Backstage News On The Miz’s Affiliation With Ric Flair, Great News For WWE’s TV Ratings, More

– While The Miz is still using the Figure Four leg lock as one of his finishing moves, f4wonline.com reports that the storyline of him being Flair’s new protege is probably done.

– In a move that will eventually have a big positive impact on WWE’s television ratings, the Hollywood Reporter reports that starting in September, Nielsen Media Research will begin accounting for viewership from streaming services such as Netflix and Hulu, as well as viewership from iPads and other mobile devices. Considering WWE’s partnership with Hulu Plus and the amount of people that watch clips of WWE television content on Youtube, WWE should see a substantial increase in their Nielsen ratings, which will in turn increase the amount of revenue they can command from advertisers.

Earlier this year, it was announced that Nielsen is partnering with Twitter to incorporate social media activity into the weekly Nielsen ratings as well. Between video streaming and social media activity being factored in, WWE’s strong embrace of emerging technologies and social media is about to pay off big time.