– Bully Ray criticized last week’s AEW Dynamite, highlighting a promo where Christian Cage insulted Nick Wayne’s mother and late father, aiming to generate heat. However, Bully noted the crowd had little reaction: “And what were the people doing? Nothing. They weren’t saying a word, to the point where Christian was looking around … the arena like, ‘What’s going on here tonight? Why is this falling on such deaf ears?'” He used this moment to express concern over the current state of wrestling, where strong promos no longer evoke the same emotion. Bully connected this to WWE’s “Unreal” series, worried that such content exposes too much of the business. “To me, there’s an aspect of the business now that’s gonna slowly start to erode believability where, I know what you’re saying is not true,” he said. Bully believes this lack of authenticity is hurting fan engagement and crowd reactions, making once-powerful promo styles feel empty.
Source: Busted Open Radio
– Smackdown on Friday night drew 1,544,000 viewers, down 163,000 viewers from last week’s show which drew a bigger audience due to Hulk Hogan’s death. The show had a 0.46 rating in 18-49, down 0.02 from last week and was #1 on cable and #1 in all of television for the night, doubling the rating of the second-placed show.
(Ratings credit: Programming Insider, Colin Vassallo)