AEW boss Tony Khan says he turned down a pitch to have Rampage run in the format of WWE Backstage.
Rampage airs every Friday night on TNT at 10 p.m. ET. It’s a one-hour show that usually features three matches. Typically, the show airs right when WWE SmackDown wraps up.
Tony Khan spoke to Gavin Bridge at the Monaco Streaming Film Festival and revealed that he had been pitched having Rampage in the style of a talk show like WWE Backstage.
“I didn’t agree with [WWE] Backstage at all. I didn’t think it was a good format. I had actually been pitched to do a format like that with AEW and I refused because I don’t think wrestling fans want to see that format. Wrestling fans when they tune in to watch their wrestling show, they want to watch wrestlers wrestle and Backstage, to me, should be like a lower-budget streaming type show.”
Khan added that WWE Backstage had a very talented cast, but the ill-conceived format likely doomed the show.
“I don’t know if it had the legs to carry as a TV show, even though the people involved with it were awesome and a lot of them work for me now and are huge stars.”
WWE recently announced the return of WWE Backstage for a special Royal Rumble edition and now the company has announced a match for the show.
The company had previously teased some Royal Rumble announcements for the special edition of the show which will see the return of Renee Young.
The promotion then announced that the Royal Rumble edition of WWE Backstage will feature a match for the first time ever and the episode will see Natalya taking on Tamina Snuka in a one on one bout.
The winner of this fight will earn a big advantage for themself for the upcoming battle royal and whoever wins this fight will go on to be the #30 entrant in the women’s Royal Rumble match.
It has previously been announced that the company will confirm the #1 and #2 entrant for the women’s Royal Rumble as well as the #30 entrant for the men’s version of the bout during the upcoming show.
WWE Backstage was on air from November 2019 to mid-March last year before its production was halted due to COVID-19. Renee Young has previously stated that the cancellation of the show is one of the reasons why she left WWE.
The show will be returning for a special episode on Saturday, January 30. Alongside Young, it will feature stars such as Paige and WWE Hall Of Famer Booker T and will air on FS1 at 8pm ET.
The WWE Backstage Royal Rumble Special will air premiere Saturday, January 30th at 8pm (Eastern) on FS1. It will be hosted by Renee Paquette, Paige and Booker T.
The Backstage Rumble special will replay at midnight and then at 5pm the following day.
Naturally, this will be a Royal Rumble preview show. You can bet there will special guest appearances.
Renee Paquette and Paige both posted videos on Twitter reacting to the news.
WWE recently confirmed the news that WWE Backstage will be returning to FS1 for a special episode this Friday but it wasn’t the original plan.
According to reports from PWInsider, the original plan was to air a special episode of Talking Smack right after SmackDown but the company nixed the idea for some reason.
The decision was then made to bring back the canceled WWE series for one night and it was a very late decision from the officials, according to the site.
This week’s episode of SmackDown will be airing on FS1 due to the MLB World Series airing on Fox and the special WWE Backstage episode will follow the broadcast of the Blue Branded Show.
WWE Backstage which debuted after SmackDown moved to Fox last year was cancelled this past June after the production of the show had been halted for some months due to coronavirus.
Talking Smack on the other hand originally premiered after the return of Brand Extension in 2016. It has been brought back recently and the show currently airs on Saturday mornings on the WWE Network.
WWE has not confirmed the names who will be hosting the special episode of WWE Backstage this Friday and it would be interesting to see if they confirm the personalities for the episode beforehand.
The company has announced that a special edition of the studio show will air this Friday night live from the WWE ThunderDome at the Amway Center in Orlando.
The special one night only episode of the show will air at 10pm ET, right after the episode of SmackDown goes off air and the replay of the blue branded show will then air at 11pm ET.
For those who don’t know, this Friday’s episode of SmackDown will be airing on FS1 because of Game 3 of the MLB World Series airing on FOX on the same night.
WWE Backstage premiered in November 2019 after SmackDown moved to Fox network and it continued airing until mid-March before the production of the show was halted due to COVID-19.
It was then cancelled in June and it’s believed to be one of the reasons why former WWE broadcast personality Renee Young who was one of the hosts of the show left WWE.
The show was hosted by Booker T alongside Young and it featured regular appearances from former wrestling stars such as CM Punk, Paige and Christian.
WWE has not confirmed the personalities for this special edition of WWE Backstage so far and it would be interesting to see who they bring in to host the show this Friday night.
Former WWE/TNA Superstar and multiple time World Champion Christian recently appeared on SiriusXM’s Busted Open Radio. Christian appeared on the show to discuss the release of the new Cagefighter movie.
