This Week’s Final WWE Smackdown Rating, Referee To Be Blurred Out On Impact Wrestling Due To Legal Threat By Lucha Underground

WWE Smackdown

The final rating for this week’s episode of  WWE SmackDown Live was a 1.8 rating, which is equal to the 1.8 rating the show drew last week.

Related: How Was Viewership for This Week’s WWE Smackdown Featuring Elimination Chamber Fallout?, Which Show Won the Brand Split War?

Expedition Of Gold

This week’s episode of Impact Wrestling will feature the Hardy’s ‘Expedition of Gold’ with footage from The Crash Lucha Libre’s recent event in Tijuana, but the referee will reportedly be blurred out of the footage due to legal reasons.

Dave Meltzer noted on the latest Wrestling Observer Radio that the referee is currently under contract with Lucha Underground, and LU / AAA sent a cease and desist saying they would take legal action if the match aired on Impact this week. Impact will still air the match, but they are digitizing the referee in order to still legally be allowed to air it as Psicosis and Super Crazy are not contracted to AAA.

Related: The Hardys in Tijuana, Eddie Edwards Looks for Revenge and More on Impact Wrestling Tonight

It is believed that this censorship is the first of its kind on television; the match will air entirely (with the blurred official) on tonight’s episode of Impact Wrestling.