A new era for Smackdown kicks off tonight on USA Network as the show returns to its former home after airing for five years on FOX.
The new five-year deal with NBCUniversal is valued at $1.4 billion, a 37% increase over what FOX originally paid in 2019. The $1.4 billion figure comes to around $280 million per year. Smackdown enjoyed audiences larger than Raw thanks to the benefit of network television. This year, Smackdown averaged 2,278,000 viewers and a 0.64 rating in 18-49, numbers that will not be replicated on cable television on a Friday night.
This deal also calls for WWE to produce four primetime specials per year that will air on NBC, marking the first time WWE will air on the network in primetime in decades. The specials will reportedly carry the name of Saturday Night’s Main Event, a show that used to air on NBC.
Smackdown aired on USA Network between 2016 and 2019 after five years on SyFy.
For the next two weeks, USA Network will, for the first time ever, be the home of Raw, Smackdown, and NXT. NXT moves to the CW on October 1 while Raw moves to Netflix on January 6.
Dave Bautista’s new movie, titled The Killer’s Game, opens up in theaters nationwide today.
The movie is centered around a hit man, played by Bautista, who is diagnosed with a terminal illness and decides to take a hit out on himself. But the story takes a twist when the medical diagnosis he received was incorrect and he has to fend off an army of assassins who are after him and his ex-girlfriend.
The movie also features the debut of Drew McIntyre in a feature film, playing the role of Rory Mackenzie. Sofia Boutella, Terry crews, Scott Adkins, Marko Zero, Pom Klementieff, and Ben Kingsley are the other stars with leading roles.
The movie is directed by J. J. Perry and is based on the book by the same title from Jay Bonansinga. It’s distributed by Lionsgate.
Lionsgate held a special screening of the movie at Regal LA Live in Los Angeles a few days ago where several wrestling personalities showed up to support Bautista and McIntyre, including Bayley, Cathy Kelley, and Mercedes Mone.
At the event, Bautista told Kelley how proud he is of McIntyre for an amazing job he did in the movie.
“People are going to be blown away by Drew in this,” he said. “He’s so funny, and he’s just so charismatic. It was perfect. And I’ve known Drew for a very long time and we’ve stayed in touch well before this. I watched Drew grow up in this business. I’m super proud of him, man. I’m proud of what he’s accomplished.”
Meanwhile, Mercedes Mone also wrote about attending the premiere this week in her newsletter, saying that she was tired after multiple events but supporting her friends is a priority and just like how Naomi, Bayley, and Tamika flew around the world to support her, she’ll do the same.
“So, when I got the invite for the premiere of The Killer’s Game starring my friend Drew McIntyre, you bet I was gonna be there to support,” Mone wrote. “Ditto for Bayley, who also flew in. It’s always great to see Pam (Bayley), even in these quick spurts. Along with seeing her and Drew, I got to see another old friend, Cathy Kelley, who looked as beautiful as ever doing her thing.”
Mone added that she hopes this opportunity elevates Drew to additional outside opportunities and he should be so proud of his work.
TKO President Mark Shapiro told a crowd at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia & Technology Conference that Netflix could be their best partner yet, even though officially, their relationship won’t start till January 2025.
“I’ve seen their promotion plans, their marketing plans, the way they’re getting behind us, the way they’re using the NFL holiday games to promote WWE Raw moving to Netflix,” Shapiro said. “They are going to be a battleship when it comes to helping us grow our brand and grow our audience.”
Netflix signed a global TV deal for 10 years earlier this year, with multiple countries where there’s a TV deal expiring or no TV deal at all, getting all WWE content on Netflix. In the United States, only Raw will be on Netflix but other worldwide countries will also benefit from Smackdown, NXT, and the premium live events being on the same streaming service.
WWE content is expected to be splashed all across the front pages of Netflix to all its 277 million subscribers worldwide, giving WWE a lot of different exposure.
Live from the Boeing Center at Tech Port in San Antonio, Texas, TNA Wrestling presents Victory Road 2024 exclusively on TNA+. The full card is as follows:
Nic Nemeth vs Moose for the TNA World title; Jordynne Grace vs Wendy Choo for the TNA Knockouts title; Ace Austin and Chris Bey vs Brian Myers and Eddie Edwards for the TNA Tag Team titles; Alisha Edwards and Masha Slamovich vs Dani Luna and Jody Threat for the TNA Knockouts Tag Team titles with the stipulation that if Luna and Threat lose, they have to disband; Zachary Wentz vs Mike Bailey for the TNA X Division title; Joe Hendry vs Josh Alexander; Matt and Jeff Hardy vs AJ Francis and KC Navarro; Matt Cardona and Steph De Lander vs PCO and Rhino; Steve Maclin and Eric Young vs Hammerstone and Jake Something in the pre-show; and Kushida vs Leon Slater in the pre-show.
The show will start at 8PM ET and a $9.99 subscription to TNA+ is required to watch. You can subscribe at watch.tnawrestling.com.
The post-All Out Dynamite this week drew 716,000 viewers, up 58,000 viewers from last week’s broadcast. The show had a 0.21 rating in 18-49, up 0.02 from the prior week and was #2 in the top 50 cable chart behind the MTV Video Music Awards.
