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BoD Daily Update

Future Plans for Lana?

The plan for Lana is to become the female face of the company once her turn is complete. It is also reported that Vince McMahon feels that part of the transition has to reveal that she is really an American.

Credit Dave Meltzer, Wrestling Observer Newsletter



Samoa Joe Update

Joe met with HHH at this past week's NXT tapings about finalizing a deal to sign with the company. Joe's last independent date is booked on 5/31.

Credit Dave Meltzer, Wrestling Observer Newsletter



WWE Planning More Tuesday Live Specials on the WWE Network?

The plan from the WWE is to do more specials on Tuesday's on the Network that happen live from the Smackdown Tapings.

Credit Dave Meltzer, Wrestling Observer Newsletter


Comments

  1. These "Network Exclusives" are going to piss off NBCUniversal.

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  2. I don't know if Lana will work as face of the company, but if it removes the current, the Bellas, I'm for it.

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  3. With King Of The Ring being popular, why not utilise more tournaments for the specials?
    Queen of the ring, Tag team Tournament. Legends tournament, etc.

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  4. If this leads to the Lana Express bus tour throughout America, I am all for it.

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  5. She needs to fuck Cena in storyline, and have the power of his semen, turn her American.

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  6. I wish she was the face in my crotch.

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  7. Way too soon to turn her.

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  8. Sadly, no 7 round mock draft from me. Got tied up with some stuff last night.

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  9. I think her losing the accent would be a big mistake....that's part of what makes her unique!

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  10. Anyone else doing Age of Ultron tonight?

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  11. NFL draft and work.

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  12. Leave it to Vince to 100% misunderstand why his characters are over and act accordingly.

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  13. Lana is American? WHAAAA?

    Next thing you're gonna tell me is Rusev isn't Russian! That's just crazy talk.

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  14. The only way this works is for Lana to switch sides to another wrestler. It really shouldn't be Cena though.

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  15. They can re-enact the entire Luger-Yokozuna angle with Lana and Samoa Joe!

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  16. Isn't he meant to be Bulgarian who became a Russian citizen?

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  17. Welcome to wrestling in 2015.

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  18. Lana was brainwashed by the KGB in the 90's.

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  19. Watching "One Night Only."



    Gothic Undertaker should never say "Cause y'see...."

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  20. I'd prefer if she became the legs of the company.

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  21. "The plan for Lana is to become the female face of the company once her turn is complete. It is also reported that Vince McMahon feels that part of the transition has to reveal that she is really an American."


    This makes no sense at all.

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  22. '97 taker was interesting in that he became way more human, before doing an about face with the ministry stuff a bit further down the road. I remember a Raw promo that was "worked-shoot"-like where he was basically in street clothes

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  23. Like all UK PPVs it's weird show that fluctuates from amazingly awesome & big matches to random pairings that stink the place out.

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  24. Extant1979 - Extreme SuperstarApril 30, 2015 at 7:46 AM

    I've got tickets to a 10:45 a.m. show tomorrow. Working til midnight tonight.

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  25. They should just copy Nikolai Volkoff''s face turn

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  26. Maybe she's been a sleeper agent the whole time.
    "Gosh, that Italian family at the next table sure is quiet"

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  27. Like Patriot/Flash Funk for instance.

    One of my favourite forgotten gems of '97 is on this show: Owen vs. Vader, where Owen works a singles match as a babyface for the first time in years.

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  28. So they are going to take everything unique about Lana and turn her into just another Diva.

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  29. That's what it sounds like. Ol' Smilin' Hand-Slappin' Lana.

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  30. Remember when Vince had big plans for Summer Rae? I wonder how that turned out.

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  31. That sounds just like Vince.

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  32. Can't wait to see Lana turn into Ashley Massaro.

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  33. Extant1979 - Extreme SuperstarApril 30, 2015 at 7:50 AM

    Just finished watching the confrontation between Roddy Piper and Adrian Adonis on one of the Prime Times they put up. Piper bashes Adonis for cross dressing, saying he doesn't want his kids to watch something like this. Don Muraco, the heel, tells Piper that this is America, where you can be whoever you want to be!


    The 1980s were a much different time and place.

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  34. The worst was Crash Holly vs Funaki at Rebellion 2002 which I was at live. Neither guys had even been on tv for months. Let alone in any kind of feud.

