As mentioned last night, we’re ending Brand Banter in favor of a brand new format, one that won’t handcuff us covering WWE television each week. The show will be more of a verbal op-ed piece, where we’ll talk a news story or two and go deep into it. The new, untitled show, will debut next week.
Starrcade Match Happening? – While it’s not The Rhodes vs. The Hardy’s, PWInsider is reporting that the match pitting the Club’s Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows against The Rock N’ Roll Express at Starrcade is in fact happening. The show is not going to be shown via stream as of yet. The WWE also have not filed a trademark for “Starrcade” yet either.
Opinion: I’m not sure if the addition of two 60’s makes me want to see this show. So even if they do air it, I’ll still probably skip it.
SmackDown Rating – As the WWE continues to struggle with attendance, the fans look for ratings to tick up, hopefully showing some improvement. However that’s not the case right now, with SmackDown only pulling in 32,000 more viewers this week, as opposed to last week. While 2.542 isn’t a terrible number by any means, the amount it costs to go live and the amount they’re getting paid to deliver great ratings, isn’t a winning combination. All forecasts seem to indicated the WWE getting a much smaller deal with USA when their contract is up.
Austin Aries Update – Austin Aries is looking at being free from his WWE contractual obligations around late October, early November. One of the first shows to feature the freed Aries is House of Hardcore. The promotion will be returning to St. James, Long Island for a show on November 17th, and will feature the founder Tommy Dreamer, MVP, Billy Gunn, IMPACT star Petey Williams, Bull James, Joey Matthews, Nick Aldis, Shane Douglas and More.
Quick Hits – IMPACT Wrestling released the pre-sale code for Ottawa’s Bound for Glory event. According to their Twitter, the special VIP type packages are almost sold out. 2K announces new season pass content and DLC. Same price as last year, with less content; fans are not pleased.