Last night’s 3/19 edition of WWE Monday Night Raw drew a final 3.7 cable rating. The first hour scored a 3.3 rating, while the second hour scored a 4.0 rating. This is down quite a bit from last week’s 4.1 rating. This has to be considered a disappointment so close to WrestleMania 23 and it will be interesting to see how the company bounces back next week.
Vince McMahon, top WWE wrestlers and Orlando mayor Buddy Dyer will all be at a press conference tomorrow at 10:30am ET at the Orlando City Hall Rotunda to make the official announcement that WrestleMania 24 will be taking place in Orlando, Florida next year at the Florida Citrus Bowl. This is an outdoor arena that can hold 65,000 fans for football. It will be the first-ever WrestleMania held outdoors.
As noted earlier, numerous Wellness Tests were given backstage by WWE at the site of today’s ECW/Smackdown TV tapings in Cleveland, Ohio. According to one source, over two dozen WWE performers were given urine tests this afternoon. There is no way to know if the testing was planned ahead of time before the story by Sports Illustrated broke yesterday since WWE doesn’t give talent notice ahead of time about the tests. However, given the media attention the story has brought to the company in the last two days, it is highly conceivable that the company went forth with tests as a result of the story.
XtremeFalls43 sent this in: On “Around the Horn” they mentioned the Steroids Scandal and being ESPN they mocked the Wrestlers. The host called Edge “the Edge” and called Helms “The Hurricane. However, not good for WWE.
In addition to ESPN picking up the story, the Associated Press picked up the SI.com article as well allowing it to go nationwide. 24/7 cable news networks MSNBC and Fox News also discussed the story as well today.
