19/11/19 WWE Backstage Number Is In And A Few Notes About Punk's Rumble Winner Odds

ShowBuzzDaily.com has published the viewership numbers for the cable TV shows from last night and WWE Backstage had an audience of 180,000.

The number is 80,000 more than the show did last week.

With it being the first episode since it was announced that CM Punk had joined the show, Kambi published a market in which customers could gamble whether or not it would break the audience record that was set with an unofficial first episode that aired on FS1 following a baseball game last month.

The number to beat was 597,000. Therefore, the winning selection was 'No'. It started off as a 3/5 favourite on Sunday and was cut into 1/2 and then 11/25 on Monday.

'Yes' drifted from 6/5 to 8/5 in that period, but the late adjustments were in its favour as it was taken down to 13/10 yesterday evening.

The move for 'Yes' coincided with a certain contingent of people associated with wrestling reacting to Punk's tease that he was not going to hold anything back.

I didn't watch the show in its entirety, but I did catch the part when Renee Young asked Punk whether he intends to return to the ring.

Young even mentioned the Survivor Series being in Chicago and also suggested the possibility of Punk making a surprise appearance at the Royal Rumble. As soon as she said that, I thought 'that should mean he isn't going to be in it for sure'.

Punk repeated that he was not employed by WWE and that bridges would have to be rebuilt between he and the company.

The bottom line: Punk didn't rule out a return, but I would be surprised if he does so at the Royal Rumble.

As for the Rumble outright market - Sky Bet has now moved Punk into joint-favouritism. When I last wrote about his Punk and the Rumble almost a week ago, he was 7/1 joint-second. His price was down to 6/1 by Friday and was at 5/1 on Monday.

He is now at 9/2 alongside Roman Reigns.