Dwayne Johnson’s Ballers series on HBO wraps up tonight

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10/13/2019

Dwayne Johnson’s Ballers HBO series wraps up tonight with episode 47, and eighth of season five, being the last one.

Johnson plays the role of Spencer Strasmore, a retired NFL player turned financial manager, who works for Anderson Financial and manages some of the best athletes. The series also featured Rob Corddry, John David Washington, Omar Miller, Donovan W. Carter, Troy Garity, London Brown, and Jazmyn Simon in the other supporting roles.

“I’ve played a few characters over the years that have been anchored deep in my DNA so it’s as if I’m just being myself. I’ve had a helluva time playing this man. Thank you all for this amazing 5yr run,” Johnson wrote on Twitter yesterday.

Season five of Ballers averaged just half a million viewers per episode, significantly down from the previous seasons.

More WWE Superstars drafted to Raw and Smackdown over the weekend

By

Colin Vassallo

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10/13/2019

Nine more WWE Superstars were drafted to Raw and Smackdown after they were not originally picked on Friday, making them “free agents.”

EC3, Eric Young, and Sin Cara are now part of the Raw roster while Apollo Crews, Drew Gulak, Heath Slater, Tamina, and The B-Team – Curtis Axel and Bo Dallas – are now part of the Smackdown roster.

Apollo Crews was never part of the Friday draft pool and was set for tomorrow’s draft. After these picks, Akira Tozawa, Cesaro, Chad Gable, and Humberto Carrillo remain free agents.

Velasquez reveals phone call conversation with UFC’s Dana White prior to signing with WWE

By

Colin Vassallo

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10/13/2019

After the Crown Jewel press conference on Friday in Las Vegas, WWE’s newest Superstar Cain Velasquez talked to various members of the press regarding his new journey with WWE.

The former two-time UFC Heavyweight champion told MMAJunkie.com that before he signed the contract with WWE, he called UFC President Dana White again to talk to him about what he’s doing and what he’s about to do.

“We ended up talking on the phone,” Velasquez said. “He just supported me 100%. It was just a good, respectful talk that we had. He thanked me for everything that I did. I thanked him and the company for everything that they did. He just gave me his full blessing. He said, ‘This is awesome, what you’re doing. Go ahead, you have my full consent to go ahead and do what you want to do.'”

Velasquez is now getting ready for his first WWE match against Brock Lesnar, a match for the WWE title at the upcoming Crown Jewel pay-per-view in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Cain also got himself out of the UFC USADA drug testing pool as his MMA career comes to a close, at least for the time being. “As of right now, the chapter is closed on my MMA career,” he continued. “I’m focusing on the task at hand with the WWE. I love this sport. I’ve rebirthed myself into reliving it and loving it again. I’m all in on doing this. I’m diving deep into doing this, and this is what I’m doing for right now.”

Indie wrestler Shotzi Blackheart heading to WWE Performance Center

By

Colin Vassallo

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10/13/2019

28-year-old Ashley Urbanski, better known on the independent scene as Shotzi Blackheart, has signed a WWE deal and will be heading to Orlando and the WWE Performance Center.

During last night’s EVOLVE 137 event, NXT General Manager William Regal presented Blackheart with the contract in the middle of the ring following her win.

The California native has been wrestling professionally since 2015 and is the current SHINE Nova champion. Known also by the nickname of “The Ballsy Badass,” Blackheart will wrestle her final indie date on November 3 with SHIMMER before heading to the WWE PC.

Taz to provide guest commentary for AEW Dark next week

By

Colin Vassallo

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10/12/2019

Cody Rhodes announced on Twitter today that former ECW champion Taz will be joining the broadcast booth as a guest to help provide commentary for the AEW Dark tapings next week.

The show will take place in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a place that Taz knows too well from his ECW days.

Taz, who now has his own nationally syndicated morning radio show on CBS Sports Radio, has not done commentary for a wrestling show ever since he left Impact Wrestling in 2015. Taz did commentary for Smackdown and WWE’s version of ECW during his time with WWE before moving to Impact Wrestling in 2009 where he did commentary till he departed.

