Friday, December 6, 2024

NXT ratings:

This week: 593,000 overnight viewers and 0.13 in the key demos.

Last week: 632,000 overnight viewers and 0.15 in the key demos.

For anyone keeping score: AEW had 586,000 overnight viewers this week and 0.17 in the key demos.

Penta has officially left AEW.

Word is that the virtual line-up for Elimination Chamber tickets keeps whipping on through as once people see the prices ranging from $200+ for the worst seats in the house to over $1,000 for the floors, people are logging off clearing the way.

WWE has announced that SmackDown will take place Friday, January 31 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis as part of Royal Rumble weekend. Tickets will go on sale Wednesday, December 11 at 10am ET/7am PT via Ticketmaster.com.

A big announcement from WWE:

Yes, like everyone else I am going to bitch and complain about WWE ticket prices. Checking out Elimination Chamber tickets here in Toronto I was not surprised to see that floor seats were $700 to over $1,000. What was shocking is that moving into the stands the prices remained that high. The next level above that was $400 a ticket. The level above that about $400 to $300 and finally the top nose bleed section about $200+.

I can say from having attended WrestleMania 6 and baseball games at Skydome that sitting in that nose bleed section is worthless, except if you want to brag that you were there for years afterwards. The ring and people around it look like ants. You are best to follow the action on the big screens. It is a shame that prices have skyrocketed for WWE’s big events. It makes it very difficult for many to attend. Prices like that are well out of their reach of most or perhaps to put a finer point on it, many cannot justify spending their rent money or mortgage payment for the month on wrestling tickets. As of my last glance there are plenty of Elimination Chamber tickets left. Perhaps consumers, fans are making their voices heard. If you don’t submit to those outrageous ticket prices they will assuredly come down sooner rather than later.

Thursday, December 5, 2024

NXT Ratings:

This week: 593,000 overnight viewers and 0.13 in the key demos.

Last week: 632,000 overnight viewers and 0.15 in the key demos.

A reminder that MLW’s Eric Bischoff’s One Shot streams for free on MLW’s YouTube channel tonight at 9:00 PM.

The card is:

Eric Bischoff Granted Total Creative Control at ONE-SHOT

World Tag Team Championship: CONTRA Unit vs. COZYMAX

Matt Riddle vs. Donovan Dijak

EZE’s Roulette: National Openweight Champion Matthew Justice & Mystery Partner vs. The Andersons

World Middleweight Championship: Místico vs. Trevor Lee

Fan’s Choice Match: Alex Kane vs. Bobby Fish

Delmi Exo vs. Ava Everett

The Elimination Chamber pre-sale codes are: UNIVERSE and WWETIX.

Some news for WWE fans in the UK:

An update from Taz:

The George Tragos/Lou Thesz Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame announced that Tim Hornbaker will be the 2025 recipient of the Jim Melby Award, which recognizes excellence in the preservation of professional wrestling history through the written word. Hornbaker is the author of six books covering the history of professional wrestling, including The Last Real World Champion: The Legacy of “Nature Boy” Ric Flair, Master of the Ring: The Biography of  “Nature Boy” Buddy Rogers, National Wrestling Alliance: The Untold Story of the Monopoly that Strangled Professional Wrestling, Death of the Territories, and Captiol Revolution: The Rise of the McMahon Wrestling Empire. The induction weekend in Waterloo, Iowa, is July 17-19, 2025.

Raw Ratings:

This week: 1,709,000 overnight viewers and 0.54 in the key demos.

Last week: 1,510,000 overnight viewers and 0.47 in the key demos.

Chris Jericho will defend the Ring of Honor World Championship at Final Battle against Matt Cardona.

Here are your Rampage spoilers:

Kazuchika Okada defeated Mark Briscoe. Continental Classic Blue League Match.

Chris Jericho and Matt Cardona had a confrontation.

Daniel Garcia beat The Beast Mortos. Continental Classic Blue League Match.

The Vendetta (Deonna Purazzo and Taya Valkyrie) defeated Ella Elizabeth and Freya States.

Ricochet defeated Komander. Continental Classic Gold League.

Wednesday, December 4, 2024

Click this link to see an ode to independent wrestling shows.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DDIog-fN9vY

The Elimination Chamber pre-sale code is UNIVERSE.

