WWE issued the following today: STAMFORD, Conn., August 9, 2007 – WWE®â<80><99>s â<80><9c>Monday Night RAWâ<80> on USA delivered 5,266,000 viewers on August 6, its best rating in the third quarter and a 10 percent increase over its quarter-to-date average (based on Nielsen Media Research, Galaxy Explorer 7/2/07-8/6/07, live + same day Persons 2+ impressions; excludes 7/30/07). â<80><9c>The return of the Mr. McMahon® character and Triple H®, combined with some interesting new storylines, will grow our ratings momentum for RAW as we approach our SummerSlam® pay-per-view,â<80> said Geof Rochester, WWEâ<80><99>s Executive Vice President, Marketing. The SummerSlam® pay-per-view on Sunday, August 26, will be broadcast live from Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, N.J., starting at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT. The August 6 ratings results come a week after a Nielsen equipment malfunction apparently resulted in under-reported ratings for the July 30 episode of â<80><9c>Monday Night RAW.â<80> This malfunction affected all USA Network ratings from 6:00 a.m. on July 30 through 1:21 p.m. on August 1. This resulted in the ratings being reported incorrectly for RAW and other USA programs that aired during the affected time period.
Dave Meltzer is reporting that Bobby Lashley is estimated to be out of action for three to five months. While he did not have a torn rotator cuff as originally thought, he had other injuries that were significant enough that they could not be fixed through arthroscopic surgery. If Lashley would have had a torn rotator cuff, he would have been out even more time. We will bring you more details as they become available.
WWE actually announced the release of a developmental wrestler on the company website, which is quite rare. The person released was Tomasso Whitney, a wrestler from Ohio Valley Wrestling. He was signed earlier in the year to a developmental contract out of the Massachusetts-based Chaotic Wrestling indy league. Whitney’s claim to be wrestling fame was playing the attorney of Muhammad Hassan in his feud with Undertaker two summers ago. The reason they put him out on television is because this was on the heels of the previous week’s controversial angle where five masked men armed with clubs and piano wire jumped Undertaker and beat him at a SmackDown taping. Afterward, the masked men lifted Daivari above their heads and carried him away. Three days later, hours before that week’s show was scheduled to air, the London bombings took place. WWE didn’t edit out the segment and UPN pressured WWE to keep Hassan off of their network, effectively removing him from SmackDown. To explain Hassan’s disappearance from the show, Hassan’s “attorney,” who was Whitney, came out to say that Hassan wouldnâ<80><99>t appear on SmackDown until after he defeated Undertaker at the upcoming Great American Bash pay-per-view. Whitney was subsequently chokeslammed and tombstoned by Undertaker. Hassan never appeared on WWE programming again, and neither did Whitney for that matter.
