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WWE House Shows lately...

Scott,

I came across this card at a house show that happened yesterday in Tennessee...
to

1. The Uso's beat The Prime Time Players.
2. Justin Gabriel defeated Heath Slater and Hunico in a Triple Threat match.
3. Curtis Axel defeated Sheamus by count out.
4. Layla and Alicia Fox beat A.J. Lee and Aksana.
5. The Great Khali defeated Jinder Mahal.
6. Alberto Del Rio defeated Big E Langston (w/Dolph Ziggler, A.J. Lee).

Is that not the WORST house show lineup you've seen in some time? Who the heck would PAY to see Big E vs. Del Rio VI? No stars. Looks like an episode of Superstars, and a bad one at that. I actually find this type of show insulting to the paying customers. Even if they are in a no name city, WWE should still send a couple stars. But maybe I'm overshooting here considering WWE has a very limited amount of stars today. 

But check out Curtis Axel continuing his awesome non-losing streak!  

Yeah, Dave was talking about the house show situation in the last Observer.  Basically they're wanting to groom someone to head up the B-Team to prevent situations like the above one.  Del Rio was supposed to be the guy but obviously that's not working, and now the plan appears to be CM Punk as the B headliner with Cena doing the A shows.   Here's the operative passage:

"But as noted before, Lesnar vs. Punk is an obvious direction but the wind is blowing toward Punk as the face. It looks like, if Orton goes heel, which has been the plan since late last year, that on the road, Team Orton may become Team Punk and Cena and Punk become the two house show headliners as faces. The feeling is they need a major face to lead each touring brand, and one of the reasons Orton hasn't turned yet is because they didn't think either Sheamus or Del Rio had gotten over enough to be that face, even though both at times were planned for the spot."

There was a show here in Saskatchewan with a card so bad I didn't even bother driving down to Regina for the cheap tickets, with something like Sheamus v. Wade Barrett as the main event.  They need to start downsizing to large halls like in the 90s again, because it's gonna get embarrassing.  

Comments

  1. Oh my GOD. Great Khali Vs Jinder Mahal? Fucking hell

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  2. This is EXACTLY the type of thing everyone for years said would happen if they didn't get off their ass and make some new stars and/or revitalize their creative direction. We've been at this point of seemingly an eternity, where only a small (and I stress *small*) handful of guys mean a damn and the rest of the roster is comprised of geeks and interchangeable nobodies.

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  3. Jesus. Wow. Just...wow. Who the hell would pay money to see any of those matches?


    In the meantime, I've actually started watching TNA after weeks, if not months, of Scott giving it a thumbs up. And wow, it's like night and day. Champions actually win their matches and look good. The belts don't like blinged out pieces of crap a rapper might wear. And the pacing on the show is crisp with very little time wasted.


    In just one episode, I'm more interested in watching more TNA rather than feeling forced to wade through 3 hours of crap in the hopes of catching maybe 30 minutes of good stuff.

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  4. What's worse is that WWE has been in this kind of position before. We were getting sick of Hogan and for awhile, we were sick of Austin/Rock/Undertaker/Triple H always on top. But in both cases, the undercard had guys that we saw as future stars and potential main eventers. Hogan's era had Bret and Michaels. Austin's era had Cena, Orton, Batistia, etc.


    Who do we have right now that's in a midcard position that could honestly be pushed further?

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  5. What was the card on the A loop that night?

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  6. Funny you mention that because I've recently decided to give TNA a try again after a few years, based on some of the recent feedback. Based on what I've seen thus far I can't say I'm fully intrigued yet, but simple things like it being different than the tired WWE formula, an entertaining world champion, titles that mean shit and a solid undercard at least gives me something to watch once a week.


    But like I said, it's far from perfect and I got a host of problems with them, but I'll spare you that particular rant.

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  7. Oh, there are certainly things about it that make it far from perfect, I'll 100% agree with you there. I'm by no means saying it's perfect, but right now, its product as a whole is certainly better than WWE these days.


    How about a Reader's Digest version of the problems you notice? Maybe something in short, point form?

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  8. You got that straight. Flippin' nobody is on tap to step up and replace the old guard, which is why they are seemingly going to have to keep bringing in former talents (the "real" stars), the tired current main eventers and film actors to fill their Wrestlemania card, the only show that matters now, apparently.

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  9. I know, right?! One good match out of the whole card!?


    ...wait.

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  10. Th guy who went to the show said he really enjoyed it at 411

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  11. Start phasing out house shows and start limiting live cards to about 150 shows a year, that number includes Monday Night Raw,Smackdown tapings and PPV's. That way the roster wont be worked to death anymore and company morale will go way up. There's no need for so many house shows in an era of 7 plus hours of WWE programming every week.


