The Brock Lesnar title celebration was cut short as he was interrupted by his former rival Cain Velasquez, the UFC star who beat him for the UFC Heavyweight title at UFC 121 back on October 24, 2010, almost nine years to the day.
After Lesnar won the title in a very quick match, Rey Mysterio’s theme song kicked in and out came the former champ with Velasquez who was sporting a knee brace. The two walked down the ramp together and after some trash talking, Velasquez stepped into the ring to confront Lesnar who had the “oh shit” look on his face.
“Brock Lesnar has seen a ghost, and that ghost’s name is Cain Velasquez,” screamed Michael Cole on commentary. “I have never seen fear in the face of Brock Lesnar,” added Corey Graves.
As Lesnar tried to attack, Cain took him down and unloaded with punches as Lesnar covered his face. The new WWE champ eventually managed to get Cain off of him and escaped the ring. Lesnar teased going back in the ring a few more times but eventually opted not to as Smackdown went off the air with Velasquez and Mysterio standing tall in the ring.
The UFC 121 pay-per-view took place at the nearby Honda Center in Anaheim, California and drew over 1 million buys. Velasquez managed to win the title from Brock after a TKO in round one with 4:12 on the clock.
Kofi Kingston’s WWE title reign came to a screeching halt last night on the premiere episode of Smackdown on FOX as Brock Lesnar regained the WWE title in mere seconds.
The match, which had its own sponsor, started with Kofi flying onto Lesnar as soon as the bell rang but Lesnar caught him in the F-5 position and hit his finishing move for the pin. Half the match was actually the three-count.
Kofi won the WWE title at WrestleMania 35, lasting a total of 180 days as champion. This is Brock’s fifth reign with the WWE title.
Brock’s celebration did not last long though as one individual by the name of Cain Velasquez came out to confront the new champion!
AEW’s win in the ratings against NXT got the media talking with Deadline.com reporting that Dynamite was TNT’s biggest premiere in five years.
When counting the replay viewers, Dynamite ended with 1.8 million viewers, meaning the immediate replay at 10PM did another 400,000 viewers. 1.1 million viewers were in the much-coveted 18-49 demographic, the most important demo for advertisers.
“This is a league that, at its core, is created by wrestlers for wrestling fans, and I am incredibly energized by the enthusiastic embrace the fans have given to the AEW talent and experience,” said Kevin Reilly, President of TNT, TBS, and truTV, and Chief Content Officer at HBO Max. “AEW won the night with a high-quality, incredibly engaging, sports-centric show that will continue with a seamless partnership between AEW and TNT.”
You’ve been working for one of Provo’s most prominent companies with thousands of employees. You’re part of the wellness team, which includes, among others, nurses, general physicians, orthopedic specialists, trainers, and massage therapists.
You’re part of a smaller team responsible for providing massages, facials, and other treatments. You’ve become the favorite of many employees in the company. Some would casually mention that you could start your day spa business.
It’s been slowly sinking in, and the past weeks you’ve been thinking a lot about this possibility. As an employee, you’re not poorly paid, but you feel that you could probably earn more if you run your own business. You know how to do your job, but you’re a little uncertain about starting a business. What does it take to start a span business?
Industry Overview
Compared to other businesses, the spa industry is relatively smaller explains Shravan Gupta businessman, director of Emaar-MGF and instrumental in bringing the largest FDI in real estate in India. The number of companies is just below 23,500, but it’s still raking in a respectable $19 billion in revenue as of January 2019.
Note, however, that consumer expenditure on spa services is based on disposable income. This means that when deciding to spend on a can of formula milk vs. spending on a massage treatment, the former would always win. Overall economic condition dictates the industry’s performance. Nonetheless, the wellness industry is registering a positive annual growth of 2.6%.
Things to Consider When Starting
That you have the skillset for a service for a spa, is an advantage. But it won’t be the only thing you should rely on to make your business successful. Also, as in any business, the services that you want to offer must be a match with the services that your customers want. Here are some main ideas to consider:
Understand what it’s about. You need to have a firm grasp of what you will be embarking on. You do this by doing your research, putting in the work, and managing your expectations. If you think that it will be a get-rich-easy venture, you would be mistaken. It entails plenty of costs, and the operation is more complicated rather than simple. Be prepared to tackle this scenario.
Determine your kind of spa. Decide first from two options: a) a standard day spa providing body treatments; or b) a medical spa, which offers the same service as a standard spa plus those offered by a licensed medical practitioner. If you’re starting, it will be more prudent to begin with option a) and then consider down the road what services you can add.
