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Dynamite rating for 10/02/2019

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)

WWE congratulates AEW on successful premiere on TNT

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.

Hulu to still carry Smackdown on FOX on-demand

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.

Cruiserweight title now referred to as the NXT Cruiserweight championship

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.

AEW takes the online trending crown in first week of battle

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.

CM Punk opens up about the WWE Backstage tryout and how it came about

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.

Countdown to All Elite Wrestling on TNT rating

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 return to NXT

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.

You can see both their returns below.

Riho becomes the inaugural AEW Women’s champion

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.

Total Divas S9 E1 rating

The season nine premiere of Total Divas, which got moved a day for a new night, disappointed big time in the ratings, getting only 252,000 viewers, down 200,000 viewers from the season eight premiere and down 160,000 viewers from the last episode. It was the least-watched episode of Total Divas in nine seasons. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)

Jake Hager makes surprise appearance at AEW Dynamite

Former World Heavyweight champion Jake Hager made a surprise appearance towards the end of Dynamite last night, joining Chris Jericho, Sammy Guevara, Ortiz, and Santana in the beatdown of The Elite.

Hager received a nice pop from the Washington crowd as he destroyed Cody, first with a Swagger Bomb and then with a gutwrench suplex through a small table and then stood tall with the other four in what looked like the formation of a stable.

The man formerly known as Jack Swagger left WWE in March 2017 after he asked for his release. He then went on to wrestle on the indie circuit and joined Lucha Underground in 2018. In WWE, he won the ECW title once, the World Heavyweight title once, and the United States title once as well.

The 37-year-old is currently contracted to Bellator MMA where he has a 2-0 record and is expected to fight again later this month at Bellator 231.

Opening segments for tonight’s NXT and AEW announced

Both NXT and Dynamite will start with matches rather than any talking segments tonight as both shows go head-to-head for the first time ever starting at 8PM ET.

NXT will kick off their show with a big one as Adam Cole defends the NXT title against number one contender Matt Riddle while AEW starts with Cody taking on Sammy Guevara. If Cody loses his match, the Full Gear pay-per-view main event gets altered due to the win/loss record that the company is pushing.

Meanwhile, Chris Jericho’s two mystery tag team partners have been revealed to be the team of Ortiz and Santana, the former LAX members who are now signed to the promotion following a stint with Impact Wrestling.

NXT will have the advantage of limited commercials and running 15 minutes longer than All Elite Wrestling although most industry insiders are predicting week one of the Wednesday night war to go AEW’s way mostly due to the curiosity factor.

Triple H discusses NXT, The Rock, and willing to put the past behind with CM Punk

Triple H appeared on the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast with Jimmy Traina to talk about a variety of subjects including NXT’s full-time move to USA Network, The Rock, and even CM Punk.

Talking about The Rock, Triple H said that The Rock loves coming back home and usually things start off when either Vince, he, or his wife Stephanie giving The Rock a call to see if he’s available. HHH noted that The Rock is one of the busiest men on the planet with tons of stuff going with him so it’s always exciting when the WWE Universe gets to see him on WWE television. As far as the process goes, Triple H explains that The Rock usually asks what they want from him or what they have planned and then he gives his ideas, checks the schedule and they move on from there. He said that he and The Rock were on the main event of the first Smackdown so it’s great that they’re both going to be there for the 20th anniversary.

The discussion then moved to NXT and the war with AEW. Triple H said that you can’t compare eras and they can’t recreate the Monday night war because the landscape of television is completely different nowadays. He said he’s not concerned about what anyone else does but he’s more concerned on what they do at this point. He noted that NXT has been the #1 show on the WWE Network and the growth of the brand has been incredible over the past several years. NXT Superstars will get to show the world what they’re capable of and ultimately, the winners are the fans because competition brings out the best out of everyone and you have to step up your game so everyone wins.

When asked about CM Punk trying out for WWE Backstage on FS1 and if they would be happy about it, Triple H said that “he read about that as well” and made it a point to say that FOX Sports is in charge of doing the show and it’s their show talking about WWE so it’s ultimately it’s their decision on who they want to be on it. He said that FOX Sports interviewed a long list of people for the show and Punk was one of them.

“But as far as for us, one of the things this company has shown over and over again is never say never and if, erm, the opportunity is right for everybody and is right for the fans, then we are willing to put the past behind us and move forward,” Triple H said. “I would say never say never but that’s also probably a long way from coming true. I don’t know, that’s a little bit outside of my purview at the moment, but like I said, never say never.”

Tickets for tonight’s AEW Dynamite in Washington being sold from $3 each

With just hours to go for the first AEW Dynamite on TNT, ticket scalpers are having a hard time unloading their thousands of tickets which were scooped up when the show went on sale several weeks ago.

Floor seats on Ticketmaster.com via verified resale are going for $20. Row six seats at ringside are selling for only $149 while excellent seats across the stage on the first-tier riser are just $50. Hundreds of tickets in the nosebleed sections are going for $20 and $35 each.

Meanwhile, secondary-market websites are selling tickets starting from $3 in the level 400 section, with most of them priced at $6. Row six seats on ticket resellers pages are going starting from $79 while first-tier riser seats are going from $44 each.

With such cheap tickets, the show is likely to be full anyway tonight as many people leave it until the last few hours to buy tickets. If they don’t, there will be several empty sections in the arena which might require AEW to shift around fans, a common technique used, to make at least the side facing the camera look full.

Full broadcast details for AEW in Canada

AEW in Canada will be airing live on TSN2 for the first four weeks while the October 30 broadcast will air on TSN3.

