RAW RATINGS STRUGGLE CONTINUES
The last 10 weeks of RAW compared to previous years.
Coming off of last week’s historically low RAW rating, this week had a virtually identical average viewership number but with a slightly different pattern.
The show opened lower, at 2.734 million for Hour 1 and only had slight drops in the 2nd and 3rd hours, to 2.686 and 2.633 million respectively, with an average of 2.681 million for the 3hr 14 minute broadcast.
It’s notable that the first hour trailed only the July 4th episode as the lowest viewed first hour since 1997.
While RAW is often the most watched show on cable, behind football, even when it does a poor number, this week the show was 7th in viewership on the night. The three individual hours did finish 4th, 5th and 6th in the 18-49 demo on the night with 0.93, 0.91 and 0.9 ratings in that demo.
This may not even be rock bottom as next week the show will air opposite the presidential debates as well as Monday Night Football
[Ace Fontaine]
The Round-Up
The Latest from the F4W Staff
WWE Raw live results: Clash of Champions go-home show – Read about the always interesting Monday night RAW vs. NFL Football match-up from our expert Raw watcher Jeff Hamlin.
UFC Fight Night Hidalgo main card pulls in 826,000 viewers – Nobody has time to do the research. Let Ace “Gramps” Fontaine enlighten you.
WWE Raw video highlights: Roman Reigns vs. Kevin Owens in a cage – After reading about Raw, only watch what you want in highlights!
Brian Kendrick vs. TJ Perkins set for WWE Clash of Champions – The first WWE cruiserweight match will take place at the first Raw branded Pay-Per-View / Network Event. Our man Joe Currier tells you how it happened.
Roman Reigns vs. Rusev set for WWE Clash of Champions – It will be interesting to see people booing Roman Reigns as he takes on the Bulgarian Brute. USA BOO USA BOO!
Charlotte to defend against Sasha Banks and Bayley at WWE Clash of Champions – Now, a three-way!
Cesaro vs. Sheamus best-of-7 series to conclude at WWE Clash of Champions – Can Cesaro do the impossible and come back from a 3-0 defecit to win the series, that isn’t even for a belt? Find out this Sunday at Clash of Champions.
Figure Four Weekly, 9/19/2016: The Unlikely Story of TJ Perkins (Part I) – T.J. Perkins being the winner of WWE’s Cruiserweight Classic and first champion of the new version of the cruiserweight division was something of a surprise. It was clear that Zack Sabre Jr. and Kota Ibushi were booked as the stars, but neither signed with the company. Gran Metalik (Mascara Dorada) and Perkins, who both signed… Subscribers click here to continue reading.
F4W YouTube Page: Tons of clips and full free audio shows that you can tell your friends about, and much more to come! Make sure you subscribe today!
Wrestling Observer Newsletter, September 19, 2016: CM Punk loses UFC debut, TJ Perkins wins Cruiserweight Classic, Backlash review, tons more – The two-year odyssey, odd being the key part of the word, of C.M. Punk to the UFC octagon saw the door shut and the clock strike midnight, not Eastern time, but Cinderella time.
In the end it was simple reality. Starting out at 36 with very limited training past some Jiu Jitsu classes from Rener Gracie, no great athletic gifts and a body beaten up by 15 years of pro wrestling was not going to be able to train for two years and be able to compete in the UFC.
Subscribers click here to continue reading.
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 Dave Meltzer, or by using PayPal directing funds to [email protected].
Rates in the United States are $13 for 4 issues, $32 for 12, $61 for 24, $101 for 40 and $131 for 52. In Canada and Mexico, rates are $14.50 for 4, $35 for 12, $67 for 24, $111 for 40 and $144 or 52. In Europe, you can get the fastest delivery and best rates by sending to [email protected]. For the rest of the world, rates are $16.50 for 4, $44 for 12, $85 for 24, $141 for 40 issues and $183 for 52. If you order by mail with a check, cash or money order (P.O. Box 1228, Campbell, CA 95009-1228), you can get $1 off in every price range.)
