Vince has gone full George Lucas Prepare for Wrestlemania 36: Episode 1: The Phantom Menace Complete with racial stereotypes, weird language that demystifies the product and literally cutting the legs off a hot act.
Sports stations like Fox and ESPN are taking huge hits. People are not watching them with no live programming. WWE aired it’s WrestleMania last week and it had the biggest ratings for ESPN all week at nearly 900k. That was with zero build. Not sure what the Mania from Jerry world did but clearly Vince is not stupid and understands he can make more money in this world. Is this the end of the Network? No. But we are well on the path to moving major PPVs to someone like Fox, ESPN+ or Amazon Prime Video. I doubt Netflix would get into the PPV world so I believe ultimately these PPVs end up at either ESPN+ or Fox under a similar formula that UFC operates. I do believe the network will carry on in some form. It may just be a free streaming service or a reduced rate service for all the past programs and content. And all the new docs and shows they produce. Maybe they keep Taker Overs and B level PPVs on this platform. Wouldn’t be surprised if they gave Take Overs, B level PPVs to whoever takes the major shows and it’s offered as free with your sub of say ESPN+. Like UFC does with its minor shows. big pig is correct the Network as dreamed of is dead. WWE thought they would be at or around 3.5m subs. It’s not close to that and numbers have declined. The idea to give people a free month is idiotic. Especially around the major events. In this day and age people will play the system. Sign up for free and cancel at the end of the month. Get there fill and move on till the next big show. People also share subs. It wouldn’t surprise me if 3 or 4 separate people are using one sub. I know I share mine with a few people in exchange I get access to other streaming platforms without additional cost out of my pocket. This years Mania will be on the Network. Nothing changes on that front. WWE is just allowing Fox to offer its PPV just like the Satellite and cable company’s are doing. Fox will likely promote the fuck out of it and bring more eyes to the product. WWE gets a test run on top of money for what the future looks like without these PPVs on the network.
I've heard guys from AEW on multiple occasions say they wouldn't just take anyone from WWE, but seriously they took Spears and Hager. How many guys from WWE would they not take if they came asking? That list has to be extremely short.
Now, I think they'll be more picky. They needed to fill a roster the first round, now they're much closer to a full house, even with the additional show incoming. After Brian Cage and the Revival formally join, I don't see a lot of open spots, unless you're a real game changer. Like, say yes to a Tessa Blanchard, Sasha Banks or Marty Scurll caliber of talent. Say no to a Tenille Dashwood, Mike Bennett or 205 Live guys.
WWE could do a fantastic story how he got robbed of his shot and let the current champ keep denying him a shot. But Vince will just hot shot it to him ASAP
Toronto cancelled events through June 30. I have a feeling more large cities will follow suit. I wonder when we even get wrestling before a crowd again.
almost any girl on the WWE roster walks into their top 3. Pretty much anyone that came through NXT is in their upper mid card. The list of people they’d pass on has to either be guys that are part timers or jobbers
I don’t think we as a country will get back to “normal” till they find a medical cocktail to treat the virus along with enough testing. Maybe late summer or mid fall. People looking at April and May dates are just clinging to false hope tbqh.
I'm still trying to figure out how Vince screwed up putting Charlotte into the feud between Becky and Ronda last year but doesn't want to insert Bianca into the Charlotte & Ripley feud this year. It's simple Vince, last year we didn't want a triple threat. This year, we do!
It's a pretty bold strategy to get sent back to nxt WWE is hemorrhaging money right now. Live gates and minimal merchandise sales has to be taking its toll, TV deals or not. This is probably a braindead theory to try and recoup some cash.
WWE loses money with live touring. I’m sure the shut down is a net positive. But this is a cash grab to offset loss.
