Daniel Bryan Update
Bryan is advertised for both RAW and Smackdown next week. Also, the plan is to hold off Bryan's return to the ring until the Royal Rumble.
http://pwinsider.com/article/90604/daniel-bryan-update.html?p=1
Reason For Announcers Trashing the Ascension Last Night
According to Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Radio, the reason the announcers trash the Ascension was an attempt to get them heel heat, not to bury them.
Credit Dave Meltzer, Wrestling Observer Radio
TNA Re-Signs Another Wrestler
Eric Young has signed a new deal with TNA
Credit Mike Johnson, PWInsider.com
Also, make sure to vote in the 2nd Round of Place to be Nation's "Greatest Song of the 90's" tournament. Vote for up to four songs in each bracket by clicking on the links below.
http://placetobenation.com/greatest-song-of-the-90s-tournament-pool-round-two-group-w/
http://placetobenation.com/greatest-song-of-the-90s-tournament-pool-round-two-group-x/
Bryan is advertised for both RAW and Smackdown next week. Also, the plan is to hold off Bryan's return to the ring until the Royal Rumble.
http://pwinsider.com/article/90604/daniel-bryan-update.html?p=1
Reason For Announcers Trashing the Ascension Last Night
According to Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Radio, the reason the announcers trash the Ascension was an attempt to get them heel heat, not to bury them.
Credit Dave Meltzer, Wrestling Observer Radio
TNA Re-Signs Another Wrestler
Eric Young has signed a new deal with TNA
Credit Mike Johnson, PWInsider.com
Also, make sure to vote in the 2nd Round of Place to be Nation's "Greatest Song of the 90's" tournament. Vote for up to four songs in each bracket by clicking on the links below.
http://placetobenation.com/greatest-song-of-the-90s-tournament-pool-round-two-group-w/
http://placetobenation.com/greatest-song-of-the-90s-tournament-pool-round-two-group-x/
Oh hi, Smark!
ReplyDeleteFoley says it best, and I'll paraphrase..."McMahon only runs fast when he's being chased."
ReplyDeleteVince to the writers: "And when ANYONE new enters a room they have to say HI to EVERYONE DAMMIT!!! How else will viewers keep things straight!"
ReplyDeleteIs it possible that Shane and Linda were the stabilizing forces in the company for all those years? Because it's clear that Vince and Steph are bat-shit insane and HHH is just working that madness for his benefit.
ReplyDeleteI forget who said it, but "1989 Memphis tag team" fits these guys to a tee.
ReplyDeleteDid he really say that? Damn. Hit the nail on the head. Although you could probably say that about a lot of people.
ReplyDeleteUgh, Palmer Cannon - I bet Russo is kicking himself for not thinking up that dumb name.
ReplyDeleteHow GLORIOUS would it be if USA canned RAW. God I would love that
ReplyDeleteNot that I really want to see the Shield in the finals, but someone had a strong take in yesterday's thread--this is the miserable Legion of Doom here, not the Road Warriors. I half-wonder if they had been labeled as such if they might not have been knocked off earlier.
ReplyDeleteNever forget Rocco, people!
Isn't Raw STILL USA's highest rated show?
ReplyDeleteHow long until one of them shows up at an Impact taping?
ReplyDeleteDoing A-Level Wrestling gets you mainstream attention. How else did the Rock get to host SNL?
ReplyDeleteIn NXT they used to have more of the late 90s goth look going on. They looked like a couple of D&D players going to Comicon.
ReplyDeleteMopping? Or would he have a shovel?
ReplyDeleteCesaro? Where's my body fluid segment, DAMMIT~!
ReplyDeleteUSA knows the next business boom is around the corner with HHH vs Sting! ... if they don't like that what about HHH vs Brock again? ... Vince has a great idea for a HHH/Cena tag team he's saving to ... and the secret HHH Appreciation Raw upcoming will be HUGE for USA ratings buzz
ReplyDeleteAnd coincidentally, they will end up facing Los Matadores on Main Event and Superstars every week...
ReplyDeleteEh, it's whoever you want them to be. My only criteria in selection was that they held the WWF/WWE tag belts at some point.
ReplyDeleteDevastation Corporation are pretty badass. The biggest dude (I forget his name) is pretty damn funny.
ReplyDeleteHe slipped off the top rope at King of Trios and after their victory, blamed the baby oil... tremendous!
