It seems Thunderdome's 3-week push is over as Raw ratings have gone back down to pandemic show levels... though Smackdown's rating last week was pretty solid... including the Bayley/Sasha implosion segment that drew over 2M viewers. Hey... maybe having the show written and a good direction set well in advance seems to help bring in viewers... and shows that are continually CTRL-C, CTRL-V from the previous weeks right before air time loses you viewers... no matter the presentation.

Alarm bells may also be ringing over NXT's ratings from this week that, while still solid (838,000 viewer average), saw viewership go down among all demos from last week's Tuesday show (most of which fell >10%) except 50+... the one demo advertisers don't care about

Meanwhile... AEW's ratings for this week exceeded the 1M average viewership mark for the 1st time since last October

And if AEW & NXT isn't enough wrestling for you on a Wednesday night... Major League Wrestling (MLW) will start running its show on Fubo Sports (it's on the internet, G) on Wednesday evenings as well, starting at 6 PM central and will run for 1 hour as a nice little appetizer ahead of NXT & AEW

The injury Ivar of the Viking Raiders (fka Hanson) suffered on Raw this past Monday is now being reported it may be worse than originally thought and he may have to have surgery on his neck. That would be a terrible blow for both him and Ray Rowe (Erik) and we certainly wish Ivar a speedy recovery and that the ladies still love him upon his return.

Several WWE employees who were furloughed on "Black Wednesday" April 15th have now been fully released from the company... including famed McMahon stooge Gerald Brisco, and Mike Rotunda the father of Bray Wyatt & Bo Dallas aka Irwin R Schyster (or VK Wallstreet if you're a WCW guy like myself)

WWE is targeting Royal Rumble at the latest for having real fans back in the seats for its shows... though it is watching to see what the NBA & NHL do when the 2020-21 seasons get underway for both of those leagues

Nia Jax is not happy that WWE decided to photoshop out a zit on her face from her new "champion" picture

An appeals court has dismissed a concussion lawsuit against WWE brought by former wrestlers

NXT UK is coming back next week... and with it will be a new championship. NXT UK will hold an 8-man tournament for the Heritage Cup which will not be your standard wrestling match, but rather will be contested under the "British Rounds" rules... 6 3-minute rounds & 2 out of 3 falls. The winner will be named the Heritage Cup Champion and will have to defend the trophy just like any other championship

And now for tonight's WWE Friday Night Smackdown from the ThunderDome in Amway Center in Orlando, Fla.

Bayley will talk about her mostly peaceful attack on her former golden role models partner Sasha Banks. Hopefully Sasha stays off TV for a while to sell the attack and the "injuries" she "suffered" from it

Remember that time WWE said no more automatic rematch clause after someone loses a championship? Well well... guess who's challenging Jeff Hardy for the Intercontinental Championship tonight. Hint: the man who Jeff took the belt off... AJ Styles

And Firefly Fun House makes its grand return where Bray Wyatt says he will debut an all-new creation!!!! I'm all for NXT babyface Alexa Bliss with the glitter in the Fun House... only for her to be Harley Quinn heel Alexa Bliss turned up to 11 when she's in the ring. That would be awesome for her.

Glitter Bliss

Harley Quinn Bliss

This post was edited on 9/11/20 at 6:12 pm