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.
Appearances by CM Punk and NXT Women’s Champion Rhea Ripley had been announced for next Tuesday’s episode of Backstage. It was set to be Punk’s fifth appearance as an analyst on Backstage and the first time he’s been on the show since February 11.
WWE Backstage airs on FS1 at 11 p.m. Eastern time on Tuesday nights.
The date for CM Punk’s next appearance on WWE Backstage has been revealed.
On last night’s Backstage, it was announced Punk will return to the show’s panel for next Tuesday’s episode. This will be Punk’s fifth appearance as an analyst since joining Backstage and the first time he’s been on the show since February 11.
It was also announced that NXT Women’s Champion Rhea Ripley will be the in-studio guest on Backstage next week. Ripley will defend her title against women’s Royal Rumble winner Charlotte Flair at WrestleMania 36.
The build to Ripley and Charlotte’s title match at WrestleMania continued with Ripley making an appearance on Raw this Monday. Charlotte cut a promo saying that the hype surrounding Ripley isn’t going to last. Charlotte said she was going to teach Ripley a lesson at WrestleMania, then Ripley came out to interrupt her. The segment ended with Ripley dropping Charlotte with a punch to the face.
AJ Styles was the featured guest on Backstage last night. His interview from the episode is available to watch below:
During his appearance on WWE Backstage last night, Jeff Hardy announced that he’s been cleared to return to the ring.
“I’m officially cleared, so I’ve been at SmackDown on FOX the last two weeks in a row,” Hardy said. “I’m just waiting for the right creative spot to jump back in the mix.”
Hardy said he’ll be different when he comes back to WWE television and will be the 2020 version of Jeff Hardy. Hardy said he has tons of ideas of what he can do that’s new and fresh.
Hardy has been out of action since April of last year. He said at the time that he would need to have his right knee repaired and that he expected to be out of action for six to nine months. He underwent surgery in early May.
The Hardys were SmackDown Tag Team Champions at the time of Jeff’s injury and had to vacate the titles.
On Backstage, Jeff was asked about Matt Hardy’s contract with WWE expiring. Jeff said he’s hardly spoke about it with Matt and doesn’t know what his plans are. Jeff said it’s cool that — even if they are in different wrestling worlds — The Hardy Boys can go their separate ways and do their own thing.
Jeff also revealed that he arranged to enter in-patient rehab for the first time in his life the morning after his driving while impaired arrest in October. He called the decision one of the best things he ever could have done for himself.
Jeff said it’s going to be so good to be back in front of the fans with the mindset he’s in now. He said he knows there’s something left for him to do in WWE. He isn’t sure what it is, but he wants to make it happen.
Video of Renee Young’s interview with Jeff from Backstage is available to watch below:
Jeff Hardy will be returning to WWE TV next week on WWE Backstage.
The announcement was made tonight during SmackDown. This would be the first time that Hardy has appeared on WWE programing since April of last year, when he and his brother Matt were laid out by Lars Sullivan after vacating the SmackDown Tag Team titles.
Hardy has since been recovering from reconstructive knee surgery. In that time, he been arrested twice, first being arrested on July 13 for public intoxication in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. He was arrested again on driving while impaired charges in Moore County, North Carolina.
Jeff’s brother, Matt, is not expected to renew his contract with WWE when it expires on March 1. He was recently written out of television after being attacked by Randy Orton on Raw last week. Although Jeff and Matt signed at the same time, Jeff will remain with the company as his contract was frozen while he was out recovering.
This week’s episode of WWE Backstage drew the show’s second-best viewership since it premiered in its regular time slot.
Backstage averaged 169,000 viewers on FS1 last night, which was up 74 percent from the 97,000 viewers it did last week. The rating in the 18-49 demo was a 0.06, up from last week’s 0.05.
This week’s Backstage began at 11:15 p.m. Eastern time and had a strong lead-in. The second and final day of this year’s Westminster Dog Show averaged 1.089 million viewers on FS1 and did a 0.17 rating in 18-49.
The Dog Show began at 7:30 p.m. Eastern time and ended when Backstage began.
