With the season now over, Vice TV is touting the ratings success of Dark Side of the Ring season two.
Dark Side of the Ring is the highest rated series in Vice TV history, and last week’s season two finale on Owen Hart is also the highest rated show in the history of the station. Variety wrote today that season two averaged 485,000 total viewers and 288,000 viewers in the 18-49 demo through May 19 in Nielsen live-plus-three data, which includes the same-day ratings and three days of DVR and on-demand viewing.
That total viewers number is up 52 percent from season one, while the 18-49 number is up 73 percent from the first season.
In the live-plus-three data, the Owen Hart documentary drew 626,000 viewers and did 390,000 viewers in the 18-49 demo.
“We are absolutely ecstatic with the success of Dark Side of the Ring,” Vice TV executive vice president and general manager Morgan Hertzan said. “Audiences respond to our courageous compelling storytelling, and this series has proven to be heavyweight in the television landscape. I am very proud to partner with the incredible creatives at Vice Studios, and tag team executive producers Evan Husney and Jason Eisener who have so skillfully crafted this show. It is in every way the no holds barred type of programming that you can expect to see on Vice TV. Looking forward to the next KO!”
“A third season is something everybody involved wants to do,” Husney told Sports Illustrated. “Vice wants to make a Season 3, we would love to see it happen, and we’re in those stages of conversation. Right now, there are just a lot of question marks about the future of production, and even the future of the world. Our show deals with a lot of travel, and we’d love to go international to places like Japan in Season 3, but there is a lot of uncertainty in terms of that.
“I can say that all parties want to see this happen, and there is no shortage of stories for us to cover. We’ve put a lot of thought into it already, and we’re getting ideas from people every minute on social media, which is awesome.”
A look at the life and career of Shad Gaspard, plus tons of news.
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FRIDAY NEWS UPDATE
We will have a new Observer Radio today with an interview with Ross Hart of the Hart family, talking about Owen Hart and the glory days of Stampede Wrestling. We will be doing a weekend poll for Double or Nothing II which takes place at 7:30 p.m. Eastern on PPV and B/R Live in the U.S. and FITE outside the U.S. You can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to [email protected].
There was a major scare earlier today involving Hana Kimura, one of the top stars of Stardom. She evidently had a severe bout with depression. She is part of the cast of a reality show in Japan that is also popular on Netflix. She lost her temper at one of the male roommates on the show for not taking her ring outfit out of the wash before starting his own wash and her ring costume got ruined and she lost her temper and slapped him. It resulted in her become a big villain to people viewing the show and led to her depression where she posted photos of her cutting her arms and there was an implied suicide threat.
In the incident filmed in early January, one of the housemates named Kai had washed his clothes, and unbeknownst to him, Hana’s wrestling gear was in the washer. He washed it again with his stuff and threw it in the dryer. Then it shrunk and she couldn’t wear it anymore. She was angry and said it was the costume she wore in the Tokyo Dome, and it had many memories, and that her ring gear was her life. Without it she can’t work. This was all on the show.
She confronted the guy and slapped him upside the head to knock his hat off, because he didn’t seem apologetic. Since that episode, Terrace House fans worldwide were sending her nasty messages and telling her to die, etc. “If your costume is your life, why did you leave it in the washing machine” and stuff like that, telling her to leave the show and die.
Newsweek has a story on COVID-19 affecting pro wrestling including interviews with David Starr and Deonna Purrazzo. Purrazzo said: “We were given the option and were told had we said no, it wouldn’t be held against us. I don’t believe that. I feel like a lot of people do feel pressured. It’s a very presumptuous thing to ask people to do right now—to choose to work or not. Especially in the political company that we work in, people don’t believe they’re not going to lose their job or their spot [on the show] if they say no. It’s a really hard choice to ask people to make. It’s just a scary thought because you don’t know who’s been exposed to what. And then we’re touching each other, we’re sweating on each other. I don’t think, no matter what precautions can be taken, that it’s necessarily the safest option.”
Evan Husney, one of the producers and co-creator of Dark Side of the Ring, mentioned on Pat Laprade’s Les Anti-Pod de la Lutte show that they did contact Bret Hart for the episode on Owen Hart. Bret never got back to them. Husney noted that there were no restrictions imposed on who they could contact for the show and they could have asked other members of the Hart family but decided to concentrate on Martha and Owen’s children.
The John Cena hosted Nickelodeon reboot of “Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader” was nominated for a daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game Show.
WWE
Smackdown tonight has A.J. Styles vs. Shinsuke Nakamura and Jeff Hardy vs. Sheamus in IC title tournament matches, plus Charlotte Flair vs. Bayley in a non-title match and Otis & Mandy Rose vs. Dolph Ziggler & Sonya Deville. They will be doing a 205 Live show, not live, as this was all taped on 5/12 with Isaiah Scott vs, Tyler Breeze.
Corey Graves will be doing a second podcast, called “Bare With Us” about relationships with girlfriend Leah Van Dale (Carmella) which will debut on 6/11.
WrestleMania 34 from Santa Clara, CA in 2015 will be replayed on 6/2 on FS1.
Total Bellas did 533,000 viewers last night, but did a 0.25 in 18-49, a number almost as high as AEW and was No. 8 on cable in the demo.
There are a number of new UFC fights that have been announced over the past 24 hours:
Cortney Casey vs. Gillian Robertson is set for 6/20
Tecia Torres vs. Brianna Van Buren is set for 6/20
Joseph Benavidez vs. Deiveson Figueiredo for the vacant flyweight title is set for 7/18
Jennifer Maia vs. Viviane Araujo is set for 6/27
Chase Hooper vs. Alex Caceres is set for 6/6
Paige VanZant vs, Amanda Ribas is set for 7/11
Besides Smackdown, there will be an AEW Countdown to Double or Nothing special tonight at 10 p.m. on TNT.