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  35. Extant1979 - Extreme SuperstarApril 30, 2015 at 7:50 AM

    Well, she got to star in a movie with the Miz.

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  36. But she was in a movie! A real one!

    And she never will be again.

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  37. Of course, that's the angle they'll run with.

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  38. Vince's boners have given us tremendous things: Sunny's bikini spreads, Trish as submissive concubine, the WBF...

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  39. About 70% of the stuff said in the 80s would get them thrown off USA these days.

    Shoot, even some of the stuff USA showed then (like Silk Stalkings) somehow wouldn't make it, for whatever reason.

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  40. All Hail Vince's Boner

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  41. I've said before they need to steal the ONO ideas from TNA and do stuff like that.

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  42. Yo, I forgot about Silk Stalkings. My gateway into Red Shoe Diaries, Lady Chatterley, etc.

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  43. I can only imagine Vince yelling at Lana "smile more, dammit! You're an American now, Americans smile cUse they're the good guys!"

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  44. Probably not. How many people honestly watch(ed?) Main Event?

    I'm pretty sure after they tanked the last few SNMEs, NBC Universal is perfectly happy with them having Raw and SD and not asking for additional time slots.

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  45. I have like the first 3 seasons on DVD. My wife was really big into it when she was growing up.

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  46. Separating Lana and Rusev is death to both of their characters.

    How about the big news that Dixie Carter is doing Austin's podcast?

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  47. Skinemax. Great days.

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  48. One thing I like about Lana is how she puts a kayfabe spin on all the couple activities she and Rusev does together on her Twitter and Instagram accounts.

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  49. Even going into the early 90s. Didn't Hulk call Yoko a "dirty Jap" or something?

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  50. Lord Alfred Hayes used to love talking about the evil Orientals.

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  51. For those claiming the Network/PG/whatever are killing WWE. here's the big story from the WWE investor call.

    The WWE announced their 2015 Q1 results today, and it was good news. For the quarter, the Company reported Net income of $9.8 million, or $0.13 per share, compared to a Net loss of $8.0 million, or $0.11 per share, in the first quarter last year. Overall, revenues increased 40% to $176.2 million, which makes this the highest quarterly revenue in WWE history

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  52. You can't be the face of a North American-based company if you sound Russian. 'Murica.

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  53. Having to stay up until midnight on Friday and Saturday, sneaking into the living room, checking out Marilyn Chambers softcore flicks....yes, good times.

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  54. Like I said, unless they show whacky clips of her taking English classes at the local learning annex, I'm not on board.

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  55. I'm always reminded of Bobby Heenan saying that you would wrestle a Chinese wrestler, and after 30 minutes, you'd want to wrestle him again.

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  56. Anyone who thinks PG or the Network are putting WWE out of business has no idea how big of a company WWE really is.

    However, I think the real argument is that the Network business model cuts into the amount of money WWE could be making, not that the Network is killing the company entirely.

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  57. So Bayless got a little kinky last night? Good job sir.

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  58. My favorite to this day is Shannon Whirry. Good lord.

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  59. Ha. I actually ended up working late and fell asleep on the couch at midnight. Havent slept more than 4 hours a night the past week.

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  60. I don't think the Network is going to sink them now, but they're changing their structure around with releases and payment ?s to make them seem profitable.

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  61. Well, in the case of the "Network Exclusives" they are actually pulling interesting, current, storyline driven programming away from the cable shows.


    I can see them having a little fuss about that. We all know Main Event doesn't matter.

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  62. Well that's about just as good at this point.

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  63. Extant1979 - Extreme SuperstarApril 30, 2015 at 8:00 AM

    Catching up on NXT now... Blue Pants... does she come down to the ring with someone humming Price is Right music? And Dana Brook is terrible.

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  64. How is earning nearly $10m in 3 months seeming profitable? That is simply profitable.

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  65. Well, WWE is profitable (it's not an issue of SEEMING profitable).

    The question is could WWE have been MORE profitable without the Network.

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  66. Brain: Did you know Tito holds a place in Guiness' Book of World Records?
    Gorilla: Yeah? For what?
    Brain: He picked 1,600 heads of lettuce in 1/2 an hour.
    Gorilla: Will you stop...

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  67. He's got to go in on her about Vince Russo killing the relationship with Spike.

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  68. Not going until tomorrow night

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  69. Let's hope, but something tells me that podcast will be so full of Dixie's bullshit that he won't get straight answers. Kind of like when Austin had Tommy Dreamer on.