    The international tours can stay, but with over a hundred plus dates per year to tour north america, there's simply no need to run these rinky dink house shows any longer.

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  12. Other than money of course.

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  13. How much money can they really be making running Lethbridge or Bumfuck Mississippi?

    When your talent roster breathes a sigh of relief when they blow out a knee just so they can stay home for a lil while you've got problems. The days of Mr.Wonderful saying sayonara to his right arm cause he was making so much cash working against Hogan are long long gone.

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  14. That's not too bad. I went to a WWF house show in 1992 headlined by Nailz vs. Bossman and Kamala vs. Undertaker.

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  15. Yeah, I mean if they got 1,500-2,000 paid for that I'd be stunned. Don't know what average ticket prices would be, but there's no way that show made money even if the meager payouts to the workers weren't counted.

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  16. Gladly.

    1) The mere idea of guys like Sting (who apparently is aged to the point he has to wear a shirt to wrestle) and Hogan are still dicking around my television in 2013 is beyond insulting. It's one of the biggest problems I have with the current American wrestling scene in general, not just TNA. Hogan, Sting, Triple H, Undertaker, John Cena, Kane, Big Show, Randy Orton...all these guys (to varying degrees) are boring and annoying the shit out of me because they have been around so long and won't go away or at least freshen themselves up a little. In TNA's case, I see that as a huge obstacle in gaining more credibility in the market. Bully Ray vs. Hulk Hogan is apparently on tap to headline their big show this year. Hulk Hogan. In 2013.

    2) Much like WWE but to a lesser degree, I find TNA's shows still lack that element of excitement, importance and immediacy that makes the program fun and interesting to watch. I think today's wrestling programming formula needs a serious overhaul - almost nothing feels like it matters, like scanning an online recap of the show would give you the same satisfaction. It's mostly just segment after segment after segment, with one segment there just as an excuse to get to the next segment. A perfect recent example I saw was the introduction of Rampage Jackson. Nothing particularly *wrong* with it, but the entire segment played like, "Ok, here's Rampage, he's gonna talk, here comes Kurt, Kurt and Rampage staredown, NEXT SEGMENT. No real excitement, no urgency, nothing that gave you the impression that what you were watching *mattered*.



    3) Following my second point, remember, for example, the old days of Monday Night Raw, specifically the opening? Music cranking, sirens blaring, kickass intro video, crowd going bonkers, Vince howling about God-knows-what...even if you had zero idea who was wrestling that night (or even if you weren't a wrestling fan at all), you knew the party was ON and shit was going down tonight, all live on USA, and if you touched that dial you were a fucking idiot. That feeling isn't there anymore, and it hasn't been for an incredibly long time. The Monday Night Wars rejuvenated that feeling, and WWE even brought it back to some extent around mid decade 2000s, but ever since then no wrestling promotion has been able to convince you that their shows are worth tuning in for or any real FUN. And that may be the biggest hole right there: fun. Most of these shows aren't any fun to watch.


    I think I went a little long there...

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  17. WHEN I WENT TO MY FIRST EVER WRESTLING SHOW, THIS IS WHAT I SAW:

    WWF @ Ft. Lauderdale, FL - National Car Rental Center - February 13, 1999 (16,724)
    Goldust pinned Al Snow
    Mideon pinned Steve Blackman
    Billy Gunn pinned Test
    Gangrel & Edge defeated the Blue Meanie & Bob Holly
    The Undertaker defeated Kane
    Luna pinned Jackie
    WWF Tag Team Champions Jeff Jarrett & Owen Hart defeated Val Venis & the Godfather
    WWF European Champion X-Pac defeated D-Lo Brown
    Steve Austin & WWF World Champion Mankind defeated the Rock & the Big Bossman

    AND IT WAS FUCKING AWEEEEEEEESOME. MY BUDDY AND I KEPT TALKING ABOUT HOW THIS WAS A PPV CALIBER CARD. WE WERE SO THRILLED TO SEE IT.

    I WENT TO A WWE HOUSE SHOW LAST FRIDAY AND THIS IS WHAT I SAW:

    * Tons of Funk beat Rhodes Scholars

    * NXT Title: Bo Dallas beat Leo Kruger

    * Ted DiBiase vs. Curt Hawkins ended in a no contest when The Shield came out and destroyed them both.

    * The Miz, Daniel Bryan, and Randy Orton beat The Shield by DQ
    Intermission time.

    * Bray Wyatt (and his family) beat R-Truth

    * Zack Ryder beat Antonio Cesaro
    Brad Maddox then came out and announced that Zack Ryder isn't done and that he has a match against him.

    * Zack Ryder went on to beat Brad Maddox in like 2 seconds.



    *John Cena defeated Ryback in a Tables Match.


