Please continue any discussion on wrestling here.

What a cluster****. Feel bad for the wrestlers as this is a serious situation. 

https://globalnews.ca/news/3819370/wrestler-davey-boy-smith-jr-rescues-woman-hanging-from-calgary-bridge/

Quote

British-Canadian professional wrestler Davey Boy Smith Jr. is crediting his “years of grappling” for helping him save a woman hanging from a Calgary bridge.

Smith Jr., whose legal name is Harry Smith, said in a Facebook post he was driving along 16 Avenue N.W. on Sunday night when he spotted a woman crying and hanging off a bridge near Bowness Road N.W.

.....

 

Good for Harry. He’s a good guy. 

Speaking of Calgary, TNA has officially cut ties wirh Jeff Jarrett seemingly as a result of what happened over the weekend on an Indy show there 

jJ arrived drunk. Remained drunk. Performed drunk and went home before the second show he was booked for 

guy needs to get his **** together. 

18 hours ago, Rich said:

https://globalnews.ca/news/3819370/wrestler-davey-boy-smith-jr-rescues-woman-hanging-from-calgary-bridge/

 

Wow!  I used to drive across that bridge every day.

Good news is, Jeff Jarrett has now checked into rehab...provided by WWE.

Guys, I think WWE is going to be okay:

WWE reported this morning revenues of $186.4 million and profits of $21.8 million for the third quarter of this year, numbers that beat Wall Street estimates of $172 million and $15 million.

The strong numbers led to a stock price increase of $2.27 per share to $23.82 at the time of this writing.

This would make the first quarter in recent memory where the profits beat the dividend payout, which was $9.42 million.

But the Raw ratings

13 minutes ago, Jpan85 said:

But the Raw ratings

Yeah.  I agree with you.  WWE has a big corporate business has never been healthier.  But it doesnt mean interest is higher.  Their profits and record revenue is all related to their US TV contract and the big raise they got.  Without it, they'd be in trouble.  But they DO have it of course.  But if TV had changed and didnt value what RAW generates (even on a decline), there'd be trouble.

The Network s hovering around 1.5 million subs, far below what WWE predicted.  But its profitable now.  Its all related to Wrestlemania.  Big jump for WM and then declines all year until the following WM.  If they keep 1.5 million and keep getting raises on their TV deal, they will be profitable forever.  They've even made cut backs over the last year to generate more profit (no pyro, cutting some original Network TV shows).

The question is, is the softening of their live attendance and ratings a sign of declining interest in WWE?  Logically, yes it is.  And their median age of fan rises.  So we can extrapolate that WWE is having trouble generating NEW fans.  In 10 years, what does their audience look like?  In 20 years?

Oddly, their audience for TV and PPV is really different from their audience for live events.  Live events trend younger.  Its old fans bringing their kids.  Its very much a touring act in the vein of the circus or ice capades.   If I was WWE, I'd be concerned over declining numbers for TV and live events though, in a long term sense.

I also think the numbers tell us WWE could experiment more with pushing different guys and changing up their TV.  As a well-oiled machine, they are a slick money-maker in all regards.  Nothing will change that (outside of losing their TV deal).  All the big matches they gave us on PPV all summer meant nothing (in fact they had large declines).  So spend the post WM time building new stars.

And with ratings declining or, at best, static, the oinly thing that pops a rating is a big return, a big angle (which WWE hardly does) or post PPV interest when something interesting happens.  That tells me their show is boring (which is obvious) and since you cant make it worse by being MORE interesting, its time to shake things up and take chances.

If they can land Omega (and the Bucks for that matter) in early 2018, they could generate a ton of interest.  Their TV deal expires end of next year and they will surely get another big raise so these profits will continue for the foreseeable future.

I wonder if Vince's end game isnt a sale of WWE to a conglomerate (like Disney) for several billion dollars.

I was surprised to see earlier this week that WWE had released Darren Young, Emma, and Summer Rae.

Darren Young and Summer Rae, I get, because they haven't really been around due to injuries and other reasons.... but Emma seemed like she was getting ready for a little push.  I liked her, that's too bad.

38 minutes ago, Atomic said:

I was surprised to see earlier this week that WWE had released Darren Young, Emma, and Summer Rae.

Darren Young and Summer Rae, I get, because they haven't really been around due to injuries and other reasons.... but Emma seemed like she was getting ready for a little push.  I liked her, that's too bad.

Rumors of her being a pain in the ass but I dont buy it.  Supposedly Vince made the call during a budget meeting.  It was probably "we need to cut three guys damn it!"

It is too bad.  She comes across so sweet and living her dream.  She's a solid worker too with a great look.  If anything, send her back to NXT to let her work with the newer girls.  She was trained in Calgary.  I'd book her right now (in fact, Im going to look into it).

18 minutes ago, The Unknown Poster said:

Rumors of her being a pain in the ass but I dont buy it.  Supposedly Vince made the call during a budget meeting.  It was probably "we need to cut three guys damn it!"