Odds for tomorrow’s AEW show from www.BetOnline.ag
Jon Moxley -250 vs. Brodie Lee +170
Nyla Rose -200 vs. Hikaru Shida +150
Lance Archer -150 vs. Cody +110
Inner Circle -180 vs. Elite +140
MJF -150 vs. Jungle Boy +110
Shawn Spears -400 vs. Dustin Rhodes +250
Ladder match: Darby Allin +175 vs. Mystery Guy +275 vs.Rey Fenix +400 vs. Orange Cassidy +700 vs. Colt Cabana +900 vs. Frankie Kazarian +1000 vs. Kip Sabian +1000 vs. Scorpio Sky +1000 vs. Luchasaurus +1200
The premiere of the reality show Labor of Love last night on FOX did 890,000 viewers. Matt Striker is one of the contestants on a show where a woman is attempting to pick a man to impregnate her. Seriously. It only did a 0.2 in 18-49 and was by far the least watched prime time network show. Those are disastrous numbers.
Zachary Wentz of the Rascalz and Kimber Lee were married as both put wedding photos up on their social media.
MLW Anthology tomorrow night at 10 p.m. on Bein Sports and on YouTube at 6:05 p.m. will feature Mance Warner.
ROH is adding a new YouTube show called “ROH Week by Week” which will debut on Monday at 1p.m. Eastern hosted by Quinn McKay. It will air every Monday and cover the news of the week in the promotion.
There will also be an ROH Trivia Night on 5/28 at 7 p.m. Eastern time on Zoom
This week’s ROH TV show will feature Dragon Lee with some of his biggest ROH bouts..
The Fale Dojo in Auckland, New Zealand has opened for public fitness training. (thanks to Kevin Chiat)
CWE has announced a live streaming show for 5/29 from Winnipeg. They are asking for donations. This will be the company’s 11th anniversary event. It will air live and free on the CWE Wrestling group discussion Facebook page.
NWA Wildside starts on IWTV on 6/8 and will be airing the promotion’s TV shows starting with the first episode in 1999. More than 300 episodes were produced and featured people like A.J. Styles, Hernandez, Ron Killings, Abyss, New Jack, Matt Sydal, The Briscoes and more.
A new group of New Japan Pro Wrestling action figures has been released, including Los Ingobernables.
The musical “Rockquiem for a Wrestler” loosely based on the life of the late Ivan Koloff is scheduled to live stream from the Triad Theater in New York on 6/27.
An ESPN story on Randy Savage. (thanks to Barry Werner)
Rocky Romero’s new song Someday is out now. He’s interviewed on the newest episode of On The Turnbuckle to promote it.
Shazza McKenzie has launched a new podcast. First episode discusses Becky Lynch’s pregnancy and the CZW story from the perspective of a female performer. (thanks to Kevin Chiat)
Dark Side of the Ring closed out its second season by drawing the best ratings in series history.
Last night’s Dark Side of the Ring documentary on the final days of Owen Hart averaged 349,000 viewers on Vice TV. In the 18-49 demo, the show drew a 0.18 rating. The rating in the 18-49 demo placed Dark Side of the Ring 31st overall for the night in the cable TV rankings in that category.
The viewership number and 18-49 rating both topped this season’s two-hour premiere on Chris Benoit for the best numbers Dark Side of the Ring has done.
The Benoit documentary was previously the highest rated show in Vice TV history.
The After Dark post-show for last week’s Road Warriors episode, which premiered right before Dark Side of the Ring last night, averaged 95,000 viewers. It drew a 0.03 rating in 18-49.
Here’s a look at the ratings for Dark Side of the Ring seasons one and two:
Season one —
Macho Man & Ms. Elizabeth — 154,000 viewers, 0.06 rating in 18-49
The Montreal Screwjob — 181,000 viewers, 0.07 rating in 18-49
Bruiser Brody — 214,000 viewers, 0.07 rating in 18-49
The Von Erich family — 234,000 viewers, 0.08 rating in 18-49
Gino Hernandez — 225,000 viewers, 0.08 rating in 18-49
The Fabulous Moolah — 200,000 viewers, 0.07 rating in 18-49
Season two —
Chris Benoit — 320,000 viewers, 0.14 rating in 18-49
New Jack — 229,000 viewers, 0.11 rating in 18-49
Brawl for All — 226,000 viewers, 0.09 rating in 18-49
Jimmy Snuka and the death of Nancy Argentino: 209,000 viewers, 0.09 rating in 18-49
Dino Bravo — 221,000 viewers, 0.10 rating in 18-49
David Schultz — 255,000 viewers, 0.11 rating in 18-49
Herb Abrams — 246,000 viewers, 0.10 rating in 18-49
The Road Warriors — 264,000 viewers, 0.12 rating in 18-49
“Excited to announce that we signed a deal w/ both Martha Hart & @VICE to bring you BRAND NEW Owen Hart shirts along with the first @DarkSideOfRing shirts,” Pro Wrestling Tees owner Ryan Barkan wrote. “All profits from Owen’s tees will be donated to the Owen Hart Foundation.”
The death of Owen Hart is the subject of this Tuesday’s Dark Side of the Ring season two finale. The episode will premiere on Vice TV at 10 p.m. Eastern time.
A new double issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter is out with a wider variety of news stories than any issue we’ve done in a long time.
From a perspective among leading sports doctors about opening up, to Becky Lynch’s pregnancy and what the plans for her that won’t happen were scheduled to be, to Money in the Bank coverage, Roman Reigns risk factors, New Japan talks its future, AEW profitability, Oliver Luck’s lawsuit against Vince McMahon and Georges St-Pierre in the Hall of Fame, it’s all covered here.
The issue covers in detail:
Becky Lynch’s pregnancy, her comments on it, timing, what were the booking plans for her and how Money in the Bank changed, a look back at how Lynch got over when she wasn’t supposed to and the time frame where Lynch became the chosen one, while at the same time the crowd was mad, not realizing any of this.