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  70. That's Big Cass doing the theme. Hilarious. Blue Pants is one of those things that really solidified NXT as it's own world.

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  71. Extant1979 - Extreme SuperstarApril 30, 2015 at 8:08 AM

    I love Blue Pants!

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  72. Dana will get better. I hope. I like looking at her.

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  73. PG always made money for wrestling! The Attitude Era was an anomaly.

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  74. "Daddy, the blonde is taking heat! I'M the only woman who gets to have heat!"

    "WE'LL SOLVE THAT, SWEETPAL!"

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  75. Are they? Because the only one (that I recall) that they've done is the KOTR finals and I'm thinking maybe we wait to call KOTR interesting or storyline driven, especially with Bad Luck Barrett as king.

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  76. I'm a huge football fan. But I find the NFL Draft to be really, really boring. I can make it through about an hour, and then I'm done. Anybody else the same way?

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  77. All Italian jokes get immediate upvotes.

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  78. It's fun only for about an hour. After that, only serious viewers care.

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  79. I'll be watching my first NFL draft in tomorrow (first time it's been on TV here in Australia), but if it's anything like the NBA one then I lose complete interest after the 1st round and start picking guys I've never heard of.

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  80. I... enjoy the draft. It's the best part of Browns fandom.

    Ugh...

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  81. I don't even watch. I just have the draft tracker on my phone and do more important things like watch the Mets, or shit, or clip my toenails.

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  82. They'll wait for Lana to get super over, then book a segment where Stephanie berates her for 20 minutes until Lana leaves in tears. The angle is never brought up again.

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  83. You'll lose complete interest by the 3rd pick. The only entertaining part is when they boo the commissioner.

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  84. My god, sweetpal as a term from Vince to Stephanie is fucking genius.

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  85. Up vote for "sweetpal"

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  86. Yeah, the cats that watch the combine and do their own mock drafts and such.

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  87. Shannon Tweed was the softcore queen for late 80's/early 90's.


    I also had Spice because we had all channels unlocked (my mom worked for the local cable company). I don't recall Spice being that good back in the day, but porn has changed a lot since then.

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  88. I don't have a problem with PG. Hell, all the WWF I watched as a kid was PG.

    But you can have PG and intriguing storylines. You don't ass and tits for an engaging wrestling product.

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  89. Rumor mill this morning has the Browns trading the pick to the Eagles for Sam Bradford and the Eagles 1st rd pick.

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  90. Silk Stalkings was great! Best 5 minutes after RAW each week!

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  91. Which will most certainly include the words "GET OUTTA MY RING!"

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  92. Fellow Browns fan here! It's the only fun day of the NFL season for me.

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  93. She's just horrible. Less flexin' and more wrestlin' sweetie.

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  94. A one-legged quarterback is exactly what the Browns need.

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  95. I only care if there's a player from my school that is projected to go high (Tannehill, Manziel, Matthews, etc.), or if there's a player from a rival school that is projected to go high and doesn't get drafted in the first round (smack talk purposes). Otherwise, forget that.

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  96. I've been hearing a lot about that. It seems like the Eagles signed Bradford just to get the picks from the Browns. I keep hearing Kelly is desperate to get Mariotta and will do anything to make it happen. And the Browns freaking love battered, injured QBs who bust.

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  97. Usually a pretty good show until the last 12 picks or so. Don't care about anything after round 1. It really depends on if there are any trades or surprise pick drama. If everything goes as people expect, pretty boring.

    Enjoyed it better when it was on Saturday morning/afternoon instead of this primetime nonsense.

    NFL is starting to hit a tipping point with me in terms crazy fandom. Very slowly starting to lose interest. Think they are over saturating. If they expand the playoffs in a year it will continue.

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  98. Why take away everything people love about Lana? The silly Russian accent is part of the charm.

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  99. Watching Mick Foley Cheap Pops. They actually bleep out Goddamns.

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  100. I totally agree. It's not "PG" that's hurting the stories (if anything, it makes it more profitable with kids and advertisers). It's the awful writing.

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  101. Sounds like Phila are trying to get assets for a Mariota run. If it shakes out to Bradford and Phila's 20 for the 12, I'm in. Bradford and three first round picks would work.

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  102. yeah as many of mentioned too. Makes no sense.

