This week’s Smackdown did 2,034,000 viewers, up 193,000 viewers from last week’s record low.
Smackdown was #3 in the top 50 cable chart among the 18-49 demographic and #9 in overall viewership for the night on cable. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
DK Publishing today announced the upcoming release of WWE Greatest Rivalries, which lifts the lid on all the drama behind WWE’s most epic matches and biggest betrayals, highlighting the crucial clashes like never before.
From The Rock vs Stone Cold Steve Austin, to John Cena vs Randy Orton and Charlotte Flair vs Sasha Banks, WWE Greatest Rivalries will arm you with the information you need to follow every twist and turn of these epic encounters, embracing many of the most memorable moments in WWE history.
The 200-page hardcover book will be released on March 5, 2019 and the artwork features John Cena, Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, Charlotte Flair, Sasha Banks, and The Rock. It has an RRP of $24.99 but is available for pre-order on Amazon.com for $16.50.
On this episode of Total Bellas, the Bella Twins finally make their comeback in the place where it all started: the wrestling ring. However, before making it to their comeback episode of Monday Night Raw, the sisters had to deal with plenty of drama which should surprise no one who’s been following their reality TV career.
First came the drama that began on last week’s episode, namely Nicole’s impromptu lunch date with her former Dancing with the Stars partner, Artem. Since the couple apparently shared amazing chemistry on the dance floor, fans would naturally wonder if the newly single Nicole would take advantage of the alone time with her former ballroom buddy.
However, it appears that Nicole’s only motive was an altruistic one, since she only asked Artem for his help in making a lifelong dream come true for her mother, Kathy. Apparently, the Bella matriarch thinks of herself as a ballroom diva when texting her daughters after a few too many drinks. So, Nicole thought it might be nice to make her mom’s ballroom dream a reality, and to choreograph a performance for Kathy, Nicole, and Artem to do together. While I believe that Nicole’s intentions were good in planning this performance, I can’t help but wonder what would’ve happened if her mother had been embarrassed by something that she only found achievable while being drunk. I guess we won’t ever know the answer because Kathy was apparently delighted by Nicole’s plan.
Another family member seemed to have a problem with it though…Nicole’s sister, Brie.
It wasn’t Nicole’s dream of turning their mother into a ballroom ballerina that disturbed Brie, but the thought of Nicole reuniting with and dancing with Artem.
During Nicole’s time on Dancing with the Stars social media platforms were abuzz with rumors concerning Nicole’s cheating on her then boyfriend John Cena. Brie was concerned that Nicole’s being seen with Artem so soon after her breakup would be damaging to the image that the sisters have so carefully cultivated.
Furthermore, the powers that be at WWE felt that Nicole’s appearing to rebound so soon might be damaging to the WWE’s recent women’s empowerment movement. However, I say that Nicole is single now, and should be completely free to date whomever she wants without the input of either her fans or the company for which she works. I am fully aware that that is generally not how the world works, so I’m using this platform to encourage people to allow celebrities to live their own lives and focus on our own rather than theirs for once!
Obviously Brie was extremely brand-conscious during this episode, because she not only became upset with Nicole for the possible tarnishing of their brand, but began to encourage her husband Daniel Bryan to develop his own.
We all know that wrestlers careers can’t last forever, and particularly with Daniel’s recent health issues one can’t blame Brie for wondering what her husband will do once his career comes to an end, but I wonder if she ever stopped to consider her husband’s personality before going on her brand building crusade.
Anyone who has taken even a slight interest in Daniel Bryan over the years knows that he is aggressively opposed to the rampant consumerism which he believes dominates our society. So it’s hard to imagine why his own wife thought that he would enjoy having a second career as a spokesperson for products such as flannel shirts or beard oil which were suggested by the brand manager that Brie hired. Finally, Brie seemed to receive Daniel’s message loud and clear, because she and her brand manager came up with the idea that Daniel should become a spokesperson for “Bryan’s Hoes” a line of garden hose which uses only recycled materials in its production.