Ronaldo Jacare Souza’s positive test for COVID, UFC handling the situation, and the key components of the story that have not been covered well elsewhere.
How UFC didn’t abide by its own policies, what UFC did learn, and what fighters and reporters signed to get in the door to the show.
Facts of the Coronavirus and on combat sports from three doctors who have extensive experience with combat sports.
Harold Meij talking about New Japan Pro Wrestling, why it made the choices it did not to turn, as well as its plans when it can run and the stages it will go through, why the company has been able to remain solvent while not running live events.
Complete coverage of UFC 249 and WWE Money in the Bank, including match-by-match coverage and poll results on both shows.
Behind the scenes notes on both shows, including UFC business, and interest level in WWE.
The arrest of Alberto Rodriguez, the former Alberto Del Rio, for sexual assault, the harrowing description of what happened and more.
Roman Reigns sitting it out including what he said and his risk factors.
Updated plans for SummerSlam and where Vince is coming from, plans for the next Takeover, WWE book on best sellers list, The softening of the brand split, update on Rey Mysterio, Rachael Ellering release info, NBA star says he’s going to WWE, Undertaker documentary notes, the story of how two different planned WrestleMania main events in 2011 fell through, Sting update, Canadian TV ratings, One of the best college wrestlers mentions going into pro wrestling, Raw DVR numbers, WWE market value and the most-watched shows on the WWE Network.
Smackdown’s renewal and what it means.
Feature on the career of Georges St-Pierre and his records and his legacy, as he gets inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame.
Oliver Luck lawsuit against Vince McMahon, including details of his contract, Vince’s attempts and arguments to get out of paying him on that contract and arguments both sides are making.
AEW’s Double or Nothing plans as well as the return of some of the company’s biggest stars.
AEW’s profitability in April, the cost of production and cost savings, Mike Tyson, the casino ladder match and more.
May 13 UFC show.
Full coverage of all the WWE and AEW television shows from the past week.
Ratings of all the major shows, the key demos and quarters for AEW and WWE, what happened head-to-head and what can be learned from them.
Results of all the major pro wrestling events around the world over the past week.
ORDERING INFO: Order the print Wrestling Observer right now and get it delivered via mail, by sending your name, address, Visa or Master Card number and an expiration date to [email protected] or by going to www.paypal.com directing funds to [email protected].
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MONDAY NEWS UPDATE
Bryan and I will be back tonight on Wrestling Observer Radio talking about Shad Gaspard, Raw, Larry Csonka and the rest of the current news. You can send questions for the show to [email protected]
We are sad to report the death of Larry Csonka, a wrestling writer from the 411 Mania website who was known for his tireless work in doing wrestling reviews and to send sympathies to both his family and friends as well as the family and friends of Shad Gaspard. Gaspard’s body has not been found and it would seem to be a miracle that he could possibly be alive at this point as they searched for hours for his body last night and earlier today after he was not pulled to safety yesterday afternoon after rip tide currents made him unable to swim ashore. He directed the lifeguards to save his ten-year-old son and at that point a huge wave came and he was submerged and never found. There were a number of rescues at Marina del Rey beach yesterday but he was the only one not found. Joel Eisenberg, a friend of Gaspard, sent us this piece he wrote about him.
California today talked about opening things up for sports without an audience around the first week of June as long as cases drop.
The Owen Hart documentary will air tomorrow night on Vice. Owen Hart Foundation members Dr. Martha Hart, Virginia Xavier, Tammi Christopher and Athena Hart (Owen’s daughter) were interviewed. Oje Hart, Owen’s son, was interviewed in Toronto. We will have a lot more this week on Owen Hart. At 9:30 p.m. will be After Dark on the Road Warriors and the Owen Hart show will be at 10 p.m.
Both AEW and NXT will be going opposite NASCAR races on Wednesday, as well as on 5/27 and 6/10. The first NASCAR race back over the weekend had 6.3 million viewers, so this could be major competition even though the NASCAR audience is traditionally older than the wrestling audience, unlike UFC which skews younger than wrestling. The race Wednesday is from Darlington at 7 p.m. Eastern.
NXT has cruiserweight tournament matches with El Hijo del Fantasma vs. Akira Tozawa and Kushida vs. Drake Maverick on Wednesday. AEW has Jon Moxley vs. 10 (Preston Vance), MJF vs. Marko Stunt, Orange Cassidy vs. Rey Fenix, Matt Hardy vs. Sammy Guevara and a face-to-face with Jake Roberts and Arn Anderson.
The release of the Young Bucks autobiography has been pushed back from 9/27 to 11/17.
WWE
For Raw tonight, we’ve got Drew McIntyre vs. King Corbin in a non-title match, Nikki Cross & Alexa Bliss vs. The Iiconics for the women’s tag titles, Street Profits vs Viking Raiders in an axe throwing contest, Shayna Baszler vs. Natalya in a submission match, plus Edge will appear to talk about a match with Randy Orton at the next PPV show.
An interview with Nikki and Brie Bella on Sunday Night’s Main Event talking about John Cena’s editorial rights on their new memoir, Daniel Bryan still working TV tapings and still coming home to Brie, and they comment on WWE’s handling of the Becky Lynch pregnancy.
WAPA in Puerto Rico aired WrestleMania 34 from 6-10 p.m. yesterday. It was being advertised for a few weeks (thanks to Leonardo Mendez Toledo)
DK Publishing will be releasing a book called “WWE Kicking Down Doors” about WWE women’s wrestling dating back to Wendi Richter, Chyna and Lita to the modern group of stars like Charlotte Flair, Becky Lynch, Bayley, Ronda Rousey and the others. The book is scheduled for release tomorrow.
