Sure, why not. Whatever. WWE Network and Wrestlemania

[The Unknown Poster]

HHH will take over the creative side of things, There are some rumors that Shane may return once Vince is gone to run the day to day operations of the company. I don't believe Stephanie has any interest in doing what Vince does, she'd rather just be a mom i think. 

Creative isnt her strong suit and she was raised in a patriarchal family.  WWE's creativity nose-dove under her term as VP.  The role she has now is perfect for her because she's a good public speaker and good with everyone from fans to corporate execs.  She's a "McMahon" so when she schmoozes its a representative of not just the BOD but the founding family.

 

The Shane rumours are just idle speculation.  Vince has said he's welcome back.  But it was not a friendly parting when he left.  If Vince died suddenly, the concern is that shareholder fear would knock the share price down a lot.  There isnt much worry about what the BOD would do since its controlled by the family and voting shares are controlled by the family.

 

Vince is giving Hunter a crash course in being a CEO with hopes he can step into the role.  i'd suspect at some point, Hunter will take over more day to day and Vince will remain as Chairman so that when he does pass away, there isnt a big power vacuum.  The other option is to appoint a "legitimate" CEO who would be respected in the business world and Wall Street while Hunter has, on paper, a lesser role but is essentially the boss (Steph would then become Chairperson I'd guess, giving her the power Hunter needs).

 

The Shane talk is if Vince died tomorrow and there was share holder concern impacting the share price, Shane could be convinced to return as CEO to calm everyone down.  Im not sure how Shane and Hunter could work together though.  Hunter's problem is his lack of education and experience.  Vince is giving him the education and Steph gives him the "name".  If Vince can hang on for another 5-10 years, Hunter probably slides into that CEO role with a lot of very experienced lieutenants to calm any wall street jitters.

 

Shane could still return.  I *believe* he still owns WWE stock and would inheriet X amount of voting shares from Vince so he'd be in a position to want a seat at the table.  Shane's problem is, he was lousy at creative.  And that's WWE's bread & butter.  Not sure Shane would come back and accept no say in creative.  That's the fun stuff.  But when Shane ran New Media, it was said his department was the best run and most relaxed with the highest morale in the company and his leaving broke a lot of hearts.

 

Shane's positives were he was forward thinking and "cool".  He pushed for more adult themes before the attitude era.  He pushed for guys like jericho and Steiner to be brought in.  He would often sit in the stands to watch RAW, wanting to be with the fans to feel their energy as they reacted to what was happening. 

 

The knock on Shane was he was always thinking of ideas for the top guys or the guys he was involved with but not everyone across the roster.  He was always referred to as "one of the boys" though.  He's probably closer to Eric Bischoff than Vince McMahon in temperament.   He was strongly against Steph dating Hunter but they were very close growing up.  Shane almost never comes up in news anymore.  So who knows...

[Brandon]

I'd be curious now that the UFC is slowly losing it's popularity if the WWE would ever consider doing an adult product again.  

[The Unknown Poster]

I'd be curious now that the UFC is slowly losing it's popularity if the WWE would ever consider doing an adult product again.  

Never say never but WWE is so different now.  Totally different culture.  Publicly traded with shareholders to answer to and they went out of their way to attract the sponsors they have now.  Going from TV 14 to TVPG was a conscious decision to attract better sponsors.  The problem with wrestling is that its seen as low brow with a narrow demographic.  So if RAW gets a 3.0 rating, thats more like a 2.0 for a more mainstream show.

 

This is what has killed TNA.  While they are the highest rated program on Destination America, DA cant sell ads, thus DA has cancelled them.  Its just not worth it to them.  For WWE, USA Network uses the ratings to drive up their station average as there is benefit to them to be a top rated cable station.  So even if they get lower ad rates, they like the ratings WWE brings.  However...WWE got way less money on their TV deals then they promised share holders so if ratings continue to drop, USA wont be happy and WWE's leverage evaporates.

 

Once Vince is gone, though, Hunter and Steph can do whatever they want.  But its unlikely they go TV14.  There is still more leeway with TVPG, they just have to be careful because they have often been targeted by parents groups.  And ofcourse, GOOD stories dont have to include T&A, adult language etc.

[The Unknown Poster]

RAW ratings down again, including fairly significantly in the third hour.

 

I believe this is the lowest non-holiday rating since 1997 which beats the previous record low last week.