The Zodiac being Randy Orton's uncle feels like something that should be on a "mind blowing things WWE doesn't want you to know" Whatculture list.
ReplyDeleteBut would you buy it for $9.99?
ReplyDeleteAustin's work in 2001 with Jericho, Benoit, and Angel proved Austin still knows wrestling
ReplyDeleteThe only bigwig with no picture on WWE.com...
ReplyDeleteI've seen Robocop countless times, and I still never tire of this line.
ReplyDelete*Keith David voice* Meanwhile in WCW Bischoff lost the Monday Night War by becoming arrogant refusing to push new stars that the fans desperately wanted to see.
ReplyDeleteOh, I'll palm her cannons, alright...
ReplyDelete^^ This!
ReplyDeleteAnd prepare for useless backstage segments were Renee interviews the wrestlers while they throw a football around.
I'm more surprised after Hugh G. Rection that Russo didn't call all of the MIA names like that.
ReplyDeleteRusty Bedsprings
Oliver Clothesoff
Ben Dover
Well, they certainly don't want you to know that Barry O was the best promo in the family.
ReplyDeleteDid anyone ever doubt that the Hart Foundation would be winning this thing? Which begs the question, is there any divide greater than that in the quality between Hart Foundation Jim Neidhart and Everything That Came After The Hart Foundation Jim Neidhart?
ReplyDeleteYou nailed it, man. That's what is misunderstood these days.
ReplyDeleteCould've been. With 1,000,000 Subscribers to the Network.
ReplyDeleteTo give them one shining moment, they were part of the In Your House: Canadian Stampede 10 man match.
ReplyDeleteI haven't cared enough to watch RAW in many years. These days I barely have enough interest to even keep up with the product by reading about it
ReplyDeleteProblem is this: in said gangbang, Steph's bringing in a little friend to help her with the entire roster. You know that's how they'd play it, too. "Bend over, Boys!"
ReplyDeleteI'm tempted to vote for the Harts 1,000 times so that the Steiner Bros. will win by DQ.
ReplyDeleteCerebral assassins, if you will. It's a fitting name since they've killed my brain's interest in WWE.
ReplyDelete"Hey, remember when your show was good? Neither do we. Fix it. Signed, USA Network"
ReplyDeleteLOL I was there and it was awesome. But that's a great example of DevCorp making light of 80s tropes,whereas Vic/k/q/6/tor and K/c/onnor will never joke,because Vince legit thinks that in 2015, people want a straight copy of the Legion of Doom.
ReplyDeleteArchibald Peck didn't have a yearlong feud with twists and turns and shifting alignments against Colt Ca Bunny,the bunny was around for a little while till he stopped getting a laugh. Adam Rose is fighting his Colt Ca Bunny at Wrestlemania and taking his mask off to reveal Finn Ballor.
Sad state of affairs when even the Rumble and Mania are not interesting enough to keep subscribers
ReplyDeleteYeah, the 3-hour format makes it virtually impossible to watch
ReplyDeleteThe problems they have now are the same problems they have had since the reformation after the attitude era, and in some cases that they have always had.
ReplyDelete1. They don't pretend it's a sport any more. How are we supposed to suspend disbelief if they are literally telling us that it's fake WHILE it's happening. If they treated the wrestling like an actual sport on the wrestling shows, and then let us peek behind the curtain on the non-wrestling shows (Total Divas, etc.) it would make both better.
2. Lose the carny bullshit. I don't want to hear how some guy gets his push taken away because he forgets to shake hands or sits in the wrong seat on the plane. Some friends of mine who aren't really fans mentioned that there should be a back stage NXT show that shows the new guys coming in and how they train and those stories, because they would actually be good reality drama. I agreed, then realized that the WWE could NEVER do this because of the bullshit way they treat their employees. Combine that with their ingrained paranoia about controlling everything that comes out about them and this can never happen.
3. Dial back on the branding. WWE loves making up stupid crap like "The WWE Universe" and "Sports Entertainment" and "Superstars" and the like. They try so hard to be unique that they are starting to come close to alienating potential new fans. Why would I want to watch something if I need to learn a whole new (and aggravatingly stupid) bunch of lingo. If I'm new to your product, tell me things I don't know, like what the moves are called. Don't tell me I'm wrong about the things I do know, like what a crowd is, or a belt, or a wrestler.
