www.f4wonline.com/news/daily-updates/daily-update-smackdown-ratings-dana-white-stu-graysonDaily Update: SmackDown ratings, Dana White, Stu Grayson - WON/F4W - WWE news, Pro Wrestling News, WWE Results, AEW News, AEW results
WWE notes, Evil Uno comments on Stu Grayson's AEW departure, and more.
WWE:
Last night’s SmackDown averaged 1.92 million viewers in the fast national ratings, up from the 1.86 million the show drew in the fast nationals last week. The rating in the 18-49 demo was a 0.4.
After last night's SmackDown in Long Island, Cody Rhodes defeated Seth Rollins in a dark match. Rhodes then invited a fan who was celebrating their birthday into the ring for the crowd to sing happy birthday to them. There was also a moment where another young fan jumped over the barricade to meet Rhodes.
During an appearance on The Pivot Podcast, the UFC’s Dana White told a story about Vince McMahon berating him by text message for not being vocal during a call with Donald Trump and other sports league owners in 2020:
Yeah, there was several teams that did reach out to us -- leagues, especially when we [UFC] set up in Abu Dhabi and you know, at the time, President Trump put me and a bunch of the other guys in sports on a panel and we would get on a call every week with the President and walk through how we would do this and I -- God, I don’t even know if I should talk about this publicly but… I’ve never talked about this before. So we were on the call with the President one time and I remember I was listening to everybody get on there and talk and I was like, these guys are all full of sh*t. None of these guys are gonna f*cking roll or really wanna do what they’re saying they’re gonna do except for one and when we hung up the phone, he f*cking texts me and said, ‘Why the f*ck didn’t you talk on that call? There’s f*cking questions that need to be f*cking asked. You didn’t ask any f*cking questions. You didn’t do this,’ berating me on this text. Three guesses who it was?… One of the sports guys who was also going and he talked but felt like -- he’s like, ‘Why didn’t you f*cking talk?’ I didn’t talk because I felt like everybody was full of sh*t except for him… Vince McMahon. Vince McMahon starts texting me and basically berating me after the call like, ‘Why didn’t you talk? Why didn’t you back up what I was saying? And we gotta go through this’ and all this other sh*t and I was like, ‘Because I think everybody’s full of sh*t, that’s why, except for you. You’re definitely not full of sh*t Vince,’ you know? Vince is a f*cking killer. Vince was putting on his events down in Florida at the time too.
I previewed WrestleMania Backlash for Sports Illustrated and gave my predictions for each match.
Kevin Owens turns 38 years old today.
Bianca Belair told NBC Sports’ On Her Turf about her future goals:
You know, I’ve had a lot of success very quickly in WWE and I’m very grateful for that. I’m the Raw Women’s Champion, I just defeated Becky Lynch at WrestleMania 38. Right now, I feel like at the forefront of a new generation of women’s wrestling. You have the Four Horsewomen who came before me: Charlotte Flair, Becky Lynch, Sasha Banks and Bayley, who really paved the way and broke barriers for women. They don’t have to go anywhere, just make some room for me. I’ve already defeated three out of the four horsewomen and the only one I haven’t defeated is Charlotte Flair. So I would love to go up against Charlotte Flair and try to conquer her. So that’s really my goal for the future.
And I’m all about just being the absolute best version of myself and showing up authentically me, unapologetically me, and just being representation for women, for women of color. I call myself the ‘EST of WWE,’ which means I’m the strongest, the fastest, the roughest, the toughest, the quickest, the greatest, the best.
And, outside the ring, eventually I want to write a book and be in some movies.
CBS Sports has an interview with Drew McIntyre.
The Street Profits appeared on this week’s episode of WWE After the Bell.
Charlotte Flair, Sheamus, Ridge Holland, Butch, and The Usos were interviewed on Talking Smack this week.
WWE’s YouTube channel uploaded Rhea Ripley vs. Asuka vs. Charlotte Flair for the Raw Women’s Championship from WrestleMania Backlash 2021, Roman Reigns vs. Finn Balor vs. Sami Zayn from the May 7, 2018 episode of Raw, and Edge vs. Batista for the World Heavyweight Championship from Judgment Day 2007.
OTHER WRESTLING:
Today would have been Owen Hart's 57th birthday. Bret Hart paid tribute to his brother: “To this day, you always have my back. Happy Birthday Owen.
Evil Uno tweeted about Stu Grayson’s departure from AEW: “Stu Grayson is one of the best performers in the world. Whatever he does next, Evil Uno knows he will continue to be one of the best. #SSBForever”
Samoa Joe was the guest on AEW Unrestricted this week.
Jay White and his wife Savanna recently got married.
Minoru Suzuki will team with Kento Miyahara & Suwama against Jake Lee, Yuma Aoyagi & Shuji Ishikawa at a show for AJPW on Sunday, June 12.
Kylie Rae will challenge Alex Windsor for the Undisputed British Women’s Championship at Revolution Pro Wrestling Epic Encounter on Sunday, May 22.
Microman vs. Mini Abismo Negro is set for MLW Kings of Colosseum on Friday, May 13.
Matt Cardona will face Blake Christian at GCW’s Downward Spiral event in Las Vegas on Saturday, May 28. John Morrison will make his GCW debut at that show, going by the name Johnny Game Changer.
Lee Moriarty vs. Konosuke Takeshita is set for Prestige Wrestling’s The New Reality show in Pomona, California on Saturday, June 18.
Steph De Lander (formerly known as Persia Pirotta in NXT) will have her first post-WWE match for XPW in Pomona on Saturday, June 25. She’ll be part of an eight-woman tournament to crown the first XPW Women’s Champion.
