source: Wrestling Observer Newsletter
— World Wrestling Entertainment released preliminary buy figures for the Judgment Day pay-per-view on May 17th in Chicago with the event clocking in at 221,000 worldwide buys. It is not clear how many of the buys were from North America, but based on past figures it would likely be between 128,000 and 135,000.
The event saw Edge go over Jeff Hardy for the World Heavyweight Championship as a result of Matt Hardy’s interference, as well as Randy Orton vs. Batista for the WWE Championship, John Cena vs. Big Show, and Rey Mysterio vs. Chris Jericho for the Intercontinental Championship.
The figures are down 12% from last year’s show, which drew 251,000 worldwide buys and 165,000 domestic buys for an event headlined by Triple H vs. Randy Orton in a cage match, Edge vs. Undertaker for the held up World title, John Cena vs. John Bradshaw Layfield, and Shawn Michaels vs. Chris Jericho.
— “The Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase drew rave reviews for his work as the special guest General Manager of Raw this past week. As a wrestler in the 1980s, DiBiase was known for his tremendous ability to get angles over.
— Click here for Ricky Ortiz’ latest video message, which has him discussing his match with Finlay on last week’s episode of Friday Night SmackDown.
See video of new WWE character “Pretty Ricky” (>)