Smark Out Moment

What's been going on this week in the world of professional wrestling? On the latest HOT TAGS edition of the Smark Out Moment wrestling podcast SMACK TALK (episode #422), the panel discusses the following topics and more:

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The December 30, 2019 episode of WWE Monday Night Raw on USA scored a 0.8 rating (roughly 2.525 million viewers) for adults aged 18-49 according to Nielsen Media Research and ranked #4 for cable programs on Monday evening.

Hey everybody, welcome to 2020! There will be plenty (ie, too many) "hindsight" jokes that I'll make this year, but before that happens, I'd like to take a look ahead at what's to come going forward.

Normally, I talk about all of these things on the Smark Out Moment Awards, as that's the end of the year recap, but I know some people aren't followers of the podcast and only digest the posts on the site. This is for you, essentially, as well as updates that I've thought about after recording the awards show.

Basically, I just want to fill you in on some changes that will happen on the site, my game plan for some content that I have planned already, ideas of what I'd like to expand on and so forth.

Before saying anything at all, I want to remind you to vote on the 2019 Fan Feedback Survey if you haven't already, so that I have as much data possible to be able to see how you think the site and podcast can improve. Some of that has been factored into these decisions, while others were ones I just had in mind all on my own.

Let's get started, in no particular order....

Darkcast

Starting in 2020, I'm hoping to do at least 1 special podcast per month, if not 2 or even 4 episodes, which will be Patreon-exclusive content. These will be called Darkcasts and the only way to listen to them will be if you've donated to the Darkcast tier on Patreon (or higher).

With the fluctuating YouTube algorithm and all the changes that have killed monetization on that platform, Smack Talk earns pennies every month and the Patreon is the best and pretty much only way to have any real support. As such, I'm trying to maximize its value.

I've decided to switch the Darkcast tier from the experimental $20 level and lower it to $10. It just seems more fair of a price point, in my mind. The $20 tier will be the fan vote concept wherein you can help pick which topics will be discussed on the Darkcast.

These will be more relaxed conversations and less rigid like the gimmicks of Superstar Scores, Call the Spot on the Card and so forth. They'll probably be sillier and may even involve me rambling like a lunatic after not sleeping enough. It's all experimental!

Heel and Face Turn Podcasts

You guys love the heel and face turns discussions, but I can't possibly dedicate a ton of time to that. I don't have the ability to keep posting the Turn Alert updates all the time like I used to, for instance.

But since you're so dedicated to that page, I'd like to find a way to utilize my time and give you what you want. Therefore, I'll be trying to lump this into my Darkcast material in some way, depending on the support you show.

If you donate and you really want it, maybe it can be a weekly podcast where I review everyone's turns. If not, maybe I'll just talk about it here and there. It all depends on how much support you show and how much you tell me you want something, and how many of you tell me you want it.

Monthly Quarterly Mailbags

I absolutely love doing the Mailbag Q&A. It's one of my favorite segments on the site, as it gives us a chance to talk about what you want to talk about, whether it's the current product, something other than what's going on now, or maybe even topics totally outside of professional wrestling.

However, there are some drawbacks. They don't perform all that well in terms of views, they often take lots of time to record and plenty of people have requested that we do more wrestling gimmicks, which we don't have time to do every month with so many pay-per-views going on.

As a compromise, we're going to test out switching these from every month to every quarter. There will be four per year — maybe five, if we can sneak an extra one in there — that will operate much in the same fashion as our current setup.

I currently have a Mailbag Priority tier up on Patreon for $25 that is another miniature Pick Your Poison type of incentive wherein if you want us to answer your questions in that particular month, rather than waiting, you can donate to that level. Also, I'll be trying to think of ways to interact with everyone here and there more on social media to answer some mailbag-esque questions at random times, particularly if it's something that would go by before the next edition.

For example, if you really want to know who I think the Royal Rumble winner will challenge at WrestleMania, we could answer that on the Quarter 1 Mailbag in January, but by the time Quarter 2 comes around, we'll already know that answer. If the Royal Rumble happens before the Quarter 1 Mailbag, we won't know the Royal Rumble winner, so it kind of can't happen. In that case, I'll answer it in some fashion on the website's predictions or on the podcast somewhere, or maybe even in a random tweet. I'll try my best.

Fanboys Anonymous

I really want to do more with Fanboys Anonymous and I see that many people still don't even know what it is. I assume you're not listening to the podcast, where I plug it every episode.

This is my geek culture site. If I'm going to talk about anything related to film, television, video games, comics, or anything else like that, you'll find it there. I mostly do movie reviews, but whenever I get a chance, I'll do commentary tracks, podcasts and articles on random stuff (like my Pokemon Generation 1 Reboot) and I desperately want to do more with the site.