    HONESTLY, IT WAS PRETTY BORING. THE REVIEWER AT 411 SAID IT WAS A SOLID SHOW BUT THERE WAS NOTHING ABOUT THE SHOW THAT ENTERTAINED ME. THE GUYS WEREN'T GIVING IT THEIR ALL AT ALL. A THOUSAND ARM LOCKS, A MILLION REST HOLDS, LOTS OF STALLING IN EVERY MATCH.


    IT'S FUNNY BECAUSE I WAS LISTENING TO AUSTIN'S PODCAST AND HE TALKS ABOUT THAT THE GUYS TODAY DON'T WATCH OTHER PEEP'S MATCHE. DUE TO THAT, EVERYONE STARTS DOING THE SAME SHIT. THE ARMLOCK! AND THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED AT THE SHOW.

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  18. Wrestlers get paid to work house shows. They sell merch. If they lost money, they wouldn't do shows. Plus guys get experience working live crowds.

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  19. Old guys have been working past there prime forever. Lou Thesz, Crusher, Dick The Bruiser, Original Sheik, Bruno the list goes on and on.

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  20. Exactly. I think Scott touched on the fact that every show now is just simply buying time until Mania.

    I also think the problem is that the WWE has continued to find new avenues to make money (New Video Game/TV Deals, Various Merch, Fruity Pebbles), that has little to do with making an exciting, engaging product.

    I even read that Vince wasn't even sweating the 2.6 Raw rating. He's fine with medioctrity and we should be too, appartently.

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  21. 1) Definitely agree. Though watching it Impact myself today, I think they could easily push Joe back into the main event scene. But yeah, I'm tired of the "legends" hogging the spotlight. Didn't we JUST have James Storm and Bobby Rude (forgive me if that's wrong; I'm still learning names) headlining? Why can't we see them push those newer names more?


    2) Yeah, I can sort of agree with that. While I wasn't glued to the set like I was back then, I did like that they had the pacing of the older shows. They went from segment to segment pretty quick...maybe almost too quick.


    3) Definitely. You know what I thought might be fun to add for the live crowd? Weekly contests for best sign or best costume or something. Do things to get the crowd back into it. Hell, look at the stuff Heyman did in ECW, like buy hundreds of foam heads for Al Snow. Or even just last year (or before?), with Cody Rhodes and the paper bags. That shit was hilarious!

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  22. Eh, I don't think there's anything wrong with merchandising deals. That's always been there. Remember Mankind doing commercials for Chef Boyardee? It's part-and-parcel with the fame.


    But you're right that they've been on auto-pilot for years. They're basically able to coast comfortably based purely on their global brand name, regardless of who's champ.

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  23. Why wouldn't they do the shows as a loss leader? It's the talent that gets stiffed on the payouts for shit attendance. The office could care less, they're not there so if they get to promote their product to a few thousand people (half of which paid) what do they care? It's still a much smaller white elephant than some of their non-wrestling ventures.

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  24. That does seem like a solid show on paper though. Cena/Ryback may not be my thing but there at least big names. You got appearances by Cesaro, Wyatt, and Rhodes Scholars. Plus a tag match with the Shield and Bryan! Seems like good times. Maybe the guys weren't bringing it that night or it was booked poorly?

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  25. I gave them a try last year in the leadup to BFG but gave up when the A&8s bullshit started taking over. Maybe I'll try it again now that WWE has lost my interest...

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  26. I think things have changed in teh TV era. There's no reason for a guy who's 50+ to be regularly headlining PPVs for one of the two major national companies. A territory/indy fed? Sure. But on weekly TV for WWE or TNA? No thanks.

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  27. This. Guys like Drew McIntyre, Yoshi Tatsu, Zack Ryder, these guys are making their living off the house shows. Get a few hundred a night to work a short match. These guys aren't getting the PPV bonuses, this is their money. The boys make a little money, the office sells a few shirts, the arenas they work with sell a few boxes of popcorn and make a pile of money on parking, a few kids get some happy memories. As long as the company doesn't lose their shirts on this they'll keep doing it because it makes so many people they like to do business with money.



    Even if you're a huge business like WWE you gotta grease some wheels and the house show circuit does just that.

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  28. Your_Favourite_AssholeJune 9, 2013 at 4:33 PM

    ' It's one of the biggest problems I have with the current American wrestling scene in general,'


    what are the japanese and mexican scenes like?

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  29. Your_Favourite_AssholeJune 9, 2013 at 4:34 PM

    'Hogan's era had Bret and Michaels.'

    so basically hogans era had the dude from Poison

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  30. Your_Favourite_AssholeJune 9, 2013 at 4:36 PM

    plus it has that epic 'they were partners for a few months cause of blackmail and family goings on and stuff' backstory

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  31. Your_Favourite_AssholeJune 9, 2013 at 4:37 PM

    'WWE House Shows lately...'


    this should be a new cable access show that follows chelsea lately

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  32. Not a clue. I suppose I just didn't want to assume the entire world ran like WWE and TNA.