    They have been doing this for years with heels that get over, turn them face, then change everything about them that made them popular in the first place.

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  103. I've seen a lot of Bradford in St. Louis. He's a legit star when healthy. Getting him on essentially a one-year "prove it" basis isn't a bad deal, and the 19 and 20 can be both bait to move back up or solid value picks to bolster the lines.

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  104. I love how low down, sneaky heels that use every dastardly trick in the book suddenly become complete idiots and fall for everything once they turn face.

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  105. I was there live too! High five!

    Crowd was dead for that match, but we got Los Guerreros vs Benoit/Angle, Edge vs Brock/Heyman and a rare PPV for heel pre-rapper John Cena!

    Plus, Stephanie got a HUGE pop, which made me hate my own country for a while

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  106. Because hearing a man say "goddamn" is worse than showing a man taking vicious chairshots to the head, apparently.

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  107. I think they would be more profitable without the Network, but long term I think the Network should pan out. But they have been cutting costs. I'm not saying they were losing $60 mil a quarter, but they've made cuts to change how profitable they are (mostly, where the profits are coming from, not necessarily the profits themselves, if that makes sense).

    Was Wrestlemania included in the #s?

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  108. AverageJoeEverymanApril 30, 2015 at 8:29 AM

    Is she called Flexy Sexy yet?

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  109. I hate how a face can take out 3 guys and still win the match against the biggest opponents but as soon as they turn heel, they can't win a clean match to save their life.

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  110. Or how about 9% of RAW matches end with a distraction rollup.
    http://www.distractionrollup.com/

    How have wrestlers not learned not to look at the ramp when another wrestler's music plays during a match?

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  111. I need an update on Daniel Bryan

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  112. "He might be back in June, or he might not." - Davs Meltzer

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  113. Just picked up tickets to Pittsburgh's NXT show in June. Can't wait.

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  114. "He may or may not be hurt, and he may or may not return." - MetsFan4Ever

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  115. AverageJoeEverymanApril 30, 2015 at 8:31 AM

    Lana's new theme will be "Real American" just to really hammer home the point.

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  116. "He's still injured, we're not sure how badly and he'll be out for some time between a few days to a few years or he may retire"

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  117. The other one was the match where Sheamus dropped the US Title to Rusev... a match that hadn't been seen before and really helped to put Rusev over as legit.

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  118. PG is fine. Bad stories are not fine.


    What's a bit weird is that they are targeting "everybody", but the majority of their viewers are males from 25-40 (or whatever that specific demographic is).


    Not sure where the revenue boost is coming from. Perhaps people ARE signing up for free WWE Network, and then just not canceling it.

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  119. The entire card was rebooked on the day, the only pre-announced match that actually happened was D-Von/Faarooq vs Palumbo/Venis

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  120. * As of March 31st, the WWE Network has 1,327,000 paid subscribers. From inception through March 31, 2015, WWE Network had attracted nearly 1.8 million unique subscribers with 74% of these subscribers active as of that date.

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  121. Then when the babyface rub flops they wonder why. See: Del Rio, Alberto.

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  122. Ah that sucks. Vince may offer him a slightly reduced schedule though

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  123. Solid update.

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  124. "The update on Daniel Bryan is that this update on Daniel Bryan may or may have an update on Daniel Bryan." - Perd Hapley

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  125. If he dies today, you'll feel guilty for causing it.

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  126. Based solely on quality matches that take place, SummerSlam is the second most important WWE PPV after Wrestlemania?

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  127. Two legendary teams who remained partners for DAYS!

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  128. I think Royal Rumble is the 2nd biggest PPV based on quality matches.

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  129. I'd say that's a fair assessment. It gets some mainstream coverage, too.

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  130. It's been the 2nd most important/biggest PPV for a long time, not just recently.

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  131. I think that it's always sort of been their second show. I've always been partial to the Rumble myself, but historically I've seen most people talk about SummerSlam as the second big one.

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  132. I guess their plans worked. Just slower than expected. And/or the economy is doing better than a year ago.

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  133. And what's the rush? Lana has been on TV for, what, a year? Why now? Rusev still can become a main event heel world champ with Lana as his manager, which would be a killer act.

    ReplyDelete
  134. In WWE cannon, it's the 2nd biggest show of the year... but to the fans, and it's always been this way... we're all huge fucking marks for the Royal Rumble.

