The Official WWE/TNA thread
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Springsteen
Number 2, Rafael!
Yeah it eventually killed the ratings too.
I believe there was a story a while ago (I want to say June 2009) where WWE actually requested that USA give them 3 hours every Monday. USA refused basically stating that the 3 hour Raws generally garner lower ratings than the 2 hour ones because of the fact that 8-9 gets into the 2's. WWE also requested a commercial free Raw once a year, USA obliged to this.
I believe there was a story a while ago (I want to say June 2009) where WWE actually requested that USA give them 3 hours every Monday. USA refused basically stating that the 3 hour Raws generally garner lower ratings than the 2 hour ones because of the fact that 8-9 gets into the 2's. WWE also requested a commercial free Raw once a year, USA obliged to this.
Springsteen
Number 2, Rafael!
Give me love, give me early Christmas present, give me DAVE MELTZER~
-- The women's cage match on Impact was the lowest rated segment of the show, dropping 20% which is much more than usual losses. The highest rated segment was the Knockout tag team match, peaking at 1.21.
-- Rhino is currently done with the company. He wants a level of guaranteed money but TNA is hoping he'll agree to the terms they've laid out. They want him to return.
-- Taz is starting a wrestling school based on taking indie guys with two years or more of experience who want to move up to TNA or WWE and coaching them on promos, working and presentation.
-- R-Truth is out for two weeks with walking pneumonia. He went into convulsions whilst travelling, oxygen slowed to his brain, and he was rushed into hospital by Rey Mysterio and Jack Doan. He was told that the quick transportation saved his life. Had he not been with his travelling partners, he'd have died.
-- MVP isn't expected to go to TNA as he feels he left WWE on good terms and has been told that he'll be brought back when he wants to be, as long as he doesn't go to TNA.
-- CM Punk should be back in January, but he seems to be liked in the announcer role, so he may be kept on.
-- Undertaker is working hard to be ready for Wrestlemania.
-- Miz is in everyone's good books for how hard he's working as champion, with the media and the schedules, and not complaining about it.
-- Todd Grisham is currently done with SmackDown - a Vince call - and has been recommended to get out and try to get a full time gig on Fox Soccer, his current other job.
-- A funny sign story - a fan brought a Mr. Kennedy t-shirt and two signs with "Jeff Harvey" and "It Ain't 1996 Tommy." Security found them during Raw and said he wouldn't order him to take the shirt off or take the signs off him, but warned them not to show the signs again because the people in question on the merchandise are in TNA. The fan decided to use a sign saying "Hypocrites" instead, and it was never confiscated.
-- A Morrison heel turn is planned. They want to turn Edge too, but realise how poor the babyface side is on SmackDown.
-- The women's cage match on Impact was the lowest rated segment of the show, dropping 20% which is much more than usual losses. The highest rated segment was the Knockout tag team match, peaking at 1.21.
-- Rhino is currently done with the company. He wants a level of guaranteed money but TNA is hoping he'll agree to the terms they've laid out. They want him to return.
-- Taz is starting a wrestling school based on taking indie guys with two years or more of experience who want to move up to TNA or WWE and coaching them on promos, working and presentation.
-- R-Truth is out for two weeks with walking pneumonia. He went into convulsions whilst travelling, oxygen slowed to his brain, and he was rushed into hospital by Rey Mysterio and Jack Doan. He was told that the quick transportation saved his life. Had he not been with his travelling partners, he'd have died.
-- MVP isn't expected to go to TNA as he feels he left WWE on good terms and has been told that he'll be brought back when he wants to be, as long as he doesn't go to TNA.
-- CM Punk should be back in January, but he seems to be liked in the announcer role, so he may be kept on.
-- Undertaker is working hard to be ready for Wrestlemania.
-- Miz is in everyone's good books for how hard he's working as champion, with the media and the schedules, and not complaining about it.
-- Todd Grisham is currently done with SmackDown - a Vince call - and has been recommended to get out and try to get a full time gig on Fox Soccer, his current other job.
-- A funny sign story - a fan brought a Mr. Kennedy t-shirt and two signs with "Jeff Harvey" and "It Ain't 1996 Tommy." Security found them during Raw and said he wouldn't order him to take the shirt off or take the signs off him, but warned them not to show the signs again because the people in question on the merchandise are in TNA. The fan decided to use a sign saying "Hypocrites" instead, and it was never confiscated.