Collision ratings:

This week: 114,000 overnight viewers and 0.04 in the key demos.

Last week: 356,000 overnight viewers and 0.11 in the key demos.

Smackdown ratings:

This week: 1,495,000 overnight viewers. 0.45 in the key demos.

Last week: 1,568,000 overnight viewers. 0.45 in the key demos.

By the end of this month many of the Raw episodes will be leaving Netflix.

WWE announced the next Saturday Night’s Main Event primetime special will air live on Saturday, January 25 at 8pm ET/7pm  CT on NBC and simulcast on Peacock. The special will be held at Frost Bank Center – home of the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs – in San Antonio, Texas. Tickets will go on sale Friday, December 13 at 11am ET/10am CT via Ticketmaster.com. Presale for Saturday Night’s Main Event tickets will begin Wednesday, December 11 at 11am ET/10am CT. Fans can register now to receive an exclusive presale offer by visiting https://www.wwe.com/saturday-nights-main-event-san-antonio-presale-registration. Saturday Night’s Main Event Priority Passes are now available from On Location giving fans the chance to be ringside for every exhilarating moment including premium seating pre-show hospitality with WWE Superstar appearances ringside photo opportunities and much more. To buy now, please visit https://onlocationexp.com/mainevent.

Masked Republic announced that it is teaming up with Trioscope, the studio behind Netflix’s The Liberator, George R. R. Martin’s Night of the Cooters, and upcoming action thriller Takeover to develop a television version of the Masked Republic / Massive Publishing comic book series Vampiro: Rockabilly Apocalypse. Our own Josh Olsen talked with series writer Michael Kingston about it all in October: Kingston promises lots in store with ‘Vampiro: Rockabilly Apocalypse’

Deadline covered the big WWE meeting at Netflix HQ yesterday. The superstars who were there were: Liv Morgan, Bianca Belair, CM Punk, Cody Rhodes, The Miz, Rey Mysterio, Rhea Ripley, Becky Lynch and Seth Rollins.

WWE President Nick Khan confirmed one thing: “We’re not changing the rating of our programming. So there’s some online chatter about, ‘oh, it’s going to be R-rated, or for us old folks, X-rated.’ That’s definitely not happening,” he said. “It’s family-friendly, multi-generational, advertiser-friendly programming. It’s going to stay that way. I would look for more global flair, especially as the relationship continues to develop. Countries outside of the United States are as important to us as the United States is. So we have certain targeted countries that are priorities for Netflix. They’re priorities for us. You’re going to see more of that. I think that’s the way you’ll see a bit of a difference.”

WWE announced that tickets for the eleven-city tour of Europe on the Road to WrestleMania, including numerous editions of Raw and SmackDown, will go on general sale Friday, December 13 at 9am GMT/10am CET. Presale for the Road to WrestleMania Tour will begin Wednesday, December 11 at 9am GMT/10am CET. Fans can register now to receive an exclusive presale offer by visiting: https://www.wwe.com/roadtowrestlemania-europe-presale-registration.

Friday, March 14 Barcelona, Spain Friday Night SmackDown Olimpic Arena MiTaquilla.com
Saturday, March 15 Dortmund, Germany Road to WrestleMania Tour Westfalenhalle Ticketmaster
Sunday, March 16 Hannover, Germany Road to WrestleMania Tour ZAG Arena Ticketmaster
Monday, March 17 Brussels, Belgium Monday Night RAW Forest National GreenhouseTalent.com
Friday, March 21 Bologna, Italy Friday Night SmackDown Unipol Arena TicketOne
Saturday, March 22 Belfast, Northern Ireland Road to WrestleMania Tour SSE Arena Ticketmaster
Sunday, March 23 Nottingham, England Road to WrestleMania Tour Motorpoint Arena MotorPointArenaNottingham.com
Monday, March 24 Glasgow, Scotland Monday Night RAW OVO Hydro Ticketmaster
Friday, March 28 London, England Friday Night SmackDown O2 Arena AXS
Saturday, March 29 Vienna, Austria Road to WrestleMania Tour Wiener Stadthalle Ticketmaster
Sunday, March 30 Amsterdam, Netherlands Road to WrestleMania Tour Ziggo Dome GreenhouseTalent.com
Monday, March 31 London, England Monday Night RAW O2 Arena AXS

Wrestling fans in the UK have created a petition to allow pubs and bars to show WWE’s PLEs on Netflix in the same way Sky Sports and TNT Sports Box Office have allowed. Right now, Netflix doesn’t allow bars to broadcast their shows or events. You can read more about the issue here.