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  135. Worst_in_the_WorldApril 30, 2015 at 8:46 AM

    They definitely present it that way, although the Rumble traditionally gets more PPV buys than Summerslam every year.

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  136. Worst_in_the_WorldApril 30, 2015 at 8:47 AM

    It's ridiculous. She's gonna be a giant flop.

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  137. Toss-up between Rumble and SummerSlam. It changes year-to-year.

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  138. That's definitely the peak for the year though. People sign up for Wrestlemania, then cancel after Wrestlemania, but they're still subscribed through April because they already paid the $10 for the month.

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  139. Cena vs Orton,one more timeApril 30, 2015 at 8:49 AM

    "WWE announced today in their Q1 financials report that WWE Studios recognized revenue of $1.5 million as compared to revenue of $4.3 million in the prior year quarter. The decline in revenue was primarily due to the performance and timing of results from the Company’s portfolio of movies."


    SHUT THE FUCKING THING DOWN ALREADY.

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  140. Quickly going through the archive website of all Scotts ****+ matches. Summerslam has had 19. Royal Rumble has had 18.

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  141. Hogan was the worst! He went from literally unbeatable to cowering and begging off from a single punch when he turned heel. And his legdrop went from unkickoutable to a
    completely nothing move.

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  142. Yeah it's only making $1.5m in three months. That's pathetic.

    ReplyDelete
  143. That's a glaring fact when you look at a company actively cutting costs.

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  144. WWE Studios already lost $35.8 million as of the end of last year ( http://whatculture.com/wwe/10-wwe-studios-movies-lost-millions.php ),

    What's another few million, right?

    ReplyDelete
  145. Worst_in_the_WorldApril 30, 2015 at 8:51 AM

    The degree to which Dana White & Rousey just played WWE for chumps is fucking hilarious. Still blows me away that they spent 30 minutes of Wrestlemania putting over a competitor's top star for ZERO BENEFIT is amazing. Why would they have done that if a match or at least a future advertiseable appearance wasn't locked down?

    And also, Rousey getting on Sportscenter the next day isn't an answer, considering it did jackshit to make anyone want to keep watching WWE TV (see their shitty ratings) or become WWE customers. The Sportscenter segment ends up being something they could put into a future reel of "Hey look we're on real TV shows!" and that's about it.

    ReplyDelete
  146. You could make a case that it's the most important for the full time roster if you take the view that Mania is now a standalone nostalgia show.

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  147. Lana is a hot blonde, so she'll be over regardless. I think it's probably wise to take away with accent for her long term babyface success (as much as I love her as a Russian)

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  148. So...are they going to gradually phase out Lana's accent, keep it, or just have her drop it and play like she was just jerking Rusev around the whole time?

    ReplyDelete
  149. Rousey's involvement in Mania and the extensive coverage might have (key phrase: *might have*) contributed to the monster rating the post-Mania Raw did. Of course, there's no way of knowing if it did, and ratings have crashed back under 4 million anyway.

    ReplyDelete
  150. Worst_in_the_WorldApril 30, 2015 at 8:53 AM

    It's crazy considering there are a bunch of B-movie production companies and mini studios out there that are out there making better revenue without a fraction of the built in advertising platform that WWE has.

    ReplyDelete
  151. He has long hair, a beard, and is short.

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  152. Look at Lana! She's A Natural American Lady, MAGGLE!

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  153. “Hello, we’re the WWE. We’d like to put the middle aged woman who runs our marketing division or whatever on an equal footing in a match with your undefeated world champion. Deal?”

    “Yeah sorry there’s no fucking way that’s happening.”

    ReplyDelete
  154. Worst_in_the_WorldApril 30, 2015 at 8:54 AM

    Raw did the same post-Mania rating it always does, with a slight bump because it was the first time in years it wasn't up against the NCAA title game. So you can't give Rousey credit for WWE doing what it always does.

    ReplyDelete
  155. Kelly is desperate to always think he's the smartest most coy guy in the room. And this would be one more situation where he could chuckle and say oh man I got you guys. He's a clown.

    ReplyDelete
  156. Yeah, I hate Hogan, and hated him during the nWo, but the chicken heel thing he did bugged me. Dude...you beat Andre, Bundy, Kamala...everyone under the sun. Now Sting makes you quiver?