If you are a new subscriber ordering 24 or more issues, you can choose one free classic issue, or two free classic issues with a 40-issue subscription.
WON Back Issue, August 30, 1999: WWF Summerslam, Hulk Hogan and Bret Hart first match, more – Jesse Ventura’s return to pro wrestling drew the mainstream attention which probably led to a lot of curiosity buys, and WWF made the most of it putting on one of the better PPV shows of 1999. Subscribers click here to continue reading.
TUESDAY NEWS UPDATE
ROH World Champion Adam Cole BAY BAY stopped by ESPN headquarters on Monday and participated in a Facebook live Q&A session.
Smackdown and Main Event are tonight from Birmingham, AL. It is John Cena’s only show of the week.
Read Dave Meltzer’s take on how the continual and steady decline of the Raw ratings again this week may effect WWE.
Don’t forget to support the world famous Granny~! If you were ever interested in reading about the life of Bryan Alvarez, as seen through the eyes of a doting grandmother, now is your chance. The third edition is running out, so get to Facebook and find Gladys Gibson before it’s too late.
The Death of WCW by Bryan Alvarez and RD Reynolds is now available as an audiobook through Amazon.com and Audible. Bryan did the narration for the book and it runs almost fifteen hours, so grab yours today!
WWE
John Cena vs. Dean Ambrose and The Miz defending his Intercontinental Championship against Dolph Ziggler are being advertised for tonight’s episode of SmackDown.
Emma tweeted that she’s been cleared to return to the ring for six weeks.
WWE posted entrance themes for Rich Swann, Gran Metalik, and Cedric Alexander on YouTube after the three men debuted alongside Brian Kendrick as part of Raw’s cruiserweight division on Monday night.
ESPN posted a critical recap (written by Brian Campbell) of last night’s Raw. “As far as go-home episodes are concerned, this week did almost nothing to build excitement ahead of Raw’s first exclusive PPV since the July brand extension and draft. If anything, the majority of Sunday’s compelling storylines were set back.” Campbell wrote.
This article with Luke Gallows talks about his previous release and why he did not view it as a negative.
EVOLVE
Evolve 70, October 15th – 8pm EDT, Dr. Smith Neighborhood Center, 1723 Bruton Blvd, Orlando, FL 32805. Tickets on sale in the DGUSA.tv Store for EVOLVE on 10/15 in Orlando, 10/16 in Ybor City, 11/12 in Queens, 11/13 in Joppa and 12/11 in Melrose, MA.
The war pitting Drew Galloway and his crew against Catch Point will come to a conclusion at EVOLVE 70 in Orlando. One side will be decimated. It will be an EVOLVE Tag Team Title Match. The losing duo can never team again. The Last Battle Of Orlando will have EVOLVE Tag Team Champions Drew Galloway & DUSTIN vs. Drew Gulak & Tracy Williams.
Drew Galloway vs. Matt Riddle is set for EVOLVE 71 on October 16th in Ybor City, FL. This is as big as it gets after the end of EVOLVE 69.
Also signed for EVOLVE 70 and EVOLVE 71 in addition to Drew Galloway, DUSTIN, Matt Riddle, Drew Gulak and Tracy Williams are EVOLVE Champion Timothy Thatcher, Chris Hero, Zack Sabre Jr. and more.
Congrats to Darby Allin on earning a WWN contract at EVOLVE 69. Allin will now be on every upcoming EVOLVE event. Allin was discovered at the WWN Seminar/Tryout on Wrestlemania weekend. He impressed and got more opportunities until finally becoming the first WWN contracted wrestler to come from a WWN Seminar/Tryout. The next WWN Seminar/Tryout isOctober 16th in Ybor City before EVOLVE 71 with special guest William Regal. This will be a rare opportunity.
The first talent roster for EVOLVE 72 on November 12th in Queens, NY and EVOLVE 73 on November 13th in Joppa, MD has been released. Go to the DGUSA.tv Events section for more info.