-- A Morrison heel turn is planned. They want to turn Edge too, but realise how poor the babyface side is on SmackDown.
Springsteen
Number 2, Rafael!
Consider this my early Christmas present to you, a free DAVEING~
-- The latest ROH internet PPV did it's biggest numbers with nearly 2000 buyers for Final Battle. Every show has risen from the last, and the low production costs means that these shows are decently profitable. Meltzer believes that, had the show been shown on TV PPV, it would have easily beaten the last TNA PPV buyrate.
-- TNA Reaction is starting to bottom out in the ratings, the last show doing a 0.3. To be fair, it started at 11.30pm, but the rating has been constantly falling for weeks and is now heading below station average.
-- TNA is talking seriously about holding some Impact tapings outside of the Impact Zone, citing burnt out crowds who are no longer reacting to the product much any more, especially during marathon taping sessions. Most shows would remain in the Impact Zone but one or two every now and then would be held in small arenas of 3,000 or less. The hold-up is acknowledging the costs as it costs more to produce shows on the road. The other issue is that many fans on the house show circuit don't actually watch Impact or even know the storylines or who is a babyface or heel and go purely to see TV-calibre wrestling stars. Thus, it might be harder to sell stories than at the Impact Zone.
-- Johnny Moss has not signed with TNA. He is wrestling Jeff Jarrett on the UK tour but that's it. Jarrett will be wrestling local guys on the tour.
-- The Miz title reign may be extended, with talk of Miz vs. Cena for Wrestlemania. WWE are ecstatic with the surprising media coverage that his title win got, and love his attitude as champion.
-- The latest ROH internet PPV did it's biggest numbers with nearly 2000 buyers for Final Battle. Every show has risen from the last, and the low production costs means that these shows are decently profitable. Meltzer believes that, had the show been shown on TV PPV, it would have easily beaten the last TNA PPV buyrate.
-- TNA Reaction is starting to bottom out in the ratings, the last show doing a 0.3. To be fair, it started at 11.30pm, but the rating has been constantly falling for weeks and is now heading below station average.
-- TNA is talking seriously about holding some Impact tapings outside of the Impact Zone, citing burnt out crowds who are no longer reacting to the product much any more, especially during marathon taping sessions. Most shows would remain in the Impact Zone but one or two every now and then would be held in small arenas of 3,000 or less. The hold-up is acknowledging the costs as it costs more to produce shows on the road. The other issue is that many fans on the house show circuit don't actually watch Impact or even know the storylines or who is a babyface or heel and go purely to see TV-calibre wrestling stars. Thus, it might be harder to sell stories than at the Impact Zone.
-- Johnny Moss has not signed with TNA. He is wrestling Jeff Jarrett on the UK tour but that's it. Jarrett will be wrestling local guys on the tour.
-- The Miz title reign may be extended, with talk of Miz vs. Cena for Wrestlemania. WWE are ecstatic with the surprising media coverage that his title win got, and love his attitude as champion.
Springsteen
Number 2, Rafael!
Christmas Eve Daveing!
-- 2010 Business for UFC, WWE and TNA: The biggest event of the year was Wrestlemania 26, drawing the most fans at 61,093 and the biggest gate of $5,529,172. UFC drew the 2nd through 14th biggest gates, with Strikeforce at 15th for Fedor vs. Werdum.
-- On shows drawing 10,000+ fans, John Cena main evented 26 of them, making him the top guy for the third year, and 34th biggest draw in history based on the annual top ten positionings. The Undertaker is up to 25th place overall. Obviously, this doesn't take TV ratings, merch sales and PPV revenue into account.
-- UFC broke their own records for PPV buys and revenue, but didn't hit the estimates given at the start of the year. It's likely that business will be down for them in 2011, judging by upcoming cards and plans.