 

Not good.  If this week's RAW was the result of Vince panicking, then next week will likely see Cena vs Kane vs Show in a 3 hour 3-way.

[Taynted_Fayth]

They shoud have made smackdown pg n left raw more mature. Like nxt u can bring wrestlers over from show to show every now and them, but have unique storyline s that dont affect each shows content rating. I never watch smackdown anyways its on all over the place at any given time and doesnt offer anything u cant see on monday

[Goalie]

Pg TV 14. It's irrelevant to me. Raw being TV 14 would change nothing. It's all about the story lines and consistency and direction which they lack now big time. Going to TV 14 wouldn't all of a sudden make the show better. As a matter of fact last night reigns called Wyatt a *****. The word ass was used many times. The show still sucked. It was boring. Going to TV 14 or whatever makes no difference If the people writing and booking these shows have no clue. Seriously. Cena. Kane. Big show. People are bored of them and want new guys to cheer for. It's really that simple. Push Owens. Cesaro. Neville. Reigns. Wyatt. New day. And others and keep kane big show the authority off TV and ratings will go up again. Make people care about these guys. Lol at anyone who thinks big show will beat Lesnar at MSG. It's a joke and people are too Internet smart now a days to be fooled by their bs and garbage TV shows. A big problem is wwe thinks hey there's no real competition so people will watch. What they don't realize tho is there is the option to turn the channel and last night over 300000 people turned the channel between hours 1 and 3.

[Atomic]

Not gonna lie, I turned off RAW after Kane beat up Rollins.

 

Looks like the Wyatt vs Reigns match was actually pretty good.  It's too bad we've already seen that one.

[Atomic]

I think the answer is to bring in some strong stables.  They don't really have any these days.  Sure there is the Authority but that's not really a stable.  I mean like DX, NWO, Nation of Domination, The Ministry, etc.  That would also help with the fans not knowing who to cheer for.  They could latch on to certain stables and it would be easier to distinguish between heel and face.  And the opportunity for more continuous storylines without the exact same matches would be greater.

[Goalie]

Or turn Cena heel. That would definitely change things

[The Unknown Poster]

They might have missed the boat on turning Cena. I'd still do it but they have two issues with that.

1) they feel that the people who boo Cena are basically trolling and if he turned heel they'd cheer him

2) they have created no other top guys and Cena is still their main revenue source and they are scared to death of losing that.

[Atomic]

Heel or face it doesn't matter, Cena will get half boos and half cheers.

[Brandon]

Perhaps wrestling is dying a slow death. It would be weird to have no more pro wrestling on TV.

[Atomic]

Perhaps wrestling is dying a slow death. It would be weird to have no more pro wrestling on TV.

 

If WWE dies there will be something else to take its place.  Wrestling will always have a niche, but it will never again be as popular in the mainstream as it once was.

[The Unknown Poster]

 

Perhaps wrestling is dying a slow death. It would be weird to have no more pro wrestling on TV.

 

If WWE dies there will be something else to take its place.  Wrestling will always have a niche, but it will never again be as popular in the mainstream as it once was.

 

In some ways its bigger than it ever was.  WWE is worth more than ever before (with ups and downs based on share price) and has more revenue streams than ever before.

 

Ratings-wise its still good but they never recovered from dropping virtually every single WCW viewer when the purchase happened.  Keeping WCW as a viable entity probably wouldnt have worked anyway, but they really dropped the ball there.

 

The somewhat surprising aspect is that no one has been able to fill the void left by WCW and become a viable #2 promotion in North America.  TNA had the best chance with over $30 million being spent (its gotta be upwards of $40 now) to ultimately fail.  Dixie is lucky her dad loves her very, very much and was willing to lose that kind of cash on a vanity project for his little girl.

 

Someone starting up today would take so much capital it would be virtually impossible to become a legitimate #2.  There were rumors Ted Turner was interested in getting back in the game and also that SPIKE would start their own promotion.  It would take something like that plus some luck and very good leadership.  But because WWE is so stale, creatively it shouldnt be hard to present a different product (and yet TNA had so much trouble doing just that).

[Brandon]

Considering WWE has to bring in guys from 10 years ago to create interest in the product.... somewhat of a telltale sign that things are not that hot.  

 

I assume that the childrens market will always be around ... but it's been years since I've heard any adult talk about wrestling at work or in general.    I remember back in the day you couldn't go anywhere and not see a redneck in an Austin 3:16 shirt or someone quoting the rock. 