FIP returns to Orlando, FL at Gods & Monsters on September 30th with a huge title match. It will be FIP World Heavyweight Champion Fred Yehi defending against the former champ, Caleb Konley. Yehi defeated Konley in a controversial match to win title, now Konley will get his rematch. Go to www.FullImpactPro.com for more info.
EVOLVE would like to thank TJ Perkins for all his contributions to EVOLVE in the last 18 months. We are beyond ecstatic to see his success in the WWE Cruiserweight Classic. We are celebrating his victory by releasing his final match in EVOLVE on the last EVOLVE event for free. Watch it now.
UFC & MMA
In a video blog, Cris Cyborg argues with her nutritionist about her weight cut. Ariel Helwani tweeted that Cyborg weighs 160 lbs as of this morning and needs to get down to 141 lbs for her catchweight fight against Lina Lansberg at UFC Fight Night this Saturday.
Jeremy Botter of FloSports tweeted that he’s hearing CM Punk’s next fight is likely to be in the UFC, but no final decision has been made.
Floyd Mayweather says he’s moving on from the idea of a potential superfight against Conor McGregor
Dominick Cruz will step into a full-time analyst role for Saturday’s Fight Night card, with Daniel Cormier doing the same for a Fight Night show on October 1st.
AXS TV’s “Inside MMA” is coming to an end with the final episode of the show set for September 30th.
Bellator announced today two new fights for their next show in Memphis. Ryan Couture faces Goiti Yamauchi, moving up from featherweight, in a 155 lb bout. At welterweight, Ricky Rainey squares off with Gilbert Smith.
After having his last two fights cancelled on the week of the fights, Ian McCall has been scheduled yet again for his first UFC fight in almost 2 years. McCall is now set to take on Neil Seery in a flyweight bout on the Belfast show on November 19th.
Also on November 19th, there will be a UFC show later in the day in Brazil and that show now has a main event as Alexander Gustaffson squares off with “Little Nog” Antonio Rogerio Nogueira in a light heavyweight fight
Dana White claims that there’s a good chance Ronda Rousey will fight again before the end of this year and for the title.
PODCASTS & VARIETY
Here is the full one hour interview video of two Time WWE World Champion and “WWE Hall of Famer” Mr. Bob Backlund and former WWE Champion and “WWE Hall of Famer” The Iron Sheik on the live Wade Keller podcast. Backlund goes nuts at the end of the interview.
Finn Bálor is one of the most talked about wrestlers in the WWE. Having won the Universal Championship after 16 years in the business he was forced to relinquish the title the very next day. This week he rejoined Jarlath to discuss this recent roller coaster ride.
Pat Laprade is looking for anyone with pictures of women wrestlers from Japan and Mexico for his upcoming book on the history of women’s wrestling. The pictures need to be high resolution (250-300 dpi or better) and either free of rights or not too expensive. You can contact him at [email protected] for a list of what he needs.
Tommy Dreamer talks Terry Funk’s situation and recent health scare with Wrestledelphia Radio.
FIST Combat’s next show is Friday 9/30 at the VFW in Santa Cruz. For more information go to Comedysulplex.com.
Don Frye returned to Submission Radio to share his thoughts on the latest MMA news.
While Ronda Rousey seem’s to be coming back at UFC 207, Frye doesn’t believe we’ll ever see her return to the UFC. “No, she’s not coming back. She’ll never fight again.” If Rousey does come at the end of this year Don doesn’t believe she deserves a title shot “She used to be able to draw fans, now she can’t. Everybody’s seen through her. If she wants to come back, she should do her rematch against Holly Holm. And then if you beat Holly, then you can have a title match. But if you get your ass kicked like that, you don’t deserve a title match.”
A previous heavyweight fighter himself Don also discussed his disappointed in Mark Hunt’s reaction after finding out Lesnar failed his drug test after UFC 200. “I’m disappointed in Mark Hunt. I mean, he knew all this. He knew what the game was when he signed his name to fight Lesnar. He knew what was up. So for him to complain about it afterwards, it’s just… that’s just disappointing.”