TBS champion Mercedes Mone wrote in her weekly newsletter that the violence from All Out, especially the main event between Hangman Page and Swerve Strickland was “tough to watch” and she has mixed emotions about it.
“When done right, that kind of stuff can tear a roof off like Daniel’s did,” Mone wrote. “However, I wouldn’t want my brother Joshua to watch stuff like that, or kids, for that matter.”
She said when she does signings, she greets all kind of different people, including children but she understands that there’s an audience that loves the extreme and the company wants to cater to them as well.
The champ champ didn’t blame AEW for the violence, and said that when you see matches this extreme, it’s the talent who usually make the call.
“While I credit talents who go to the extreme in terms of violence inflicted upon themselves for their passion and courage, I also want talent to have longevity and to graduate from this world healthy and able to function,” Mone continued. “Our bodies go through enough with all the bumps, not to mention the travel and schedule. Personally, I’m at a place career-wise where I’d like to avoid extreme matches – unless it’s a true big value add to the company.”
The premiere episode of Smackdown on USA Network tonight will kick off with the steel cage match between Cody Rhodes and Solo Sikoa for the WWE championship.
The announcement was made by Triple H in a video as he walked in the hallways of WWE’s headquarter in Stamford.
“For the rest of it, you will just have to wait and see, see you there,” he continued.
The SummerSlam rematch comes after Sikoa demanded another shot before Bash In Berlin, saying that he will be going after the winner of the Rhodes vs Owens match from that show.
Roman Reigns, who was originally advertised and then removed, is now expected to appear on the broadcast as well.
Tickets for Survivor Series: WarGames 2024 go on general sale this morning at 10AM PST on Ticketmaster.ca.
The full Rogers Arena in Vancouver will be in use as there is no stage setup according to the seating chart published yesterday during the pre-sale. The Rogers Arena holds just under 20,000 fans.
WWE had a strong pre-sale, with some insanely high prices, especially for floor seats which run over $2,000 CA and a quarter of that extra in fees.
Unlike previous major PLEs, a Smackdown in the same city was not announced so these tickets are solely for the Survivor Series.
Speaking to WWE cameras after his segment on Raw, WWE Hall of Famer Bret “Hit Man” Hart said he did not take it for granted that he was going to be invited by WWE even though they were in Calgary.
Hart said he had a “funny feeling” walking down the ring slowly and getting in the ring, but he wasn’t nervous.
“But I think standing in the middle of the ring there for a few seconds, this transformation takes place. I mean, I think I transformed back into Bret ‘The Hit Man’ Hart for a minute for everyone,” Hart said. “And it was fun for me to do that, and it was something that was magical that was brought out by the love of the fans.”
He noted that there’s a lot of memories at that Saddledome and it’s a “powerful building” for him to walk in.
“A lot of memories here. A lot of great memories. A lot of title matches. A lot of, even in the old Stampede Wrestling days, I had a lot of memories here,” Hart continued.
After his segment, Hart walked into Gorilla where Triple H was waiting for him to congratulate him. The history between the two, when Triple H was part of DX hanging with Shawn Michaels in 1997 as they feuded with Hart, is not a secret to anyone but Bret was happy to see Triple H again.
“There’s not that many from my generation that are around anymore, so running into Triple H is always a pleasure,” Hart said.
TKO President Mark Shapiro has said that WWE will be doing less non-televised live events next year, avoiding “marginally profitable” cities in 2025.
Speaking at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia & Technology Conference yesterday, Shapiro said WWE will be doing away with the smaller markets and will drop from 250 events this year to 200.
Shapiro added that the exercise is for margin expansion and the goal is to continue to increase price tickets for live events.
The TKO President noted that he “yells” at the WWE crew for not charging higher prices when they keep selling out shows this fast and indicated that dynamic pricing, which is used for concerts, will eventually come to WWE.
Dynamic pricing will automatically raise ticket prices depending how hot – or not – demand is.
TMZ.COM is reporting that former WWE star Nikki Garcia has filed for divorce from Artem Chigvintsev, just two weeks after he was arrested for domestic violence.
Garcia filed paperwork yesterday in a bid to end their two-year marriage with the help of Los Angeles attorney Evan Craig Itzkowitz from Blevans & Blevans, LLP.
Artem was arrested on August 29 for felony corporal injury to spouse or cohabitant. After dialing 911 and canceling the call a few minutes later, police officers still showed up to their Napa house and after they found visible injuries on his wife, they arrested him. He was out later in the day on a $25,000 bond.
The two have a child together, Matteo, who is four years old.
AEW star The Blade underwent back fusion surgery after several months out injured.
The 44-year-old has not wrestled since February 4 at an independent event promoted by A1 in Canada and his last appearance for AEW came on an episode of Rampage which aired on January 3 of this year.
“Back fusion was a success. Thank you to everyone for your continued support. Means a lot to this Grizzled Vet Utility Brother.”
His tag team partner, The Butcher, has remained active as a solo wrestler in AEW. The third person in the team, The Bunny, has not appeared on AEW television since September 2023. She is married to The Blade.
