TOP STORY — RAW RATING FALLS DOWN
Hey folks. Not that big of a news day today, as you could probably tell by the top story. At any rate, Monday Night RAW scored a 3.7 cable rating this week (5.9 share), off of hours of 3.4 and 3.9. This is down from last week’s strong 4.2. This is further proof that the show is a mixed bag, as it can do a solid number one week, but it flukes the next. I hope this number gets the attention of the people in the company, as right now they need to stay consistent with storylines, but at the same time keep them rolling and work to better them.
WEDNESDAY NEWS UPDATE
In other rating news, Velocity from this past weekend did a 0.5 rating, whereas WWE Experience did a 0.6, and the Great American Bash edition of Sunday Night Heat drew a 0.7.
Apparently, rumors have it that Jeff Hardy and NWA:TNA have been in discussions about a possible one-year deal. Hardy has asked for some special “extras” on his contract, including promotion of his band by TNA. Sources are saying that it appears things are coming together well, and Hardy will probably ink a deal. Don’t be surprised if you see an update on Hardy tonight on TNA’s PPV. Of course, keep in mind that this is a rumor and hasn’t been confirmed in any way.
As reported in my column yesterday, and as seen on many sites online now, the current plans of WWE is to have Lita go all the way with her current storyline, as in got through the whole nine-month pregnancy. So whether you like it or not, this storyline is here to stay… for now.
It’s been more than a month now, and there is still no update on Rikishi. The big man was sidelined with injury a while ago, and then he was getting some heat backstage for not showing up to shows and milking the injury for all it’s worth. Things got worse when he appeared at an indy show put together by his relative Afa the Samoan. The company felt that if he’s able to perform for relatives, he should be able to perform for them as well. The latest is that WWE will wait for his injury to fully heel and then decide what to do with him. They will either go the Scott Steiner route (wait for his contract to expire and then not sign him again) or they might end up offering him something. The bottom line is that he’s not guaranteed a spot upon his return, unlike previous times. In my two cents on this, Rikishi is a seased veteran who’s been with the company for a long time. He enjoyed a strong push in 2000 and 2001 following the ‘Who Ran Over Austin’ gimmick, but that didn’t last long, nor was it too significant. He returned as a dancer, and I’m afraid that gimmick has ran its course a long time ago. I don’t see much happening with him in the future, but you never know.
Adavanced sells of WWE tickets in Winnipeg for RAW and SmackDown have been doing very well, with RAW already selling 9,000 and SmackDown doing 7,000. These numbers are pretty good in today’s WWE.
TV Guide is listing TNA Impact as airing in New York on Fox Sports New York for the first time this week since the show debuted. It will be on the air on Frida at 3 PM, so I guess you can add New York to the markets TNA is getting coverage out to.
APPEARANCES AND LINKS:
— The Rock will be doing Live With Regis and Kelly on Friday, July 2. Check your local listings for more information.
— Ric Flair and Sgt. Slaughter are expected to be on Byte This! tomorrow. Check out wwe.com for more.
— WWE has released the promotional poster for SummerSlam. They are ripping off the fact that the Olympics are coming this summer and have given the poster an “Olympic” feel. You can check it out here.
— It has been confirmed that DDP will be appearing in Rob Zombie’s latest horror movie project, House of 1000 Corpses 2: The Devils Rejects. There’s an article about it on a site, alongside a picture. You can read all of this here.
— You can check out a Kurt Angle story here.
— MTV.com has an article on Chris Jericho’s Fozzy available right here.
That will do it for today. Thanks for reading, everyone!