Luke Rockhold, Tom Wright and Dan Kelly joined Submission Radio for a media scrum about UFC Melbourne November 27th at Rod Laver Arena.
If Luke is concerned about Dan Henderson possibly beating Bisping and retiring as middleweight champion, “I’d be happy for Dan if he won the title and fulfilled his career. We’ll see what happens. Dan’s a great friend of mine and I wish him the best – and I don’t wish anything for Bisping.
Dan Kelly on fighting Chris Camozzi, “There’s a guy talking a little bit of trash on Twitter named Chris Camozzi, who I wouldn’t mind having, but we’ll have to wait and see. I’ve asked for that and we’ll wait and see. He’s ranked a few spots ahead of me on a few different rankings, and yeah, that would be a good step up for me”
Tom Wright on if he has any fight announcements for UFC Melbourne, “Not right now, but before I leave for home on Thursday we’ll have some more fight announcements – but Dan (Kelly) definitely is fighting on this card, Jake (Matthews) is going to be on this card as well, and there’s a pretty good chance that Robert Whittaker will be as well. So we’re really going to have an opportunity to see a collection of the top ten middleweight fighters led by this guy (Luke Rockhold), the number-one-ranked contender.”
UFC Heavyweight Champion Stipe Miocic returned to Submission Radio this week to discuss his UFC 203 victory, proving doubters wrong, Jon Jones, going on holiday and lots more!
Thoughts on CM Punk’s debut and if he said anything to him backstage, “Yeah, I just told him to keep your head up, man. It’s not how hard you get knocked down, it’s how you get up. He’s a great dude, he’s a real good dude. I give him all the credit in the world for training like that and going in there and doing his first fight in the UFC just like that against a tough dude like that.”
If Stipe thinks CM Punk deserved the big payday, “This is the world we live in. People want to see him fight. I mean, He should get compensated, it’s just like anything you do. Listen man, he brought a lot of pay-per-view sales, helped me out a lot (laughs). So listen, I give him a lot of credit for going out there and doing what he did, man. I praise him for that, man. It wasn’t his night, but listen, he trained and he gave it all he’s got. Unfortunately, (he lost) but he still went out there.”
Bill Goldberg returned to Submission Radio to celebrate episode 100, and to discuss some of the hot topics in the world of MMA.
While discussing his thoughts on the cross-promotion between the WWE/UFC, Bill shared his thoughts on McGregor trashing the WWE Roster. “I thought the funniest thing I’ve ever seen was (Randy) Orton calling him ‘Conor McDonald’. I think that is one of the funniest things I have ever seen. Hey man, you have to embrace it. It’s the same crowd. One grows up and feeds into the other. You can’t tell me, and I said this before, that 75 percent of the guys wouldn’t die to be professional wrestlers that are fighting, and vice versa. We have a lot respect for each other, a lot of us train in martial arts and a lot of them walk around and act like they’re us. So the cross-promotion – Dana White is Vince McMahon in training. “
With his previous WWE opponent Brock Lesnar failing drug tests after his return at UFC 200, Goldberg explained why he’d still like to see him return for another fight to the UFC. “Absolutely, man (I want to see Brock fight in the UFC again). And I don’t even know what that thing is he took. I never broached anything along those subject matters with Brock. That’s his business. And like I said, what you just said is the second time I’ve ever heard of whatever that was, and the first time is when I read it. I don’t even know what the hell it does. But obviously, you know, if you’re cheating, then you should be reprimanded. Period. End of story. And do I think that he deserves an opportunity to go back? Absolutely.”
EVENTS CALENDAR
Thursday 9/22 – Sunday 9/25
Thursday 9/22
All-Star Wrestling: 7:30 PM, Abbotsford Arts Center, 2329 Crescent Way, Abbotsford, BC V2S 3M2, Canada. Tickets.
Big Time Wrestling in Morganton, NC at the Collette Rec Center features a meet & greet at 6:00 PM before the live show. Appearing are Ric Flair, Ricky Steamboat, Cody Rhodes, Magnum T.A. and Trevor Lee.