-- Based on Google search volume, John Cena was #1 in both America and worldwide. In America, Lesnar was #2, Edge at #7, Jeff Hardy #8, Hogan at #11 and The Miz at #38. The only other TNA guy in the top 50 was Ric Flair at #44, dropping from #40 last year during his retirement. So being active in TNA actually lessened his appeal. Hardy and Hogan both fell from last year's positions, too (Jeff was #2 in 2009). Worldwide, GSP was #2, Mysterio #3, Jeff Hardy #4, and Batista at #5. Mysterio's US peak has gone, but his importance to the worldwide brand is huge right now. Hogan and Jeff are the only TNA guys in the top 25, whereas 13 WWE stars (including Steve Austin) were in the list. The Miz ranked #26. In Canada, GSP is #1, Lesnar #2, Cena #3, and Bret Hart at #9. The list is dominated by UFC fighters, the only other wrestler in the top 20 being Hogan at #19.
-- Between the Raw quarter hours and the live SmackDown rating, WWE have seen exactly how important Cena is to the TV product right now. His segment on Raw with Vickie Guerrero added 946,000 viewers for a 3.7 which is incredible gain for a mid-show segment, and his match with Ziggler did a 3.4 which was down but still a big number for a Q5/Q6 segment. The overrun did a 3.6. The SmackDown show was helped by being on a better day on a better station, with an advertised John Cena match, and did the biggest SmackDown rating since a show in early 2009 which was headlined by John Cena vs. Big Show (advertised at the time as Cena's first SD appearance in two years).
-- Essentially, despite WWE wanting to sell themselves as the brand with no one man bigger than the name, they are currently advertising house shows (for SmackDown, no less) purely with the name and face of John Cena, and they are petrified of taking him off of TV, which we saw during the post-Survivor Series angle with his 'firing'.
-- Dave Meltzer's positive Impact review from last week: "Overall a nothing show. Crowd seemed dead most of the way except for good heel reactions for Bully Ray, which is a great timely gimmick, and Jeff Jarrett’s challenge. The concussion angle with Anderson and Morgan fell really flat, as did pretty much most of the show."
-- The Royal Rumble is virtually sold out, bar some of the more expensive seats. WWE tends to sell the cheap seats very quickly, but the expensive seats take time to sell, much like UFC at the moment.
-- For all the crap we give TNA about converting viewers into PPV buyers, WWE are just as bad for sending their viewers to WWE.com. Of 7 million viewers a week, WWE.com gets 342,000 visitors a day, with the average person clicking onto the site 1.92 times a month (for reference, F4WOnline.com averages 6.6).
-- Christmas merchandise sales are up for WWE, increasing by 20% for daily orders compared to 2009.
-- HHH probably won't return to a full-time schedule, even though he is to return for the Sheamus feud soon. He's currently being groomed for the working-under-Vince role which he has been doing in the office lately.
-- WWE All-Stars is due on March 29th - Wrestlemania week.
-- 2010 Business for UFC, WWE and TNA: The biggest event of the year was Wrestlemania 26, drawing the most fans at 61,093 and the biggest gate of $5,529,172. UFC drew the 2nd through 14th biggest gates, with Strikeforce at 15th for Fedor vs. Werdum.
-- On shows drawing 10,000+ fans, John Cena main evented 26 of them, making him the top guy for the third year, and 34th biggest draw in history based on the annual top ten positionings. The Undertaker is up to 25th place overall. Obviously, this doesn't take TV ratings, merch sales and PPV revenue into account.
-- UFC broke their own records for PPV buys and revenue, but didn't hit the estimates given at the start of the year. It's likely that business will be down for them in 2011, judging by upcoming cards and plans.
-- Based on Google search volume, John Cena was #1 in both America and worldwide. In America, Lesnar was #2, Edge at #7, Jeff Hardy #8, Hogan at #11 and The Miz at #38. The only other TNA guy in the top 50 was Ric Flair at #44, dropping from #40 last year during his retirement. So being active in TNA actually lessened his appeal. Hardy and Hogan both fell from last year's positions, too (Jeff was #2 in 2009). Worldwide, GSP was #2, Mysterio #3, Jeff Hardy #4, and Batista at #5. Mysterio's US peak has gone, but his importance to the worldwide brand is huge right now. Hogan and Jeff are the only TNA guys in the top 25, whereas 13 WWE stars (including Steve Austin) were in the list. The Miz ranked #26. In Canada, GSP is #1, Lesnar #2, Cena #3, and Bret Hart at #9. The list is dominated by UFC fighters, the only other wrestler in the top 20 being Hogan at #19.