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  33. The BFG series was a great hook for TNA's programming for months last year, not coincidentally coinciding with their hot creative streak over that six-month span. Hopefully it sparks some good TV this year as well.

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  34. Ryder wins two matches on one show? That road agent is getting fired. Also, how epically disappointing is it that Cesaro is now getting jobbed on house shows to Zach Ryder?

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  35. This company has seven hours of national TV time per week along with a strong internet presence, yet can't get the wrestlers who do the lion's share of touring on TV to establish who they are and maybe pick up a couple of wins? They've got an embarrassment of riches. I'd love to see a gentleman's wager between Vince and a booker, Raven for argument's sake where Raven got one TV show and guys like Justin Gabriel, the PTPs etc and his job was to get them over to pop house show attendance. Think the 'alternate universe' that was late WCWSN. I'll bet he could do it.

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  36. I hate you. So much. :p

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  37. It doesn't say where this was though. My first WWF show was headlined by the epic confrontation of Razor Ramon defending the IC title against Quebecer Pierre, with no hope of even Jacques interfering because he had "retired" on the previous night's show. Did I care? No, because I lived in bumblefuck nowhere (still do) and I was just excited to see WWF live. Although in 97 they came back there for a Raw so at least we got something out of it.

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  38. Do WWE even advertise house shows anymore? I can't remember to be honest. I know TNA has a rundown every week, but unsure re: WWE. Maybe they could toss in some Sean Mooney action on their shows.

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  39. Your_Favourite_AssholeJune 9, 2013 at 5:20 PM

    its ok dude. mama's fallen angel, i'm just the thorn to your rose.


    but enough of the mushy stuff. i aint lookin for nuthin but a good time and i want action tonight satisfaction all right, so babee talk dirty to me

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  40. God know with three hours of prime time on TV they couldn't waist 30 seconds plugging their house shows. That would be one less time they could plug twitter, THE APP or one of their stupid "Did you know..." segments!

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  41. In the mid 80's, there was a huge blizzard that ripped through town on the night of a WWF show. Many of the scheduled wrestlers couldn't make it, and the main event became Randy Savage defending the IC title against Iron Mike Sharpe (both heels) In front of barely a thousand fans, they tore down the house in a four star classic that made the three hour drive home ten miles away worth it.

    Any crew is capable of putting on a great show for the fans, if they put their mind to it.

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  42. I thought Cesaro won that match?

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  43. Unless this show was held in a high school gym, this is an underwhelming card.

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  44. This worst part about this? They want to preserve Axel's winning streak but won't even legitimately put him over Sheamus?

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  45. Last year, I was excited for a house show in Lexington, KY because it was supposed to be headlined by a Punk-Bryan submission match. However, that got changed to Big Show-Cena in a cage. Let's just say that I hated that decision. Aside from Cena, there wasn't much else on the show. The Miz had the match of the night with Zack Ryder, but the rest was junk. As the questioner noted, it seemed like an episode of Superstars. I left prior to the main event I was so down on the show and I never leave things early.


    Compared to the previous show I'd been to in 2005 that had Edge, Ric Flair, Shawn Michaels, Shelton Benjamin, and the first ever Cena-Triple H match, I would agree with that the WWE is really in need of some draws. Everyone outside of Cena, Punk, and Bryan isn't really a unique draw.

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  46. I'm surprised Cena is still working house shows.

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  47. Thumbs up for this. Back in 1997, they spent 1-2 minutes on each RAW plugging upcoming house shows. They don't even run MSG anymore on a regular basis, right? I remember Dok Hendrix hyping those cards in the NY area broadcasts all the time.

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  48. Not to mention that Sharpe probably had some incentive to put on a good match because if he could wrestle a good match with Savage he might show some potential to the brass in the back. Can't have that nowadays. Good to hear they they were true professionals and gave it a great effort for the paying customers, though.

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  49. That's nothing. I went to a house show headlined by Jim Powers vs Steve Lombardi and The Conquistadors vs Barry O and Mr. X.

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  50. WWE is already working way less days than ever. Guys get better through working, and at least now they're a lot smarter about how they schedule them.

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  51. I agree. I like the BFG Series.

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  52. If Cena doesn't work house shows they'd draw flies. Like seriously, he is by far their top draw. At the house shows there are TONS of kids/families in Cena gear.

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  53. Yoshi Tatsu gets paid by WWE Japan to write a blog for their website.

