The following press release was issued today to The Chairshot for this week’s newest episode of X-Pac 12360, as Sean Waltman is joined by special guest Brian Cage:

SEAN ‘X-PAC’ WALTMAN TALKS ABOUT THE AUSTIN ARIES/ JOHNNY IMPACT SITUATION, NJPW, AND WELCOMES BRIAN CAGE ON THE SHOW.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PRESS RELEASE- Los Angeles

X-PAC 12360

Get it on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3oQbzJ_ZjA

or download the podcast version on iTunes:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/x-pac-12360/id1150124693?mt=2 or download the podcast version for Android: https://www.omnycontent.com/d/clips/a7b0bd27-d748-4fbe-ab3b-a6fa0049bcf6/d98d3d05-3220-4066-b8a5-a87301119c23/931d5dd1-2931-493a-8c2d-a97b01555be7/audio/direct.mp3     

Sean ‘X-Pac’ Waltman Has Some Advice For The Head Of New Japan Talent Relations, Michael Craven

You kinda had to see some of this stuff coming as far as, the business, the industry is heating up. You have All In, you have the New Japan expansion here in the United States. The big buzz with wrestling and truthfully there is a little bit of brand confusion. With ROH, New Japan, and Impact. Even NWA and a lot of the talent can be seen on a lot of these different shows…  So eventually when the money starts… higher stakes are involved here. I can see how companies are going to get,’ Hey, you can’t go do this because you’re with us and all that.’ And I understand that. However, you have to have somebody that deals with the talent that knows how to deal with the talent properly. Let moral go down in your company and see how quickly all that forward momentum you have going on comes to a halt.  Trust me. So what’s his name (Michael) Craven? This is a message for you. You have to understand that… you’ve got some big egos that you want, that you have to have for people to care about these guys, they have to have an ego, a colorful character, an eccentric personality with them. That’s what makes people brilliant, that people want to get behind. And you have to understand that this is not some corporate job where you are dealing with a bunch of people that are working at the Amazon plant or whatever you call it. You can’t do that because they will leave. Trust me, as much as you think, ‘Okay everyone is happy here’. Trust me, there can be a mass exodus to WWE in a second (Snaps Fingers) because WWE will cherry pick every single one of your guys you have. Just to have them. Just to put them on the shelf and pay them good money if you don’t want to make them happy. Trust me on that.

Sean ‘X-Pac’ Waltman Comments On Austin Aries/Johnny Impact Bound For Glory Ending

I’m just going to say that you just never know. When it comes to Aries that’s just something that he would do… He’s done shit like that before you know so to sit and go ‘okay this was a work, this wasn’t’ how about we just enjoy it? How about that… He sold the move, he took the pin, and then he got up. It wasn’t really a no-sell, he just quit selling it.

Brian Cage Talks About The Austin Aries/ Johnny Impact Match Finish

Just dumbfounded I guess is the best word…I didn’t even see Austin {Aries} afterwards, it was bizarre…It was a pretty snug match, they were working it a little like a work shoot type of match. What surprised me the most about the ending was Austin being such a traditionalist if you will, I feel that if that would have been done to him especially on the same show he’s on, he would have lost his shit so bad…I don’t know what happened… Just Austin being Austin, I don’t know what the goal or the plan was there.

Get it all on this week’s brand new episode of Westwood One’s X-Pac 12360. Two words for you…DOWNLOAD IT!

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Last week’s episode of SmackDown Live put a stop to a rough streak in the ratings, as each brand has continually lost viewers each week since the post-SummerSlam episodes.

This week, WWE loaded up to celebrate the 1000th episode of SmackDown and with so many big names, returns and surprises, there’s no way that the blue brand could drop in ratings this week…right?