-- Between the Raw quarter hours and the live SmackDown rating, WWE have seen exactly how important Cena is to the TV product right now. His segment on Raw with Vickie Guerrero added 946,000 viewers for a 3.7 which is incredible gain for a mid-show segment, and his match with Ziggler did a 3.4 which was down but still a big number for a Q5/Q6 segment. The overrun did a 3.6. The SmackDown show was helped by being on a better day on a better station, with an advertised John Cena match, and did the biggest SmackDown rating since a show in early 2009 which was headlined by John Cena vs. Big Show (advertised at the time as Cena's first SD appearance in two years).
-- Essentially, despite WWE wanting to sell themselves as the brand with no one man bigger than the name, they are currently advertising house shows (for SmackDown, no less) purely with the name and face of John Cena, and they are petrified of taking him off of TV, which we saw during the post-Survivor Series angle with his 'firing'.
-- Dave Meltzer's positive Impact review from last week: "Overall a nothing show. Crowd seemed dead most of the way except for good heel reactions for Bully Ray, which is a great timely gimmick, and Jeff Jarrett’s challenge. The concussion angle with Anderson and Morgan fell really flat, as did pretty much most of the show."
-- The Royal Rumble is virtually sold out, bar some of the more expensive seats. WWE tends to sell the cheap seats very quickly, but the expensive seats take time to sell, much like UFC at the moment.
-- For all the crap we give TNA about converting viewers into PPV buyers, WWE are just as bad for sending their viewers to WWE.com. Of 7 million viewers a week, WWE.com gets 342,000 visitors a day, with the average person clicking onto the site 1.92 times a month (for reference, F4WOnline.com averages 6.6).
-- Christmas merchandise sales are up for WWE, increasing by 20% for daily orders compared to 2009.
-- HHH probably won't return to a full-time schedule, even though he is to return for the Sheamus feud soon. He's currently being groomed for the working-under-Vince role which he has been doing in the office lately.
-- WWE All-Stars is due on March 29th - Wrestlemania week.
Springsteen
Number 2, Rafael!
2011, make it your resolution to sub to THE BOARD~
This one's on me.
-- Jeff Hardy's history with drugs goes back to 2003 where he would turn up to shows late and looking unhealthy. Jim Ross asked him to go to rehab and Hardy refused, leading to his firing. TNA hired him, but he no-showed several shows, including a PPV, which led TNA to fire him too. The raid on his home, which led to his current legal issues, found $2500 worth of drugs including cocaine residue. Whereas WWE would have fired him the moment his arrest got out, TNA kept him around but decided on keeping the title away from him until they had confidence in his charges going away. Eventually, they gave him the title to facilitate the heel turn, but now he's going to plead guilty and may spend nearly two months behind bars. If he is prisoned, it's likely TNA'll have him drop the title to RVD.
-- Spike cancelled Reaction three weeks ago, citing production costs not being worth a renewal. Despite people giving Eric Bischoff the credit for the show, it was actually Jason Hervey's baby and he was the one producing the show and acting as the voice on the other end of the camera. Spike have said they will run some extended-length Impact episodes (i.e., three hour specials - YAY!...). The loss of Reaction also means a loss of sorely needed money for TNA.
-- There were rumours of The Undertaker crashing Brock Lesnar's press conference after the Brock/Cain UFC fight to build up the Wrestlemania Brock/Taker storyline, with Taker waiting outside until it was clear that Brock was not turning up. Taker and Dana White have a good relationship with each other, with Dana often giving tickets to him if he wants to see a show.
-- "It’s kind of amazing that the career of Hulk Hogan is almost surely over with almost no fanfare. Hogan’s ten hour lumbar fusion surgery is almost a sure thing to end his in-ring career as there is no way he should ever take bumps on that back." The surgery is considered a last resort and a career-ender.
-- Kaval being released from WWE was a mututal agreement. He was brought in to feud under a mask with Rey Mysterio, but injury stopped it happening. The writers were told to job Kaval out, so he asked if he had heat (they told him he didn't, they just had nothing for him). He then asked for his release and it was granted.