CM Punk returned to the Backstage panel last night, making his fourth appearance as an analyst. The best viewership the show has averaged in its normal time slot remains the 180,000 viewers it did on November 19, where Punk officially debuted on Backstage after making a surprise appearance the previous week.
Charlotte Flair was the in-studio guest on Backstage last night.
Here’s a look at Backstage’s viewership since its official premiere:
On last night’s episode of the show, it was announced that Punk will be part of the Backstage panel next Tuesday. It was also revealed that Women’s Royal Rumble winner Charlotte Flair will be the featured guest on next Tuesday’s show.
Punk had already tweeted that he was set for next week’s Backstage. This will be the fourth time he’s appeared as an analyst on the show. He was also on the November 19, December 10, and January 21 episodes.
Which title Charlotte will be challenging for at WrestleMania 36 may be officially confirmed tonight. After NXT Women’s Champion Rhea Ripley confronted her on Raw this Monday, Charlotte will address Ripley’s WrestleMania challenge on tonight’s episode of NXT.
Ripley has at least one title defense before WrestleMania. Bianca Belair will challenge her for the NXT Women’s Championship at TakeOver: Portland on Sunday, February 16.
WWE Backstage airs on FS1 at 11 p.m. Eastern time on Tuesdays.
Last night’s episode of WWE Backstage featured appearances by both CM Punk and Raw Women’s Champion Becky Lynch.
Punk made his third appearance as an analyst on Backstage, while Lynch was the featured guest on this week’s show. She was interviewed ahead of her title defense against Asuka at Sunday’s Royal Rumble pay-per-view.
The show also included a segment where Renee Young interviewed Lynch and Punk about the state of women’s wrestling in WWE and another segment where Lynch, Punk, and Paige discussed the matches they’ve had that they’re the most proud of.
Lynch picked her match against Charlotte Flair from Evolution and her Hell in a Cell match against Sasha Banks from last year, Punk chose his match against John Cena from Raw in February 2013, and Paige chose her match against AJ Lee from SummerSlam 2014.
WWE Backstage videos —
Becky Lynch discusses becoming “The Man,” facing Asuka on Sunday, more
Kane will be making a special appearance on SmackDown this Friday, while a match that was originally set for last week has been announced once again for this week.
WWE Backstage tonight announced that Kane will be making a special appearance on the program. He hasn’t been seen on WWE television since September 16, when he made a surprise appearance on Raw both as Knox County, Tennessee mayor Glenn Jacobs and as Kane. During the closing moments of the program, The Fiend Bray Wyatt attacked Kane to close out the show.
A match between Sasha Banks and Lacey Evans has also been announced for this Friday’s show. The two were originally scheduled to wrestle last week, but the match never happened as Bayley explained on the titantron that Banks wouldn’t be there as she was working on her upcoming album.
Evans stormed backstage looking for Bayley but Bayley jumped her from behind. Evans came back and went for the woman’s right, but Bayley was able to escape.
SmackDown this week will be at the Greensboro Coliseum Complex in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Elias will be staying with the WWE for many years to come.
It was announced tonight on WWE Backstage that Elias has re-signed with the company. Ryan Satin reported in his Satin Sheet segment that Elias has been re-signed to a multi-year contract.
Elias has been with the company since 2014. He worked as an enhancement talent on the NXT brand for a year until adapting a drifter persona, including playing a guitar. In April of 2017, he made his debut on the main roster. The drifter aspect of his character was later dropped.
After suffering an ankle injury back in September, Elias returned to SmackDown in November as a babyface and has been a regular on television since. On last week’s SmackDown, he came out and sang a song about the Royal Rumble, eventually saying that he will be a part of the Royal Rumble match on January 26.
Helped by a lead-in from a college basketball game, Tuesday’s slightly delayed edition of WWE Backstage saw an increase in viewership to 124,000, the fifth-highest of the series.
That was a considerable increase from last week’s 97,000 viewers for the New Year’s Eve show. The show started roughly 12 minutes after the hour due to the end of the Villanova-Creighton game.
The only thing advertised for the show was an appearance by The Miz.
In the 18-49 demo, the show drew a 0.04 which was slightly up from the .03 from New Year’s Eve.