Friday 9/23
MCW Pro Wrestling presents “Ringside with Jim Ross & Jim Cornette at Jimmy’s Famous Seafood in Baltimore. Showtime 8:00PM, 6526 Holabird Ave, Baltimore, MD 21224. Tickets.
Big Time Wrestling in Raleigh, NC at Dorton Arena features Flair and Steamboat together at Dorton Arena for the first time in 28 years, plus Jeff & Matt Hardy, Cody Rhodes, Nasty Boys, Sabu, Magnum T.A., Ivan Koloff, Jimmy Valiant, Gangrel and Shane Helms with the meet & greet at 6 and show at 8.
Invicta FC: Live from Scottish Rite Temple in Kansas City, Mo. Interim Flyweight Champion Jennifer Maia Defends Against Roxanne Modafferi
Absolute Intense Wrestling: A Farewell to Johnny Gargano – 1355 West 70th St. Cleveland, OH – Tickets.
Pure Wrestling Association: Parksville, British Columbia
Pro Wrestling Eclipse takes a short trip to downtown Oshawa and visits the Oshawa Mason Temple. All tickets purchased on July 24 that list the venue as the Oshawa Legion will be honoured.
Saturday 9/24
ROH: Reloaded Tour; Duluth (Atlanta), GA 7:00 pm. Tickets.
East Coast Wrestling Association (ECWA), 49 ANNIVERSARY SHOW, Woodbury Heights Community Center, 741 Helen Ave, Woodbury Heights, NJ 08097. Tickets.
EWA Evolution: World War Z at Tall Cedars Hall (2501 Putty Hill Ave.) in Parkville, MD. See the double ring, 5 vs. 5 Ladder War! Bell time is 7:30 pm. Tickets are $15 front row and $12 general.
IWA Midsouth Wrestling presents the Hybrid Cup, at PRIDE Bar in New Albany, IN.
Ignite Wrestling in Vero Beach, FL at the IG Center features Dave Crist.
UCW, 7:30 PM Bay City, MI UCW Champion Hakim Zane vs MVP, plus appearances by Ron Simmons and Fred Ottman
Big Time Wrestling in Spartanburg, SC at the Memorial Auditorium with the meet and greet at 5:30 and show at 7:30 with Flair, Steamboat, Hardys, Rhodes, Nasty Boys, Sabu, Magnum T.A., Ricky Morton, Robert Gibson, Gangrel and Trevor Lee.
MCW Legends Convention at the MCW Arena in Joppa, MD at 10 a.m. featuring Bret Hart, Jimmy Hart, Howard Finkel, Honky Tonk Man, Hillbilly Jim, Paul Orndorff, Greg Valentine, Jim Ross, Bill Apter, Brutus Beefcake, Bob Orton, Tito Santana, Jim Neidhart, Tammy Sytch, Magnum T.A. and even Dennis Stamp.
Rock Solid: Anarchy in Angus 14: A Nightmare on Mill Street, 7pm – 10pm, Angus Recreation Centre, 8527 County Rd. 10, Angus, Ontario. Tickets.
Pure Wrestling Association: Campbell River, British Columbia
NXT in Kitchener, Ontario at The Air
Elite Canada Championship Wrestling: New Westminster, Sapperton Pensioners Hall
Main Event Pro Wrestling in Longview, TX at Pine Tree High School, 5pm, Big Daddy Yum Yum and others. Tickets $10
Sunday 9/25
Join NECW & Meet The Stars and Celebrate The Grand Opening of Nick’s Comically Speaking! Meet Swoggle and JTG from 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM. For more info call (978) 304-0396.
Canadian Wrestling’s Elite: Nick “Magnus” Aldis defends the GFW title against Matt Hart of the Hart Family in Calgary.
Rizin: Former K-1 kickboxer Minoru Kimura will make his MMA debut against former Pride fighter Charles “Krazy Horse” Bennett (29-30-2)
Daily Pro Wrestling History (09/20): AJ Styles wins TNA World Title
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