-- Thanks to people like The Rock, people in WWE are now seeing that there may be a good life outside of the company by being able to leave with no desire to ever come back. The midcard talent are making more money than ever, mostly due to the video game royalties, but the main event talent aren't making Austin/Rock-level money (only Cena comes close). Still, people like MVP, Kaval and the Hardys have been able to walk away, and several people including one main eventer are adamant that they are out of there once their contracts are up. The allure for most is the Japanese/European dates and being able to control their own schedule. TNA isn't seen as much of an option any more after the Monday night experiment bombed and people like Jeff Hardy haven't moved ratings.
-- The Hall Of Fame is still expected to revolve around WCW, being the ten year anniversary of its death. The usual names have been suggested - Luger, Simmons, Anderson, Goldberg.
-- The new Dustin Rhodes book is crap, other than for admitting that he was coked off his tits in TNA.
-- Jericho's new book comes out on February 16th.
-- Expect Mason Ryan to get a big push soon, filling in Batista's slot (make your own jokes here).
This one's on me.
-- Jeff Hardy's history with drugs goes back to 2003 where he would turn up to shows late and looking unhealthy. Jim Ross asked him to go to rehab and Hardy refused, leading to his firing. TNA hired him, but he no-showed several shows, including a PPV, which led TNA to fire him too. The raid on his home, which led to his current legal issues, found $2500 worth of drugs including cocaine residue. Whereas WWE would have fired him the moment his arrest got out, TNA kept him around but decided on keeping the title away from him until they had confidence in his charges going away. Eventually, they gave him the title to facilitate the heel turn, but now he's going to plead guilty and may spend nearly two months behind bars. If he is prisoned, it's likely TNA'll have him drop the title to RVD.
-- Spike cancelled Reaction three weeks ago, citing production costs not being worth a renewal. Despite people giving Eric Bischoff the credit for the show, it was actually Jason Hervey's baby and he was the one producing the show and acting as the voice on the other end of the camera. Spike have said they will run some extended-length Impact episodes (i.e., three hour specials - YAY!...). The loss of Reaction also means a loss of sorely needed money for TNA.
-- There were rumours of The Undertaker crashing Brock Lesnar's press conference after the Brock/Cain UFC fight to build up the Wrestlemania Brock/Taker storyline, with Taker waiting outside until it was clear that Brock was not turning up. Taker and Dana White have a good relationship with each other, with Dana often giving tickets to him if he wants to see a show.
-- "It’s kind of amazing that the career of Hulk Hogan is almost surely over with almost no fanfare. Hogan’s ten hour lumbar fusion surgery is almost a sure thing to end his in-ring career as there is no way he should ever take bumps on that back." The surgery is considered a last resort and a career-ender.
-- Kaval being released from WWE was a mututal agreement. He was brought in to feud under a mask with Rey Mysterio, but injury stopped it happening. The writers were told to job Kaval out, so he asked if he had heat (they told him he didn't, they just had nothing for him). He then asked for his release and it was granted.
-- Thanks to people like The Rock, people in WWE are now seeing that there may be a good life outside of the company by being able to leave with no desire to ever come back. The midcard talent are making more money than ever, mostly due to the video game royalties, but the main event talent aren't making Austin/Rock-level money (only Cena comes close). Still, people like MVP, Kaval and the Hardys have been able to walk away, and several people including one main eventer are adamant that they are out of there once their contracts are up. The allure for most is the Japanese/European dates and being able to control their own schedule. TNA isn't seen as much of an option any more after the Monday night experiment bombed and people like Jeff Hardy haven't moved ratings.
-- The Hall Of Fame is still expected to revolve around WCW, being the ten year anniversary of its death. The usual names have been suggested - Luger, Simmons, Anderson, Goldberg.
-- The new Dustin Rhodes book is crap, other than for admitting that he was coked off his tits in TNA.
-- Jericho's new book comes out on February 16th.
-- Expect Mason Ryan to get a big push soon, filling in Batista's slot (make your own jokes here).
Springsteen
Number 2, Rafael!
Some random news from Big Dave. I can't claim this stuff, it's the free update stuff.
--For those in the U.K., until the Impact television situation is straigtened out, TNA is offering Impact for free on its On Demand service to anyone from the U.K. I guess that means that Impact is not going to be available right away on Sky. As noted earlier this week, Sky said that they were picking up the show, but had not decided on what station and what time slot. It's a political deal. I don't think WWE has an exclusive on Sky, but they do have a longstanding relationship with the station and it wasn't even easy for UFC to get TUF on the station. (thanks to Matt Casper)
--Most of my thoughts and Bryan's thoughts on the show are on the audio update. When talking about Raw, we didn't mention the Miz vs. Morrison match falls count anywhere for the title has been announced as the Raw main event.