“Right” is the correct answer as the numbers for last night’s SmackDown 1000 are in and there’s a massive increase of 19.2% from last week, scoring a rating of 2.545, the show’s best rating in months. Here’s a look at the last four week of ratings for the blue brand:

• September 25th: 2.193
• October 2nd: 2.095
• October 9th: 2.135
• October 16th: 2.545

Oddly enough, the huge jump in ratings didn’t translate with the Cable Top 150 Rankings for the 18-49 demographic as SmackDown actually fell from 2nd to 5th. Here was last night’s top five:

1. NBA Basketball/76ers at Celtics – TNT – 1.41
2. NBA Basketball/Thunder at Warriors – TNT – 1.24
3. MLB ALCS – TBS – 1.15
4. MLB NLCS – FS1 – 1.14
5. SmackDown 1000 – USA Network – 0.92

EA’s Take: There was never a doubt in my mind about SmackDown’s rating in my mind this week. It was a foregone conclusion that it would go up again, it was just a matter of how much it would go up. SmackDown has had the luxury of not facing the NFL like RAW does on Mondays, so this is about as tough of competition as they’ll ever get with the MLB Playoffs and start of the NBA season on the same night. Dropping in the top five can seem discouraging, but their demographic share also jumped up from a 0.67 to a 0.92. Certainly, this won’t continue because this was a special episode, but that amount of Tuesday night competition won’t either.

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As we all know, social media and other outlets have become a huge means of drawing in interaction and viewers for WWE. Most people will point to television ratings like they did during the Monday Night Wars in the late 1990’s, however that can be skewed with so many various means of watching today that do not include cable television.

As you’ve become accustomed to, here is this week’s RAW YouTube Report (2:30 PM EST, 10/17/18):

1. Ronda Rousey verbally bashes The Bellas, then destroys security – 3.1 million views
2. Kurt Angle gets retribution on Baron Corbin – 2.1 million views
3. The Shield vs. Braun Strowman, Dolph Ziggler & Drew McIntyre – 1.8 million views
4. Dean Ambrose says he’s not a “lunatic” – 1.3 million views
5. Alexa Bliss & Mickie James think Lita & Trish Stratus’ time is over – 684k views
6. Dean Ambrose vs. Dolph Ziggler – 680k views
7. Seth Rollins vs. Drew McIntyre – 671k views

For the second straight week, RAW’s YouTube is ruled by the ladies, namely Ronda Rousey, as the RAW Women’s Champion’s feud with The Bellas cracks 3 million views once again. I’d argue this was the most entertaining segment of the entire show and after their performance last week, the number of views is no surprise to this guy. Especially some of the zingers Ronda hit The Bellas with. We all know it’s a work and she was using the same types of things the IWC say about The Bellas, but it still got a chuckle out of me.

Sliding in at number two, RAW General Manager Kurt Angle, who was dressed more like Armando Estrada or as our Christopher Platt put it, Robert DeNiro in Cape Fear, gets his retribution on Baron Corbin with an Angle Slam on the stage. This is the second week in a row for the WWE Hall Of Famer at the number two spot AND garnering two million-plus. I think it’s safe to say fans have missed our RAW General Manager and have had enough of Baron Corbin’s tenure, but does this feud have the legs to get to Survivor Series where the eventual showdown is speculated to take place?

Monday Night RAW’s ‘Hounds of Justice’ fill out nearly all the remaining spots this week, as has been the case quite frequently in their feud with Braun Strowman, Dolph Ziggler and Drew McIntyre. Fans do seem to be getting tired of the angle however, if it were a rivalry in SmackDown vs. RAW’s General Manager Mode, it would probably have turned sour by now. Regardless, the popularity of The Shield and interest in what’s going on with Ambrose puts them at numbers 3, 4, 6 and 7.

Lastly, our final clip that isn’t The Shield is one of what I think is three feature matches at Evolution, with Alexa Bliss and Mickie James taking on Lita and Trish Stratus. Personally, I thought Lita and Trish didn’t come off too well here while Mickie and mainly Bliss, stole the segment. I’m wondering how much longer this goes without any physical altercation. There’s only another week of television to go before Evolution, but I’d like to see it break down in some fashion next week whether it’s Alexa delivering a cheap shot, a brawl, something.

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