So please, follow Fanboys on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and more. Donate to the Patreon if you'd be so kind. Pick up some merch on TeePublic and Redbubble and check out the podcasts and articles that I put up!

Merchandise Designs

Speaking of the merch shops, if you have any ideas of designs you'd like to see for Smark Out Moment (or Fanboys Anonymous or A Mango Tees), hit me up! Let me know! I'm not an artist at all but I can sometimes whip up something funny enough.

Champsgiving

Speaking of tournaments, I feel like we've tried the "Best ___ Champion of All Time" concept enough now that I have to throw in the towel. There are just far too many people who seemingly do not want to vote on that type of a concept and keep it strictly to each person's title reigns. They keep voting based on that superstar's entire careers, which defeats the purpose.

This year, Champsgiving will be different. I'm continually debating about two different ideas:

a) Best Title Gimmick Concepts (as in, which is better, the Cruiserweight title, the TV title, the 24/7 title, the Hardcore title, etc)
b) Best ___ Belt Design (as in, Best WWE Championship Belt Design)

I haven't decided which one will be better, but I'm leaning more towards option A.

Tier List Rankings

People have loved tier lists in 2019. I'm way behind the ball on it, but I'd like to start posting some of my own for Smark Out Moment in 2020. I have some graphics sorted out already and whenever I get a chance to figure out a template of how to post these types of things, I'll start putting them out from time to time.

It'll be an extra feature of sorts that I do on a whim and is entirely just my own opinion, rather than trying to have a debate with anyone else about the best something or other.

These should be relatively easy to do once the setup is complete, and I might find myself compelled at random to post something like tier list of current tag teams on WWE's roster or former intercontinental champions or whatever else I get the inspiration to do.

Bringing Back More Segments

By cutting a bunch of mailbags for the year, we'll hopefully have more time to do some of the segments you guys have been missing out on.

This includes Mount Rushmore, Fannounce Table, Superstar Scores (which we need to do a 25th reformatting of old scores), Wrestling with the Past, and more.

We want to Play the Game more often. We'd like to bring back Top Rope Lists and figure out a way to do Sporcle quizzes together, if possible. Maybe we can retool Belt or Bury, Heel or Face, Finisher vs Finisher or anything else like that and figure out a way to make those interesting.

Plus, who knows what other ideas we'll think of that we'll debut!

Add More AEW Stuff!!!

I know! I know! I'm trying to get to it. It's a lot to handle just the WWE content and AEW is only going to get bigger.

I know you want me to make a Depth Chart / Hierarchy page for AEW, but with the Power Rankings being such a big deal there, it almost defeats the purpose. They have win-loss records and I'd have to adjust it way too often for little nitpicks.

Anything that is WWE-specific right now, people want to see an AEW equivalent to it, including the end of the year awards. It's just too much to handle and until I get enough Patreon support to be able to take time away from some of my freelance work and put more into Smark Out Moment, it will have to be on the backburner until manageable - but, rest assured, I'm trying.

Anything Else?

To be honest, I have no idea! I'm sure I'll think of plenty of other things that will change throughout the year either by choice or by force. You never know how the landscape will be altered just from WWE and AEW, let alone my response to anything going on.

Hell, Smark Out Moment can blow up and become a huge machine with tons of backing and lots of expansion or it can blow up in a bad way and disappear entirely. Obviously, I'm hoping for the former.

Just stay tuned, check out The Mega Maniacs on Facebook if you're not already in that group (as I'll often post quick things there), and keep listening to Smack Talk for anything new that might be around the corner.

Thank you all for all of your support in any way you help this site grow. Let's make 2020 a great one!

Tonight's episode of WWE Monday Night Raw for December 30, 2019 is coming to you live from the XL Center in Hartford, CT. Follow along here for ongoing coverage of the results of the show to find out what happens as things occur and chat with fellow WWE fans in the comments below!