MISCELLANEOUS
Wrestler Charli Evans has returned to Australia from the U.K. where she had been living and wrestling to be with her family. She has to do a 14 day quarantine in a hotel when she arrives.
Will Cooling has a story on the finances of Progress Wrestling.
Australia is moving to stage 2 today, allowing restaurants and bars to open with up to 20 people. The hope is to allow interstate travel by July, and travel between Australia and New Zealand perhaps. It looks like July or August for the earliest period where wrestling would be able to return. It’s notable that Australia and New Zealand have also had shockingly few cases but still had restrictions similar to the U.S. (thanks to Kevin Chiat)
IWTW wall be releasing digital archives of a number of independent promotions starting today including AAW out of Chicago, which is one of the best indies out there and almost like the Midwest version of PWG, as well as the library of AWS in Southern California and Wildside starting on 6/8.
Championship Wrestling from Arkansas has folded according to the promotion. They will be offering free access to their CWA Wrestling Network library of 165 hours of footage of Jerry Lawler, A.J. Styles, Matt Hardy, Tim Storm, DDP, Jake Roberts, Scott Steiner, Jim Cornette, Fit Finlay, Rock & Roll Express, Dan Severn, Lance Archer, Tammy Sytch, Jim Duggan and many others. “We at Championship Wrestling of Arkansas would like to thank our fans for supporting us, and helping us to become one of the premiere independent wrestling promotions in the country.”
The Telegraph has a story on Andre the Giant at (thanks to Lee Wall)
This week’s episode of Dark Side of the Ring drew the second-best ratings in series history.
Last night’s Dark Side of the Ring documentary on The Road Warriors averaged 264,000 viewers on Vice TV, up from the 246,000 that last week’s Herb Abrams episode drew. The rating in the 18-49 demo was a 0.12, which was up from last week’s 0.10.
Dark Side of the Ring ranked 68th in the 18-49 demo in last night’s cable TV rankings.
The only Dark Side of the Ring episode that did better ratings was this season’s two-hour premiere on Chris Benoit.
Here’s a look at the Dark Side of the Ring ratings for seasons one and two:
Season one —
Macho Man & Ms. Elizabeth — 154,000 viewers, 0.06 rating in 18-49
The Montreal Screwjob — 181,000 viewers, 0.07 rating in 18-49
Bruiser Brody — 214,000 viewers, 0.07 rating in 18-49
The Von Erich family — 234,000 viewers, 0.08 rating in 18-49
Gino Hernandez — 225,000 viewers, 0.08 rating in 18-49
The Fabulous Moolah — 200,000 viewers, 0.07 rating in 18-49
Season two —
Chris Benoit — 320,000 viewers, 0.14 rating in 18-49
New Jack — 229,000 viewers, 0.11 rating in 18-49
Brawl for All — 226,000 viewers, 0.09 rating in 18-49
Jimmy Snuka and the death of Nancy Argentino: 209,000 viewers, 0.09 rating in 18-49
Dino Bravo — 221,000 viewers, 0.10 rating in 18-49
David Schultz — 255,000 viewers, 0.11 rating in 18-49
Herb Abrams — 246,000 viewers, 0.10 rating in 18-49
The Road Warriors — 264,000, 0.12 rating in 18-49
Next Tuesday’s Dark Side of the Ring is the season two finale. The death of Owen Hart is the subject of the episode.
While down slightly from last week, Dark Side of the Ring’s Herb Abrams episode still drew the third-highest viewership in series history.
The Abrams documentary averaged 246,000 viewers on Vice TV last night, down from the 255,000 that last week’s David Schultz episode drew. This season’s two-hour premiere on Chris Benoit is the only Dark Side of the Ring documentary that has done better viewership than those two episodes.
Last night’s Dark Side of the Ring drew a 0.10 rating in the 18-49 demo. That’s down from last week’s 0.11.
For the second straight week, the After Dark post-show for last week’s Dark Side of the Ring premiered leading into the new episode. The After Dark on Schultz episode averaged 72,000 viewers last night. The rating in the 18-49 demo was a 0.03.
Here’s a look at the ratings for Dark Side of the Ring season one and the season two episodes that have aired:
Season one —
Macho Man & Ms. Elizabeth — 154,000 viewers, 0.06 rating in 18-49
The Montreal Screwjob — 181,000 viewers, 0.07 rating in 18-49
Bruiser Brody — 214,000 viewers, 0.07 rating in 18-49
The Von Erich family — 234,000 viewers, 0.08 rating in 18-49
Gino Hernandez — 225,000 viewers, 0.08 rating in 18-49
The Fabulous Moolah — 200,000 viewers, 0.07 rating in 18-49
Season two —
Chris Benoit — 320,000 viewers, 0.14 rating in 18-49
New Jack — 229,000 viewers, 0.11 rating in 18-49
Brawl for All — 226,000 viewers, 0.09 rating in 18-49
Jimmy Snuka and the death of Nancy Argentino: 209,000 viewers, 0.09 rating in 18-49
Dino Bravo — 221,000 viewers, 0.10 rating in 18-49
David Schultz — 255,000 viewers, 0.11 rating in 18-49
Herb Abrams — 246,000 viewers, 0.10 rating in 18-49
The Road Warriors and Owen Hart are the subjects of the final two Dark Side of the Ring episodes of this season.
It’s Wrestling Observer Live Saturday with Jim Valley.
Friday Night Smackdown experienced its fourth ratings drop in a row and for the first time in the Fox era, the show fell below two million viewers for both hours on a night when virtually every other network show saw increased ratings. What does this mean for the future and any media narratives about WWE programming?
Also, as Becky Lynch promotes her appearance on Showtime’s “Billions” this Sunday, she had some very interesting comments for TMZ. Not only is she’s getting advice from John Cena and Dwayne Johnson on her acting career, she’s now being represented by The Rock’s agent. Does this say anything about her future in WWE?