    ReplyDelete
  157. Worst_in_the_WorldApril 30, 2015 at 8:57 AM

    UFC played Vince like a deck of cards. They got WWE to spend 30 minutes at their biggest show of the year putting over THEIR star as the biggest badass ever. Fuck, she made the Rock a background player and out fought HHH, was presented as the biggest star there is, and then... oh yeah, if you wanna see her again pay for our competitor's show. HAHAHAH what the fuck.


    But hey, they got on Sportscenter! Which of course amounts to zilch for WWE because they got on Sportscenter with stars who don't wrestle for them (Rock, Rousey) and in an angle that leads to absolutely nothing that would gain new viewers/customers. But again, it's something for the highlight reels that they show at live events right?

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  158. Worst_in_the_WorldApril 30, 2015 at 8:58 AM

    Dude based on WWE's booking she'll come out next week with a new name, American accent, and be best friends with the Bellas.

    And then she'll proceed to lose via distraction finish rollup to Alicia Fox.

    ReplyDelete
  159. "Yep Mode" Abeyance Brown ©April 30, 2015 at 8:58 AM

    "The plan for Lana is to become the female face of the company once her turn is complete. It is also reported that Vince McMahon feels that part of the transition has to reveal that she is really an American."
    Yeah, because in this near kayfabeless world, a simple Wikipedia search can't clear this all up.

    ReplyDelete
  160. Cena vs Orton,one more timeApril 30, 2015 at 8:59 AM

    Vince:DAMMIT WHAT IS WIKIPEDIA DAMMIT

    ReplyDelete
  161. "Yep Mode" Abeyance Brown ©April 30, 2015 at 9:00 AM

    I'm sorry, I forgot he just discovered AOL Dialup.

    ReplyDelete
  162. You must be a joy to be around.

    ReplyDelete
  163. So she's been committing treason this whole time and that's a face turn? I hope she gets the fucking chair.

    ReplyDelete
  164. "Yep Mode" Abeyance Brown ©April 30, 2015 at 9:02 AM

    "Uncut and Uncensored"

    ReplyDelete
  165. That's why I said *might*. The post-Mania Raw in 2013 did an average of 4.6 million viewers and Post-Mania Raw in 2014 did an average of 5.1 million viewers. This one did 5.4 million and was the highest-viewed RAW since RAW 1000. I'm not saying it was specifically Rousey (probably wasn't), but SOMETHING made people tune into RAW like they haven't since the two-hour era.

    ReplyDelete
  166. Lana losing the accent is really no more ridiculous than HHH going from posh boy to potty mouthed crotch chopper. It's wrestling - the point is to suspend disbelief. I never thought Lana was going to be doing the Russian thing for her whole career

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  167. I imagine Vince is aware of wikipedia, but is one of those types who thinks it's all left-wing propaganda.

    ReplyDelete
  168. Pretty much all of them do. The Asylum makes plenty of of dough making shit like AVENGERS GRIMM, ROAD WARS, and, of course, SHARKNADO. Companies like Anchor Bay have made a mint on Seagal and JCVD action movies.

    WWE Studios is the only B-movie production house that is more than a decade old that I can think of that doesn't make a profit.

    ReplyDelete
  169. AverageJoeEverymanApril 30, 2015 at 9:06 AM

    in kayfabe and in real life she is jerking Rusev

    ReplyDelete
  170. It's that damn magic bat!!

    ReplyDelete
  171. I don't think that's the issue. The issue is that Lana is great in her role as a heel, so why change it? She isn't trained to be a wrestler, so what exactly is she going to do as a face?

    ReplyDelete
  172. "Yep Mode" Abeyance Brown ©April 30, 2015 at 9:08 AM

    Austin couldn't handle WWE anymore that he's going to the Impact Zone?

    ReplyDelete
  173. Lana will be given the NXT treatment and have a name removed.


    Oh, wait.

    ReplyDelete
  174. Worst_in_the_WorldApril 30, 2015 at 9:10 AM

    So quick math on the Mania buyrate/subs numbers....

    From Mania 30 to 31 they gained 600k Network subscribers at $10 a piece, and lost 330k PPV buys at $60 a piece.

    So if we say that WWE actually makes $30 per PPV buy and pretend that they make $10 per subscriber (they don't-- a portion of that goes to their streaming service and to Network costs that weren't there with airing a PPV), then they lost $9.9 million on traditional PPV money in order to add $6 million in subscriber money.