Determine your structure. You’ve done your research, and you’ve written your business plan. Make sure that you’ve decided on the structure of your business that would take you years forward. Is it an LLC or will you incorporate? How you get your license, and even the taxes that you need to pay shall be based on your formal business structure.
Capitalization. Unfortunately, this is one of those businesses that would be heavy on investment. Some experts estimate that your initial investment can start at $100,000. The amount, however, will cover equipment, training, the initial cost of payroll, licenses, some advertising, and furniture.
Your people. Bring in people that are highly qualified and well trained in the services that they will provide, whether it’s body massage, peeling, or a facial. Their expertise and competence will become part of your branding.
You need to find a suitable location and gear up for some marketing initiatives. You need to spread the word even before the start of your operation, to generate interest.
In this season opener of Total Divas, fans meet brand new cast member, WWE Superstar Ronda Rousey. We also learned more about the former judo champion’s difficult past which included a struggle with developmental delays.
Also, we get some insight into Ronda’s personal life which includes the ownership of a working farm that she owns with her husband, Travis. She also owns several animals including several goats, chickens, and a donkey. She is also a step-mom to two boys, whom she considers to be her own sons.
Meanwhile, we also become reacquainted with Divas from prior seasons of the show, such as Nia Jax, and Carmella.
Speaking of those two, they don’t seem to be getting along well this season. Nia wasted no time in informing Carmella that she doesn’t like her, or respect her work in the ring. She also claimed that Carmella is a coward who runs away from a hit. Carmella claimed that she only tries to avoid hurting others.
She was also accused of being very fake. This accusation seemed to be the one that bothered her the most. In fact, Carmella was so upset that she spread Nia’s words throughout the locker room. Natalya, who is something of a home mom to all of the Divas, tried to effect a reconciliation between the two women. The brunch that she arranged served to accelerate the fight between the two.
However, the brunch did cause something else to occur: new cast member Sonya Deville gave dating advice to Carmella.
The main reason that this is so interesting is because Deville is the first openly gay Superstar. Therefore, it is interesting that she was able to give advice on dating men as she hasn’t dated men in a while. It is clear that this season will be full of enough drama to satisfy all fans of the show!
Appearing on Complex Sports, AEW champion Chris Jericho repeated his earlier statement saying that AEW is not in a war with NXT and the only war they’re in is the one against themselves.
“They started this. Everything that they’ve done has been a reactionary move to us,” Jericho explained. “And the very first night they got destroyed. Big deal, it’s our first debut, great.”
Jericho then took a dig at WWE’s congratulatory message which was released to the press before the actual ratings came out. “But they have to come back and say, ‘It’s a marathon and not a one-night sprint.’ Whoever said it’s a one-night sprint? It’s not a war for us…now, we’re placed in one, and we’re gonna kick ass because we’re gonna do what we do very, very well. There’s a little bit of an arrogance towards us that’s now gone.”
The champ, who did the interview before the 1.4 million viewership number came out, added that WWE are embarrassed and he knows how they work and that’s why they put out the statement.
Michael Cole was a guest on the Pat McAfee Show and McAfee, who also works for WWE, asked Cole about what he thought of All Elite Wrestling.
“I’m excited about it for a number of reasons,” Cole said, explaining that he started in 1997 with WWE and that was at the beginning of the Monday night war and he remembers what competition did to WWE back then.
“We haven’t had competition in a very long time…it’s fresh, it’s new, it’s exciting,” he continued. “Listen, Cody Rhodes, his wife Brandi…I respect the hell out of them. I’ve known Cody for a long time, obviously close to his family. And Chris Jericho and all the guys there I’m really happy for what they have developed,” Cole added.
The new Smackdown commentator then said that it’s one thing having a great debut show but it’s another thing producing 52 weeks of episodes with no re-runs. “I hope they can pull it off, and if they do it’s going to be a hell of a year coming up!”
Tonight’s Smackdown on FOX will be the most advanced – and different – look ever given to a WWE broadcast as FOX will be giving their new show a cinematic look, with new camera angles, long lenses to shoot portions of wrestlers’ entrances through the crowd and a different texture to the video.
Speaking to the New York Post, WWE’s Executive Vice President of Television Production Kevin Dunn also added that WWE will be debuting a new super-slow-motion camera which will be used as part of the cinematic approach demanded by FOX.
“We are working close with WWE on just giving it that cinematic feel that wrestling can have with the storylines and the walkouts, backstage segments and figuring out a new way of presenting that,” Brad Zager, FOX Sports’ Executive Vice President and Head of Production and Operations told the Post.