The complete NXT Deadline card is:

WWE NXT Champion Trick Williams vs. Ridge Holland

Men’s Iron Survivor Challenge: Je’Von Evans vs. Wes Lee vs. Nathan Frazer vs. Ethan Page vs. Eddy Thorpe.

Women’s Iron Survivor Challenge: Sol Ruca vs. Stephanie Vaquer vs. Zaria vs. GIULIA vs. Wren Sinclair.

WWE NXT Tag Team Champions Nate Frazer & Axiom vs. No Quarter Catch Crew’s Myles Borne & Tavion Heights

NXT Underground: Lola Vice vs. Jaida Parker

Here is what you will see on Dynamite tonight:

Claudio Castagnoli vs. Brody King in a Continental Classic gold league match

Kyle Fletcher vs. Shelton Benjamin in a Continental Classic blue league match

Dynamite Dozen Battle Royal

Pac vs. Jay White

Swerve Strickland vs. Max Caster

Tuesday, December 3, 2024

At today’s big WWE event at Netflix HQ, Becky Lynch is scheduled to appear.

Some great news for Vampiro:

Today, Trioscope, the studio behind Netflix’s “The Liberator,” George R. R. Martin’s “Night of the Cooters,” and upcoming action thriller feature “Takeover” and lucha libre powerhouse Masked Republic announced a production pact to develop the Vampiro: Rockabilly Apocalypse for television.

“Trioscope’s core mission is to unlock the world’s great untold stories. From the moment we first saw Vampiro, we knew it was a world that Trioscope would be the perfect medium for, and we cannot wait to bring Vampiro to life on screen.” Trioscope’s president, Brandon Barr, said.

“While the mission for Masked Republic Comics is always firstly great storytelling and visuals on the printed page, we could not be more excited to have piqued the interest of Trioscope Studios with this series,” Vampiro: Rockabilly Apocalypse co-creator and imprint co-publisher Kevin Kleinrock said.  ‘We have a great partner in print distribution with Massive Publishing and now we have an incredible partner in developing the series from the page to the screen in Trioscope.  Every single production of theirs has brought something new and fresh to filmmaking, and we are looking forward to rolling up our sleeves and working with their incredible team to innovate comic book adaptation.”

Garnering critical acclaim, year-end comic book industry balloting has seen Vampiro: Rockabilly Apocalypse #1 nominated as Best Debut Issue and Michael Kingston as Best Writer for the series by multiple podcasts and websites.

Vampiro: Rockabilly Apocalypse #1 is in comic book shops now.  Issue two will be available on Wednesday, December 4.   

Juice Robinson was seen walking with crutches at a convention over the weekend.

In case you missed it, one of the biggest double turns in wrestling history right here. Poor E.

WWE will be airing a Saturday Night’s Main Event right before the Royal Rumble on January 25th.

People did a great story on the relationship between Jade Cargill and her daughter Bailey. You can check it out here.

Here is what you will see on NXT tonight:

Wren Sinclair vs. Kelani Jordan vs. Lexis King vs. Cedric Alexander – Last Chance Iron Survivor Qualifier
Eddy Thorpe vs. Axiom vs. Jaida Parker vs. Cora Jade – Last Chance Iron Survivor Qualifier
#1 Contenders Tag Team Battle Royal
Eric Bischoff appears
X-Pac appears

Word is that Sheamus suffered a cracked rib at Survivor Series. It is not known when he will return to action.

Josh Alexander will be a free agent come February.

It isn’t good news from Kota Ibushi. He spoke to Tokyo Sports and said after competing at the Nagayo’s 60th Birthday Festival: “My legs are at their limit and it could end at any time. I wanted to keep going before I can’t do it anymore so I decided to compete today. I’m really at the limit but I want to contribute to the world of professional wrestling before I end my career, so I’m currently appearing in various places.”