• Kevin Owens starts the show with a promo (are you surprised? This will be 10-15 minutes). Seth Rollins and AOP come out. A fight breaks out. Samoa Joe comes to help Owens. They're all split up by security. Backstage, in the locker room, Owens and Joe talk. Owens is glad he's on his side. Security escorts them out of the building.
• Aleister Black defeated Buddy Murphy by pinfall
• Security asks Rollins and AOP to leave, too. Rollins says the show will be cancelled by the next match without them on.
• Erick Rowan didn't get an invite to Lana and Bobby Lashley's wedding. I don't blame them.
• Erick Rowan defeated Kip Stevens by pinfall.
• Charlotte Flair comes out to announce her entry into the women's Royal Rumble.Blah blah. Open challenge to prove herself. Natalya accepts. Charlotte Flair defeated Natalya by submission.
• Becky Lynch talks to Charly Caruso about her match with Asuka at Royal Rumble. Blah blah. Nothing but a "rah rah" type thing.
• The O.C. cut a promo. The Street Profits come out to talk some trash about how they beat them. The Street Profits defeated The O.C. by pinfall.
• Drew McIntyre defeated Zack Ryder and Curt Hawkins by pinfall.
• Randy Orton addressed his injury, saying he really messed up his knee and there's a chance he won't be able to return to the ring. No matter what happens, he's going to make sure someone gets RKO'd at WrestleMania. AJ Styles interrupts to taunt Orton. It turns out that Orton isn't injured at all and hits him with an RKO.
• Rey Mysterio will get his rematch against Andrade for the United States Championship next week (and there will be a Triple Threat for the Raw Tag Team Championship, too)
• Andrade took out a jobber. Ricochet came out for a fight. Andrade defeated Ricochet by pinfall.
• Bobby Lashley and Lana's wedding goes on and on and on, with "Lana's first husband" interrupting and "Lashley's first wife" interrupting. Then, Liv Morgan comes out and says she loves Lana and they fight. Then, Rusev comes out of the cake display and there's more fighting. The end. Awful.

This week's episode of WWE Main Event was taped on December 30, 2019 before Monday Night Raw and is coming to you from the XL Center in Hartford, CT. The following are the results of what transpired during the show:

• Chelsea Green defeated Sarah Logan
• Mojo Rawley defeated No Way Jose

Welcome to another edition of WOMEN'S WRESTLING WEEKLY—a rundown of the events which have transpired in the world of women's professional wrestling over the past several days not just with the Superstars on WWE programming, but with Impact Wrestling's Knockouts, ROH's Women of Honor, and even a glimpse at the women on the independent circuit.

Welcome to another edition of Cheap Pop and Cheap Heat from Smark Out Moment! Each week, we break down the world of professional wrestling and examine two of the polar opposite ends of the spectrum: one thing that was by far the worst thing (Cheap Heat) and the best thing (Cheap Pop) to happen over the past 7 days in sports entertainment. So, what went down this week that we loved and hated about the business?

2001: A Wrestling Odyssey is a retro podcast exploring the professional wrestling landscape in the year WWE seized complete control of the industry. Throughout 2019, Callum Wiggins (@Wigmeister14) and Robert DeFelice (@DudeFelice) hosted this trip back in time as part of the Smark Out Moment Smack Talk channel.

Over the course of the year, 13 episodes were created: one for each month and a special revolving around WrestleMania X-Seven.

Each edition focused on pay-per-views as well as the Reheated Tags (a variant of the Hot Tags) with the news of the month and other noteworthy elements to look back on with WWF, WCW, ECW and more.

The December 27, 2019 episode of WWE SmackDown on Fox scored a 0.7 rating (roughly 2.54 million viewers) for adults aged 18-49 according to Nielsen Media Research.

Welcome to another edition of POWER RANKINGS from Smark Out Moment! Each week, we will break down the current roster and examine who has gone up the WWE hierarchy and who has unfortunately taken a step down the ladder. Factoring in things such as wins and losses, suspensions, injuries, making a name for one's self, being humiliated, and more, who is at the top of the food chain and who needs to make up some ground next week?

Here is the key code for the rankings shorthand when referencing their position in relation to the previous week:

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Dropped from Last Week's Power Rankings

• Bray Wyatt
• The Revival
• Randy Orton

The Power Rankings Table (since WrestleMania 35)

1. Becky Lynch - 38 weeks (11 weeks as #1)
2. The New Day - 37 weeks (11 weeks as #1)
3. Seth Rollins - 34 weeks (2 weeks as #1)
4. Bayley/The Boss & Hug Connection - 29 weeks (6 weeks as #1)
5. The Undisputed Era - 25 weeks (5 weeks as #1)
6. The Viking Raiders - 16 weeks (1 week as #1)
7. AJ Styles/The O.C. - 16 weeks
8. Brock Lesnar - 14 weeks
9. The Kabuki Warriors - 12 weeks
10. Alexa Bliss & Nikki Cross - 10 weeks

BIGGEST MOVES THIS WEEK

Welcome to another edition of Battle of the Brands from Smark Out Moment, where we compare this week's episodes of Raw and SmackDown and determine which one of the two was the better show.

BATTLE OF THE BRANDS:

RAW vs. SMACKDOWN

The December 25, 2019 episode of WWE NXT on USA scored a 0.22 rating (roughly 831 thousand viewers) for adults aged 18-49 according to Nielsen Media Research and ranked #29 for cable programs on Wednesday evening.