I also give my perspective on this week’s Dark Side of The Ring, what it was like as a kid watching David Schultz slap John Stossel, TNA nostalgia, and much more.
This week’s episode of Dark Side of the Ring drew the second-highest ratings in the history of the show.
Dark Side of the Ring averaged 255,000 viewers on Vice TV for last night’s episode focused on David Schultz and the incident where he slapped 20/20’s John Stossel. That’s up from the 221,000 viewers that last week’s episode on Dino Bravo drew.
The rating in the 18-49 demo was a 0.11, up slightly from last week’s 0.10 rating.
The only Dark Side of the Ring episode that drew more viewers was this season’s two-hour premiere on Chris Benoit.
This week saw the After Dark post-show for the Bravo documentary premiere leading into the Schultz episode. An extended cut of the Bravo documentary also aired prior to After Dark.
Here’s a look at the ratings for Dark Side of the Ring season one and the season two episodes that have aired:
Season one —
Macho Man & Ms. Elizabeth — 154,000 viewers, 0.06 rating in 18-49
The Montreal Screwjob — 181,000 viewers, 0.07 rating in 18-49
Bruiser Brody — 214,000 viewers, 0.07 rating in 18-49
The Von Erich family — 234,000 viewers, 0.08 rating in 18-49
Gino Hernandez — 225,000 viewers, 0.08 rating in 18-49
The Fabulous Moolah — 200,000 viewers, 0.07 rating in 18-49
Season two —
Chris Benoit — 320,000 viewers, 0.14 rating in 18-49
New Jack — 229,000 viewers, 0.11 rating in 18-49
Brawl for All — 226,000 viewers, 0.09 rating in 18-49
Jimmy Snuka and the death of Nancy Argentino: 209,000 viewers, 0.09 rating in 18-49
Dino Bravo — 221,000 viewers, 0.10 rating in 18-49
David Schultz — 255,000 viewers, 0.11 rating in 18-49
Next week’s Dark Side of the Ring is focused on Herb Abrams and the UWF. The Road Warriors and Owen Hart are the subjects for the final two episodes of this season.
We’ve got one of our biggest news issues of the year out this week, a double-issue with a number of bios and history features, updates on all the major promotion moves when it comes to scheduling and WWE business notes.
The issue also covers:
Changes in the WWE schedule, why the company changed plans after just one week, who benefits the most, as well as AEW going back too taping and details of that. We also look at the next AEW PPV show, an employee complaints about WWE continuing, differences between what AEW, UFC and WWE are doing, what firing hurts the WWE perception and thoughts of people sitting it out, a doctor talks about what is needed to do these shows without a health risk and the WWE event schedule for the next few months.
A number of recent new WWE cuts, including some surprises, how the WWE dividend and Vince McMahon’s share fits into these cuts, projections for 2020 profitability if house shows don’t return for the rest of 2020, and why several people got cut.
The most in-depth coverage of WWE business, covering each department of the company, lots of Vince McMahon reaction to the numbers and the future, what McMahon said that is and isn’t true, the story behind the ratings and the story behind increases and declines across the board. Plus we examine the WWE network numbers.
Changes in the business going forward.
Joe Pedicino and pro wrestling, how he got in, his early innovative ideas, how Nigerian scram, his promotion of Global Wrestling, how it fell apart, stars who got breaks there and lie after wrestling.
Oliver Luck’s lawsuit against Vince McMahon, what is it all about and how much the XFL actually lost before it folded.
HHH’s thoughts on two-night WrestleManias going forward, A.J. Styles talks Gallows & Anderson losing their job, Roman Reigns update, Ronda Rousey update, Arn Anderson talks why Cesaro doesn’t get pushed, Canadian wrestling TV ratings, story on a surprise on Raw this past week who was canceled after the show started, update on Drake Maverick, the Smackdown announce team, and the most-watched shows on the WWE Network.
PFL closing down for the year, why what they said publicly was somewhat misleading and why they are still paying fighters, as well as thoughts on shutting down.
A number of new stories on Howard Finkel, both people who helped out and people who bullied him and looking back on those situations.
The first UFC fighter announced COVID-19 positive.
Brawl for All, going behind the scenes, a look at the Dark Side of the Ring coverage, examining the coverage and looking back at the entire scenario.
Look back at the Jimmy Snuka/Nancy Argentino death case, look at Dark Side coverage and add a lot more that wasn’t covered.
A back-of-the-book feature on Dick Steinborn, who was a big star in the 60s and 70s, and his father Milo, one of the strongest men in the world and a wrestling promoter. We look at Milo’s amazing feats of strength, as well as both the positive and negatives of the legacy of Dick in pro wrestling.
Full coverage of all the WWE and AEW television shows from the past week.
In-depth looks at the ratings of all the major shows, the key demos and quarters for AEW and WWE, what happened head-to-head and what can be learned from them.
Results of all the major pro wrestling events around the world over the past week.
ORDERING INFO: Order the print Wrestling Observer right now and get it delivered via mail, by sending your name, address, Visa or Master Card number and an expiration date to [email protected] or by going to www.paypal.com directing funds to [email protected].
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MONDAY NEWS UPDATE
Bryan and I will be back tonight with Wrestling Observer Radio talking Raw and the latest pro wrestling and MMA news. You can send in questions for tonight’s show to [email protected]
Jesse Ventura is teasing running for President. He said that if he runs, the Green Party would be his first choice.
BTE today ended with the Young Bucks looking at the sky and the clouds spelled out “FTR.” So that seems to finalize what everyone expected, which is a Young Bucks vs. formerly known as The Revival feud.
The second part of Impact Rebellion will air tomorrow night on AXS with Jessicka Havok vs. Rosemary in a full metal mayhem (TLC) match, Suicide vs. Chris Bey vs. Rohit Raju vs. Trey Miguel and Joey Ryan vs. Cousin Jake. The big storyline is the announcement of what they are doing with their world heavyweight title. Tessa Blanchard is the champion but she wasn’t on the tapings and they were taping a couple of months worth of shows. Then again, the tag champs weren’t at the tapings either.