Here’s an updated look at Backstage’s viewership since its official premiere:
November 5 — 49,000 viewers
November 12 — 100,000 viewers
November 19 — 180,000 viewers (CM Punk’s debut as an analyst)
November 26 — 121,000 viewers
December 3 –138,000 viewers
December 10 — 127,000 viewers (CM Punk’s second appearance)
On a busy night for live TV coverage, the New Year’s Eve edition of WWE Backstage saw viewership drop to an average of 97,000.
That was a considerable dip from the Christmas Eve episode that averaged 153,000 viewers and is the third-lowest in the series’ young history. In the 18-49 demo, the show drew a 0.03 rating, down .02 from Christmas Eve.
College football and New Year’s Eve live coverage dominated the night, both on cable and broadcast TV. Utah/Texas (5.6 million viewers and 1.31 18-49 demo rating), Navy/Kansas State, and Virginia Tech/Kentucky took up three of the top four spots on cable with sports studio shows garnering the other two.
Here’s an updated look at Backstage’s viewership since its official premiere:
November 5 — 49,000 viewers
November 12 — 100,000 viewers
November 19 — 180,000 viewers (CM Punk’s debut as an analyst)
November 26 — 121,000 viewers
December 3 –138,000 viewers
December 10 — 127,000 viewers (CM Punk’s second appearance)
Tuesday night’s episode of WWE Backstage saw an increase in viewership despite airing on Christmas Eve.
The show averaged 153,000 viewers on FS1, up from last week’s 95,000. This is the second-best viewership Backstage has done since debuting in its regular time slot.
In the 18-49 demo, the show drew a 0.05 rating. That number is unchanged from last week.
This week’s Backstage featured the announcement of their WWE year-end awards. The winners were:
Female Superstar of the Year: Becky Lynch
Male Superstar of the Year: Bray Wyatt
Male Tag Team of the Year: The New Day
Women’s Tag Team of the Year: Asuka & Kairi Sane
Breakthrough Superstars of the Year: The Street Profits
Moment of the Year: Kofi Kingston’s WWE Championship win at WrestleMania 35
Here’s a look at Backstage’s viewership since its official premiere:
November 5 — 49,000 viewers
November 12 — 100,000 viewers
November 19 — 180,000 viewers (CM Punk’s debut as an analyst)
November 26 — 121,000 viewers
December 3 –138,000 viewers
December 10 — 127,000 viewers (CM Punk’s second appearance)
F4W NEWSLETTER: Recapping WWE TLC 2019 Joseph Currier gives his thoughts on WWE’s final PPV of the decade.
WWE’s final pay-per-view of the decade took place on Sunday night and exemplified some of the changes we’ve seen over the past 10 years.
TLC 2019 was very much a B-level PPV in the WWE Network era. Not only were the top men’s and women’s singles titles from each brand not defended, there were no singles titles on the line at all. Seth Rollins vs. Kevin Owens and AJ Styles vs. Randy Orton seemed like they were being built up as non-title matches that would help anchor the card, but they didn’t end up getting added. The show even ended with an angle instead of a match. After Asuka & Kairi Sane’s tables, ladders, and chairs match against Becky Lynch & Charlotte Flair, a locker room brawl that featured Roman Reigns and Baron Corbin continued. The image that closed the show was Reigns spearing Corbin from an elevated area onto a pile of bodies. It felt like the ending of an episode of Raw or SmackDown instead of a major event.
We’ve got complete coverage of the last series of major shows held around the world in the new issue of the Wrestling Observer, as well as bios on a number of wrestlers who have passed away in recent weeks.The new issue also covers:
TLC, focusing on the behind-the-scenes of the Kairi Sane situation, who knew,when did they know, the channels where the ball was dropped and what can and needs to be learned from it. We note the business of the event, the U.S. popularity levels, plus have match-by-match coverage with star ratings and poll results.
Exactly how AEW was formed, including what match made Tony Khan feel opposition was viable and what conversation with what major person in television made it happen, as well as who was contacted first to be part of it. We also have the story from the market rep who got Bullet Club shirts into Hot Topic.
DVR numbers for pro wrestling shows right now as well as how meaningful they are and what it says about audiences. We also look at how and why the dynamic of how people watch wrestling on Wednesdays has changed over the past several weeks. We also look at wrestling viewership in Canada.