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  54. Yeah, last year's house show I went to and the one a year prior to that I won free tickets to courtesy of a radio contest nearly put me to sleep since every match used tons of restholds. Each one only had about 1 good match, although Mark Henry was crazy over in Bowling Green, KY. He was so good at keeping the crowd engaged in a bad match against Jack Swagger that it turned me into a big fan of his.

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  55. All props to Sharpe, but 1986 Savage could carry anyone to a four star match if he really wanted to.

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  56. House shows also allow workers to experiment with some new stuff before it debuts on TV. One of the things I prefer about house shows is the matches are longer, but also the wrestlers interact a little more with the fans since things are not on camera. I remember Tyson Tomko fighting Viscera at a house show I attended years back and stealing a guy's hot dog and offering it to Viscera for example.

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  57. Definitely agree on the "fun" factor.

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  58. And as Scott pointed out in a review years ago, on Coliseum tapes you could see that Bret/Shawn were the future because they had those "Coliseum exclusive" singles matches against other singles wrestlers.

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  59. ANOTHER NOTABLE DIFFERENCE WAS THE LACK OF CROWD FOR THE RECENT HOUSE SHOW I WENT TO.


    THE FIRST SHOW I WENT TO, IT WAS SOLD OUT. LAST FRIDAY, WE GOT 100 SECTION SEATS FOR 22 DOLLARS. I WOULD SAY THE ARENA WAS ABOUT 40% FULL. I NEVER SEEN A WWE SHOW WITH SO FEW PEOPLE IN ATTENDANCE

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  60. NAH, MAN, HE JOBBED. SHOCKED ME TOO

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  61. I WOULDN'T COUNT CESARO, WYATT, OR RHODES SCHOLARS AS BIG NAMES AT ALL. I WILL TELL YOU THIS THOUGH. CENA AND RYBACK HAVE REAL GOOD CHEMISTRY TOGETHER. I EXPECT A SOLID MATCH AT PAYBACK.

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  62. The way it works here is that if they're running anywhere local (LA market will get ads for San Diego, LA, Orange County, Inland Empire) they'll have ads purchased during raw/smackdown. Don't know if it works like that everywhere. Would probably just be more efficient and get them more ad revenue to just make that a part of the broadcast like they used to but whatever.

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  63. Not only that if Cena was advertised for a show and can't make it for injury, they actually offer refunds. And lots of people take them up on it. Even during that goofy angle where Cena was fired they had to have him work under a mask at house shows as "Juan Cena" just to get people to show up.


    Which is basically everything wrong with WWE in 3 sentences.

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  64. Curtis Axel = Ted DiBiase Jr.

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  65. No. Curtis Axel is Curt Hennig's son. Ted Dibiase Jr is Ted Dibiase's son.

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  66. What is wrong with WWE is that they have a superstar that people will pay to see?

    Are they better off with no Cena at all?

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  67. Scream09_HartKillerJune 9, 2013 at 7:21 PM

    So we'll be allowed to like Punk again soon? That's nice of them.

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  68. Scream09_HartKillerJune 9, 2013 at 7:25 PM

    It's easier to put together a strong card when you have a number of people fans give a fuck about. Which is why they should give us a reason to give a fuck about more people.

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  69. They need Lee Marshall.

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  70. Scream09_HartKillerJune 9, 2013 at 7:26 PM

    I think the problem is that they've established John Cena is WWE so much that if he's not on the show they feel they need to offer refunds - the rest of the roster is so beneath John Cena that you should literally get your money back if John Cena isn't there.

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  71. Rochester, NY seems to be on the schedule every December. When WWE are in town, you can't help but notice. It's all over.

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  72. Ryan's an upstate NYer like myself. I honestly never heard of WWE coming that far north until 2005... and that was my first live show, just before SummerSlam.

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  73. Instead of yelling 4 times as loud as any wrestler should on a simple arm bar like usual... he cranked it to 11 that night.

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  74. Downvoted because Chelsea Handler should not be on television.

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  75. " Basically they're wanting to groom someone to head up the B-Team to prevent situations like the above one."


    Shouldn't that be the IC/US Champ??

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  76. The latter played tic tac toe for an encore.

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  77. Yeah, I don't think merchandising is the problem either.
    I guess what I should have said is that they have found a way to make hundreds of millions a year without improving the product. Thus, there is no real hurry to "make things better."

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  78. NJPW is kicking so much ass right now.

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  79. Exactly this. The only thing I'd add is how shocked I am that people actually take them up on the refund offer showing that despite getting 2-3 hours of entertainment, it's just not worth it to people if Cena doesn't perform. That's the most frightening thing to me, not that he's such a good draw in his demographic but that his demographic sees literally nothing else of value in WWE besides him.

