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THE FAMILY REUNION HELPS WWE GREATLY: FULL RAW RATINGS REPORT

This week's edition of Raw did a 3.8 cable rating, with a six share, to deliver the show's best number in weeks.  It was up from last week's 3.6 and when you look at the hours, it tells an interesting story.  

The first hour of the show did a 3.2.  The second hour did a 4.2, while the final hour did a 4.0.  That means that in its normal timeslot, the show did a 4.1 cable rating, which is its highest number in a few months.  People were definitely interested in the show in its normal slot.

The first hour started with a 3.1 quarter hour and peaked at a 3.4 for the last segment.  Hour two was strong, starting with a 4.4, then doing a 4.1, 4.2 and 4.0.  Hour three did a 4.2, then dropped to a 3.9, 3.8 and 3.9, before doing a 4.3 for the overrun.

All in all, it was WWE's best ratings night in a while.

WWE NEWS ON LAST NIGHT'S RAW, JOHN CENA, GOOD WWE RATINGS NEWS, UNDERTAKER AND MORE

After watching Raw last night, I wondered how they got South Carolina football coach Steve Spurrier to come to the show, ends up he's a big fan of WWE.  The company website quoted him as saying, "I watch RAW every Monday on TV, but this is my first live show. All these guys are incredible athletes, but I came to see the Nature Boy.”  They also have photos of him at the show, which you can see by clicking here.

Terri Bey sent this item. ... John Cena was on Cold Pizza this Morning. They discussed his training for the movie, "The Marine." He was asked if he would leave wrestling for the movies like the Rock and he said he would have to have two full time jobs. They talked about his match on RAW with the Undertaker. Cena critiqued AJ Perzinski on TNA. AJ and Cena compared the TNA and WWE Championship belts.  

Johnny Hollie added this. ... The interesting thing that happened on Cold Pizza was when A.J. Pierzynski came in to "challenge" Cena. He was carrying the X division title that TNA gave him. Cena said he thought he saw that belt in the gumball machine outside when they compared belts. They also showed clips of last night with the Undertaker and Cena said that if he is successful in acting he would do both.

In addition to his appearance on BET tonight, John Cena also is scheduled to do The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, which airs on Comedy Central tonight at 11pm ET/PT, and Late Night with Conan O'Brien, which airs on NBC at 12:35am ET/PT.

In today's Programming Insider newsletter, Marc Berman wrote the following. "The CW's Friday Night Smackdown! finished Friday, Oct. 6 as the top-rated show among men 18-34 (2.0/ 8), according to the fast nationals. It also finished second among men 18-49 (1.8/ 6) and third among adults 18-34 (1.6/ 6), ahead of ABC and Fox. Growth over former WB comedies What I Like About You. Grounded For Life, Reba and a repeat of Blue Collar TV on the year-ago evening was as much as 233 percent among men 18-34."

As I wrote last night, while Smackdown's numbers are down, there are positives in them, especially in comparison to the rest of the CW Network, which is not off to a good start.

William Ingram of WrestleTalkRadio.com sent this one. ... On Wednesday evening, The WWE 24/7 "Legends of Wrestling" program is scheduled to air on DirecTV channel 227. The 4-hour program entitled "WWE 8 Days Featuring Hulk Hogan" will be shown beginning at 8:00PM EST/7:00PM CST.

The St. Petersburg Times has a nice article about how a motorcycle donated by The Undertaker helped raise a lot of money for a local charity.  To read it, click here.

MORE DETAILS ON JOHN CENA ON COLD PIZZA (INCLUDING HIS COMMENT ABOUT TNA'S X TITLE) AND MORE
by Buck Woodward 

The Kurt Angle video that we posted about on the site earlier today has been removed, with a notice stating "This video has been removed due to copyright infringement."  However, you can still see this video of Angle arriving at the taping and meeting AJ Styles, Jerry Lynn, Rhino, Shane Douglas and others.

Pico sent along a more detailed report of John Cena's appearance on ESPN Cold Pizza. ... A clip of him
wrestling the Undertaker and FUing Booker were shown.  They talked about the difference in preparing for wrestling and for acting.  He was asked if he would make a jump to acting like the Rock, and he stated that he would do both full time because there is nothing like the feeling of performing in front of a large audience. Than he was asked what it was like wrestling the Undertaker, and Cena put him over. 

He was than told that Chicago White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski, who was in studio, was out to challenge him. They then showed a clip of A.J. in TNA, and he then came out with the X Division Title.  They compared his title to Cena's WWE Title, which he had in hand, and Cena noted that he thought he saw the X Division title in a "gumball machine outside the studio". He and  A.J. did a little back and forth, and after a little laughing the Marine was put over for its release Friday, and that was the end of the segment. Very short, maybe just 5 minutes.

Highspots.com has the Sting: Return Of An Icon and the Brian Pillman: Loose Cannon DVDs available for shipping.

CLEARING UP ECW CONFUSION, WWE GAME NEWS, CENA ON BET
by Buck Woodward 

To clear up some confusion, ECW is not live tonight.  Tonight's edition of ECW was taped last week, and will feature the following matches: 
- Sabu, Rob Van Dam & The Sandman vs. Big Show, Test & Matt Striker.
- Kevin Thorne vs. Tommy Dreamer.
- CM Punk vs. Rene Dupree. 

The "Extreme Strip Poker" segments were not filmed before the crowd or shown on the screens last week when the taping took place.  Despite the announcers on Raw last night saying ECW would be "live" tonight, that is not the case.  Tonight's ECW taping (taking place with a Smackdown taping) in Jacksonville, Florida, is for next week's show.

Thanks to Dave W. for the following. ... The November 2007 GamePro Magaazine's cover story is on WWE Smackdown VS Raw 2007.  There are three different collectable covers, each one featuring a different WWE wrestler screenshots from the game.  They are Triple H, Hulk Hogan, and John Cena.  The magazine is available now.

Dave also sent this along for the Where Are They Now file. ... In the opening credits of the XBOX and PS2 video game "Scarface: The World Is Yours" Tiny Lister (who wrestled as Zeus) is in the opening credits.  (Note: I do not know his role in the game as I have just picked it up and began playing it tonight.)

John Cena is scheduled to appear on "106 and Park" on BET today at 6pm eastern to promote The Marine.

We've already got two batches of reader feedback to last night's Raw posted on PWInsiderXtra.com

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