Big names who have signed new WWE deals and a major name who has not, a WWE overseas TV deal, how many people buy WWE video games, pro wrestling offers to Daniel Cormier, Cain Velasquez’s next WWE show, the story behind Chelsea Green and Deonna Purrazzo on Raw and what it means short and long-term, a reboot of a WWE tag team, new feuds being started in WWE, most-watched shows on the WWE Network, WWE stock value and a look at all the WWE & NXT shows held over the past week with business notes and highlights.
UFC 245, with business notes, notes about the fighters who elevated their games, the title picture, plus match-by-match coverage.
ROH as it goes into 2020, who is going, who is staying, what is unknown, what kind of deals are being offered plus Final Battle coverage, with business notes, poll results, match-by-match coverage and star ratings.
AAA Guerra de Titanes, the creation of the new top stable, the debut of Sin Cara, thoughts and problems with the new name he’s using and more.
A bio on Randy Colley, best known as Moondog Rex, including his legal issues with WWE, what happened with the fans that ruined what would have been his biggest career break, other gimmicks he had, the birth of the Moondog gimmick and his biggest matches.
NWA, its YouTube numbers, its television tapings direction for the next several weeks, its net PPV show, as well as coverage of its Into the Fire show with poll results.
2019 cable numbers for the stations that carry pro wrestling and MMA and what they mean.
Notes on the career of Alberto Munoz, who was supposed to become a legend, and what happened in 1973 that ended that dream.
Dragon Gate’s Final Gate show with coverage of the event.
A personal look at how a law that was poorly thought out will affect reporters and web sites that use people from California and how adhering to it will make it nearly impossible for anyone in the state to start out in the field, and for the vast majority who work for publications outside the state, to likely lose their jobs.
The life of Scottish Hall of Famer Andy Robin, and his protege, Hercules the Bear.
Regarding the Wednesday numbers, we’ve got full details, demos that each side won, how every segment did and what match ended up as the difference maker.
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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TUESDAY NEWS UPDATE
by Joseph Currier and Bryan Rose
WWE
Tonight’s WWE Backstage will feature the announcement of WWE’s year-end awards. Paul Walter Hauser, who starred in the movie “Richard Jewell,” will appear on tonight’s Promo School segment.
WWE Network News reported that Paige is hosting a WWE Top 10 Matches of 2019 special that’s airing on the WWE Network next Monday.
Kofi Kingston spoke about Big E during an interview with CBS Sports’ State of Combat podcast: “We’ll see, we’ll see what happens as time goes on but, yeah, E is definitely a guy that is more than capable of being the face of the company and lead. Myself and Woods will be right there beside him, supporting him the whole time and holding him up. That has always been the philosophy of our group — always to push our brothers to the top. We’ll see what happens, we never know. When it happened to me, it wasn’t supposed to. Who knows? We’ll see.”
The two enhancement talents that lost to Aleister Black and Buddy Murphy last night were Deonn Rusman and Joeasa, respectively. Both are graduates of Seth Rollins’ Black & Brave Wrestling Academy.
Impact Wrestling referee Brandon Tolle revealed that he’s signed a contract with the promotion: “Today, I met 1 of my life goals as I signed a contract with @IMPACTWRESTLING! As a kid growing up, I knew this is something I wanted to do. As an adult I knew this was something I would work harder than anyone to achieve. The work is just beginning! See everyone Jan 10 in Texas!”
Even with an appearance by CM Punk, Tuesday’s episode of WWE Backstage on FS1 fell in viewership.
The show averaged 127,000 viewers, drawing a .06 rating in the 18-49 demo, down from last week’s .08. That marked a drop of 11,000 from last week’s 138,000 viewers which was the second highest in the history of the show thus far.
The episode featured an interview with Baron Corbin where he discussed last Friday’s dog food segment on SmackDown. Punk also gave his thoughts on Seth Rollins’ heel turn.
This was Punk’s second appearance on the show. His first on November 19th remains Backstage’s most-viewed airing at 180,000 viewers and a .10 in the key 18-49 demo.
Here’s a look at Backstage viewership since debuting in its normal time slot:
