AEW gaining momentum
Wednesday night, AEW scored its highest rated Dynamite of 2020 coming off of last week鈥檚 big show.
AEW drew 995,000 viewers, its biggest head-to-head audience since its third-ever Dynamite on Oct. 16, 2019.
Ironically, NXT鈥檚 audience grew as well as it was up a nudge from last week鈥檚 658,000 fans with 659,000 for this past Wednesday鈥檚 show.
The biggest selling point for AEW was Sting talking, but fans have to be careful not to set too high of expectations for the legend.
Sting is 61 years old and has a bad neck, meaning he is one bad bump from never walking again.
Would AEW have him wrestle in tag matches to limit his movement, or will he just play an authority figure?
Also, new AEW champion Kenny Omega, fresh off of boosting Impact Wrestling鈥檚 viewers up 55,000 fans to 221,000 the night before, spoke about why he joined forces with Don Callis.
AEW is trying to gain mainstream appeal as it had Shaquille O鈥橬eal appear in a pretaped segment and it was announced that Snoop Dogg will appear in a few weeks.
With its storylines building and roster being solidified, AEW may be able to cash in on some notoriety by being associated with outside legends from other walks of life like Shaq, Snoop and Mike Tyson.
But at the end of the day, what the company does inside the squared circle is what will dictate whether its TV audiences grow.
NXT v. AEW off?
At least for one night, anyway, AEW and NXT will not go head-to-head on Dec. 23.
There will be an NBA game on TNT so AEW will air after at 10 p.m.
This gives NXT the 8-10 p.m. timeslot to itself.
Former WWE main eventer passes away
Tom 鈥淭iny鈥� Lister, know for a short time in WWF as Zeus, passed away this week at the age of 62.
He teamed with Randy 鈥淢acho Man鈥� Savage to lose to Hulk Hogan and Brutus Beefcake at SummerSlam 89 and he was also part of a Survivor Series match three months later.
Zeus starred in the movie titled No Holds Barred with Hogan and it was released on PPV that December which included a steel cage rematch aired from the SummerSlam main event after the movie concluded.
There had been talk that WWF was considering a Hogan versus Zeus main event match at WrestleMania VI in 1990, but it went with Hogan defending the WWF championship against Intercontinental champion The Ultimate Warrior instead in a title-for-title match.
This Day in History
In 1988, AWA world champ Jerry Lawler defeated WCCW champion Kerry Von Erich to unify the titles.
Prior to the show, WWF, in trying to mess with the AWA and get the show canceled, went to the Illinois State Athletic Commission and pointed out an old statute where amputees could not compete in championship matches.
Von Erich was missing a foot at the time, but it was not known publicly so the commission said it would not look into it until the next day.
It was a moot point by then, so WWF dropped the filing.
Ironically, Von Erich won the WWF Intercontinental title less than three years later despite being an amputee.
In 1989, Andre the Giant and Haku (the Colossal Connection) defeated Demolition to win the WWF tag titles.
Also in 1989, the NWA held the seventh Starrcade, titled Future Shock: Night of the Iron Men featuring singles and tag team round robin tournaments.
Sting (40 points) won the singles tournament over Lex Luger (35), Ric Flair (25) and The Great Muta (0). Entering the tournament, Muta had been undefeated.
In the tag format, the Road Warriors (40 points) beat Rick and Scott Steiner (35), the Samoan Swat Team (30 points) and Doom (0).
In 1993, Alundra Blayze (also known as Madusa) defeated Heidi Lee Morgan to win the revived WWE women鈥檚 title in the finals of a tournament.
In 1998, Rob Van Dam and Sabu defeated The Dudley Boyz to win the ECW tag titles.
In 2005, Batista and Rey Mysterio defeated MNM (Joey Mercury and John Morrison) to win the WWE tag titles.
In 2008, The Miz and John Morrison win the World tag team titles by defeating Kofi Kingston and CM Punk.
In 2009, Sheamus defeated John Cena in a Tables match to win the WWE championship.
This week鈥檚 question
WWE can鈥檛 be happy that Shaq or Snoop Dogg are appearing with AEW. Ronnie, from Connellsville.
The guess would be no, but Shaq works for TNT, the network that AEW is on so that isn鈥檛 a big deal.
Snoop is a WWE Hall of Famer and cousin to Sasha Banks, so WWE is said to be a little miffed.
However, he is about to appear on a game show on TNT鈥檚 sister channel TBS, so that isn鈥檛 surprising either.
And hey, if WWE wants to be mad at Shaq or Snoop, maybe it should have offered them deals itself!
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