Over 1.5 million viewers don’t come back as wrestling’s four big shows fail to keep their audience

By

Colin Vassallo

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10/12/2019

After a combined audience of 8,738,000 viewers last week watching the season premiere of Raw, NXT, the premiere of Dynamite on TNT, and Smackdown’s premiere on FOX, the wrestling audience this week took a combined hit of over a million and a half viewers as none of the four shows managed to retain its audience a week later.

This week, 7,162,000 viewers tuned in to watch Raw, NXT, Dynamite, and Smackdown, a total of 1,576,000 viewers less than last week.

Smackdown suffered the biggest hit of them all with a 25% drop in viewership, going from a high of 3,869,000 viewers last week to just 2,898,000 this week. AEW’s Dynamite was the second biggest loser in terms of viewership, shedding 20% of its audience when also factoring in the TruTV viewership in the total number. Dynamite had 1,409,000 viewers for its premiere but 1,140,000 viewers tuned in this week across TNT and TruTV. NXT lost 101,000 viewers, going from 891,000 to 790,000 viewers while Raw had the least bleed in terms of eyeballs, with a 10% loss going from 2,569,000 viewers for the season premiere to 2,334,000 for the post-PPV show, which probably helped the numbers.

While Smackdown was the biggest loser in terms of audience drop, it was also the winner as the show still had over half a million viewers more than Raw and for the second week in a row, it beat Raw in the ratings, something that never happened until the show moved to FOX.

Smackdown rating for 10/11/2019

By

Colin Vassallo

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10/12/2019

Smackdown on FOX lost nearly a million viewers from last week, getting an average of 2,898,000 viewers off hours 2,925,000 and 2,872,000. That is down 971,000 viewers from the premiere episode.

Just like last week, FOX won the 18-34, 18-49, and 25-54 demographics in both hours that Smackdown was on. FOX was behind CBS and NBC for the night in terms of viewership with Smackdown beating only ABC and CW. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)

New-look Bayley wins Smackdown Women’s title and turns heel

By

Colin Vassallo

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10/12/2019

Charlotte Flair’s 10th title reign came to a quick end last night on Friday Night Smackdown as a new-look heel Bayley regained the Smackdown Women’s title just five days after losing it at Hell In A Cell.

Bayley, with a new short hair-do, destroyed the inflatable tube men – known as the Bayley Buddies – that have been part of her entrance since the NXT days. She also had a new theme song and after winning the match and main event, she told the crowd, “Hey bitches, screw all of you.”

Bayley has been a face all her WWE career and was dubbed as the female John Cena due to the connection she had with the younger fans. This is her fourth singles title reign having won the NXT Women’s title and Raw Women’s title once and the Smackdown Women’s title twice. She also had a short run as one half of the WWE Women’s Tag Team champions with Sasha Banks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3kYW4iEZ4shttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ihFUL7sZ6M

Oops! WWE spoils its own draft picks a day before with WWE.COM article

By

Colin Vassallo

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10/12/2019

In a major blunder, WWE spoiled its own draft picks on WWE.COM yesterday after publishing the draft pool list and rather than posting them in alphabetical order, they posted the names of everyone almost in the same order that were revealed later in the night on Smackdown.

As eagle-eyed viewers made fun of the fact of what was going on on social media, WWE apparently got a hold of it and then switched the order of some Superstars but who went where held true to the list that WWE had published. Fans obviously had a field day on social media, especially Twitter, ridiculing WWE for making such a rookie mistake on a very important night.

It remains to be seen what happens on Raw next Monday when the draft continues and if the order remains the same. Superstars such as WWE champion Brock Lesnar, Daniel Bryan, Smackdown Women’s champion Bayley, The Miz, Rusev, Samoa Joe, Universal champion Seth Rollins, Intercontinental champion Shinsuke Nakamura and others are eligible to be drafted on Monday.

Cain Velasquez signs “lucrative, multi-year” contract with WWE

By

Colin Vassallo

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10/12/2019

Marc Raimondi from ESPN is reporting that former two-time UFC Heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez has signed a “lucrative, multi-year” contract with WWE after notifying the UFC that he is officially retired from mixed martial arts.