 

Even when I did go to local wrestling back in the day with the shows loaded with *names*... the crowd was extremely small considering they had over a dozen names flown in.  

[The Unknown Poster]

Considering WWE has to bring in guys from 10 years ago to create interest in the product.... somewhat of a telltale sign that things are not that hot.  

 

I assume that the childrens market will always be around ... but it's been years since I've heard any adult talk about wrestling at work or in general.    I remember back in the day you couldn't go anywhere and not see a redneck in an Austin 3:16 shirt or someone quoting the rock. 

 

Even when I did go to local wrestling back in the day with the shows loaded with *names*... the crowd was extremely small considering they had over a dozen names flown in.  

Which local shows did you go to?  It was very rare for a local show to have a lot of names.  One person had a couple of projects that did that and lost a boat load of money.  I have an interesting story (or stories) about that.

 

I remember 2001, while my partner and I were first talking about putting something together, the local promotion I watched had brought Jim Neidhart in and the promoter had admitted losing money.  Someone asked him on his website about bringing in the Honky Tonk Man and he said no, never, would lose too much money.

 

Joe Aiello and Don Callis brought in a few guys - Shane Douglas, Sabu, cant even remember who else.  When we brought in Eddie Guerrero it was ground breaking because no one brought in guys of that calibre.

[Brandon]

I forget the last incarnation... But from the top of my head the last show had raven, Justin credible, shane Douglas, bushwhacker Luke, Larry zbysko, Jonny fair play, Jessie goddarz, bilky gunn,hard core Holly and a few more.

Fully loaded shows and maybe it drew 150 fans

[The Unknown Poster]

I forget the last incarnation... But from the top of my head the last show had raven, Justin credible, shane Douglas, bushwhacker Luke, Larry zbysko, Jonny fair play, Jessie goddarz, bilky gunn,hard core Holly and a few more.

Fully loaded shows and maybe it drew 150 fans

That was WFX which was knows as AWE earlier in its incarnation.  The creative director of that project was my former partner.

 

I 100% disagreed with their vision of loading shows with a dozen names.  Their position was, they were trying to sell TV to syndicators and couldnt have content that was 90% local guys.  So even if the names werent overly appealing to a live crowd, it was something they could sell to TV people who didnt know any better.  Im not sure if I agree, but that was their justification. 

 

I think they ended up with two TV deals.  The Fight Network in Canada which for a time was willing to air just about anything if you gave them the content for free and a station in Texas.  Their plan was to run shows in the Texas market but I assume the cost was prohibitive.  The thing with TV is, unless you're getting a rights fee from a network that makes it worth it, the point of TV is to sell tickets in markets you can run house shows.  So really, they were spending tens of thousands of dollars to run TV in a market they were never going to run (and even if they did, would not recoup the investment).  So there was no point aside from vanity.

 

The financial backer of the project was also someone that wasnt really interested in having "good" local wrestling shows in Winnipeg.  He was a "go big or go home" guy.

 

The creative director and financial backer had a brief falling out.  One of my friends knew the backer and asked him if that meant he was done with wrestling and he said no but how can I do this without the creative guy (under the assumption that the creative director was a guru and no one else could do what he did).  My friend said, let us (my promotion) pitch you.  He agreed but wanted six months of TV outlined in a synopsis.

 

So I write a basic outline for six months worth of TV tapings (I think with the idea of doing one show per month and making 4 weekly episodes from it) and in basic terms used what I had heard was their budget for one show and said I'd do six months for the same budget.  And it was really good on paper but it wasnt using Lex Luger or Big Brother guys or Jim Duggan, it was Aj Styles, Samoa Joe, those types and mixed with our guys like Kenny Omega, Mentallo etc.

 

Before we got to pitch it, my friend, who was also friends with the creative director, went to him to make sure he didnt mind us pitching his former investor.  Well, he said "no problem" but immediately patched up his differences with the investor.  lol

 

That last show you mentioned going to, we had a show the same weekend and drew twice what they did and spent probably 2% of the budget and went home with money in our pockets.

 

They did have a couple of shows that drew around 1000 people.  One at the U of M and one I actually helped out on at the Marlborough Hotel with Jerry Lawler (as a surprise if you can believe it) which drew maybe 600 people.  The record is still 1750 which we (my promotion when me and that guy were partners) drew at the U of M in March 2002 and 1200 which we drew at SHAW Park in July 2002.  I had a few 400+ "sell outs" at the LID Nightclub between 2005-2007 as well (perfect for our market and made us money).