NXT star Wendy Choo will be challenging for the TNA Knockouts title against Jordynne Grace this coming Friday at the Victory Road TNA+ streaming event.
Choo and Rosemary took down the champion on NXT on Tuesday night after Grace showed up for an open challenge which was accepted by Sol Ruca.
Choo choked out Grace when Rosemary distracted her, with the referee calling for the DQ finish.
TNA Victory Road will take place from the Boeing Center at Tech Port in San Antonio, Texas.
Facing the U.S. Presidential debate which drew 67 million viewers across 17 different networks, NXT drew 628,000 viewers, down 3,000 viewers from the prior week. The show had a 0.19 rating in the 18-49 demo, up 0.02 from the previous show. NXT was #11 on the cable chart, behind all debate-related shows and was the top rated entertainment show on cable. (Ratings credit: Programming Insider)
On the same show where Jon Moxley said that Bryan Danielson is too injured to defend his AEW World title against Darby Allin at Grand Slam, AEW commentator Nigel McGuinness challenged his longtime arch rival to a match…on the same night.
McGuinness was on Dynamite and cut an in-ring promo, calling Danielson a coward for avoiding him all these years. He said that AEW President Tony Khan, unlike Danielson, is not a coward, and has approved the match as long as Danielson gets cleared by doctors.
The two had a long-running feud in Ring of Honor, wrestling against each other on 10 different occasions. The British star came out of retirement at All In, participating in the Casino Gauntlet match.
The booking of these two matches totally contradicted each other, giving a weak excuse as to why Allin would not be going for the AEW World title at Grand Slam as expected while Danielson was still wrestling on the same show.
Darby Allin will no longer be wrestling for the AEW World title at the Dynamite: Grand Slam episode later this month and instead, he will be facing Jon Moxley.
On Dynamite last night, Moxley said that Danielson won’t be able to defend his title on the show following the BCC attack on Saturday at All Out. Allin won the right to a title shot after winning the Royal Rampage battle Royale in July.
Moxley has been calling out Allin for the past two weeks and the daredevil showed up last night, confronting the former AEW World champion in the ring.
Unfortunately for Allin, it was later revealed that Bryan Danielson is indeed wrestling at Grand Slam, just not against him!
The fallout from All Out takes place tonight live on Dynamite on TBS with four matches already announced.
The first-ever Tag Team Casino Gauntlet match will happen tonight and the winners will get a shot at the AEW Tag Team titles at Grand Slam later this month. No participants have been revealed so far.
Also tonight, Jack Perry defends the TNT title against Lio Rush, Sammy Guevara takes on Ricochet, Maria May vs Queen Aminata in an AEW Women’s title eliminator match, and Jon Moxley will appear live to explain his actions from All Out.
The fan who gifted CM Punk the bracelet which is the center of the feud between Punk and Drew McIntyre, reacted to the news that WWE has created a replica of it to sell online at WWEShop.com.
“I won’t be asking for compensation from WWE since they have every right to make bracelets. All I kind of was hoping for was maybe a mention in the description of the product (i.e. inspired by a fan),” Victoria wrote on X.
Victoria gave Punk the bracelet, with AJ’s and Larry’s name on it, several years ago and the former champion kept wearing it.
“Throughout this whole thing I never expected to be given anything from WWE – all i wanted was for people to put a name/face to the where the bracelet came from,” she continued. “I completely understand why some of you guys are upset at WWE and it means a lot to me that people care so much.”
Fans online were pushing for Victoria to seek compensation for her creation now that WWE was about to make money off it.
Victoria said that she understands that legally, WWE did not need to give her any heads up and no obligation to reach out to her, just it would have been nice to know before it went on sale.
She did admit that WWE contacted her last week and invited her to a show next month but she thinks the invitation had no correlation to them selling bracelets and wasn’t offered as compensation.
“I am still grateful for them contacting me at all,” she concluded.
The replica bracelet that WWE were selling has been pulled out from sale now, and another one was done slightly different, with CM Punk’s name only on it.
Four AEW stars were part of the top 10 of Pro Wrestling Illustrated Top 500 list this year, occupying the second, third, seventh, and eighth places.
Former AEW World champion Swerve Strickland came in second place after a terrific year. Will Ospreay, whose matches pretty much always steal the shows, came in third, while another two former AEW World champions MJF and Jon Moxley came in seventh and eighth respectively.
Last year, Moxley was third, MJF was sixth, and Orange Cassidy was eighth on the list.
WWE Raw was battered by the first episode of Monday Night Football on ESPN and ABC, drawing 1,430,000 viewers, down 225,000 viewers from the previous week. This was the least-watched episode since January 15, 2024.
Monday Night Football had 20.5 million viewers across the different networks for its second most-watched week one game ever.
Hour one started with 1,545,000 viewers, then dropped to 1,447,000 viewers in the second hour and finished the night with a record-low of 1,299,000 viewers.
In 18-49, Raw was #5, #6, and #7 with 0.48, 0.46, and 0.41 ratings respectively for an average of 0.45, down 0.03 from the previous week. (Ratings credit: Programming Insider)