Saw today (think it was Alvarez) said it was an unplanned spot. Seth was supposed to grab his foot and trip him but was late getting there so Ford decided he had to do the jump and Theory didnt expect it coming. Also video for those who missed
Easy because Charlotte wasnt in the feud last year so she needed to be added to help Charlotte career. Charlotte is already in the feud this year, so adding someone else just takes away from her shine... It still amazes me how they botched an angle that was hand fed to them last year. And that match doesnt age very well, it was replayed on RAW and saw a few people commenting on how it wasnt as good as they remembered.
Third hour of Raw had the lowest rating....ever. The go home show for the Mains. I stand by my assertion that sacrificing Mania instead of just treading water as best they can is a really bad idea
I don't think I ever saw a realistic option from you on what they would do, especially with the storylines. Just shut everything down and then start with mania whenever they can do live shows?
Basically yeah Continue to do shows as best you can, in large part because the TV money is keeping them profitable. Do storylines on 3-4 week cycles and get different with them. Let NXT do their Takeover matches on TV then get weird with the booking. Adam Cole vs AJ Styles. Keith Lee vs Drew McIntyre. Embrace the shittiness of the situation, cause your fans know it sucks. Pleasantly surprise them! Aim for an October Mania. If the NFL runs a season, that takes a lot of facilities out of the equation, but baseball stadiums may be possible. Spoiler: the Marlins won’t be in whatever postseason MLB runs. If college football doesn’t run, I want Mania in Notre Dame Stadium and broadcast in a 4 hour window on a Saturday night on NBC. You get a proper build, maximize the value of your premier event and keep an ace in your pocket when you’re trying to sell your PPV rights, cause that process is reportedly not going great.
Was thinking about this the other day. If they could, I could see midcarders and women not getting airtime to go. People with good indie careers like Crews, Ricochet, or a guy like Rusev who could get over quickly. A guy like Chad Gable who can work. Everyone on the 205 roster and a couple of tag teams from NXT. The women's list is a lot harder to pinpoint.
AEW would take Cena, Orton, Reigns, Bryan, etc. They would be moronic if they didn’t. I think they would go after NXT guys as well. I don’t see much worth in devalued mid card guys though. I really liked Crews on the indies but AEW is better off developing their own guys at that point.
I think they've already lowered the house shows by a lot, but I'd assume the gates for Raw and Smackdown were still profitable.
personally, if we're going by biggest matches and not just main-events 1. Hogan/Andre 2. Austin/Rock II 3. Hogan/Rock 4. Michaels vs Undertaker I 5. Austin/Hart That's my top 5. After that it's a jumble. The Taker/HHH matches are so overrated.
Battle of the Billionaires did the second most buys in Mania history. I know people don’t ever think about that Umaga/Lashley match but build wise and ultimately buyrate wise, it’s one of the biggest matches in Mania history. It also explains our countries current issues.
I didn't read the article; were they saying "biggest" in terms of buyrate? I was thinking of "greatest" like, not necessarily the best, technically, but the most important, beloved, Mania-defining, etc.
If I'm just ripping the most memorable matches off the top of my head, and it's impact on wrestling moving forward: 1)Warrior/Hogan 2)Hogan/Andre 3)Michaels/Flair 4)Hogan/Rock 5)WM X7 TLC match
Correct. They wouldn't take the Rybacks of the world. Just about anyone else they would 100% scoop up even with the bullshit narrative they want to put out that they are against it. I remember this thread talking about how awesome Swagger might be in AEW... That's worked out as expected. What all these WWE guys have going for them is they are polished, they know how to work TV and they have a name. I think AEW has found the indy darlings that will connect at this point. Guys like QT Marshall, Shawn Spears (another wwe guy), Peter Avalon, Nakazawa, Luther, Sabian, Janela, Silver, Havoc, Hager, Cabana, Cima, Cutler all can be easily replaced from that roster for dropped WWE talent.
You need bottom of the roster guys, but like you said a lot of those guys are indie guys for a reason. Thus far, AEW has excelled at making midcard feuds feel like they matter and not revolved every show around 2-4 wrestlers for months. That would be the only hesitation to take a huge influx of WWE guys.