It is too bad.  She comes across so sweet and living her dream.  She's a solid worker too with a great look.  If anything, send her back to NXT to let her work with the newer girls.  She was trained in Calgary.  I'd book her right now (in fact, Im going to look into it).

Yeah I read that some of the writing crew maybe didn't like how she acted on social media.  If you follow her she had a whole #GiveEmmaAChance thing going on.  She was bigger on social media than she was on WWE TV.  I don't know.  Money obviously plays a role.

I hope Darren Young surfaces in the indies somewhere.  Not much charisma there but he's a pretty good wrestler.

8 minutes ago, Atomic said:

Yeah I read that some of the writing crew maybe didn't like how she acted on social media.  If you follow her she had a whole #GiveEmmaAChance thing going on.  She was bigger on social media than she was on WWE TV.  I don't know.  Money obviously plays a role.

I hope Darren Young surfaces in the indies somewhere.  Not much charisma there but he's a pretty good wrestler.

And looks like John Cena!

TNA would have been an option but they are in cost cutting mode like crazy including at The Fight Network to pay for the losses of Impact.  Emma could end up there though.  She's really good.  It might depend on her VISA situation.

Well holy crap. Kenny Omega vs Chris Jericho at WrestleKingdom. We'll finally find out who the King of Winnipeg is in front of 30,000 fans in Tokyo. @The Unknown Poster, no chance of you stealing their thunder and giving us that match on the 25th, eh? 

51 minutes ago, ediger said:

Well holy crap. Kenny Omega vs Chris Jericho at WrestleKingdom. We'll finally find out who the King of Winnipeg is in front of 30,000 fans in Tokyo. @The Unknown Poster, no chance of you stealing their thunder and giving us that match on the 25th, eh? 

They've been building that feud beautifully on Twitter.  Pretty incredible to see two Winnipeg boys on top of the wrestling world (in some respects).

2 hours ago, ediger said:

Well holy crap. Kenny Omega vs Chris Jericho at WrestleKingdom. We'll finally find out who the King of Winnipeg is in front of 30,000 fans in Tokyo. @The Unknown Poster, no chance of you stealing their thunder and giving us that match on the 25th, eh? 

You never know  haha. (But no...). However Kenny will be in action here in winnipeg ln Nov 25th

1 hour ago, The Unknown Poster said:

You never know  haha. (But no...). However Kenny will be in action here in winnipeg ln Nov 25th

Well I'll be there regardless. After all of Korba's complaining about non-wrestlers getting in the ring, I need to be able to critique his performance properly.

16 hours ago, ediger said:

Well I'll be there regardless. After all of Korba's complaining about non-wrestlers getting in the ring, I need to be able to critique his performance properly.

Its funny because its such a weird debate.  I remember the first time I stepped into the ring, the competition tried to paint us as marks and whatever.  I agree when its untrained goofballs putting on shows.  But the wrestling business has a history of non-wrestlers "wrestling" as part of stories.  I too am looking forward to Korba's performance! ;-)

4 hours ago, The Unknown Poster said:

Its funny because its such a weird debate.  I remember the first time I stepped into the ring, the competition tried to paint us as marks and whatever.  I agree when its untrained goofballs putting on shows.  But the wrestling business has a history of non-wrestlers "wrestling" as part of stories.  I too am looking forward to Korba's performance! ;-)

Yeah, I've never had a huge problem with it. I watch pro wrestling to be entertained. If a wrestler and non-wrestler can give me 5-10 minutes of entertainment in the ring, who am I to complain?

WWE is in the UK so tonights Smackdown is taping right now and...

 

Spoiler

AJ Styles beat Jinder clean to win the WWE World Championship and the PPV will now be Brock vs Styles

 

Owens and Zayn have been sent home from the UK tour.  Unsubstantiated rumors say its because they were acting like "assholes" but that would be a weird reason to be sent home.  Like you'd have to be one hell of an *******.

49 minutes ago, The Unknown Poster said:

Owens and Zayn have been sent home from the UK tour.  Unsubstantiated rumors say its because they were acting like "assholes" but that would be a weird reason to be sent home.  Like you'd have to be one hell of an *******.

I thought that was their job!

1 hour ago, The Unknown Poster said:

Owens and Zayn have been sent home from the UK tour.  Unsubstantiated rumors say its because they were acting like "assholes" but that would be a weird reason to be sent home.  Like you'd have to be one hell of an *******.

Owens told Zayn "wrong trunks" but Vince misheard it as "Young Bucks" and sent them home  

Supposedly the story is, after the Kofi/Sami match, New Day was supposed to beat down Owens and Sami 

They felt it was stupid so they powdered out of the ring instead of doing the beat down. Thus, sent home for not following the booking. 

In the distant past certain guys would get pushed for showing initiative. But other times they get in big big trouble. Dusty Rhodes was never seen again after getting the better of Steph in a promo when he wasn’t supposed to. 

We shall see....

Its the 20th Anniversary of the Montreal Screwjob!

Rumors are its a shoot but turning it in to a work. Hard to say.