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  80. World Heavyweight Champ*

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  81. Scream09_HartKillerJune 9, 2013 at 8:24 PM

    They're not really conditioned to care about a good match if they don't care about the characters - and they're given little reason to care about most of the characters. Even a guy like Wade Barrett. Okay, he's on tv every week. He doesn't do anything terribly evil and he doesn't win so often that I have to be there to see him lose. If anything I probably wouldn't enjoy seeing two guys who trade wins in 3 matches on Raw going 20 minutes....but they shouldn't offer the refunds at the end of the show. If you don't want to watch because Cena's not there, get your money back and go home. A lot of people will get their money back just because it's offered.

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  82. I've always thought it would be interesting to see them run smaller venues, charge more, and put on really special "wrestling" shows. Especially with the roster they have now. The could run Punk/Bryan as the main. Let them go for 45 and put on a great match. Cesaro and Ohno/Rhodes Scholars, Dolph/Tyson Kidd, put Sin Cara out there and let him do what he is actually good at (against Justin Gabriel maybe? not really sure who could really work the lucha style). Let Generico/Pac open the show. Indie wrestling geeks will travel across the country to see a show. If you brought a lineup like that within a few hundred miles they would fall all over themselves to pay 90-125 bucks to see it. Could fill out the rest of smallish venues (4-5k range) on the WWE name alone.

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  83. They offer the refund so they don't have to listen to screechy parents complain. Cena's payout is probably the lion's share anyway, so I'm sure they can afford to buy off parents when he doesn't show.

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  84. They NEVER advertise for Syracuse. I usually hear about 'Cuse house shows like the week of when they're dumping tickets on radio stations. Chikara

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  85. TBF, they were across the border in Cornwall, ON when I saw them. They once ran a house show in Ogdensburg though, until the local liason ripped them off and there was a lawsuit.

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  86. That's the worst thing? Then they aren't trying hard enough!

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  87. I know Vinny Mac never would, but he should seriously consider canning the entire house show business for the foreseeable future. How much money could it possibly make? They rented the Norfolk Scope a few months ago and put on a dismal show. Not even Little Johnny Critic wrote 411mania with a positive report and pop/heat rankings! When they stop forcing their opinions of who got the biggest pop, you know something is wrong.

    Figure that it costs so much to rent the building for the night. I know it's not a PPV, so it doesn't require multiple days and nights to construct a giant set (PALM TREES~!) but it must cost somewhere in the five-figure zone, right? Then you account for the paychecks for the crew... everyone from the vendors hocking $40 t-shirts to the technicians who run the show. Next you pay the wrestlers, and while it isn't a lot, or anywhere near what it should be, it still must be a large sum of money. So at the end of the day, each house show must cost upwards of $50,000 to put on. How can they be turning a profit, or a large enough profit to justify injuring your talent on a semi-nightly basis, with only a couple thousand people, most of whom are paying $10 or $15 for seats?

    Obviously it made sense in the 80's when Hogan was selling out large arenas every night and the B-team was selling out equal or slightly smaller venues every night; and sometimes twice a night. Same with Austin in the 90's. But when you are putting on six matches with no real stars in front of 2,000 people in buildings made to hold 10,000 - 18,000, it makes you look bush league.


    I've never been a fan of house shows, and seeing Lex Luger leave on a stretcher one night after an attack from Randy Savage, then walk out on Nitro the next night perfectly fine, only to reenact the entire scenario that injured him at the house show shattered my illusion of kayfabe and nearly destroyed my love for wrestling. Surely there are other fans sitting at kayfabe's threshold wondering why Sheamus isn't selling that knee or why Big Show and Orton are still friends, even though they saw Big Show turn on Orton the previous night.

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  88. If they want Axel to be doing an undefeated streak, he should go over clean here. Have him pin Sheamus with the perfect-plex to see if the house show fans (the markiest of marks) buy it as a finish, at least.

    And anyway he's fighting HHH on Raw Monday, so that should buy him a clean win against anyone outside of Cena.

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  89. I can't imagine a motivated Savage having a bad match with anyone in the 80s.

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  90. If we look at WWE's business as a perpetual marketing machine, is there ANYthing on that card that makes a paying customer say "Yeah, I'm gonna pay to see WWE again next time a house show rolls through town"?

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  91. He's on the 1-800-COLLECT line at a rockin' Raw Party

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  92. Yeah we got a lot of those locally for Extreme Rules; seems smarter to use them as part of the broadcast where it's free for them and they know wrestling fans tune in.

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  93. Not only that, the amount of heat Savage could generate from any crowd those days was unreal.

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  94. In years past, it was where the Twitter feed crawler is now.

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  95. Don't complain.. we'll get Lord Alfred Hayes in the control center for 15 minutes plugging shows during a PPV!

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  96. They had a house show at my HS in 1995.