Tomorrow night on Vice will be:
9 p.m. – 30 minutes of new material on Dino Bravo
9:30 p.m. – After Dark on Dino Bravo
10 p.m. Dark Side of the Ring on David Schultz. The show will be about his persona across the board, focusing on his slapping John Stossel and his later attack on Mr. T in Los Angeles that got him fired by WWF. He’s got a long standing hatred of Vince McMahon since then which is likely to come across. He was honored last year at the Cauliflower Alley Club, and many of the honorees are very negative toward McMahon, which can be an embarrassment to the club since WWE works with them, it usually is just accepted. But with Schultz, it was so strong that a lot of people at the WWE table were very uncomfortable.
WWE
Scheduled for Raw tonight is more of the HHH 25th anniversary celebration, a contract signing with Drew McIntyre and Seth Rollins and Nia Jax vs. Shayna Baszler vs. Asuka.
Rosenblatt has bumped the WWE target price up to $55 per share from its previous $52. Even though the market itself was up today, WWE dropped 71 cents per share to $44.08.
The Bella Twins autobiography called “Incomparable” will be released on 5/5 by Simon & Schuster.
UFC
Dana White told Kevin Iole yesterday that the 5/23 show will not be from Jacksonville. AEW is doing its PPV from Jacksonville that night and there was thought that they would be head-to-head less than a mile apart. White also said that he doesn’t see any live gates for shows for a long time and that his main goal is no layoffs in UFC and he would be taking care of his employees.
AEW
In Canada, the show this week will air on both TSN 1 and TSN 2. The ratings for AEW depend greatly on the station it’s on we’ve learned with TSN 2 being the key station. Often people don’t know which station it’s on and then miss the show (thanks to Jeff Zinger)
Scheduled for Dark is Jimmy Havoc vs. Shawn Dean and Best Friends vs. Lee Johnson & Musa.
MISCELLANEOUS
All Japan will be doing a show on Thursday on AJPW.tv live. Isami Kodaka & Yuko Miyamoto defend the All-Asia tag titles against Kento Miyahara & Francesco Akira in the main event.
Canadian Wrestling Elite ran a show on Friday night at their gym, closed to the public and streamed live on Facebook pushing for donations: Danny Duggan b Bradley Scott, Adrien Burton b River City Rocker, Kevin Cannon b Chad Daniels, A.J Sanchez b Johnny Malibu. There is no word on another show. They are still hoping to run shows in Manitoba in May based on governmental rulings but called the possibility “small.”
Superstar Billy Graham said that it appears both his daughter, Capella and son-in-law, who is a paramedic in West Palm Beach, have the coronavirus. Capella, who is 47, is the goddaughter of Arnold Schwarzenegger. She had a high temperature for three days and has lost 18 pounds. he belief is she got it from her husband.
While the subject of the latest Dark Side of the Ring episode from Vice didn’t focus on the sexiest of topics, “The Assassination of Dino Bravo” made for an intriguing watch for a man that turned out to be a casualty of both the end of the territory era and, apparently, the mafia.
Modern fans that don’t have a taste for the classics may not be familiar with Bravo (Adolfo Bresciano), best known to fans like myself for his seven year WWF run from 1985 through 1992.
The doc does a good job at setting up just how big Bravo was in his home province and country of Quebec, Canada, and International Wrestling, specifically. As their top star, longtime champion, and part owner, he was the type of regional star that the territory era was built around.
Eventually, though, the WWF steamroller killed the territories and the once hot organization was no different, losing The Rougeau Brothers, Rick Martel, and then in 1985, the reluctant Bravo to a big money contract.
Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but despite being hugely over in Montreal, Bravo never fully got a big run in WWF. He was paired up with Jimmy Hart, dyed his hair blonde, and did eventually get singles matches with Hulk Hogan and tag matches against Hogan alongside Earthquake. But by 1992, WWF didn’t renew his contract and he dropped out of the business altogether.
And that’s where our story takes the turn. With family ties to the mob and wanting to sustain an expensive lifestyle, Bravo became part of the world of organized crime and specifically an enforcer with a focus on the contraband cigarette trade.
Throughout the episode, those interviewed do a great job at painting the picture of who Bravo was and who he became. His wife, Diane, and daughter, Claudia, were standouts, conveying the raw emotion of having their husband/father brutally murdered in their home and being the ones to initially come home to it. Claudia, especially, still struggles with his death, saying one of her two children looks exactly like his late grandfather.
Friend of the site Pat Laprade, Tony Mule and Gino Brito of International Wrestling, the always on Jacques Rougeau, Rick Martel from a previous interview, and two Canadian mafia journalists round out the group responsible for also filling in the blanks, a welcome respite from the bickering of Jim Cornette and Vince Russo on other episodes.
To this day, it is still unknown who put 11 bullets in the 44-year-old Bravo’s head and chest on that cold March 1993 night as he sat watching a hockey game. Everyone has theories and potential reasons that are given in the episode, but the death of Dino Bravo remains an unsolved pro wrestling related mystery and the perfect fodder for this series.
Notes & Thoughts
I was curious why Bravo was just done with the business after his WWF run was over instead of looking for opportunities in WCW or elsewhere. He had been in the game for 20 years, but wrestlers usually just don’t seem to just leave the business. I read that he did an overseas tour, but perhaps the demand wasn’t there anymore.
I would most compare this episode to last season’s Gino Hernandez episode with the unsolved mystery element while I liked the Hernandez episode more.
A Rougeau story of Bravo staying true to his Montreal Canadiens fandom is an entertaining one. One thing is for sure: Rougeau definitely is comfortable in front of the cameras.