Raimondi said that Velasquez has been struck off from the UFC’s USADA drug-testing pool and is no longer part of the UFC Heavyweight rankings. Velasquez had 17 professional MMA fights, 15 of which came in the UFC. He has a record of 14-3 and his last fight earlier this year was a loss to Francis Ngannou with a TKO.

Velasquez was also in talks with All Elite Wrestling and New Japan Pro Wrestling but after last week’s Smackdown debut, it was pretty evident where he was heading.

An NCAA Division 1 All American, Velasquez impressed in his first two pro wrestling matches for Lucha Libre AAA and committing his future to wrestling sealed the deal for WWE.

His first match will be against Brock Lesnar at the Crown Jewel pay-per-view on October 31 in Saudi Arabia. The match was not announced for the WWE title although that could change.

Night one results of the WWE draft from Friday Night Smackdown

By

Colin Vassallo

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10/12/2019

WWE held night one of the WWE Draft yesterday on Friday Night Smackdown with the first picks moving to Raw, Smackdown, and many others remaining free agents as they weren’t picked.

Moving – or staying – on Raw are Becky Lynch, all of The O.C. including AJ Styles, Luke Gallows, and Karl Anderson, Drew McIntyre, Randy Orton, Ricochet, Bobby Lashley, Alexa Bliss, Kevin Owens, Natalya, The Viking Raiders, Nikki Cross, and The Street Profits.

Drafted to the blue brand are Roman Reigns, Bray Wyatt, Sasha Banks, Braun Strowman, Lacey Evans, The Revival, all of Lucha House Party including Kalisto, Gran Metalik and Lince Dorado, and Heavy Machinery.

Those not picked but were available in the pool are Akira Tozawa, Cesaro, Chad Gable, Drew Gulak, EC3, Eric Young, Heath Slater, Humberto Carrillo, Sin Cara, Tamina, and The B-Team.

Lesnar/Velasquez and Strowman/Fury officially announced for Crown Jewel

By

Colin Vassallo

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10/11/2019

WWE today announced two huge matches for the Crown Jewel pay-per-view in Saudi Arabia later this month at a press conference held inside the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, the site of tonight’s Friday Night Smackdown on FOX.

Michael Cole presided over the press conference and kicked things off by introducing Triple H. Triple H said that WWE will present one of the most exciting cards in history for the millions of WWE fans in the Middle East and then showed a video of WWE’s past trips to Saudi. He then announced that Brock Lesnar will take on Cain Velasquez and Braun Strowman will take on Tyson Fury at the show.

Cole then introduced Braun Strowman for a few words and then Top Rank CEO and Founder Bob Arum came out to introduce Fury. Fury said he’s honored to be part of this event and he’s a life-long WWE fan so he’s excited to perform in Saudi Arabia. The two posed for the press and then got separated by Triple H after they got into a bit of an argument.

Triple H then did the introduction of Lesnar vs Velasquez by showing a video of what happened last week on Smackdown. Michael Cole introduced Rey Mysterio next, who talked about his son and what happened with Lesnar before bringing out Cain Velasquez to the podium.

Velasquez said he’s excited to be joining the WWE and Brock Lesnar crossed the wrong family. Cain struggled a little bit and looked like he almost forgot his lines with a lot of awkward pauses. He said Brock’s the biggest but not the baddest and promised to take down Lesnar.

Cole introduced Heyman next who immediately said he’s glad to inject some personality into the room, a clear shot at Velasquez. He said that at Crown Jewel Lesnar will conquer Cain and that is not a prediction but a spoiler. Heyman then brought out Brock who said that he usually doesn’t need to say anything when Paul is by his side but this time it’s different, warning Velasquez that this was his world, his house, his kingdom, and he’s the conqueror.

“For 10 years, for 10 long years I’ve been waiting for this moment, Cain. I get up every day and I have to look at the scar that you put on my face inside that Octagon. I can’t wait to get my hands on you again cause it will be a different story and it will be a different outcome, Cain. I’ll see you in Riyadh,” Brock said.

