Professional Wrestling Discussion

>ALL SHOWS - 4:30am EST / 9:30am GMT in http://taima.tv/r/wooo (Japanese) and http://taima.tv/r/woooalt (English)

>Ryusuke Taguchi and Fuego vs DOUKI and Namajaque
>Guerrero Maya Jr and Audaz vs Yoshinobu Kanemaru and Luciferno
>Hiroshi Tanahashi, Dulce Gardenia and Flyer vs BUSHI, Shingo Takagi and EVIL
>Stuka Jr and Titán vs OKUMURA and Forastero
>Carístico and Satoshi Kojima vs Bárbaro Cavernario and Último Guerrero
>CMLL FAMILY TAG TOURNAMENT 2020 1ST Round: Soberano Jr and Euforia vs Cuatrero and Sanson
>CMLL FAMILY TAG TOURNAMENT 2020 1ST Round: Niebra Roja and Ángel de oro vs Tiger and Negro Casas

>Weekly tube blocks where indie promotions can be found include Britwres Tube on Sundays at 3pm EST / 8pm GMT for the UK and Ireland indie scene (when there is no live event scheduled) and Indie Tube on Thursdays at 4pm EST / 9pm GMT for the indie scene outside of the UK & Ireland. All can be watched in /wooo/tube - http://taima.tv/r/wooo.

>PCW ULTRA Mutiny airs weekly on Wednesdays at 10pm EST / 3am GMT in /wooo/tube - http://taima.tv/r/wooo.
>Beyond Wrestling Uncharted Territory airs weekly on Thursdays at 8pm EST / 1am GMT in /wooo/tube. Replays air on Fridays at 2pm EST / 7pm GMT in /wooo/tube.
>RMP Charged airs weekly also on Thursdays at 9pm EST / 2am GMT in /wooo/tube 2 - http://taima.tv/r/wooo2.
>Championship Wrestling From Hollywood airs weekly on Fridays at 11pm EST / 4am GMT in /wooo/tube. Replays air on Saturdays at 12:10pm EST / 5:10pm GMT in /wooo/tube.
>VOD and live events are shown in the tubes as well so keep an eye on /wooo/ for information on those as they're scheduled and updated in the "Upcoming Events" section on /wooo/tube.

>http://www.pwponderings.com/
>https://hashtagwrest.wordpress.com/
>http://socaluncensored.com/
>https://powerbomb.tv/
>https://www.highspotswrestlingnetwork.com/
>http://smartmarkvideo.com/

>AEW: 940,000
>NXT: 700,000

> The Royal Rumble, with just one Raw left, still has only a few things announced. The 1/25 show at Minute Maid Stadium in Houston is expected to draw about 36,000 fans and be packed. The advance was more than 30,000 a few weeks ago. There are tons of secondary market tickets out with a $34 get in price. Unlike in the past when they would run four shows in the same market on big show weekends, this time the 1/23 Smackdown show will be from Dallas and the 1/26 Raw will be from San Antonio.

> There are two shows in Houston, the Rumble, and the Worlds Collide show the night before at the Toyota Center. Worlds Collide ticket sales are very weak, basically ringside and most but not all of 100s as they haven’t sold out the side of the hard camera, and the rest of the building isn’t for sale. Similarly, the 2/16 Takeover show in Portland also has a weak advance. About 60 percent of the 100s that would normally be for sale are on sale, not including what you’d expect not for sale due to the stage. They are not opening up any other seats at this point for Worlds Collide. The secondary market get in price is $26 for lower level tickets.

> Portland is a little better, with about 60 percent of the 100s and 60 percent of the 200s up for sale and a $38 get in price.