4. Everyone says this and they're right: They need to *want* to be a wrestling promotion, not an entertainment company or a movie studio or any of that crap. It's great that they have those divisions on the side, but their main business is wrestling, and why would I want to be a fan of your wrestling product if you seem embarrassed to even be a wrestling company?
the steiners were dominating japan during their wwf run. Anyway, scott=bret on roid rage and rick= a neidhart who knows 78 suplexes. Steiners win in a great match.
ReplyDeleteWarriors crush the Shield (who do get revenge a week later in a six man tag with ambrose against hawk, animal and the ultimate warrior)
As much as I love Demolition, Tully/Arn, Midnights, and Edge/Christian....the Steiners vs. Road Warriors just seems right.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of tag matches that should have happened....why didn't Wrestlemania VII feature the LOD putting Demolition away once and for all? We really needed to see Tenryu & Kitao beat the Demos instead?
ReplyDeleteI'm going to break down some math for you.
ReplyDelete2013 PPV total buys clock in at 3,818,000, at an average of $46.20 (44.95x11+59.95/12) brings the total to $176,391,600.
-Now, you gotta split with the cable providers, slash it in half.
$88,195,800
-You have to pay for the rent of the building. In 1997, Jim Cornette said to rent a building was 125,000 flat. That was damn near 20 years ago We can assume its more, but for the sake of argument, double 125K.
12 ppvs = 12 arenas x250K = $3,000,000.
83 million and change.
And you have to pay the boys thier PPV bonuses.
Rock got 10 Million reported for his WM29 build.
What do you think Lesnar, Cena, Taker, HHH, Batista made... Not 10 Million each, but together, 10M would be fair. and thats top guys.
73M and change...
In contrast.
Now 731K have subscribed to the WWE network as of Oct 2013. It'll be a year next month. People leave and sign on everyday, but as a snapshot.
731,000 x$120.00 (9.99 x12 months) = $87,720,000
Now you don't have to pay cable providers as much, because Dish/direct TV have dropped some ppvs.
You still have to pay for the arenas.
You still have to pay the boys.
BUT Survivor Series still brought in 100K
WM 30 brought in 700K,
That's still money for the WWE bottom line. It wont be as much next year, but math shows you that 731K still brought the same numbers.
There could be intangibles I am missing but right there, its pretty even steven.
1 million subscribers to the network would just make it even MORE lucrative for WWE by another 32 million.
The Monday Night War show was so biased and contrived, it was a huge factor in cancelling the network.
ReplyDeleteWWE isn't pro wrestling, it's action / adventure drama soap opera.
ReplyDeleteSo what do you think will eventually happen? Because they're not introducing anything new that will bring in new viewers. Plus, Ireland and the UK are certainly not paying $9.99 a month, it's much higher than that. Your numbers make sense, and yes, they *could* make that much money, but I just wonder if we've hit the ceiling on this thing already.
ReplyDeleteIt started out ok but now it's just parroting the same talking points over and over or making up straight up bullshit.
ReplyDeleteConsidering how Steph is so concerned with marketing these days, one has to wonder what sort of poll or focus group was conducted where it was determined that fans wanted The Authority to reprise their roles. But I suppose playing to an Audience of One makes market research at lot easier. "Hey Vince, what do you want to see?"
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, the WWE network is akin to the WWF in 84-85 using TV to gain footholds in other territories... just extrapolated to the entire world.
ReplyDeleteMy guess is that with the NJPW video on demand service, trying to really control Japan is a bust, but I see India and China being the biggest coups.
We are talking roughly 1/6 of the world population in those two countries.
Even at 1%, between those two countries, is 15 million. That where I would head next if I was WWE, otherwise the WWE network is capped out between North America and the UK.
But even at 731K, they are making the same money roughly as if they were running ppv like it was 2012.
PREACH, especially on #1.
ReplyDeleteShield over Road Warriors. Steiners over Harts.
ReplyDeleteI think there's something to that. I remember Meltzer coming to talk to my university one time and he basically said that Linda and Shane were pretty level headed versus Vince and Steph.
ReplyDeleteThe Ascension seem like one of those acts, along with Adam Rose and Damien Sandow, where they were in developmental for so long that it became "sink or swim" for them on the main roster. Sandow has worked out well and I imagine Rose will be released during the next round of talent cuts.
ReplyDelete