 

The other local promotion that runs Winnipeg now sort of took our business model and decided if it works doing "big shows" every quarter than it must work better to do them every month.  I warned him it was foolhardy but I think his intent was to squeeze us out of the market.  All it did was make shows with "names" less special and instead of drawing 300+, a show with a name ended up with 120.  Now they dont run Winnipeg as much.  Go figure.

[Brandon]

I do remember going to a show at the U of M which did have Lex Luger and Buff Bagwell and a handful of other names....  I do remember fans being highly irritated because it wasn't clear when buying the tickets that they were taping for a whole bunch of "tv episodes" so I ended up waiting over 3 hours before watching Billy Kidmans match.     That show definitely had near 1000 maybe even more at it.   

 

I assumed WFX was a scam since they were pushing people to sign up for some really fishy credit cards at the entrance lobby area.    Regardless as you said they flew in a tonne of guys and only drew max 300 people...  yet when I went to a few Ringmasters shows out in the country they had nearly 100 + people in the local bar and I assume aside from Honky that most of the guys worked for free.    

[The Unknown Poster]

Yeah WFX had the credit card thing and then a water company.  I cant say anything more on that subject

 

Ringmasters was like the bane of my wrestling existence.  Their owner (EZ) is a friend now and works our shows but we really didnt see eye to eye back then.  They had really nice equipment (ring, belts etc) but generally really bad booking and low end talent (not all, but most). 

 

One of their guys actually physically attacked me live on a radio program once which was, in retrospect, hilarious.  I actually transcribed the exchanged if anyone wants to read it...  I was kind of a **** at the time but generally just because bad wrestling offended me and I tried so hard to get everyone in Winnipeg to work on the same page.  But a lot of people prefer to be big fish in smaller ponds rather than smaller fish in bigger, better ponds.

[Brandon]

Lol which guy? As I said in the past literally 3/4 of the roster was 150 lbs and had the skeleton look to there body.

The others were just old men who were out of shape.

My favorite moment was when one guy attempted the lion Sault and instead slipped and sacked himself on the ropes. The gong show aspect made the shows highly entertaining.

[The Unknown Poster]

**** Walker. He didn't get anywhere attacking me. I can handle myself. It was just funny.

[The Unknown Poster]

We were discussing Eric Bischoff recently.  Wrestling Observer (the best wrestling news/analysis outlet there is) just posted there most recent newsletter.  Because of the Eric interview on WWE Network, they discuss Eric.  Here's the opening:

 

With the exception of Vince McMahon, and perhaps Hulk Hogan, there is nobody whose role in pro wrestling is more pivotal to what the business is today than Eric Bischoff.

 

Even though he last ran WCW in 1999, and left the promotion a second time in 2000 after being brought back, his influence is felt and quite frankly, may be felt forever.

 

It's a paid newsletter so I wont post much more but I highly reccomend it for wrestling (and MMA) fans.

[Noeller]

As an aside, just saw that Jonathan "The Coach" Coachman is now an anchor on ESPN Sports Center. Had no idea...still comes across as a ******, tho...

[The Unknown Poster]

At the risk of shameless self promoting, reminder:

 

Premier Championship Wrestling, this Saturday Night at Doubles Fun Club.

Doors open at 8 (actually they are open all day but people like a firm time)

Bell Time: 9PM.

 

Here's the line up for those that might be familear with local guys

 

Kenny Omega (New IWGP-New Japan World Junior Champion) vs Mentallo (worked Japan, CMLL, WWE)

Antonio Scorpio vs Jackie Lee (trained by Lance Storm) - Match 3 of Best of 3 to crown new PCW Champion

Mike Angels (worked Japan) vs Chad Tatum - Career vs Career

London Dynasty vs Flex Appeal (great wrestlers from Saskatchewan) - Inter promotional Champ vs Champ unification tag title match

Jay Walker vs Mystery Opponent - PCW Canadian Championship

 

And more!

 

This is an adults-only event (bar, VLT's etc).  Venue has good sightlines, cold drinks and food menu.

 

Tickets are $15.  If you want to come, let me know and Ill comp my MBB friends (and frenemies).

 

I'd wager the Jets came will be on TV in the bar and surely we will all be wanting to go somewhere different after watching the Bombers game.

 

Come check it out!