    So a loss of $3.9 million there, yes?

    The other difference being that LAST YEAR the Network subscribers for Mania were actually signing up for 6 months, so $60 guaranteed. Whereas this year with the month-to-month model, a huge portion of those Mania subscribers will be dropping the service within a few months after Mania. So the subscriber bump becomes much less guaranteed.

    Which is all to say, holy fuck that's bad. Yeah they showed a profit from this quarter vs the same last year (though last year Mania took place in April, so actually Q2) through massive layoffs, completely slashing their payroll, and paying their roster significantly less by removing PPV bonuses. Also, last year's Q1 incorporated all the Network startup costs, which this year did not.

    So basically it's a company that continues to have killed off one of their previously reliable revenue streams, and is downsizing to hide their creative and business mistakes.

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  175. American (Wet) Dream.

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  176. Worst_in_the_WorldApril 30, 2015 at 9:10 AM

    Maybe she'll manage RVD! Worked for Ricardo right?

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  177. "Yep Mode" Abeyance Brown ©April 30, 2015 at 9:11 AM

    Hopefully gonna see it this weekend.

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  178. I'm sure he's great when healthy, but I don't trust him with the Browns. The right side of the Browns O-line is still very shaky and they have no running game or receivers. It's basically an invitation to kill the QB on every play.

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  179. Agreed she's great but every character (ideally) has to evolve at some point and some more drastically than others. How long can they carry on the Rusev/Lana pro-Russia thing anyway before it becomes stale?

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  180. Maybe we should extend Vince's natural thought process to the end result.

    Lana will not actually be "American" - she will turn out to be Samoan, and Roman Reigns' new manager.

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  181. Just watched last night's NXT...here's the biggest difference between them and the main roster: How do they treat their main champion? Kevin Owens only wrestles in one-on-one matches and always looks dominant. Meanwhile Seth Rollins is constantly being put into tag matches and has, between Raw and Smackdown, eaten the pin two tag matches in a row. That's crazy to me, and it's why I am only barely a fan of the WWE anymore.

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  182. TNA's entire operating budget isn't enough to make that happen.

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  183. Theberzerker, #1 HUSS CHOMPIONApril 30, 2015 at 9:13 AM

    Translation: Vince has a huge crush on Lana.
    SABLE 2K15 ACTIVATE!!!

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  184. Worst_in_the_WorldApril 30, 2015 at 9:14 AM

    They gained 300k viewers from 2014 edition to 2015, right? Again, they weren't up against the NCAA title game for the first time in years. That'sa factor.


    Plus Brock had a legitimately super hot angle that they played up perfectly for teh first two hours of the show.


    I doubt that interest in Ronda Rousey--- someone who was not really mentioned on Raw and wasn't in the slightest hinted at as appearing--- was a factor. And even if you gave her ALL the credit for the extra 300k viewers, which would be ridiculous, that still wouldn't have mattered. It was a one slight time viewer bump which didn't translate at all past that week.

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  185. "Yep Mode" Abeyance Brown ©April 30, 2015 at 9:14 AM

    :cat roar:
    :whip snap:

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  186. Wyatt kidnaps Rusev and brainwashes him. No longer Russian.

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  187. Has anyone seen the newer Muppet movies? Are they still fun and smart or have they been Disney-fied into soulless sludge?

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  188. Theberzerker, #1 HUSS CHOMPIONApril 30, 2015 at 9:15 AM

    Unfortunately, that snap is Brock breaking your orbital socket.

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  189. You are now Uncle Bulgaria, my child!

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  190. Isn't the change in quarterly revenue also because Wrestlemania was in March this year (so, this quarter) and in April last year (which would be in the next quarter, by comparison)? So, they factored in their absolute biggest show of the year into this quarter. Or am I totally off base about this?

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  191. "Which is all to say, holy fuck that's bad. Yeah they showed a profit from this quarter vs the same last year (though last year Mania took place in April, so actually Q2) through massive layoffs, completely slashing their payroll, and paying their roster significantly less by removing PPV bonuses. Also, last year's Q1 incorporated all the Network startup costs, which this year did not."

    That's the secret with these quarterly reports...finding where the company is hiding the losses. The WWE usually isn't too good at it, but they seem to be getting better at it. The Studio has been bleeding money for years and they really need to dump it, but it's also served as a handy way of hiding losses.

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  192. The first one is very good.

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