> Announced for the Rumble, besides the two matches, are Bray Wyatt vs. Daniel Bryan for the Universal title, Becky Lynch vs. Asuka for the Raw women’s title and Roman Reigns vs. King Corbin. Reigns and Corbin are also scheduled for the Rumble, so they could do a thing where one of them loses but then comes back and wins the Rumble. There’s no obvious Rumble winner this year, but Reigns winning to challenge Wyatt is a possibility. Brock Lesnar, the WWE champion, will be entering the Rumble at No. 1 and whoever he is to face at Mania, that would probably be a guy that either eliminates him or shoots an angle with him.

> Names announced for the men’s rumble are Lesnar, Reigns, A.J. Styles, Erick Rowan, Randy Orton, Rey Mysterio, Ricochet, Drew McIntyre, Elias, Corbin, Dolph Ziggler, Otis, Tucker, Rusev, Bobby Lashley, Aleister Black and Buddy Murphy. Cain Velasquez has been told that he will be in. From that list, I only see Reigns and McIntyre as strong shots of winning with Corbin, Black or Orton as outside shots. The only names announced for the women’s match are Charlotte Flair, Alexa Bliss, Sarah Logan and Nikki Cross.

> Bayley vs. Lacey Evans for the Smackdown women’s title and Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Braun Strowman for the IC title continue to be built up. Both were on the TLC schedule, but the decision was to move the former to Rumble, although it hasn’t been announced for Rumble. The latter didn’t happen due to Strowman’s injuries and not being cleared in time for TLC, but Strowman pinned him on television this past week. Andrade vs. Humberto Carrillo was being groomed for the U.S. title, but Andrade first has a ladder match for the title with Mysterio on Raw. Carrillo should be returning soon for that program but whether it’ll be on Rumble isn’t clear. Additionally, New Day vs. The Miz & John Morrison is the Smackdown title match they are starting to build.

> World’s Collide at this point has five matches announced, and when it comes to Takeovers, that could be the entire show. The bouts are Imperium (Walter & Alexander Wolfe & Marcel Barthel & Fabian Aichner) vs. Undisputed Era (Adam Cole & Kyle O’Reilly & Roderick Strong & Bobby Fish), Rhea Ripley vs. Toni Storm for the women’s title, Tommaso Ciampa & Johnny Gargano vs. Tyler Bate & Trent Seven, Angel Garza defending the cruiserweight title in a four-way and Finn Balor vs. Ilja Dragunov.

> On paper, all of those matches look very strong and there have been angles shot for all on television, but they are more thrown together with one angle and little follow-up in most cases aside from the eight-man tag. In the cruiserweight match, one of Garza’s three opponents will be Isaiah Scott, while the other two will likely Jordan Devlin and Travis Banks. Devlin vs. El Ligero and Banks vs. Brian Kendrick are both being taped this coming weekend at the NXT U.K. tapings to determine the other two slots.

> Tessa Blanchard was the center of controversy on 1/12 for her past on the day she was booked to become the first female pro wrestler to win a male world championship on a PPV show. The Impact Hard to Kill show was to culminate a year-long storyline where Blanchard continued to wrestle men, in particular Sami Callihan, and came close but never beat Callihan (who later became world champion) nor won the X Division or world title.

> The company made the call a long time back to make Blanchard. 24, its top star. The idea was to push her by having her come close and fail in multiple big matches against men, with the idea they could showcase the chase of a woman to the world heavyweight championship level as a calling card. It was a storyline that wouldn’t be duplicated since none of the other promotions that have national television in the U.S., WWE, New Japan, AEW, MLW or ROH were doing intergender singles matches, which Blanchard among others had made popular on independent shows the past few years.

> Blanchard is the daughter of Tully Blanchard, but who was raised from childhood by Terry “Magnum T.A.” Allen, her father’s most famous career rival when Allen married Blanchard’s ex-wife. Blanchard has been controversial for years, since she was a standout for WWE at the Mae Young Classic, but due to a number of issues, even with her looks, heritage and ability, they passed on signing her. There was always talk of attitude issues and other problems, including issues of not getting along with talent, that followed her career in its early years including in Japan. It was those issues that in a sense also helped make her career, because she became the biggest female star on the independent scene, and popular in matches against men, including a notable bout with Brian Cage.