CM Punk merchandise on ProWrestlingTees gone apart from one item

By

Colin Vassallo

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10/11/2019

CM Punk, who was one of the best sellers on ProWrestlingTees.com, had all his t-shirts removed from the site apart from one shirt, fueling more rumors that he is joining the WWE Backstage show on FS1.

His only t-shirt remaining now reads “CM Punk sucks” and it’s selling for $19.99. Punk had a total of 37 t-shirt designs on ProWrestlingTees with the headline of his store reading, “Exclusive and Official Merchandise Store of former pro wrestler CM Punk. Now you can buy never before seen apparel from the Straight Edge superstar.” The headline now reads, “He once crashed the ProWrestlingTees.com website. Stop chanting his name at live events. CM Punk sucks now.”

Punk had a tryout to be part of the WWE Backstage studio show on FS1 a couple of weeks ago and did his screen test in front of host Renee Young. Since then, Punk has openly talked about auditioning for the show and said that he’d be up for it if he gets the gig.

AEW owner Shad Khan talks about launching the new wrestling promotion

By

Colin Vassallo

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10/11/2019

Shad Khan, the father of AEW President Tony Khan and the man who is funding All Elite Wrestling, spoke about the launch of AEW with Yahoo Finance’s All Markets Summit: Generational Opportunities.

Khan said that the whole concept started with his son Tony who had this idea and drive as a lifelong wrestling fan to launch his own promotion so he decided to support him financially.

“He kept talking about it, that we ought to do it, and here are the reasons why we should do it. I kept stress testing the idea, and then I struck a check to fund it because if you’re going to do it, it’s gotta be right,” Khan said. “That was the most important thing. You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression, but his idea, his passion, and his drive, and it’s off to a great start.”

When asked about WWE as their competition, Shad Khan told Yahoo! Finance that the promotion is focusing on building its brand rather than competition with WWE, noting that “WWE is a great company,” but in the late 90s, there were 10 million fans watching weekly and now it’s just to around 2 million.

“So we’re tapping into fans who were not engaged and quite frankly the younger fan who never got quite into it. Competition is good for everybody, but it’s very important for AEW to do our own thing,” he explained.

Khan also noted the difference between running an NFL team and a wrestling promotion, saying that the biggest challenge is finding talent. “It’s quite different, and that’s the question I had for Tony. His point to me was that the big difference here is there’s a huge amount of talent that’s on the street. Whereas in football and the NFL, the top talent is already there.”

The Pakistani American billionaire businessman is the owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars of the NFL, and Fulham F.C. of the English Football League apart from owning AEW. He is worth $7.9 billion, more than double of what Vince McMahon is worth.

The Fight Network to air Impact Wrestling in Canada every Tuesday night

By

Colin Vassallo

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10/11/2019

Impact Wrestling today announced that its weekly flagship show will move to Tuesday nights at 8PM ET in Canada and will air on The Fight Network and on the international feed including Portugal and Greece starting October 22.

A replay of the show will air on GameTV on Saturdays at 7PM ET.

The first episode in the new time slot will feature a special entitled This is Impact and will include non-televised matches from Bound For Glory plus profiles on Impact Wrestling’s biggest stars.

Impact starts its permanent Tuesday time slot in the United States on October 29 on AXS TV. AXS TV will also air This is Impact on October 22 so Canadian fans will get to see Impact shows during the same time as it airs in the United States.

List of Superstars eligible for the draft tonight on Smackdown

By

Colin Vassallo

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10/11/2019

WWE will be putting up half of the roster available for the draft tonight on Smackdown, with the other half available next Monday on Raw.

As reported yesterday, for every two Smackdown picks, Raw will get three since Raw is a three-hour show. Tag teams will count as one pick unless FOX or USA Network specifically wants to pick only one Superstar from the team and any undrafted Superstars will immediately be declared free agents and able to sign with the brand of their choosing.

It’s being reported that all the draft picks will be announced by WWE Chief Brand Officer Stephanie McMahon while the many FOX and NBCUniversal celebrities will serve as “analysts” leading up to each pick.