Tonight's episode of WWE Friday Night SmackDown for December 27, 2019 is coming to you live from the Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, MI. Follow along here for ongoing coverage of the results of the show to find out what happens as things occur and chat with fellow WWE fans in the comments below!

• Elias started the show with a song about what's to come on SmackDown tonight as a little preview.
• Daniel Bryan is out for the Triple Threat No. 1 contender's match. King Corbin cuts a promo on his way to the ring and Roman Reigns comes out to attack him. Commercial break. Back from the commercial, Corbin is complaining that the match should be postponed for another week. (Really, WWE? You're going to be 20 minutes into this episode and keep stalling? You really didn't want to work much..)
• The New Day and Braun Strowman defeated Cesaro, Sami Zayn and Shinsuke Nakamura by pinfall. As a victory celebration, Big E and Kofi Kingston convince Strowman to dance. #GetTheseHips 
• Kayla Braxton says The Miz and Daniel Bryan will face each other without Corbin tonight. (They're overbooking this, because you know something will happen later)
• Backstage, Mandy Rose wants Sonya Deville to be ringside for her. Sonya points out that Mandy wasn't there for her last week and Mandy blames it on Otis getting sweat on her dress. Otis comes over to give Mandy his mom's homemade fruit cake as an apology about getting sweat all over her dress.
• Carmella defeated Mandy Rose by pinfall
• Another Sheamus vignette about how he's coming back to beat up the little guys who aren't worthy of being champion.
• No. 1 Contender's Match: The Miz and Daniel Bryan fight to a no-contest because Corbin's crew attacks them. (Told you it would get messed up)
• After Corbin finds out that Reigns has been asked to leave the building, he says he'd be able to compete.
• Lacey Evans was on A Moment of Bliss. They just recap last week and Evans says Sasha Banks and Bayley aren't good role models and she's ready for a fight. Blah blah blah. Dana Brooke (who was supposed to be Lacey's tag team partner) was attacked backstage by Bayley and Banks, who dragged her out.
• Bayley and Sasha Banks defeated Dana Brooke and Lacey Evans by submission (Brooke tapped out to Banks) 
• Dolph Ziggler hits on Mandy backstage and stomps on the fruitcake that Otis gave her. After the commercial break and a vignette about Mustafa Ali, Otis stumbles across the smashed cake.
• Triple Threat No. 1 Contender's Match: Daniel Bryan defeated The Miz and Daniel Bryan and King Corbin by submission (The Miz tapped out) to earn a title shot against The Fiend at Royal Rumble

Tonight's episode of WWE 205 Live for December 27, 2019 will be part 2 of the "best of 2019" recap, rather than any new matches.

Do you have any favorite moments or matches that happened in the cruiserweight division this year? If so, let us know in the comments section!

Welcome to another edition of Triple Threat from Smark Out Moment, where three of us get together to discuss three questions based on one big topic going down in the week of professional wrestling.

This week, Dallas Allsopp, Ben Williams and Bodeen Green will be giving their opinions on the best matches, moments and performers within WWE in 2019.

WWE has had an up and down year, however they are always able to put on matches that will live long in the memory. Considering NXT is a part of WWE, there is always the potential to have a 5 star classic, which only motivates the main roster to beat this. But what was the best match? Who was the best performer?

The WWE United States Championship has changed hands as Andrade defeated Rey Mysterio to win the title at the Madison Square Garden house show on December 26, 2019.

My immediate reaction: Very cool! I figured Andrade had a chance to get his hands on that belt sooner or later, but I thought they'd save it for Raw or Royal Rumble. Sometimes, it's good to do title changes at house shows to remind people that "anything can happen" and to please the MSG audience and help mend some of those fences. This is neat. I'm curious how they will follow it up on the next episode of Raw.

Click the following links for the full list of title changes for this year and the list of current champions and my predictions for who will take the belts away from them.

This week's episode of WWE NXT UK was a recap of the best of 2019 for the brand. Next week will be the remaining material recorded at the Hull tapings from November 16th, featuring Ilja Dragunov vs. Alexander Wolfe in a No Disqualification match, Kassius Ohno vs. Ligero and more.

Welcome to another edition of Wednesday Night War from Smark Out Moment, where we compare this week's episodes of AEW Dynamite and WWE NXT and determine which one of the two was the better show.

WEDNESDAY NIGHT WAR:

AEW DYNAMITE vs. NXT

The WWE may have their Slammy Awards, but here at Smark Out Moment we like to take an even closer look at what happened throughout the year and award not just the best, but also point out the worst, and that applies to both what World Wrestling Entertainment had to offer.