Christian also discussed a number of other topics, including the now cancelled WWE Backstage show. Captain Charisma suggested that the show was actually a hit on FOX Network, and that it was the COVID-19 pandemic that derailed the programme.
Christian on WWE Backstage
“I don’t think it went awry, I think it was like any new show? It’s a work in progress” Christian began on Busted Open. “I mean even like equating it back to the Edge & Christian show, I didn’t like the first half of that first season. It took trial and error to see what it was that fit, and a show like that hadn’t really been done before.”
“It didn’t get cancelled because of ratings” Christian continued discussing WWE Backstage. “If that’s what people thought. The ratings? They’re (FOX) actually really happy with the ratings. Ratings were actually very strong. Whatever was in that time slot before Backstage, did a fraction of the ratings that Backstage did.”
Christian would also confirm that the periphery elements of the show proved that it was indeed a hit on the network. “And then also the replay. Oftentimes it would do just as, if not very close, to the original rating. Then the obviously the YouTube views, and the social media views. It was a really well watched show actually. So, you can’t just go off that that number of that first viewing, there was more to it than that.”
The former WWE Superstar would confirm that it was indeed the pandemic that put the sword to the show. “It was just a victim of circumstance, of the kind of time that we’re living in right now. And it was unfortunate and we hate to see anybody, you know, get put out of work for any reason at all. It’s tough.”
Do you agree with Christian? Do you think that WWE Backstage worked as a format? Let us know in the comments
WWE Backstage as fans knows it didn’t even last a year in its current format.
John Ourand of Sports Business Journal was the first to report that there are changes coming at FS1 as WWE Backstage will reportedly no longer be produced weekly.
The network is scaling back production on their boxing and WWE programming. As a result, FS1 will have double-digit job losses.
Pwinsider.com reports that FOX held a meeting on Monday to inform everyone working on the show that the series was done in its current format for now. There will not be a new episode airing on Tuesday, but instead, a rerun of an older episode will likely air.
The belief is the show is done entirely – with an outside chance that it could be used for special programming down the line. Per the report, there is no plan for such a thing currently.
CM Punk’s Future
Regarding CM Punk, who worked as an analyst on the show, he remains under contract with FOX. Because of this, Punk won’t be migrating over to other WWE programming unless he signs a deal with WWE, which doesn’t seem likely at the moment.
WWE Backstage premiered on November 5, 2019, and has averaged in the 100,000-200,000 viewers range. Last week’s show had 175,000 viewers for the best viewership of the year, and the second-best in show history.
AJ Styles’ WWE debut is one of the most iconic debuts of all time and the Phenomenal One has gone on to become one of the top stars of the company since then.
However, the former World Champion didn’t know how he would
be treated by the fans and management before coming in, and according to
Styles, he was ‘terrified’ before his WWE debut.
The former TNA star was the guest on the latest episode of WWE Backstage and while talking about his first night in the company, AJ recalled how the experience was intimidating:
“I was terrified,” Styles said. “We went over
the match, and they took me out of the trailer where they were hiding me, and I
saw Road Dogg and I didn’t want to let him go. I’m in someone else’s house.
It’s their home.
I’m a guest. I don’t live there yet. I didn’t know until
literally days before, I didn’t know. I don’t think many people knew. It was
huge for me and intimidating. I’m a 38 year old man coming to the WWE for the
first time, it’s intimidating.”
AJ Styles made his WWE debut at Royal Rumble in January
2016. He has since become one of the top stars of the company and has won a
number of championships in the promotion, including winning the world
championship twice.
Styles is currently scheduled to face the Undertaker at WrestleMania 36. You can check out an updated match card for the event at this link.
WWE Backstage had seen a big drop in viewership numbers just last week and the show has made a record for low viewership this week once again.
This week’s episode of the WWE series which featured AJ
Styles and Xavier Woods as the special guests drew only 35,000 viewers,
according to Showbuzz Daily.
This is not only the lowest viewership the show has garnered
this year but it’s the lowest number it has done since its official premiere in
October last year.
WWE Backstage did a 0.01 rating in the 18-49 demographic this week and the show’s numbers were delayed because it once again failed to make it into the Cable Top 150.
In comparison, last week’s episode of the show, which was built around the return of Jeff Hardy, had drawn 56,000 viewers.
During the WWE Backstage episode, WWE had announced the return of Jeff Hardy for this week’s SmackDown and the company has since confirmed the appearance of former world champion John Cena for the show as well.
Though the SmackDown episode seems to be in jeopardy due to the coronavirus outbreak. While WWE has denied the reports of the show being canceled, they have revealed that they are putting contingency plans in place.
