted on, and they also get to keep their merchandising rights and Pro Wrestling Tees business. Nobody else under ROH contract, even those with non-exclusive deals, are allowed to be affiliated with Pro Wrestling Tees. The similar exclusive to North America deals that ROH has signed with guys (Jay Lethal, Bobby Fish, Kyle O'Reilly, Adam Cole, Mark & Jay Briscoe and most recently ACH) do not allow them to work PWG or anywhere else. The deal Roderick Strong signed does allow him to work PWG, where he is the current champion.
The funny part about that is the exclusive contracts started because ROH didn't want guys working PWG, because they didn't want their champions losing on somebody else's cards (unless it's worked out with New Japan) and more not getting hurt on somebody else's cards because of Cole getting hurt working in PWG in the first place.
Those on the indie scene have remarked that this is a major landmark deal, because, among other things, it shows that Sinclair was willing to spend more money than ever before for talent. It'll be interesting to see the locker room reaction, as others under contract like the Briscoes mayb be looking for raises when their deals are up based on the new precedent set. Part of it may also be that ROH doesn't want to lay dead knowing that WWE is both coming after their current talent, and the word on the streets for upcoming talent is to go to Evolve and not ROH because it's the road to NXT.
It's also a significant deal on the indie scene. While no major indie group except PWG relied on The Young Bucks, they were a strong special attraction that was more affordable to smaller groups than the bigger names out there, would boost attendance for most companies they worked for, and also have very good to blow away matches every night. There was no other act like that with that value at their price range, plus they worked a ton of dates so were more available than most on the indie scene.
TNA Update
In a follow-up of Marc Etkind moving from Destination America as General Manager a few weeks ago, it was Etkind who made the call to drop TNA and it came after the alleged e-mail Dixie Carter accidentally sent to the head of the Discovery Network that was saying Etkind was an idiot in regard to not releasing the DVR ratings, like Spike often did, since TNA was doing 20 percent increases over its same night viewing when you add in those who watched over the next week on DVR.
While there is no indication anything has changed in that regard, we were told that all programming decisions are now being evaluated. For what it's worth, it seems like those in TNA believe they are still done in January, while those in ROH say they are awaiting word of what their future on the station is.
In a follow-up of Marc Etkind moving from Destination America as General Manager a few weeks ago, it was Etkind who made the call to drop TNA and it came after the alleged e-mail Dixie Carter accidentally sent to the head of the Discovery Network that was saying Etkind was an idiot in regard to not releasing the DVR ratings, like Spike often did, since TNA was doing 20 percent increases over its same night viewing when you add in those who watched over the next week on DVR.
While there is no indication anything has changed in that regard, we were told that all programming decisions are now being evaluated. For what it's worth, it seems like those in TNA believe they are still done in January, while those in ROH say they are awaiting word of what their future on the station is.