    WWF @ Bellport - February 12, 1995
    Man Mountain Rock defeated Mike Bell
    Mabel defeated Tony Devito
    Hakushi defeated Aldo Montoya
    Doink the Clown defeated the Brooklyn Brawler
    WWF Tag Team Champions the Smoking Gunns defeated Mike Bell & the Executioner
    King Kong Bundy defeated Adam Bomb
    Jacob & Eli Blu fought the New Headshrinkers to a double count-out
    Lex Luger defeated Tatanka in a lumberjack match

    This card looks like the drizzling shits.

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  97. On paper this isn't the greatest card, but in theory house shows are supposed to be a more laid back and fun environment with things happening in them you don't really see on tv. If that we're the case, I'd pay a modest amount to go regardless of which names are on the card. If they try to be Raw lite, I'd pass.

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  98. Amsterdam_Adam_CurryJune 9, 2013 at 10:57 PM

    I think they stopped running MSG so much just because it's really expensive.

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  99. Wow, that looks all kinds of bad.

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  100. not anymore at least. i enjoyed her on her first 2 shows.

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  101. davidbonzaisaldanamontgomeryJune 10, 2013 at 2:13 AM

    BFG is probably my favorite thing in wrestling, because wins and losses FUCKING MATTER

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  102. davidbonzaisaldanamontgomeryJune 10, 2013 at 2:14 AM

    So fucking on with the intro stuff. Even when RAW was shitty in 2002-2003, JR and King still made you feel like it was gonna be a can't-miss crazy night in store for us.

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  103. davidbonzaisaldanamontgomeryJune 10, 2013 at 2:21 AM

    Since I'm a registered member of WWE.com, I get e-mail notices every time they're even within 90 miles of me.

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  104. davidbonzaisaldanamontgomeryJune 10, 2013 at 2:22 AM

    IIRC, Scott was saying they were still making quite a bank on house shows, esp. in the early part of this year.

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  105. MSG's schedule has been compacted the last couple of years because of construction. They pretty much shut the place down for the summer.

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  106. davidbonzaisaldanamontgomeryJune 10, 2013 at 2:24 AM

    God, she's so awful, and even more annoying that nearly every girl I know swear by her (and I like to joke that even as a wrestling fan, that shit is awful by my standards).


    Here are the two punchlines to every Chelsea Handler joke and monologue: Alcohol and/or sex. There you go, ladies, you never have to watch another episode again. IT'S FUNNY CAUSE SHE DRINKS VODKA! IT'S FUNNY CAUSE SHE'S BEEN PLOWED BY GUYS OF EVERY SIZE AND SHAPE!

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  107. Dirty_Dave_DelaneyJune 10, 2013 at 4:47 AM

    If there's one massive thing TNA have gotten right in the last few years it's definitely the BFG series. Allows for different match-ups especially with booking faces against each other, gives matches more meaning, gives fans the chance to get behind somebody which encourages to track their progress and also allows wrestlers to get more creative with the submissions earn more points stipulation especially towards the end when trying to get into the finals. I loved the Bully Ray/James Storm match from No Surrender 2011 where Storm became really persistent in putting Bully in various arm submissions to gain more points and gave the crowd a reason to take the submission attempts more seriously then they usually would.

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  108. Dirty_Dave_DelaneyJune 10, 2013 at 4:53 AM

    Mike Bell wrestled twice! This is weird because I swear that was the name of the jobber Perry Saturn stiffed on Metal (or Jakked I forget which one).

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  109. The Problem is THAT they are bringing in former stars for Wrestlemania AND that they are wrestling each other. If they would have made Lesnar vs Ryback or Rock vs Ziggler or HHH, Orton & Batista vs Shield or Undertaker, Kane & Bryan vs Shield or something like that, they could have now new stars. Or f*ck the old stars, just bring Cena vs Ryback at Wrestlemania and Ziggler vs Orton and Shield vs Kane, Bryan & Sheamus. Even if they don't draw like Rock and Lesnar and HHH, it would have been better for the future. In 1997 they couldn't bring in Hogan and Savage and Nash and Hall to push the buyrate and WM had an all time low in this, but the very next year, they had gigantic buys and with Austin and even less star power better draws than before.

