Based on Nielsen Media Research’s fast national numbers, last night’s Friday Night Smackdown scored a 2.6 broadcast rating. We should have the final rating sometime next week.
TNA Impact earned a 1.12 cable rating Thursday night, a .76 in M18-49, a .55 in P18-49, a .82 in M18-34, and an average audience of 1.4 million viewers.
According to several people, there is some tension between Punk and Carlito. It stems from Carlito being really jealous of Punk and his push. The WWE sent Carlito a message by making him job to Punk on television and by filming that dating skit with Santino.
Colt Cabana and Ace Steel were originally supposed to be Edge’s lackeys. The plan was for Ace Steel to be the serious wrestler, while Cabana was supposed to be the comedy wrestler. Edge was all for this. This didn’t happen because Edge was injured during the Mardis Gras gimmick with Kane. They decided to use the Major brothers instead and Ace Steel was fired.
According to the WWE’s latest business report, the 2008 No Way Out pay-per-view drew around 330,000 to 340,000 buys (they don’t reveal the actual figure, as it’s shown in graph form), substantially up from last year’s show, which drew around 200,000 buys featuring Cena & HBK vs. Batista & Undertaker, not to mention Mr. Kennedy vs. Bobby Lashley. Between the Royal Rumble and No Way Out, the company has garnered 942,000 pay-per-view buys in 2008. Through this time last year, WWE did 901,000 buys on three pay-per-view shows.