Daniel seems amenable to the idea so, look for “Bryan’s Hoes” coming soon to a retailer near you, and join us next week for the next Total Bellas summary and color commentary.
WWE Hall of Famer and former World Heavyweight champion Booker T filed a copyright infringement suit against the publishers of the video game franchise Call of Duty, claiming its character Prophet is too similar to the G.I. Bro comic book action hero character he created while in WCW. Prophet is part of the Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 game, and also an inspiration for some online slots games of the same genre.
“When seen side-by-side there can be no question that this character was copied from G.I. Bro. From the hair, body type and clothing, right down to facial expressions, the similarities are too profound to be an accident,” said Micah Dortch of the Dallas office of the Potts Law Firm who are representing Booker. Houston attorney Patrick Zummo with the Law Offices of Patrick Zummo is also assisting.
Since the 2015 release of the G.I. Bro and the Dragon of Death Preview and G.I. Bro and the Dragon of Death comic books, Mr. Huffman has appeared at a number of events dressed as G.I. Bro to promote the titles.
“Booker T. has devoted a significant amount of time and money creating and organically growing his G.I. Bro character,” said Mr. Dortch. “That entrepreneurial investment should not be erased by such a blatant act of copyright infringement by a gaming juggernaut.”
The case is Booker T. Huffman v. Activision Publishing, Inc., Activision Blizzard, Inc., and Major League Gaming Corp. and was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.
Double or Nothing, the first official pay-per-view under the All Elite Wrestling banner, has completely sold out with no single seat remaining.
It took just four minutes for the remaining limited tickets to be sold when they went on sale to the general public earlier today. The quick sell out was expected after the pre-sale also sold out fast on Monday, leaving hundreds of fans angry at the way they had to wait on the tickets page without ever getting their turn to purchase a ticket.
According to Cody, the MGM Grand Garden Arena will be set up for 11,600 seats but once production is figured out, more seats are likely to be released to the public.
Advantages and disadvantages were handed out for both the Women’s Tag Team and WWE title Elimination Chamber matches during Raw and Smackdown this week.
For the Women’s Tag Team title match, Sasha Banks and Bayley and Sonya Deville and Mandy Rose will be entering the match first this Sunday. This came after both teams lost their matches against their fellow competitors on television. Banks and Bayley lost the three-way match against Jax and Tamina and The Riott Squad while Deville and Rose lost against Carmella and Naomi and The IIconics.
The winners of this match will be crowned the new WWE Women’s Tag Team champions, titles that have been dormant since February 1989.
Meanwhile, in the Elimination Chamber match for the WWE title, Randy Orton will be entering last after he won a gauntlet match on Smackdown last night. All six competitors of the match were part of the gauntlet with Kofi Kingston eliminating Bryan, Hardy, and Joe, before he lost to AJ Styles. Randy Orton then defeated Styles to gain the advantage.
When Total Divas resumes filming for its ninth season very soon, there will be a new cast member joining the drama.
Sonya Deville has confirmed that she will be part of the main cast of the new season during an appearance on the Smackdown After Show on Afterbuzz TV. This will be Deville’s first time as a featured cast member on the show. Her tag team partner Mandy Rose was also part of the cast in a an earlier season.
Deville, who is openly gay and is currently dating Seth Rollins’ ex-girlfriend Zahra Schreiber, said that her relationship with Zahra will be one of the topics featured on the show.
The former Tough Enough contestant has apparently replaced Lana on the cast. Lana revealed on Lilian Garcia’s podcast last week that an E! executive wanted her and Rusev off the show because they weren’t liked by the viewers.
Mustafa Ali has been taken out of the Elimination Chamber match for the WWE title due to a concussion. His removal was rumored over the weekend and WWE pulled the trigger yesterday during Smackdown.
Replacing Ali will be The New Day member Kofi Kingston. Kofi had a fantastic outing on Smackdown, defeating Daniel Bryan, Jeff Hardy, and Samoa Joe but then lost to AJ Styles in the gauntlet match.
