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Friday, December 20, 2024 Issue #7437
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Visit our website at http://www.wrestling-online.com
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//->> OPENING WORDS FROM THE EDITOR

Five days until Christmas! Where did this year go!? I don't know about you, but the older I get, the faster the years fly by...especially when I'm on holidays LOL!


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//->> NEWS FROM THE WRESTLING-ONLINE NEWSWIRE
Web version at http://www.wrestling-online.com/

ROH FINAL BATTLE 2024 LIVE TONIGHT

- Live from the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City, New York, AEW presents ROH Final Battle exclusively on the ROH HonorClub streaming service. The full card is as follows: Chris Jericho vs Matt Cardona for the ROH World title; Athena vs Billie Starkz for the ROH Women's title; Lee Moriarty vs TBD for the ROH Pure title; Red Velvet vs Leyla Hirsch for the ROH Women's Television title; The Sons of Texas vs The Righteous for the ROH Tag Team titles; Jay Lethal vs QT Marshall; Brian Cage vs Willie Mack vs Komander vs Mark Davis vs AR Fox vs Blake Christian in a Survival of the Fittest match for the ROH Television title; Mansoor vs Atlantis Jr; and Katsuyori Shibata vs Tommy Billington. ZERO HOUR: The Infantry vs The Undisputed Kingdom; Harley Cameron vs Hanako; LEEJ vs Gates of Agony; and The Dark Order vs Grizzled Young Veterans. Final Battle will air at 8PM ET and a subscription is required to watch the show. You can get a one-month deal for $9.99. The Zero Hour show will start an hour prior and will air on ROH's social media channels as well as on the HonorClub service.

DYNAMITE RATING

- The Holiday Bash themed episode of Dynamite drew 625,000 viewers, up 31,000 viewers from the prior week and their best number in one month. The show had a 0.19 rating in 18-49, up 0.02 from the previous week and was #3 on the top 50 cable chart for the night. (Ratings credit: Programming Insider)

SMACKDOWN MOVING TO THREE HOURS

- WWE has confirmed that Smackdown will expand to three hours starting with the January 3, 2025 episode. A WWE.COM entry on where to watch the weekly WWE shows and premium live events come 2025 states, "At the start of 2025, SmackDown will expand to three hours starting with the Jan. 3 episode from Phoenix, Arizona." Rumors have been flying around for months that Smackdown was moving to three hours once the new year kicks in but WWE did not make any official announcements until now. Raw is also expected to revert to three hours once it moves to Netflix, although their run time will have no constraints on the streaming service since there's no other live programming before or after Raw. This will be the first time that Smackdown will move to three hours and WWE will obviously get more money on top of their current deal with NBCUniversal for 52 additional hours of original programming per year.

MORE WWE PLE'S TO BE HELD INTERNATIONALLY IN 2025

- Speaking on the Sports Business Journal Sports Media podcast, WWE's Executive Vice President of Talent Relations Chris Legentil revealed that WWE is looking into holding more premium live events internationally in 2025 and are working with Netflix to identify key markets. WWE held a total of eight premium live events outside the United States this year, a record for the company. "This year alone, we did more than half our [premium live events] outside the U.S...look for more of that when we’re in partnership with Netflix because we’re going to be working with them hand-in-hand to select locations across the world where we can grow our audience and hopefully gain some subscribers for them," Legentil said. In 2024, WWE held Elimination Chamber in Perth, Australia, Backlash in Lyon, France, King and Queen of the Ring in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Clash at the Castle in Glasgow, Scotland, Money In The Bank in Toronto, Canada, Bash in Berlin in Berlin, Germany, Crown Jewel in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and Survivor Series: WarGames in Vancouver, Canada. WWE premium live events will be moving to Netflix internationally starting with the 2025 Royal Rumble.

CHARLOTTE FLAIR STEPS UP IN-RING TRAINING AHEAD OF RETURN

- Charlotte Flair has stepped up her in-ring training ahead of her impending return to the WWE. Flair thanked Lainey Reid, currently signed to NXT, for helping her in the ring for the past few weeks in a post on social media and urged her followers to keep an eye on the 26-year-old. Charlotte tore her ACL, MCL, and meniscus on the December 8 episode of Smackdown in a match against Asuka and underwent surgery in January of this year. She started light training at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida, in late July and is now set to return to the company in a matter of weeks. During her time away, the 14-time champ signed a new WWE deal and was also cast in an indie horror movie titled You Lose You Die with Freddy Rodriguez.

NXT LEVEL UP ENDING

- Fightful is reporting that NXT Level Up is being discontinued moving forward and this month will be the last time the show will air. The show aired every Friday night on Peacock, replacing the WWE 205 Live series. It made its debut on February 18, 2022 and gave a platform to those up-and-coming stars who were not yet ready for NXT television, but still offered a chance to wrestle in front of an audience. Level Up is being replaced by the new reality competition seres WWE LFG, which is set to air next year on A&E. Matches for Level Up usually taped before NXT went live on air and many of today's NXT stars all featured on the show throughout the past two years.


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