Latest WWE UK television ratings

The latest UK television ratings for the week ending March 15 saw WWE Raw on March 9 draw 67,000 viewers for its live airing (1am GMT), up 32,000 on last week.

A replay on Thursday evening drew 40,000 - down 2,000 on last week.

Smackdown on Friday, March 12 took a ratings dive running against the BBC’s evening of programming for Comic Relief. The show did 40,000, down 39,000 on the previous week.

A replay the following morning drew 35,000 viewers, up 9,000 on the previous week.

No ratings data for TNA or UFC was available this week as neither company had programming ranking in the top 10 on Bravo or Setanta Sports respectively.

Thanks as always to Ian Hamilton for his help, who has an interview with Dave Hebner going out next Friday (April 3).

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Heat Between WWE Legends, Austin Gets a New Project, More

Source: PWInsider.com

- WWE has released new t-shirts for 12 Rounds, R-Truth and a brand new "Hell's Gates" shirt for The Undertaker.

- There is some sort of heat going on right now between WWE Hall of Famer Greg Valentine and The Honky Tonk Man after Valentine no-showed a European tour where he and Honky were supposed to team together against Demolition. Valentine went on tour to visit Troops in Afghanistan instead. Honky was saying on the European tour that Valentine needed to stay away from him at WrestleMania or there would be problems. First it was Ric Flair and now Greg Valentine that Honky is having problems with.

- After finishing work on Sylvester Stallone's The Expendables, WWE Hall of Famer Stone Cold Steve Austin will begin work on The Stranger, a movie that will be shot in Canada by the same production company that did work on the movie Damages, which Austin is also a part of. According to Moviehole.net, The Stranger is "a layered action picture in the vein of “The Fugitive” and “The Bourne Identity." A theatrical release date for Damages, which also stars Laura Vandervoort of Smallville and the new ABC version of "V" is expected to be announced shortly.

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WWE News: John Cena's "12 Rounds" to open in least number of theaters among new movies this weekend

By James Caldwell, PWTorch.com assistant editor

WWE Studios's new "12 Rounds" movie starring John Cena will open in 2,200 theaters on Friday, which is the fewest among the new movie releases this weekend.

"The Haunting in Connecticut" will open in 2,600 theaters and DreamWorks's "Monsters vs. Aliens" opens in 3,500 theaters.

"12 Rounds" will face a tough challenge to win the opening weekend while also competing against the third weekend of "The Rock" Dwayne Johnson's family movie.

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Recent WWE Attendance/Ratings, Big WWE Mistake, Cena

Tristan sent this in: I just thought I'd point out that John Cena is not the only one apparently wanting Cena/Rock to happen. In the latest issue of WWE Magazine, in their fantasy match-up section, there is a page hyping a John Cena/Rock match. They go on to say "It could still happen!"

Drew Wilson sent this in: I thought I'd bring it to your attention that on WWE.com the headline for the Sheik and Destroy article that is up right now says "'WWE.com's Legacy Moment of the Week' highlights the gimmick battle royal from Wrestlemania X-Seven a match that saw Doink the Clown, Hillbilly Jim, and Papa Shango among others, until only one "Iron" man remained." (Meaning The Iron Shiek of course) The part that I found interesting was that Papa Shango (Charles Wright) was not present in this match or in any of his incarnations for that matter. As a matter of fact he was in a six man tag match earlier that night as The Goodfather in Right to Censor. Thought I would point out this WWE "botch."

WWE attendance figures courtesy of The Wrestling Observer Newsletter:

3/20 in Rolla, MO (Raw/ECW): no figures known.
3/21 in Topeka, KS (Raw/ECW): 5,500 fans.
3/21 in North Little Rock, AR : 6,000 fans.
3/22 in Wichita, KS (Raw/ECW): no figures known.
3/22 in West Plains, MO (Smackdown): no figures known.

Here is a breakdown for the latest WWE and TNA television ratings:

TNA iMPACT! on 3/19 drew a final 1.3 cable rating (or a 1.34) with 1.8 million viewers. This ended up being another ratings record for the show on Spike TV with the previous record being a 1.33. Quarter hours were: 1.30, 1.25, 1.31, 1.35, 1.37, 1.38, 1.31 and 1.45.

ECW on Sci Fi on 3/17 drew a final 1.4 cable rating (or a 1.35). No word on total viewership.

WWE Monday Night Raw on 3/16 drew a final 3.6 cable rating (or a 3.62). No word on total viewership.

WWE Friday Night Smackdown on 3/13 drew a final and lower 1.9 broadcast rating. Total viewership was not known. This was the lowest rating for the show on MyNetworkTV in quite a while.