This is not Kofi’s first time in the Elimination Chamber match. He was in the 2012 match with CM Punk, Chris Jericho, Dolph Ziggler, R-Truth, and The Miz, and then in 2015 as part of The New Day where they retained the Tag Team titles over The Ascension, The Lucha Dragons, Los Matadores, Prime Time Players, and Tyson Kidd and Cesaro.
Monday Night Raw got an average of 2,462,000 viewers, down 47,000 viewers from last week’s broadcast. Even with no sports competition, Raw failed to attract viewers that left during NFL season.
Hour one started with 2,689,000 viewers, followed by 2,445,000 in the second hour, and then down to 2,252,000 in the third and final hour. Raw lost 437,000 viewers from hour one to hour three.
Raw was #1, #2, and #3 in the top 50 cable chart among the 18-49 demographic and #7 in overall viewership for the night on cable. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
WWE Hall of Famer Pedro Morales passed away today at the age of 76. While no cause of death was reported, Morales had been suffering from Parkinson’s disease.
The Puerto Rican started his wrestling career in 1959, wrestling for the WWA before joining the World Wide Wrestling Federation in 1970. He also wrestled for the AWA, Championship Wrestling from Florida, New Japan Pro Wrestling, and then back in WWF for a seven-year stint.
Morales was highly successful in the WWF at the time, winning the Intercontinental title twice, the Tag Team titles once with Bob Backlund, and the WWWF United States and World titles. Morales held the World title for 1,027 days before losing it against Stan Stasiak. He became the company’s first ever Triple Crown champion. He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 1995.
In less than 24 hours, the closing segment of Monday Night Raw featuring the suspension of Becky Lynch and the reveal of Charlotte Flair as her replacement, became the most disliked WWE video on YouTube.
Roman Reigns had the honor – or not – of being in the two top disliked videos of 2017 and 2018. His Raw segment the night after WrestleMania 33 where he declared that WWE is his yard now after beating The Undertaker received 35,000 dislikes while his match against Bobby Lashley from Raw for a spot at SummerSlam last year got 42,000 dislikes.
But the segment with Triple H, Stephanie McMahon, Becky Lynch, Ronda Rousey, Vince McMahon, and Charlotte Flair beat them all and so far it has over 51,000 dislikes and growing, mainly because WWE fans want to see The Man in the main event at WrestleMania. In comparison, the video has only 20,000 likes so far.
Cody Rhodes underwent successful surgery this morning in Atlanta, Georgia to repair a knee injury he suffered last year.
The injury took place at a Ring of Honor show in November and an MRI showed that he was suffering from two tears in his meniscus. Despite the injury, Cody did wrestle a few times after that including at Wrestle Kingdom 13.
The surgery method was arthroscopic, which is minimally invasive and done through a very small incision on the knee. Typical recovery time for such surgery is around six to eight weeks which is good enough for Cody to have his first match back at AEW’s Double or Nothing pay-per-view. Cody tweeted after surgery that everything went smooth and now it’s back to work.
Ryan Satin of ProWrestlingSheet.com is reporting that Dave Bautista is in negotiations with WWE for a match at WrestleMania 35.
The wrestler-turned-actor last appeared on WWE television at the Smackdown 1000 episode, reuniting with his Evolution mates but the segment ended in a stare down between him and Triple H after he reminded Triple H that he never beat him. That served as a good lead-in for a possible Mania match but then Triple H underwent surgery after he tore his pectoral muscle.
Bautista has not wrestled since 2014 and has since turned to Hollywood, where he had successful roles on Guardians of the Galaxy, Avengers: Infinity War, Escape Plan 2, and other movies.
The former WWE champion has made it very obvious that he wants another run in WWE and was willing to come back to do even all the non-televised shows. He was in contention to be Ronda Rousey’s tag team partner at WrestleMania last year but WWE opted to use Kurt Angle instead.
After Monday Night Raw went off the air, Becky Lynch and Ronda Rousey continued to argue in the middle of the ring until The Riott Squad made their way out to confront them.
Ruby told Ronda that she’s the number one contender for the Raw Women’s title so Ronda should focus on her and not on Becky or Charlotte. The trio then surrounded the ring and attacked both Rousey and Lynch but their offense did not last long as the champ and the man quickly took over.