TSN yesterday officially announced their partnership with All Elite Wrestling for the live coverage of AEW Dynamite. Apart from airing on TSN2 and TSN3, Dynamite will also stream live on TSN.CA and the TSN app which is available to all TSN Direct subscribers.

“For many, many years, Canada has been home not only to some of the most legendary wrestlers ever, both past and present, but also to some of the most knowledgeable and passionate fans anywhere in the world today,” said Tony Khan, CEO of AEW. “I’m thrilled that we are teaming with TSN to show AEW DYNAMITE live in Canada. TSN has great history broadcasting wrestling, and I know they will be a great partner for AEW and our fans.”

“We were overwhelmed with fans’ outpouring of support for our OMEGA MAN documentary earlier this year, and that incredible response has primed TSN to showcase Kenny Omega and the rest of AEW’s high-octane talent for fans across the country,” said Shawn Redmond, Vice-President, Discovery and TSN. “AEW DYNAMITE is headlined by two Canadian mega-stars alongside a growing roster of must-see wrestlers, and we’re very excited to deliver the wrestling world’s game-changing new series to TSN subscribers.”

NXT goes live for two hours on USA Network tonight with three title matches

NXT will go live for two hours on the USA Network for the first time today as the war with AEW Dynamite kicks off. The show will have limited commercials.

To counteract AEW’s programming, NXT has three title matches set for tonight’s broadcast as well as 15 minutes extra of airtime. Considering WWE’s relationship with NBCUniversal, this was probably a very easy ask from WWE and a request which was accepted. The 15-minute overrun seems to be only for today’s broadcast.

Four matches in total have been announced so far, featuring Adam Cole vs Matt Riddle for the NXT title, The Undisputed Era vs The Street Profits for the NXT Tag Team titles, Shayna Baszler vs Candice LaRae for the NXT Women’s title, and Johnny Gargano vs Shane Thorne.

American rapper Wale will also be appearing on tonight’s broadcast with The Street Profits.

WWE will also hold a special edition of Watch Along tonight streaming live on WWE Network, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook during NXT. Former NXT stars Ricochet and Apollo Crews will headline the Watch Along coverage. Kassius Ohno, Bianca Belair, Keith Lee, Jordan Myles, Rachael Evers, Chelsea Green and Deonna Purrazzo, Isaiah “Swerve” Scott, Rik Bugez, Jordan Omogbehin, Mansoor, Malcolm Bivens and Brendan Vink will also join the set throughout the night.

ITV in the UK changes schedule for AEW Dynamite

UK broadcaster ITV announced a new schedule for the AEW Dynamite weekly show, just days after the original schedule was met with a barrage of complaints from fans in the country.

The new schedule sees the full two-hour show being available to view on the ITV Hub streaming service from 7PM the day after the show and then it will be shown at 11:20PM on ITV4 on Friday evening before being replayed at 8:20AM on Sunday.

A one-hour highlights show will also be shown on Monday at 11:45PM on ITV.

Originally, ITV announced that the show would air on a four-day delay on ITV4 on Sunday morning at 8:20AM. This did not sit down well with AEW fans in the UK and Ireland and Tony Khan went on Twitter to explain that due to the different ad break rules on free TV, they cannot air live for now.

AEW Dynamite debuts on TNT tonight at 8PM ET

It’s a historic night for the world of professional wrestling as All Elite Wrestling premieres on TNT with their brand new weekly television show Dynamite.

While the Monday night war has been over since 2001, AEW is the new player in town to create the Wednesday night war as its shows will go head-to-head with NXT on USA Network every week.

Tonight’s broadcast will take place from the Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C. and five matches have already been announced. These are Cody Rhodes vs Sammy Guevara, Nyla Rose vs Riho to crown the first-ever AEW Women’s champion, Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks vs Chris Jericho and two mystery partners, Adam Page vs PAC, and MJF vs Brandon Cutler. Jon Moxley is also advertised for an appearance.

The show will air live on TNT in the United States and TSN in Canada while the rest of the world can see the live broadcast on FITE TV for $4.99 per month. The United Kingdom and Ireland will get to see Dynamite every week on ITV4.

Raw rating for 09/30/2019

The season premiere of Monday Night Raw drew 2,569,000 viewers, up 360,000 viewers from last week’s broadcast. It was the most-watched Raw since August 12.

Hour one started very strong with 2,701,000 viewers, but then went down to 2,592,000 in the second hour, and finished off the night with 2,416,000 viewers.

Raw was #4, #5, and #6 in the top 50 cable chart among the 18-49 demographic and #8 in overall viewership for the night on cable. NFL on ESPN did 10.4 million viewers. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)

CM Punk downplays tryout for WWE Backstage show on FS1

Appearing on The Kevin & Bean Show in LA to promote his new movie, former WWE champion CM Punk talked about the recent rumors of his return after the hosts brought up the inevitable subject.

When asked about the WWE Backstage show on FS1 and his tryout to be part of the panel, Punk jokingly asked, “You mean to tell me you’d watch a show where I talk about wrestling?” Punk did not seem very high on getting the job and said that it’s people who somewhat exaggerated everything with the news “taking a life of its own.”

Punk warned fans not to be mad at him if nothing happens, somewhat “spoiling” the future about him not returning to professional wrestling just yet.

The discussion then turned to Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and how Johnson tried to call him from the middle of the ring the last time he was at the STAPLES Center after Raw went off the air. “Let’s do it again. When is this show…next Friday? Dwayne…call me Friday,” Punk joked.

When asked what he will be doing on Friday night, CM Punk said that he will probably be watching hockey!