It’s not mentioned in the documentary, but Bravo was actually a WWWF tag team champion for three months with Dominic DeNucci in 1978, an NWA tag team champion, and also the WWF Canadian champion, a short-lived title that no one remembers that was created in 1985 and shuttered in 1986.
This Tuesday’s episode will be an interesting one to gauge interest as they focus on “Dr. D” David Schultz, he of the slapping John Stossel fame and a few interesting stories through the years.
Ratings for this week’s edition of Dark Side of the Ring saw an increase from last week.
Last night’s Dino Bravo episode of Dark Side of the Ring averaged 221,000 viewers on Vice TV, up from the 209,000 viewers that last weeks episode on Jimmy Snuka and the death of Nancy Argentino averaged. The rating in the 18-49 demo was a 0.10, up from last week’s 0.09.
Here’s a look at the ratings for Dark Side of the Ring season one and the five episodes that have aired this season:
Season one —
Macho Man & Ms. Elizabeth — 154,000 viewers, 0.06 rating in 18-49
The Montreal Screwjob — 181,000 viewers, 0.07 rating in 18-49
Bruiser Brody — 214,000 viewers, 0.07 rating in 18-49
The Von Erich family — 234,000 viewers, 0.08 rating in 18-49
Gino Hernandez — 225,000 viewers, 0.08 rating in 18-49
The Fabulous Moolah — 200,000 viewers, 0.07 rating in 18-49
Season two —
Chris Benoit (two-hour season premiere) — 320,000 viewers, 0.14 rating in 18-49
New Jack — 229,000 viewers, 0.11 rating in 18-49
Brawl for All — 226,000 viewers, 0.09 rating in 18-49
Jimmy Snuka and the death of Nancy Argentino: 209,000 viewers, 0.09 rating in 18-49
Dino Bravo — 221,000 viewers, 0.10 rating in 18-49
Next week’s Dark Side of the Ring is focused on David Schultz and his assault of 20/20 reporter John Stossel. Herb Abrams and the UWF, The Road Warriors, and Owen Hart are the subjects of the other remaining season two episodes.
When I saw the listing of topics for this season’s Dark Side of the Ring docuseries, the one that stood out the most was “The Brawl for All”, an unusual inclusion among heavier topics like Chris Benoit, Jimmy Snuka, and Dino Bravo.
What piqued my interest is that I really haven’t revisited the BFA since I became an MMA fan and writer in 2005 when I fell in love with the sport during the first season of The Ultimate Fighter. The WWE’s answer to a Toughman competition took place seven years earlier during the meat of the Monday Night War and while I remember watching it at the time, I have wanted to revisit the circumstances and fights themselves given everything I have seen since then.
Unfortunately, this episode was better suited for a Dark Side 20-minute series similar to what ESPN does for some 30-for-30 topics as there wasn’t enough meat on the bone to sustain their usual 44 minute runtime.
They did get several of the key behind-the-scenes and in-ring participants on camera like Vince Russo, Jim Cornette, Bart Gunn, Jim Ross, Darren Drozdov, and Charles Wright, aka The Godfather. While they do a good job of telling the backstory on the concept and execution, Russo and Cornette’s participation eventually breaks down into what we have seen on past episodes: Russo wanting to just get along and Cornette nearly having an aneurysm describing how much he hates him.
The fight fan in me wanted to hear from more of the other wrestlers turned temporary fighters, especially former UFC champion Dan Severn (who forfeited after one match), Ken Shamrock (who didn’t want to participate), Steve Blackman (what happened to him?), and even Bruce Pritchard who was talked about a lot but only heard in clips from his podcast.
But any discussion about BFA really breaks down into the what if scenarios regarding “Dr. Death” Steve Williams. Gunn, Cornette, and Ross talk about this in detail with Gunn describing how everyone assumed Williams would run through him which motivated him even more to knock him out.
And, of course, if the supposed goal of the tournament was to get Williams over to the point he could have a big run with Steve Austin in a wrestling match, the obvious question is this: why not just get him over with, well, wrestling matches in order to do that? That question is never answered and may not have been asked.
Spoiler alert, but Gunn knocks out everyone on his way to winning the tourney, including the Russo-hated John Bradshaw Layfield for which he said the tourney was created to embarrass. After he won the tourney, WWE supposedly had no idea what to do with Gunn, admitted by Cornette and Ross.
So, that leads to the other big question: how could WWE not figure out what to do with a good looking, well-built guy that just knocked out three men cold on national TV? That question is not directly answered, but we are basically told that it wasn’t their original plan. Ross says, “No one got over.” That feels like more of a decision than working with something that landed in your lap. Given where UFC is now, I have to think that mindset would be different in 2020.
The documentary then strangely diverges into a Cornette promo on Russo that doesn’t have much of anything to do with the BFA and then, a retelling of how Drozdov was paralyzed by D-Lo Brown, also nothing that has anything to do with the BFA. An idea for another short doc? 100%. Here, not so much.
If you’re looking for a basic explanation of the Brawl For All and why it was regarded as a terrible idea (even though Vince McMahon reportedly wanted to bring it back as an NXT competition), you’ll get what you need here. If you’re looking for more substance, you won’t find it here, a rare miss for the Dark Side series.
You can watch Dark Side of the Ring on Vice every Tuesday night as well as on demand.
You have to be a little crazy if you’re a professional wrestler.
Think about it. To want to dress up in tights, take loads of physical punishment in front of an audience who is ready to turn on you with a single botch, and to do it all for little to no money in the early years is 100% nuts. But, we love the people that do it anyway because, honestly, we’re a bit crazy too.
And then, there’s Jerome Young, aka New Jack, the subject of the second installment of Vice’s Dark Side of the Ring second season entitled “The Life and Crimes of New Jack”. He takes crazy to a completely different level and not necessarily a good one.