> Although both Don Callis and Scott D’Amore at Impact have long tenures and have in the past had a more traditional view on wrestling, they felt from the start of their tenure running the creative end in late 2018 to make Blanchard into the top star, basically remove her from the women’s division and work with almost exclusively men, feeling that there could be a fan backlash of pushing a woman that hard and having her beat men. It did seem to work as when she didn’t win the X Division title on PPV, there were fans complaining about how Impact would never let her hold a men’s title, which was the exact reaction they were looking for.

> For whatever reason, the day before the PPV, Blanchard sent out a tweet saying, “Hey women, try supporting one another. Cool things happen.” This touched a nerve with women who had worked with her in the past. Most notable was Allysin Kay, who was women’s champion in Impact as Sienna in 2016, who wrote, “Remember when you spat in a black woman’s face and called her the N word in Japan? Was that you `supporting women?’ The audacity of this tweet.”

>9:30pm EST / 2:30am GMT in http://taima.tv/r/wooo2 - CMLL Super Viernes

>We went a whole year without a new thread. RIP Hiromu thread

>Puro Tube is on Tuesdays at 3pm EDT / 8pm BST in /wooo/tube -http://taima.tv/r/wooo and mainly shows promotions outside of Dragon Gate and NJPW. Join in as everyone argues why their favorite fed is superior and Yanopost, Anopost, CIMApost and dance like Keita until your tummy is full from all that snackpine.
>DG Tube is on Thursdays at 8pm EDT / 1am BST in Mondai Night Ryu -http://taima.tv/r/mondainightryu and features the latest and classic Dragon Gate shows. Other stuff is featured here from time to time as well. (like cheesy 80s films or the mega marathon before Kobe World and recently OWE)

>THE MAJOR FEDS:

>This is the lowest viewership since the December 23 taped Christmas Week show, which drew 1.835 million viewers.
>This is also a new non-holiday low for RAW.

>For this week's show, the first hour drew 2.218 million viewers (last week's hour 1 - 2.550 million),
>the second hour drew 2.059 million viewers (last week's hour 2 - 2.409 million)
>and the final hour drew 1.814 million viewers (last week's hour 3 - 2.195 million).

>This is the third-lowest third hour viewership of all-time, including holiday episodes.

>College football dominated the night on cable TV. RAW was #15 for the night in viewership on cable, behind 5 airings of college football on ESPN, SportsCenter at midnight, ESPN's Championship Drive, The Five, Special Report, Tucker Carlson Tonight, The Story, Hannity, Rachel Maddow Show, and The Ingraham Angle.
>WWE ranked #9 for the night on the Cable Top 150 with an average 18-49 demographic rating of 0.61, behind the 5 college football airings, SportsCenter at midnight, SportsCenter at 1am, and Championship Drive. The 5 airings of college football on ESPN drew right under 75 million viewers together. The Clemson vs. LSU 8:19pm airing topped the night with a 7.49 rating in the 18-49 demographic, and just over 25 million viewers by itself.

>NWA Power airs on Tuesdays at 6:05pm EST / 11:05pm GMT in /wooo/tube 2 - http://taima.tv/r/wooo2. Replays air on Wednesdays at 12:20pm EST / 5:20pm GMT in /wooo/tube.
>NWA IPPVs will be shown when scheduled in the tubes.

>Watch NXT with /wooo/ in /wooo/2 - http://taima.tv/r/wooo2 and /wooo/alt2 - http://taima.tv/r/woooalt2 at 8pm Eastern//1am London. On tonight's show:

• Battle Royal to determine Rhea Ripleys Takeover: Portland Challenger featuring Bianca Belair, Candice LeRae, Chelsea Green, Dakota Kai, Shotzi Blackheart, Xia Li, Vanessa Borne, Kayden Carter, Mercedes Martinez, Mia Yim, Santana Garrett, Io Shirai.
  