Those available to be drafted tonight – in alphabetical order – are: Akira Tozawa, Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross, Becky Lynch, Bobby Lashley, Braun Strowman, Bray Wyatt, Cesaro, Chad Gable, Drew Gulak, Drew McIntyre, EC3, Eric Young, Heath Slater, Humberto Carrillo, Kevin Owens, Lacey Evans, Lucha House Party, Natalya, Randy Orton, Ricochet, Roman Reigns, Sasha Banks, Sin Cara, Tamina, The B-Team, The O.C., The Revival, The Street Profits, and The Viking Raiders.

NXT rating for 10/09/2019

By

Colin Vassallo

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10/10/2019

NXT on USA Network did a total of 790,000 viewers this week, down 101,000 viewers from last week. The show was #27 in the top 50 cable chart among the 18-49 demographic. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)

Dynamite rating for 10/09/2019

By

Colin Vassallo

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10/10/2019

All Elite Wrestling’s Dynamite on TNT pulled in a total of 1,018,000 viewers this week, winning the ratings war with NXT for the second week in a row. Dynamite dropped 391,000 viewers from last week’s premiere episode. The show was #8 in the top 50 cable chart among the 18-49 demographic. Dynamite was also simulcast on TruTV, getting an additional 122,000 viewers so when adding both numbers, Dynamite did 1,140,000 viewers. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)

WWE Draft rules and celebrities scheduled to appear announced

By

Colin Vassallo

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10/10/2019

WWE today announced the rules of the WWE Draft and the tons of FOX and NBCUniversal celebrities who will be part of the two-day festivities which will take place over Smackdown tomorrow and Raw on Monday.

Over 70 Superstars as well as tag teams are eligible for selection in this year’s WWE Draft. Smackdown will draft 30 Superstars, and Raw will select another 41 Superstars. Due to Smackdown being a two-hour show and Raw a three-hour show, for every two picks Smackdown makes, Raw will get three picks. Tag teams will count as one pick unless FOX or USA Network specifically wants to pick only one Superstar from the team and any undrafted Superstars will immediately be declared free agents and able to sign with the brand of their choosing.

A bunch of celebs who appear on FOX and NBCUniversal programming will help with the draft. Announced as appearing are Alex Rodriguez (FOX MLB analyst), Michael Che and Colin Jost (Saturday Night Live), Christian Slater (Mr. Robot), Joe Buck and Troy Aikman (NFL on FOX commentators), Jim Cramer (Mad Money), Kevin Burkhardt and Frank Thomas (FOX MLB analysts), Terry Bradshaw, Howie Long, Jimmy Johnson and Tony Gonzalez (FOX NFL Sunday), Ronde Barber, Charles Davis, Chris Spielman and Daryl Johnston (FOX NFL analysts), Charissa Thompson, Michael Vick and Peter Schrager (FOX NFL Kickoff), Rob Stone, Brady Quinn, Reggie Bush, Matt Leinart and Urban Meyer (Big Noon Kickoff), Joel Klatt (FOX College Football analyst), Dule Hill (Psych and Suits), James Roday (Psych), Marcus Lemonis (The Profit), Margaret Josephs and Melissa Gorga (Real Housewives of New Jersey), Rodney Harrison and Chris Simms (Football Night in America), and Rebecca Lowe, Robbie Mustoe and Kyle Martino (Premier League Live).

First overall pick in WWE draft to be determined by outcome of opening segment on Smackdown

By

Colin Vassallo

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10/10/2019

The brand who gets the first pick in the upcoming WWE Draft this Friday will be determined via a match featuring the former two Shield members.

WWE announced today that Universal champion Seth Rollins, representing Raw, will be taking on Roman Reigns, representing Smackdown, in the opening segment of the show where the winner of the match will win the rights for the first overall pick in the draft.

The draft will start on Smackdown and will continue on Monday during Raw. In previous occasions, the draft always started on Raw and continued on Smackdown but this time around, it’s Smackdown who gets the honor to kick off the draft.

After next week’s Raw, WWE will once again completely separate the two brands which means that there will be no more wildcard rule and Superstars appearing on both shows. How long that stays remains to be seen as previous attempts to run both brands separately didn’t work out too well. NXT will not part of the draft.