Daily Update: SmackDown ratings, Ricochet, Dax Harwood

Daily Update

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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter:

*Wrestler of the Week and Match of the week
*John Cena’s early career and his return, as well as an update on his WrestleMania prospects
*In depth on why television and streaming are cutting back on new programming and how this impacts the pro wrestling business.
*If you asked people to name a pro wrestler, how many could name one and who would be the first person they’d name, and the reality of “mainstream” knowledge of today’s pro wrestlers.
*Complete coverage of UFC’s last show of the year as well as a sad lesson about getting injured the week of your fight.
*A look at one of the best shows of 2022, the TakaTaichi promoted show at Yoyogi Gym in Tokyo
*The most detailed look at TV viewership for every major show over the past week
*New weekly streaming live show debuts
*Promotion doing rematches of its best matches of 2022
*The story behind the voting for tag team of the year in Japan
*Stardom has one of its biggest shows in its history this week
*Notes on the upcoming show at the Tokyo Dome
*A week of incredible matches
*Ospreay vs. Ishii
*El Hijo del Vikingo in the U.S. working dates
*Impact next PPV
*AEW makes major new broadcast deal that will be announced in a few weeks
*The mystery man on Dynamite this week
*Tickets sales for upcoming AEW & WWE shows
*WWE & AEW streaming numbers
*International TV ratings
*Ticket sales for upcoming AEW & WWE shows
*UFC PPV numbers for this past year
*A bill expected to be introduced in the U.S. Senate that would greatly change the MMA world
*Dana White talks about luck and timing
*Judging controversies
*Two fighters feud on Twitter and got into it at the UFC gym
*Sports business analyst predicts NBCU buying WWE and we talks about what is and isn’t valid about that
*Post-Christmas WWE touring
*Most popular WWE names in social media
*Current WWE market value

This Week’s Retro Observer Newsletter:

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Saturday Update

WWE

  • Last night’s SmackDown averaged 2.213 million viewers in the fast national ratings, up from last week’s fast national average of 2.056 million. The rating in the 18-49 demo was a 0.5.
  • Ricochet tweeted that he’s okay but needed to get six stitches after the Miracle on 34th Street Fight that headlined last night’s SmackDown. The episode was taped a week in advance. Ricochet wrote: “6 stitches in my stocking and a lump…least it’s not coal. #SmackDown”
  • Indie wrestler Ashley D’Amboise played the ballerina who appeared during the Miracle on 34th Street Fight. JT Energy played the cameraman who Bray Wyatt put in the Mandible Claw earlier in the episode.
  • Braun Strowman, Emma & Madcap Moss, and Raquel Rodriguez appeared on The SmackDown LowDown.
  • Solo Sikoa spoke to the New York Post about performing in Madison Square Garden for the first time: “I’ve heard a lot of big things about it. I’ve seen it in movies. I’ve seen it with my dad (Rikishi) and my uncles and my brothers wrestling there. This will be my first time at the Garden, man. I’m really, really excited for it, just the experience of being in the building. It’s kind of like going to Disneyland for the first time. That’s what I’m thinking about when I’m walking into Madison Square Garden. I got this image in my head where I think it’s this big.”
  • Sikoa also discussed how he was told about his main roster call-up:
          • It was actually from Roman and Hunter (Triple H). I just got the call saying my flight is getting booked for Clash at the Castle, but I was still hurt at the time. I got cleared just in time before flying out. I got cleared on a Monday and I flew out on a Friday. When I got there, nobody said anything to me. Everybody was just like quiet, even Roman and Paul. I knew what I was there for but I didn’t know because the mission wasn’t clear.
          • When we were getting ready to open up doors for Clash at the Castle, Triple H walks in and this is my first time meeting him. Then he goes, ‘You know this is your call-up?’ I was like, ‘Nah I didn’t know.’ ‘Welcome to the main roster, you’ll be on SmackDown.’
  • Charles Wright (The Godfather) underwent hip replacement surgery earlier this week: “Hip replacement surgery went real well. And I will say that morphine is a hell of a drug.”
  • Johnny Gargano and Candice LeRae were guests at last night’s Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Toronto Raptors NBA game.
  • Sol Ruca’s viral finishing move has been named the Sol Snatcher.
  • WWE has a behind-the-scenes video from Jamie Noble’s final match.

AEW/Other Wrestling

  • Dax Harwood is launching a new podcast named “FTR with Dax Harwood.” It’s part of the AdFree Shows network and is being co-hosted by Matt Koon. The podcast will premiere on Thursday, December 29. The topic of the first show will be Harwood talking about CM Punk, but Punk won’t be appearing as a guest on the episode.
  • Harwood spoke about Mercedes Varnado (Sasha Banks): “I think that, just like me, I feel that sometimes she gets a bad rep because of how passionate she is and how much she wants. You know, she wants it all, but she wants to work for it. That’s the same with us. Like, I want everything in this business, but I want to work for it and I want you to know that I’m going to work hard for you, and that’s her, man. She knows what she deserves, and she knows what she’s earned, and she works her ass off to get it, and if she doesn’t get it, she feels slighted and she has a reason to feel that way. Huge star, huge heart, beautiful human being, the greatest woman wrestler of all time. I think she’s just incredible.”
  • AEW’s Taynara Melo and Sammy Guevara bought a house together.
  • On Busted Open Radio, Ruby Soho discussed the year she had in 2022: “2022 has been a rollercoaster. It has been me kind of trying to find my footing here in AEW, exactly what my role is, where I fit in, who I wanna present myself as and obviously getting injured and being out for three months and then kind of mentally dealing with that which I think, you know, anybody on this panel who has wrestled before understands that injuries are more mental than they are physical, at least for me anyway, and so it’s been a rollercoaster but I think it’s been really empowering and I think the best has yet to come for me for sure.”
  • NJPW released the entrant pictures for this year’s Concurso bodybuilding contest.
  • NJPW’s Oskar Leube missed Thursday and Friday’s Road to Tokyo Dome shows due to a fever. Leube tested negative for COVID-19.
  • Volador Jr. was pulled from last night’s CMLL show due to a positive COVID-19 test.
  • Women’s Wrestling Talk interviewed Deonna Purrazzo.