You can check out their statement on the matter here.
This week’s episode of WWE Backstage featured a number of big names and it appears their presence helped the show as it saw a big increase in viewership numbers.
This week’s episode of WWE Backstage featuring Charlotte Flair as the special guest and the debut of Stephanie McMahon on the show drew 169,000 viewers, according to Showbuzz Daily.
This is a big 74% increase from last week’s episode of the show which featured the Royal Rumble winner Drew McIntyre as the special guest and had drawn 97,000 viewers.
The episode drew a 0.06 rating in the key demographic of
18-49 and it ranked #132 on the Cable Top 150. For comparison, last week’s
episode of the show had drawn a 0.05 rating and it ranked #145.
This week’s episode of the show also featured CM Punk in the
panel alongside the regular hosts Renee Young, WWE Hall of Famer Booker T, and
former Champion Paige.
These viewership numbers are the second-best the show has done since its official premiere back on November 5. The highest watched WWE Backstage episode was the one aired on November 19, which drew 180,000 viewers.
The November 19th episode was the one featuring CM Punk’s official return on WWE programming so the numbers this week are especially notable.
The viewership numbers are in for the latest and third episode of WWE Backstage, a weekly talk show, in 2020.
The show that aired on FS1 at 11pm ET drew 111,000 viewers. This is up from last week’s 84,000 viewers, according to Showbuzz Daily.
In the 18-49 demographic, WWE Backstage drew a 0.6 rating this week, which is up as the previous rating last week of 0.03. Regarding the Cable Top 150, the episode ranked #141, the up from last week as the show didn’t make the top 150.
Through the first nine episodes that aired in 2019, the show averaged 117,777 viewers per episode.
Renee Young, Paige, and RAW Women’s Champion Becky Lynch were featured on the show. Former WWE Champion CM Punk made an appearance on the show, which marked his first appearance on the show of the new year.
As of this writing, there’s no word yet on when Punk will make his next appearance on the weekly talk show but it will likely be next month. He’s been appearing on the show once a month.
WWE Backstage Viewership Numbers
Here is how the viewership numbers look like since its premiere:
The viewership numbers are in for the latest and first episode of WWE Backstage, a weekly talk show, in 2020
The show that aired on FS1 at 11pm ET drew 124,000 viewers. This is up from last week’s 97,000 viewers, according to Showbuzz Daily.
In the 18-49 demographic, WWE Backstage drew a .04 rating this week, which is up as the previous rating last week of .03. Regarding the Cable Top 150, the episode ranked #145, the down from the #124 ranking last week.
This is the fifth-best Backstage viewership since the show officially premiered. Through the first nine episodes that aired in 2019, the show averaged 117,777 viewers per episode.
It’s an interesting number as the show was back to normal compared to the episode that aired on New Year’s Eve last week, which was expected to see a drop in viewership.
Renee Young, WWE Hall of Famer Booker T, Lacey Evans, and The Miz were featured on the show.
It should be noted that former WWE Champion CM Punk didn’t make an appearance on the show. Instead, he offered entertainment on social media where he gave some harsh comments towards The Miz.
WWE Backstage Viewership Numbers
For those who are wondering, CM Punk will make his next appearance on the television show on January 21st. Here is how the viewership numbers look like since its premiere:
The viewership numbers are in for the latest and final episode of WWE Backstage, a weekly talk show, in 2019.
The show that aired on FS1 at 11pm ET drew 97,000 viewers. This is down from last week’s 153,000 viewers, according to Showbuzz Daily.
In the 18-49 demographic, WWE Backstage drew a .03 rating this week, which is down as the previous rating last week of .05. Regarding the Cable Top 150, the episode ranked #124, the same ranking as last week.
WWE Backstage drew a total of 1.060 million viewers after nine episodes had aired. The show averaged 117,777 viewers per episode.
It’s an interesting number as the show aired on New Year’s Eve and last week’s show aired on Christmas Eve. Many people thought both the shows would drop in viewership as a result.
It should be noted that former WWE Champion CM Punk didn’t make an appearance on the show. He confirmed earlier this year that his next appearance on the television show will be on January 21st.
Instead, Renee Young, Christian and WWE Hall of Famer Booker T were featured on the show.
WWE Backstage Viewership Numbers In 2019
WWE only has one more show of the weekly television series as it will air next Tuesday, which is New Year’s Eve. Here is how the viewership numbers look like since its premiere:
The viewership numbers are in for the latest episode of WWE Backstage, a weekly talk show.
The show that aired on FS1 at 11pm ET drew 153,000 viewers. This is up from last week’s 93,000 viewers, according to Showbuzz Daily.
