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I have gotten a lot of email about WWE’s draft, with some people liking the way the Smackdown roster was made and others hating it. Here’s my take. There was no way I ever expected WWE to make “NXT on USA” out of the show. The fact of the matter is that the moves to Tuesday and being live are huge for WWE and they have to do everything that they can to get people into the habit of watching the show in its new slot. I understand how the hardcore internet fans feel but the flip side is that WWE markets primarily to a younger audience. Sure, they will take our money, but they want those people that are watching Raw to also watch Smackdown as well. John Cena and Randy Orton going to the show, from WWE’s perspective, is a huge boon, not the negative some see it as. Plus, they have the current champion in Dean Ambrose, who just beat the man taken first in the draft, Seth Rollins, cleanly on TV. AJ Styles also got a huge endorsement from WWE by being picked so high. Looking at the rest of the roster, I see a lot of positive potential with talents that haven’t been used in a great way, but haven’t been buried either. They could excel under the right circumstances. I also understood going in that they were not going to gut Raw, since it’s the show that brings in the most in rights fees, and let’s face it, they weren’t exactly brimming with over talent to begin with. Because of that, I had realistic expectations. So I think that overall, they did pretty well with Smackdown and I will give them the chance to see how they present the product before I cast judgment on it.
Speaking of Smackdown, in case you missed it yesterday the show did 3,170,000 viewers on Tuesday, which is more than Monday’s Raw did at 3,133,000. I expected Smackdown to at least be close to Raw this week, due to the fact that they were airing the draft. It was a smart idea to do that on the first live show. Now the test will be how much of that audience can they keep going forward.
If you are not watching the Cruiserweight Classic and you have The WWE Network, you should give it a try. The first two shows have been outstanding, both in the ring as well as with the excellent commentary of Maura Ranallo and Daniel Bryan. I am loving the show and I hope that when the division comes to Raw, it gets used just like it is now on The Network.
NXT has an event tonight in Lakeland, FL. If you are going and can send a report, please drop me a line.
Eric Sturrock sent these items. … Linda McMahon was seated with the Connecticut delegation at the Republican National Convention per her Facebook post. Also, Dolph Ziggler was at the convention for Fox News with host of "Kennedy", Kennedy. They interviewed Presidential candidate Gary Johnson today.
AJ Lee retweeted the following about “The Evolution Of Punk” series that Fox Sports is doing in promotion with CM Punk training for his first MMA fight.
Behind the scenes w @CMPunk @AJBrooks & Larry #EvolutionOfPunk comin soon to @FOXSports #FirstRowFilms #UFC #CMPunk pic.twitter.com/vQUdMXkN8T
— Rory Karpf (@RoryKarpf) July 21, 2016
WWE® Declares Quarterly Dividend
STAMFORD, Conn.
WWE (WWE) announced that its Board of Directors today declared the Company’s regular quarterly dividend of $0.12 per share for all Class A and B shares of common stock. The record date for the dividend will be September 15, 2016 and the payment date will be September 26, 2016.
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