Kevin Dunn also revealed that NBCUniversal and FOX are also heavily involved in the upcoming draft, with both networks demanding the best roster for their show. The networks will have no influence on who goes where though as that is simply WWE’s decision but FOX will have a role in helping producing the Smackdown portion of the draft.
“It’s gonna be a ton of fun and we are gonna try to put you in that live event audience,” Dunn said. “And it’s gonna be a good time.”
Before Smackdown goes on the air at 8PM ET, WWE will present a 30-minute blue carpet arrival which will be filmed outside the STAPLES Center. The show will be hosted by FOX Sports’ Charissa Thompson while Kayla Braxton will be in charge of behind-the-scenes links.
WWE Backstage host Renee Young along with analyst and Hall of Famer Booker T will be situated inside the arena anchoring the show from there as they welcome the special guests and many celebrities who will be at ringside for the special occasion. An exclusive look at the new set of Friday Night Smackdown will also be revealed during the kick off show.
The Blue Carpet Kick Off show will also air on FOX at 7:30PM ET.
WWE’s big premiere week continues tonight with the much-anticipated Smackdown debut on FOX, one of the biggest networks in America.
The $1 billion-plus deal will see Smackdown calling FOX its home for the next five years as a new era in the history of the company kicks off. The broadcast will be live from the STAPLES Center in Los Angeles, California where many celebrities and FOX stars will be on hand to witness the two-hour show.
Set for action tonight are Kofi Kingston vs Brock Lesnar for the WWE title, Sasha Banks and Bayley vs Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair, Shane McMahon vs Kevin Owens in a ladder match, Roman Reigns vs Erick Rowan, and a live appearance by the one and only The Rock. WWE Legends and Hall of Famers will also be on hand to celebrate the 20th anniversary episode including Stone Cold Steve Austin, Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Sting, Trish Stratus, Mick Foley, and many others.
NXT’s first full episode on USA Network which had limited commercials and three title matches delivered only 891,000 viewers, down 115,000 viewers from last week’s broadcast. NXT was #10 on the top 50 cable chart among the 18-49 demographic. The show went head-to-head with All Elite Wrestling’s Dynamite on TNT and came up second best, losing the first week by around half a million viewers. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
All Elite Wrestling won week one of the ratings battle with NXT, delivering a total of 1,409,000 viewers for the debut episode of Dynamite on TNT. The show was #2 in the top 50 cable chart among the 18-49 demographic. It did well in the 18-49 rating, more than doubling that of NXT with 0.68 to 0.32. Dynamite did more viewers for its first show than NXT did unopposed three weeks ago.
WWE even issued a statement congratulating AEW a few hours before the ratings came out. “Congratulations to AEW on a successful premiere. The real winners of last night’s head-to-head telecasts of NXT on USA Network and AEW on TNT are the fans, who can expect Wednesday nights to be a competitive and wild ride as this is a marathon, not a one-night sprint,” the statement read. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
In a statement issued to the wrestling media, WWE seemingly admitting defeat in the first week of head-to-head battle a few hours before the official numbers are published.
“Congratulations to AEW on a successful premiere. The real winners of last night’s head-to-head telecasts of NXT on USA Network and AEW on TNT are the fans, who can expect Wednesday nights to be a competitive and wild ride as this is a marathon, not a one-night sprint,” the statement read.
Early indications suggest that AEW topped the 1.5 million viewership which would even be more than NXT’s debut on USA a few weeks ago which did 1.17 million. The final numbers are expected to be published around 4:30PM ET.
The Hulu Support team has confirmed that Smackdown will still be part of the Hulu video library even though the show is moving to FOX starting tomorrow.
Past Smackdown episodes vanished from the streaming service last week and Hulu confirmed that the rights for the past episodes of Smackdown expired on September 25 and Hulu cannot show the old episodes as part of their vast library.
But the bad news was met with some good news as Hulu confirmed they will still carry the new episodes. “We will continue to have new episodes of WWE Smackdown starting with this week’s episode,” a tweet from their support account said.
Hulu uploads the full version of Smackdown the morning after the show airs on television. The streaming service also carries a two-hour version of Raw and a one-hour version of NXT as part of the cheaper $5.99 a month subscription.
Smackdown will now require no cable subscription and anyone with a free-to-air antenna can get the show in the United States. It will also stream live on the FOX Sports app.
Next week on NXT, the Cruiserweight title will be on the line as champion Drew Gulak will defend against the number one contender Lio Rush.
What’s interesting about the title is that as of yesterday, all references to the Cruiserweight title are now listed as the NXT Cruiserweight title. As reported earlier, 205 Live Superstars will also be appearing on NXT television as the cruiserweight division is being absorbed by the NXT brand. The NXT creative team is now also in charge of running the 205 Live show as well.