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  110. From St. John's, NL, and they basically "tricked" the general populace into a sellout one time. Allow me to explain:
    We had a good run of house shows at our old stadium, because WWE/F surprisingly brought the goods. We were lucky enough to a 1990 show with Demolition, Warrior, Savage AND, Andre, which barring the lack of Hogan, was as star-studded as you were gonna get. I was totally surprised to see that big of a show coming to our tiny province.
    In 1996, we had a house show that flat out would have been considered an A show. It had Michaels defending the belt against Golddust, and Sid vs Vader tuning up for the IYH: Buried Alive match.
    Then, after one more show in '98 that sold out on the power of Austin, Dude Love, Rocky, The Nation, and Owen, we had a four year layoff. Jonesing for some long-awaited action, the tickets were gobbled up almost as soon as the show was announced. Then, about two nights before, the lineup was posted on WWE.com (do they still do that?). I was shell shocked (remember that Cena, Batista and Orton were as green as green could be, Batista was not even on tv):
    -Cena vs Albert
    -Rey vs Chavo
    -Batista vs Orton
    -Funaki vs Jobber
    -Christan / Storm vs Holly / Venis
    -Edge vs Kurt Angle
    I was bummed. I was trying to explain the upcoming show to my friends, and they didn't know anyone except Angle and Edge. That show was a sell out. But the next time around, fans caught on, and the arena was about half full.

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  111. Mystery aside about how much they really are making on house shows, this was a really good post man.

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  112. It was, that was why they were so pissed at Saturn. Guys used to stiff jobbers all the time (the Steiners made a sport of it) and no one cared but Mike Bell used to be basically part of the regular crew and they didn't like that Saturn treated him like a nobody.

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  113. Scream09_HartKillerJune 10, 2013 at 8:57 AM

    I passed on a House Show in 2010 that was headlined by Jack Swagger vs Big Show. I was tempted to go and heckle Matt Hardy though.

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  114. Scream09_HartKillerJune 10, 2013 at 9:03 AM

    "Did you know....WWE's upcoming tour of Texas is projected to be the most attended traveling sports entertainment non-televised week day tour of all time"


    Two birds, one stone.

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  115. Amsterdam_Adam_CurryJune 10, 2013 at 10:23 AM

    That too.

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  116. To be fair to the WWE, that was the DEFINITION of a B-show...they were running Johnson City, TN. Not exactly Nashville or Memphis.

    And the guy who sent in the results (on the site I saw) said it was a great show and the crowd was hot all night long.
    The card definitely isn't great but the World Champ is hurt...have to cut the WWE a little slack here.

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  117. I'm not even sure why they were at my HS. While it's on Long Island, it's in a pretty secluded area. Supposedly I had heard it was a favor from Vince to the Grucci fireworks family, who's based in this area.

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  118. I do think merchandising is the problem. When the only ancillary revenue was a WWF hat, maybe a Hulkamania shirt and revenue from selling tickets, you had to try harder. If the product wasn't compelling, you had to change it in a hurry. Even as Vince found action figures and ice cream bars, it was nothing compared to today. The primary revenue was still tickets and ppvs (with some ad revenue from Primetime on USA). Now he has constantly found new revenue sources to cover up deficiencies in the core brand. House shows tickets down? Sell more DVD sets. PPV buys down? Raise prices. Ratings down? hook up with Scooby Doo and the Flintstones. Expand global markets.


    I give WWE credit. They market the brand to the hilt. They are like Kiss. They will slap a WWE logo or wrestler on anything and make money off of it. But it eliminates a true sense of desperation every time they found a new revenue source to cover up for failing old revenue sources.

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  119. that interaction can suck for those not in the few first few rows though. I remember seeing a WWF house show back in 04 or 05 where I wasn't in floor seats. It was frigging torture to watch every heel spend 5 minutes badmouthing the crowd. Fun for the first couple rows? Probably. But for the rest of us, just get in the ring and fucking wrestle.

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  120. I'm guessing that was a split revenue fundraiser show at a high school gym. Those always had the worst cards.

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  121. to me the fact that you couldn't even recall how long ago the Cody Rhodes paper bag thing was ago (and I could not have told you 100%, either) speaks volumes about how random the WWE has become.


    and btw: he started bringing the paper bags after WrestleMania, in 2011.

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  122. answer: Daniel Bryan, The Shield, maybe even Big E.


    really, who knows at this point? to me, it's in no way a lack of talent. but a lack of direction.

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  123. on the other hand you have someone like Punk who became a legit main event guy and still hasn't really headlined WrestleMania (despite him absolutey deserving it).

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  124. Mike Bell was like the second most used jobber on WWF TV in the 1990s behind Barry Horowitz. I remember he was getting squashed by someone new each week on WWF Superstars.

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  125. CM punk as the top guy on the B show isn't bad, he's proven all he needed to prove on Raw, now it's just time to reap the rewards. He's a megastar, people are dying to cheer him, they could easily give Punk a lighter schedule while boosting the holy hell out of smackdown and it's wrestling heavy schedule by centering the show around him.

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  126. Amsterdam_Adam_CurryJune 10, 2013 at 2:57 PM

    Amy Schumer does the "I'm a total slut" gimmick a lot better.

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  127. 1995 WAS bad.

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