Rousey and Lynch then locked their respective armbars on Sarah Logan and Liv Morgan as the two tapped out. You can see the video below.
Total Bellas had the lowest viewership in all of four seasons, with episode four of season four only getting 396,000 viewers, down 58,000 viewers from episode three two weeks ago. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
Much to no surprise to anyone, the pre-sale for Double or Nothing in Las Vegas sold out very, very quickly, leaving just a small limited number of tickets for general public sale.
The MGM Grand Garden Arena at the MGM Grand Hotel will be packed to the rafters for the first show under the All Elite Wrestling banner.
Several hundreds of fans expressed their disappointment on message boards last night after they were stuck in “pre-sale hell” with their queued number never giving them a possibility to purchase a ticket.
The remaining tickets will go on sale tomorrow at Noon but if the pre-sale was difficult to get a ticket, the general public sale will be near-impossible.
Matt Jackson of The Young Bucks noted on Twitter that they might need a bigger arena next time around!
The McMahons are stacking the odds against Becky Lynch in a storyline similar to that of Daniel Bryan leading up to WrestleMania XXX.
On Raw last night, Vince McMahon suspended Lynch for 60 days, with the suspension ending after WrestleMania 35. The Chairman and CEO then introduced Rousey’s new opponent: Charlotte Flair.
The storyline suspension came after during the show, Lynch had to apologize for attacking both Stephanie and Triple H or else she would lose her spot. The Royal Rumble winner eventually did apologize but also ran her mouth afterward, which led to Vince McMahon coming out and suspending her.
The WrestleMania match for the Raw Women’s title is expected to be a triple threat match with Rousey, Lynch, and Flair and is in the running to main event the show.
Chris Jericho announced his second Rock ‘N’ Wrestling Rager at Sea cruise for January 2020 sailing from Miami to the Bahamas.
After the highly successful first cruise last year, Jericho is gearing up for what he’s calling the second wave, with the cruise between January 20 and 24 onboard the Norwegian Pearl.
Apart from his band Fozzy, All Elite Wrestling will also be part of the cruise. Last year, several wrestling legends joined the cruise and Ring of Honor put up a show on the ship.
Pre-registration is up already and you can find more info at chrisjerichocruise.com.
The newest class of the WWE Performance Center includes 12 individuals, two of whom are females.
The 12 who will be calling Orlando home from now on are ACH, Elliot Sexton, Jonah Rock, Karen Q, Nick Comoroto, Omari Palmer, Rachael Ellering, Ricardo Miller, Sam Shaw, Scott Parker, Shane Matthews, and Trevor Lee.
Karen Q and Rachael Ellering were part of the Mae Young Classic tournament last year. Rachael is the daughter of WWE Hall of Famer and former manager Paul Ellering. ACH and Trevor Lee, two popular indie wrestlers, were rumored to be signing a deal a few months ago.
WWE continues to beef up its developmental territory and with the recent arrival of All Elite Wrestling, scouting will get even more intense over the next few months as the two companies will compete to sign the best talent on the market.
WWE and SKAI Group today announced a new agreement to broadcast WWE’s flagship programs Raw and Smackdown in Greece.
Every week beginning Saturday, March 2, SKAI TV will air a two-hour version of Raw at 12PM on Saturdays and SmackDown at 12PM on Sundays, both with Greek commentary. These shows will also be available for catch-up viewing on SKAI TV’s video-on-demand platform, SKAI TV Online.
“WWE is one of the biggest sports and entertainment brands in the world with loyal fans of every age and background,” said Loizos Xenopoulos, Programming Director, SKAI. “We are excited to introduce to the Greek audience these two flagship shows and we are looking forward to a long and successful collaboration with the WWE family.”
“SKAI shares our vision and passion for engaging and entertaining our fans,” said Michelle Wilson, WWE Co-President. “This partnership to televise Raw and SmackDown on SKAI TV, Greece’s top free-to-air broadcaster, allows us to deliver action-packed, family-friendly entertainment to our fans throughout the country.”