This week, WWE announced that 205 Live will move to Friday nights on the WWE Network and will be aired live on the WWE Network following the conclusion of Smackdown. The rumored move to Wednesday nights for a double taping with NXT did not happen as WWE opted to leave 205 Live running with Smackdown.
All Elite Wrestling’s debut last night on TNT was considered a success, at least when it comes to trending online, a good indicator of what people are watching and are interested in.
The result was expected though as the curiosity factor and hype for a new WWE alternative was pretty big going into the show. Dynamite is also tipped to win week one of the ratings war even though NXT had limited commercials and a 15-minute overrun.
On Google Trends, AEW topped 100,000 searches, completely smoking NXT in that regard. On Twitter, AEW had #AEW, #AEWDynamite, and #AEWonTNT all trending worldwide, with nearly 200,000 combined tweets throughout the broadcast. For comparison, NXT had around half of that with #NXT and #WeAreNXT hash tags trending.
Appearing on Collider Live, former WWE champion CM Punk talked about his recent WWE Backstage tryout and what it entails if he does end up getting the job.
“I’m in a position in my life where I go, hm, what you got? I’m in a position where I’m like…talk to me,” Punk told the hosts, saying that he’s open to do anything but if WWE approaches him to wrestle, he’ll probably say he’s not interested. “If you want me to do anything, talk to me, but don’t waste my time,” he continued.
He noted that he has grown as a person and doesn’t need the confrontation and doesn’t need the drama that being a professional wrestler brings along but he would be interested in doing the talk show. He said that his agents called him and they told him that FOX is “throwing everything at this cause they spent a lot of money and they’re all in” to do the show.
He put over Renee Young, saying he loved Renee and thinks she’s a great person. Young, as the host of the show, was present for Punk’s on-camera tryout at the FOX Sports studios in Los Angeles. He told producers that he wasn’t going to come in and “dump on everything” because that would be the old him but if the product gets bad, then he will criticize it.
“They want to present it like it’s a real sport and have a show that recaps stuff just like they do with NFL, just like NHL Network do with hockey games,” Punk said of the WWE Backstage show.
When asked if anyone from WWE reached out to him after he did the tryout, he said no and added, “I’m the boogeyman!” He did say that this is a FOX show and it’s FOX who’s taking care of everything and originally said no to the idea until they told him he wouldn’t be actually dealing with WWE.
The one-hour Countdown to All Elite Wrestling special on TNT on Tuesday night did 631,000 viewers. It is a nice jump from the 390,000 viewers AEW did on TNT in late August when they did an All Out countdown show. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
Finn Balor and Tommaso Ciampa returned to NXT last night with both receiving massive pops from the Full Sail crowd.
It was Balor who came out first, interrupting Adam Cole’s celebration after defeating Matt Riddle in the opening match for the NXT title. Balor came out in his regular clothes and then proclaimed that as of now, he is NXT. Balor has not been seen since SummerSlam as the former Universal champion requested some time off to recharge his batteries and get married. He spent two years in NXT between 2014 and 2016, winning the NXT title and the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team classic before debuting on the main roster. Balor remains one of the most popular guys who wrestled for NXT and the crowd reaction last night showed it.
Meanwhile, Tommaso Ciampa also returned, interrupting The Undisputed Era celebration towards the end of the show. As Adam Cole joined in on the fun from the top of the ramp, Ciampa’s music hit and he circled around Cole, eyeing the NXT title. Ciampa surrendered his NXT title in March of this year and had to undergo neck surgery where doctors advised him not to wrestle. But the former champ soldiered on and is on track to return to the ring quicker than ever. He did make an appearance at the end of NXT Takeover: New York to celebrate with Gargano but has not been on NXT TV since.
Japanese superstar Riho became the inaugural AEW Women’s champion last night on the debut episode of Dynamite, defeating Nayla Rose in a match that ran exactly during the same time as the NXT Women’s title match between Shayna Baszler and Candice LaRae.
Riho, who is just 22 years old and made her pro wrestling debut in 2006, advanced to yesterday’s match by beating Hiraku Shida while Rose won the Casino Battle Royale at the All Out pay-per-view to earn her shot.
Following the win, Riho was going to get interviewed by Michael Nakazawa but a pissed-off Rose attacked both of them, first nearly dropping Nakazawa on his head on a botched power bomb attempt but then before she annihilated Riho, Kenny Omega made the save to prevent further damage to the new champion. Omega and Riho recently teamed up in a mixed tag team match.