For those used to this series focusing on the more infamous stories in wrestling history (Bruiser Brody’s stabbing, Chris Benoit’s decline, the Montreal Screwjob), this is a bit of a diversion, focusing on someone who is singularly responsible for several infamous stories but is also still alive to tell his side of the story. Unlike other installments of the series, there isn’t any redemption story or anything close to a happy ending. Rather, like what appears to be in Young’s soul, there’s a big empty feeling when it’s all said and done.
Helping tell the story are Young, Jim Cornette, The Sandman, and D-Lo Brown, who was part of The Gangstas when they worked in Cornette’s Smoky Mountain Wrestling. The defunct Tennessee-based group was essentially our intro into the documentary with Cornette explaining what he was looking for in pairing Young with Mustafa Saed (Jamal Mustafa) in 1994: protagonists to rile up their primarily Southern white fanbase and boy, did he get it.
Unfortunately, Saed wasn’t part of the documentary. Based on the pencil shavings story in the doc, that would have been a trip.
‘New Jack’ takes the viewer through the SMW days and how the team had to deal with being called the n-word on a regular basis, firing back through firey and reality-driven promos and angles that reflected what was happening in the mid-90’s that only incensed the fanbase more. Without a doubt, Young was (and is) a gifted communicator, able to convey emotion easily, something we don’t get a lot of today.
The viewer eventually lands in Young’s ECW days and, primarily, the Mass Transit Incident, aka the time when Young got supposedly offended by something 17-year-old Erich Kulas (aka Mass Transit) said to him backstage and therefore took it out on him in the ring with a surgeon’s scalpel in a Revere, MA, tag match.
Unprofessional? Yes. Dangerous? Hell yes. One of the most well-known wrestling stories of the last twenty years? Yes, yes, and yes. Without it, I’m not typing 900 words about a New Jack documentary.
Unfortunately, we can’t hear from Kulas as he passed away in 2002 due to complications from gastric bypass surgery, nor his father who didn’t want to be involved. We also don’t hear from D-Von Dudley, who was part of the match, nor ECW head Paul Heyman. That leaves us with a little person wrestler named Tiny The Terrible who worked with Kulas and accompanied him that night to the arena, Sandman, and Young himself to tell the story.
“What I’m going to do to him, people will talk about for 10 years. 20 years later, they are still talking about it,” Young says, showing zero remorse even when discussing Kulas’ death or the subsequent trial in which he was found innocent because of something Kulas’ father had to admit on the stand.
That begins a rapid and dangerous decline into hardcore matches and more “The (Insert Wrestler Name Here) Incident” type affairs, partially (mainly?) fueled by increased drug use which Young freely admits to.
There’s The Vic Grimes Incidents, both of which would have set modern day Twitter ablaze if it was around then. In particular, an XPW rematch between the two features one of the nastiest bumps you will ever see, but miraculously, Grimes walked away with a dislocated ankle after being thrown off a scaffold seconds after being tased, somewhat hitting the ring ropes intead.
Young thinks the whole thing is funny and says simply wanted to even the score, but was actually trying to throw Grimes onto the ringside floor. It’s here when you start to really wonder why anyone would have booked him after this…but they did.
There’s The Gypsy Joe Incident (a 72-year-old wrestler Young beat up in front of around 50 fans because Joe no sold his offense) and the grand finale, The Hunter Red Incident. Young said he was incensed after Red blew him off as they were going through their match backstage. Then, after taking a few stiff shots in what essentially was an empty arena match, Young pulled out a blade and simply started stabbing Red in the back.
And, in the most wrestling way possible, he got out of it after being jailed, the story of which brings us to the end of the documentary. When asked about how a movie about his life would end, he laughs and says he would want to be seen sitting in a wheelchair snorting coke, throwing up middle fingers, saying, “Thank you, bitches!”
Like I said, wrestling is crazy.
You can watch ‘The Life and Crimes of New Jack’ on Vice TV on demand.
Viewership for Dark Side of the Ring’s Brawl for All episode stayed pretty much even with last week.
Dark Side of the Ring averaged 226,000 viewers on Vice TV last night, down slightly from last Tuesday’s 229,000. The rating in the 18-49 demo was a 0.09, down from last week’s 0.11.
The Brawl for All documentary did the fourth-most viewers in Dark Side of the Ring history, trailing this season’s two-hour Chris Benoit episode, season one’s episode on the Von Erichs, and last week’s New Jack episode.
Here’s a look at the ratings for Dark Side of the Ring season one and the first three episodes of this season:
Season one —
Macho Man & Ms. Elizabeth — 154,000 viewers, 0.06 rating in 18-49
The Montreal Screwjob — 181,000 viewers, 0.07 rating in 18-49
Bruiser Brody — 214,000 viewers, 0.07 rating in 18-49
The Von Erich family — 234,000 viewers, 0.08 rating in 18-49
Gino Hernandez — 225,000 viewers, 0.08 rating in 18-49
The Fabulous Moolah — 200,000 viewers, 0.07 rating in 18-49
Season two —
Chris Benoit — 320,000 viewers, 0.14 rating in 18-49
New Jack — 229,000 viewers, 0.11 rating in 18-49
Brawl for All — 226,000 viewers, 0.09 rating in 18-49
Last night’s After Dark post-show for Dark Side of the Ring didn’t rank in the top 150 for the night in the 18-49 demo.
WWE Backstage averaged 140,000 viewers this week, which was up from last Tuesday’s 134,000. The rating in the 18-49 demo stayed at a 0.04.
Backstage has been boosted by having WWE programming leading into it. This year’s Royal Rumble pay-per-view aired on FS1 before Backstage last Tuesday, while three WWE 24 documentaries led into Backstage this week.
The WWE 24 episodes that aired last night were focused on WrestleManias 31, 33, and 34. They averaged 183,000, 232,000, and 232,000 viewers respectively. The ratings in 18-49 were 0.05, 0.07, and 0.07.