Finally, the New Day are interesting again. For me, the stable has been just existing in WWE for the longest time. No real direction. No excitement. No purpose or plan. They were just there. Last night was a moment fans will never forget although it would have been cool if they roughed Big E up a bit but perhaps they didn’t in order to bring about some kind of reunion in the future. The New Day haven’t been white hat wearing faces anyway. There are plenty of times where they pulled “Masked Confusion” or used underhanded means to win matches. It will be fascinating to see where this goes. I have a sneaky suspicion though they will eventually be reunited and turn faces again.

Monday, December 2, 2024

Ron Hutchison was announced as the recipient of the 2025 Verne Gagne Trainer Award from the George Tragos/Lou Thesz Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame in Waterloo, Iowa. The ceremony will be July 17-19, 2025.

Some good news from Maria:

Raw will be commercial free for the first 30 minutes tonight.

As announced this past Saturday during Survivor Series: WarGames, tickets for Elimination Chamber, which takes place Saturday, March 1, 2025 at Rogers Centre in Toronto, will go on sale Friday, December 6 at 10am ET/7am PT via Ticketmaster.com. Presale for Elimination Chamber tickets will begin Wednesday, December 4 at 10am ET/7am PT. Fans can register now to receive an exclusive presale offer by visiting https://www.wwe.com/ec-2025-presale-registration.

Elimination Chamber Priority Passes are now available from On Location giving fans the chance to be ringside for every exhilarating moment including premium seating, pre-show hospitality with WWE Superstar appearances, ringside photo opportunities and much more. To learn more, please visit https://onlocationexp.com/elimination.

There is new that Jade Cargill is on the WWE injured list and that her time off isn’t a work.

In an interview with Noticias 24, Stephanie Vaquer said this about joining WWE: “I’ll be very honest. Since I was a child my dream was to sign with WWE but you grow up and you can’t be guided by the dreams you had when you were 9-years-old. When I did what I did in Mexico and Japan I had already fulfilled a dream. I was missing this extra. Not everything is money. I received another very juicy offer financially. To be a complete wrestler I was missing being in WWE. I came to NXT because it was the best women’s division in existence.”

Here is what you will see on Raw tonight:

Shayna Baszler vs. Katana Chance vs. Dakota Kai – WWE Women’s Intercontinental Championship Tournament
Pete Dunne vs. R-Truth
Damage CTRL vs. Raquel Rodriguez & Liv Morgan
The New Day’s tenth anniversary celebration
CM Punk to kick off the show

Word is that Bronson Reed is scheduled to have one of his ankles scanned today. It could be broken.

There’s a long piece by Ettore “Big E” Ewen at The Players’ Tribune that is well worth a read.

Here are results for DEFY x PROGRESS for the weekend of November 29th and December 1st.

BROOKLYN, NY: November 29, 2024 Roulette Intermedium – DEFY x PROGRESS: Onslaught: PROGRESS World Championship: Luke Jacobs* beat Kevin Knight…DEFY Women’s World Championship: Marina Shafir* beat Allie Katch…Mustafa Ali beat Cara Noir…PROGRESS Proteus Championship: Simon Miller beat Dark STG…Homicide beat Tate Mayfair (count out)…PROGRESS Women’s World Championship: RHIO* beat Zayda Steel…Man Like Dereiss beat KC Navarro…Los Desperados (Gringo Loco & Arez) beat The Mane Event (Jay Lyon & Ringmaster Midas)

CHICAGO, IL: December 1, 2024 Thalia Hall – DEFY x PROGRESS: Onslaught: PROGRESS World Championship: Luke Jacobs* beat Man Like Dereiss…Mustafa Ali beat Kevin Knight…DEFY World Tag Team Championship: Los Desperados (Gringo Loco & Arez) beat C4 (Cody Chhun & Guillermo Rosas)* – Win Tag Titles…Cara Noir beat Timothy Thatcher…PROGRESS Women’s World Championship: RHIO* beat Vert Vixen (count-out)…AAW Tag Team Championship: Hellhounds KC (SCHAFF & RUSS) beat Sunshine Machine (TK Cooper & Chuck Mambo)…Simon Miller beat Broski Jimmy Lloyd

Defy returns to its home of Seattle on December 29th.