Daily Update: SmackDown ratings, Bray Wyatt, MJF

Daily Update

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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter:

  • Notes on the backgrounds of everyone voted in
  • Huge historical stories on the two promoters voted in talking about wrestling history all over the world
  • Notes on a lot of the people who were not voted in and their candidacy
  • Performer and match of the week
  • Full coverage of Saturday’s UFC show
  • Cain Velasquez returns to pro wrestling as AAA comes to the U.S., background, future, attendance, audience drawn and more
  • The most detailed look at the TV ratings from the past week, looking at the whys, what can be learned, segment by segment of the main shows, competition and more
  • Major mask loss in a cage show coming on January 1 to Arena Mexico
  • A look at the finals of the Stardom tag team tournament as well as the big show at the end of the year
  • What Hall of Fame candidate returns to Dragon Gate on Christmas
  • Several stars leaving All Japan
  • First IWGP women’s title defense to be held in the U.S.
  • New Japan tag team tournaments notes
  • Battle of Los Angeles news
  • Another major movie being produced on a 90s star and his unique story
  • Impact has one of its best matches of the year
  • A detailed look at Tony Khan’s explanation of William Regal’s departure and why he allowed him to go
  • Khan talks about Rampage going forward
  • Dustin Rhodes talks retirement
  • Notes on ROH PPV show
  • Notes on WWE going to new markets and ticket advances
  • International TV ratings
  • AEW & WWE streaming numbers
  • More news on the Pro Slap league TV deal and time
  • Dana White talks Jiri Prochazka’s injury
  • Shawn Michaels talks NXT
  • Lots of WWE injury updates
  • Cena’s schedule for the next few months
  • Lots of WrestleMania news

This Week’s Retro Observer Newsletter:

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Saturday Update

WWE

  • Last night’s SmackDown averaged 2.098 million viewers in the fast national ratings. The rating in the 18-49 demo was a 0.5.
  • After SmackDown went off the air last night, Kurt Angle’s birthday party continued with the babyface roster joining him in the ring. Rey Mysterio led the crowd in singing happy birthday to Angle, and Paul “Triple H” Levesque also made an appearance to celebrate with Angle.
  • In an Instagram video, Bray Wyatt opened up about his uncle Barry Windham’s health issues. Wyatt said:
          • When I was a kid, I looked at my dad, my uncles, my grandfather, who were all professional wrestlers. I looked at them as if they were like they were Greek gods or something, like they couldn’t feel pain; they were immortal; they would always be just like that. As we get older, and I become a man myself, you start to understand that’s just not the case. Nothing is forever.
          • This week, my uncle, Barry Windham, he had a massive heart failure in Atlanta and he went down, and he didn’t have a pulse for 10 to 20 minutes, so he was away, he was gone.
          • I want to thank one specific man, Michael Todd Lalic, who was there — a random citizen. He gave him CPR there throughout that entire time before everyone else and the EMTs can get to him, and he stayed with him, and he’s the reason that we have Barry still. He’s alive, he’s with us.
          • Barry Windham has given his life to his profession. His whole life has been about this, just like mine, and he put everything into it, and I wanted to share that I am incredibly thankful to have him back.
          • My sister set up a GoFundMe in his name and not obligated to share, no one is obligated to share anything. But if you could, that would be incredibly helpful … Be good to the ones you love. Always remind them about that how much they mean to you because nothing is forever. Thank you for everything, guys.
  • Apollo Crews spoke about facing Bron Breakker for the NXT Championship at tonight’s Deadline special:
          • It’s insane because I’m facing someone who I can say is very similar to me, as far as in-ring abilities, right. [He’s an] extremely athletic guy, powerful. I’m strong, quick, agile. He’s done a lot in such a short amount of time, which is insane to see. All respect to Bron Breakker, no heat there. Went fishing, enjoy his company, but I feel like for me, it’s weird. I don’t feel any pressure, but there’s a lot that I have to prove. I’m coming back, I said this is what I want to do, and it has to be done. I feel like this is the icing on top of the cake. This will make the return to NXT complete, and looking forward to fulfilling that. The feeling of being champion, you never forget what that feeling is like of winning a title. I’ve won two here, and I remember what the feeling is both times, and I look forward to feeling that feeling again and accepting everything that comes with being champion. It’s something that I’ve never had the chance to accomplish the first time around.
  • Denise Salcedo interviewed Carmelo Hayes ahead of NXT Deadline.
  • Ricochet appeared on this week’s episode of WWE After the Bell.
  • Liv Morgan & Tegan Nox, Hit Row, and Kurt Angle & Ricochet were on this week’s SmackDown LowDown.

AEW/Other Wrestling

  • On Twitter, MJF posted a list of the people who will never beat him for the AEW World Championship:
          • The Pebble (Ricky Starks)
          • The American Dipsh*t Dragon (Bryan Danielson)
          • Warhoe (Wardlow)
          • Edward (Eddie Kingston)
          • Sensitive Cowboy (Hangman Page)
          • Jungle Jabronie (“Jungle Boy” Jack Perry)
          • Darbs The School Shooter (Darby Allin)
          • Adam “My Brain Don’t Work, So I Can’t Cope” Cole (Adam Cole)
          • “Mr. Clean” Castagnoli (Claudio Castagnoli)
  • The Young Bucks will be making an appearance at the 2023 WrestleCon convention: “A very rare non AEW appearance & our first public signing in years. Come meet us at @wrestlecon”
  • Bret Hart, The Godwinns, The Tonga Kid, Sgt. Slaughter, Mick Foley, Kevin Nash, Lita, and Sabu have also been announced for WrestleCon.
  • The Ringer published a feature story on Britt Baker.
  • Baker discussed the storyline that made her obsessed with pro wrestling:
          • The first story line that made me immensely obsessed with wrestling and gave me the bug to want to do something like this and want to do this because of how the story made me feel, it was the Bryan Danielson storyline at WrestleMania XXX. How the fans really decided the story line. To me, that was one of the coolest things in the world—that the entire wrestling universe got behind this one wrestler who was a massive underdog and should not have been in the spot he was in, but the fans made sure of it. That was the coolest thing in the world to me, because there’s no other sport where the fans decide. In football, whoever has the most points wins, but in this sport, it’s really cool to see the effect that the fans have. It’s magical, really.
  • Chris Jericho looked back at the matches he had in 2022 on the latest episode of Talk is Jericho.
  • Josh Woods was the guest on AEW Unrestricted this week.
  • DAZN Wrestling has an interview with Samoa Joe.
  • Impact Wrestling uploaded the full uncut video of Josh Alexander and “Speedball” Mike Bailey’s World Championship match from this Thursday’s episode of Impact. The video is more than an hour long.