As a result, this second-best viewership since the premiere episode of the show in its normal timeslot on FOX Sports 1 back in November.
In the 18-49 demographic, WWE Backstage drew a 0.05 rating this week, which is right in line as the previous rating last week.
Regarding the Cable Top 150, unlike last week’s show that didn’t make the cut, this week’s show ranked #124.
It’s an interesting number as the show aired on Christmas Eve, which many people thought the show would drop in viewership as a result. The episode featured appearances by Maria Menounos and actor Paul Walter Houser as they served as the special guests. The show looked at the 2019 WWE Year-End Awards.
It should be noted that former WWE Champion CM Punk didn’t make an appearance on the show. Instead, former NXT Women’s Champion Ember Moon filled that role.
WWE Backstage Viewership Numbers This Year
WWE only has one more show of the weekly television series as it will air next Tuesday, which is New Year’s Eve. Here is how the viewership numbers look like since its premiere:
Former Universal Champion Seth Rollins appeared on WWE Backstage as the special guest this week and it appears that the Architect’s appearance has helped the show in terms of viewership numbers.
This a 14% increase from last week’s episode of the show which featured the Game Triple H as the special guest and had drawn 121,000 viewers in total.
The episode on FS1 ranked at #103 on the Cable Top 150. It scored a 0.08 rating in the 18-49 demographic which is up from last week’s #125 ranking and a 0.05 rating.
Though both these episodes still did lower numbers compared to the one featuring CM Punk’s first announced appearance on the show on November 19th.
The episode featuring Punk’s first advertised WWE appearance
in 5 years had drawn 180,000 viewers and it was the highest viewership for the show
since its official premiere on November 5.
The former WWE Champion has not appeared on WWE Backstage ever since the November 19th episode but he is expected to return to the show next week and we’ll have to see how his presence affects the viewership numbers of the series.
The viewership numbers are in for the latest episode of WWE Backstage, a weekly talk show.
The show that aired on FS1 at 11pm ET drew 121,000 viewers. This is a drop of 33% from last week’s 180,000 viewers, according to Showbuzz Daily.
The episode ranked #125 on the Cable Top 150 with a 0.05 rating in the 18-49 demographic, which is a decrease from last week’s show that ranked #104 with a 0.10 rating. Last week’s show marked the first time that it made the Cable Top 150.
FOX made it known on Monday that Punk would not be appearing on this week’s episode for fans who were wondering. However, Triple H was the featured guest but was not in-studio in Los Angeles as he called in live from the WWE Performance Center.
The official premiere of the show did 49,000 viewers with a 0.02 rating while the November 12th episode did 100,000 viewers.
This week’s episode of RAW that featured the main event of Kevin Owens vs. Seth Rollins, drew an average of 2.109 million viewers, down from last week’s 2.127 million viewers.
This was despite the fact that it was the post-Survivor Series episode of RAW, which has historically received a bump in viewership from interested fans.
CM Punk made his official debut on WWE Backstage last night on FS1. Punk made an unadvertised appearance during the closing moments of last week’s episode. During this week’s show, Punk spoke with Renee Young about what led to him signing with Fox to be on the show.
“Wrestling and what I’m doing now are two completely different things,” Punk said. “I do not work with, have any kind of relationship with, have talked to anybody in WWE, this is strictly a me and Fox thing and I think that’s a very interesting dynamic.”
Then Punk noted his role on WWE Backstage is similar to something he’s very famous for: criticizing WWE.
“Because here I am, someone who is not employed by WWE and let’s get down to it, I get to criticize the product and that is something I’ve always done, I think that’s what made me popular.”
Will CM Punk Ever Be Back In A WWE Ring?
Perhaps one of the more notable topics brought up during the show was when Renee asked Punk if he’ll ever get back in a WWE ring.
“Regardless of what my answer is, there’s somebody that’s always going to be upset with it,” Punk said. “As I’ve stated, I work for Fox, I haven’t talked to anybody in WWE. It’s nothing that I’m actively pursuing or interested in but I’m 41 and I’ve lived an experienced life where I know not to say no but that’s going to be a bridge that is going to have to be built and it might take as long as building the Great Wall of China because there are some hurdles there.”
CM Punk On WWE’s Current Product
Punk would also say that WWE today is similar to how it was when he left, saying it was over-produced and micro-managed.
He liked a lot of the women’s wrestling but felt the Women’s Revolution hashtag felt forced.
He also mentioned he likes NXT as he always saw himself as an indy guy.