• The Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic: TimeSplitters (KUSHIDA & Alex Shelley) vs. The Grizzled Young Veterans (Zack Gibson & James Drake)
  
• The Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic: The Bro-serweights (Matt Riddle & Pete Dunne vs. Mark Andrews & Flash Morgan Webster.
  
• Lio Rush vs Isaiah “Swerve” Scott vs Tyler Breeze. Winner will represent NXT at the next World's Collide in a match for the Cruiserweight Title
  

>Matt Riddle & Pete Dunne face Mark Andrews & Flash Morgan Webster in the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic
>It will be a style clash tonight on NXT when hard hitters Matt Riddle & Pete Dunne join forces to take on the high-flying duo of Mark Andrews & Flash Morgan Webster in the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic. Riddle & Dunne are a wild card in the tournament, having never teamed before, but Riddle seemed sure that “The BroserWeights” are united heading into their battle. They’ll face Andrews & Webster, who became the first Welsh champions in WWE history by capturing the NXT UK Tag Team Titles in their home country at TakeOver: Cardiff. The Welshmen will be looking to make the most of their trip across the pond, but are coming out of a brutal Ladder Match at NXT UK TakeOver: Blackpool II. Will they be worse for wear? Will Riddle & Dunne show a united front or will it be high fives and stage dives for Andrews & Webster?

>Kushida & Alex Shelley battle Grizzled Young Veterans in the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic
>The Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic continues tonight on USA Network, with the team of Kushida & Alex Shelley reuniting to battle NXT UK’s Grizzled Young Veterans. Kushida & Shelley are no strangers to each other as longtime friends and tag team partners. The two were standouts in Japan, capturing the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Titles on two occasions. But Grizzled Young Veterans are no slouches either. Zack Gibson & James Drake are the inaugural NXT UK Tag Team Champions and held onto the titles for a solid portion of 2019. Now, they’re looking to make their mark in the Dusty Classic and have a chance to do just that in a marquee first-round battle. However, Gibson & Drake are days removed from a vicious Ladder Match at NXT UK Takeover: Blackpool II that has left them with plenty of bumps and bruises. Will Kushida & Shelley show they haven’t lost a step or will Grizzled Young Veterans spoil their reunion?

>Battle Royal to determine NXT Women’s Champion Rhea Ripley’s challenger next Wednesday
> NXT Women’s Champion Rhea Ripley’s TakeOver: Portland challenger will be determined tonight in a Battle Royal on USA Network. Ripley got a taste of just how long the line may be for a chance at her title this week, when Toni Storm, NXT UK Women’s Champion Kay Lee Ray, Bianca Belair, Io Shirai and even her friend Candice LeRae staked their claim to a title opportunity. The Battle Royal will include Bianca Belair, Candice LeRae, Chelsea Green, Dakota Kai, Vanessa Borne, Kayden Carter, Mia Yim, Santana Garrett, Io Shirai, Shotzi Blackheart and Xia Li. Also, new WWE Performance Center recruit and 2017 Mae Young Classic semifinalist Mercedes Martinez will join the fray, as first reported on WWE Backstage. Who will stand tall at the end and earn the right to challenge The Nightmare on Feb. 16 in Portland?

>Rush, Scott and Breeze clash for Cruiserweight Title opportunity at Worlds Collide
>NXT Cruiserweight Champion Angel Garza will defend his title in a Fatal 4-Way Match at WWE Worlds Collide on Jan. 25, against two NXT UK Superstars and one member of the NXT roster. NXT’s representative will be determined tonight on USA Network, when Lio Rush, Isaiah “Swerve” Scott and Tyler Breeze square off in a Triple Threat Match. Rush is a former Cruiserweight Champion, and is no doubt looking to regain the title from Garza, who defeated The Man of The Hour to become champion. “Swerve” has made a huge impact since arriving in the Cruiserweight division, while Breeze s…