Watch the full CM Punk WWE Backstage interview below:
The former World Champion shocked the world late Tuesday when he made a surprise appearance at this week’s episode of WWE’s new in-studio series WWE Backstage.
The WWE on Fox Twitter account later confirmed that Punk has officially joined the show and he will be making periodic appearances on the series starting from next week.
The rumors of Punk joining the new WWE series first came out back in September when it was reported that his representatives have reached out to Fox officials regarding a potential role at the show.
It was said that Fox officials have tried out different variations of the show featuring booths of up to 5 people and they have auditioned a number of WWE legends for different roles.
News then came out that Punk has also filmed material for the show and the former WWE star had confirmed these rumors in various interviews last month.
Fans were hopeful about the Straight Edge Star getting the
role since the show is produced by officials of the TV Network and not WWE.
While Punk did try to throw off the fans by saying that he hadn’t heard back from Fox officials after his tryout, the fact that he pulled his merchandise from the pro wrestling tees store only fueled the rumors of his return.
Now we will have to wait and see what the former champion
brings to the mix and it will also be interesting to know how the WWE officials
feel about his return.
Last week, Renee Young appeared in a video hyping up the debut of WWE Backstage on FS1. She noted that there was to be a big special guest lined up for the show as well who would be dropping some big news. The name of the guest was supposed to be announced on Smackdown this week but it never happened.
According to a report from Wrestling Observer Radio, the special guest would have been either or both of Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman and the big news would have been that he is quitting Smackdown and headed to RAW. Due to the travel delays in Saudi Arabia, Lesnar appeared on Smackdown and gave away the news then instead.
“The Lesnar and Heyman thing where Lesnar goes to RAW, that was scheduled, but it was scheduled to be done on Tuesday to kick off the new Backstage weekly show at 11 o’clock,” Dave Meltzer said.
Renee Young sent out the following to hype the big announcement on the debut show.
We thought we were excited about @WWE Backstage premiering on @FS1 in exactly one week, but @ReneeYoungWWE has us beat.
“And for our very first guest: huge news! It’s going to be announced on Friday Night SmackDown. It’s a very big deal, I promise you don’t want to miss it. See you guys on Tuesday!”
Comments about the Lesnar to RAW situation come in around the 10-minute mark:
WWE Backstage on FS1 debuts November 5th at 11 PM and will be hosted by Renee Young and Booker T.
WWE on Fox posted a video on social media recently featuring Renee Young hinting that some big news will be dropped on the first show. Young mentioned they have a big surprise guest lined up who will be named on this Friday’s Smackdown.
We thought we were excited about @WWE Backstage premiering on @FS1 in exactly one week, but @ReneeYoungWWE has us beat.
“Guys, we are here doing our final, final rehearsals as we are getting set to go live – for real, for real, for real – with WWE Backstage,” Renee Young begins the video before being surprised by Samoa Joe, who was also in the studio.
“It’s all happening Tuesday, November 5th at 11 PM eastern time. We are going to be up – for real, for real – this means we are going to be live every single week.”
She then talked about the upcoming lineup for the debut show next week.
“We’re going to have a taped message from John Cena, The Gronk is going to be checking in to see what’s going on…”
Young would then tease a mystery guest for the first show.
“And for our very first guest: huge news! It’s going to be announced on Friday Night SmackDown. It’s a very big deal, I promise you don’t want to miss it. See you guys on Tuesday!”
Though the reports which have come out since then have provided some interesting updates on these announcements and they reveals that some of these arrangements might not be permanent.
As part of their announcement, WWE confirmed that Jerry Lawler will be returning to Raw for commentary, however, Pro Wrestling Sheet is reporting that the company only intends to use him for a short period of time.
Officials are considering other people to fulfil the
position on a full-time basis. Speculation is that this is why Mickie James was
featured on Main Event as one of the commentators this week, though this news
is not confirmed.
The arrangement for the F1S studio show which is announced to be hosted by Booker T and Renee Young seems to be temporary as well.
According to report from PWinsider, a number of WWE Legends have been brought to Los Angeles to audition for a role on the show and the idea is to switch between these personalities on different weeks.
We can also see multi-person booths as Fox has played with
different versions of the show ranging from panels of 3 to 5 people but nothing
is locked yet.
Though one name who will be a staple for the show is Cathy Kelley. She is expected to be a big part of the program and Kelley will be splitting her time between NXT and the new series going forward.
As far as the production goes, the show will be pre-taped once a week and its set is made to look like it’s inside a wrestling ring with yellow ropes.
These changes are only the beginning of things and with the scheduled drafts, we can expect the rosters of both SmackDown and Raw to be shuffled in similar fashion as well.