--Yesterday was the 40th anniversary of the first Jack Brisco vs. Dory Funk Jr. match in St. Louis at Kiel Auditorium. The two had wrestled numerous times for the world title in Florida, and had also wrestled in Texas a few times before either was champion, but this was big because they had a riot in front of Kiel Auditorium turning over the portable ticket stands (which led to permanent ones being built) because so many thousands of fans were turned away. This pretty much proved the match as a big draw outside of Florida and was a key in the feud. The match was a 60:00 draw, the first of many between the two in St. Louis over the next several years. Larry Matysik has rated one of their matches, along with a Lou Thesz vs. Pat O'Connor and a Ric Flair vs. Bruiser Brody match as the three best matches in the city during the Wrestling at the Chase (1959-1983) era.
--Melina's twitter continues to be the source of news. Yesterday she mentioned that John Morrison broke up with her and said that she would rather be a babyface and with him than a heel without a boyfriend. Obviously someone got to her because she later claimed her twitter account had been hacked into and that she and Morrison were still together. C.M. Punk today made fun of her making a joke about a twitter account being broken into.
--In similar news, Taryn Terrell, the former Tiffany, was pissed in a Miami Herald article where she noted that the current angle WWE is doing with Drew McIntyre and Kelly Kelly is the angle that she had come up with for herself and McIntyre. She thought they were trying to mess with her. It's a funny deal. If you are a wife/girlfriend of an actor on a television show and you complain about an angle where your husband is in a storyline relationship or kissing and making out with a woman, it's considered really immature to do so (and by the way, in Hollywood, girlfriends/wives, particularly if they are not in the business themselves, complaining about these storylines does happen with some frequency, much more than you'd think). From the outside in wrestling, it's going to come across like that as well. That said, why things are booked in pro wrestling is often very mean spirited.
And Awesome Kong has indeed signed for WWE.
--For those in the U.K., until the Impact television situation is straigtened out, TNA is offering Impact for free on its On Demand service to anyone from the U.K. I guess that means that Impact is not going to be available right away on Sky. As noted earlier this week, Sky said that they were picking up the show, but had not decided on what station and what time slot. It's a political deal. I don't think WWE has an exclusive on Sky, but they do have a longstanding relationship with the station and it wasn't even easy for UFC to get TUF on the station. (thanks to Matt Casper)
--Most of my thoughts and Bryan's thoughts on the show are on the audio update. When talking about Raw, we didn't mention the Miz vs. Morrison match falls count anywhere for the title has been announced as the Raw main event.
--Yesterday was the 40th anniversary of the first Jack Brisco vs. Dory Funk Jr. match in St. Louis at Kiel Auditorium. The two had wrestled numerous times for the world title in Florida, and had also wrestled in Texas a few times before either was champion, but this was big because they had a riot in front of Kiel Auditorium turning over the portable ticket stands (which led to permanent ones being built) because so many thousands of fans were turned away. This pretty much proved the match as a big draw outside of Florida and was a key in the feud. The match was a 60:00 draw, the first of many between the two in St. Louis over the next several years. Larry Matysik has rated one of their matches, along with a Lou Thesz vs. Pat O'Connor and a Ric Flair vs. Bruiser Brody match as the three best matches in the city during the Wrestling at the Chase (1959-1983) era.
--Melina's twitter continues to be the source of news. Yesterday she mentioned that John Morrison broke up with her and said that she would rather be a babyface and with him than a heel without a boyfriend. Obviously someone got to her because she later claimed her twitter account had been hacked into and that she and Morrison were still together. C.M. Punk today made fun of her making a joke about a twitter account being broken into.
--In similar news, Taryn Terrell, the former Tiffany, was pissed in a Miami Herald article where she noted that the current angle WWE is doing with Drew McIntyre and Kelly Kelly is the angle that she had come up with for herself and McIntyre. She thought they were trying to mess with her. It's a funny deal. If you are a wife/girlfriend of an actor on a television show and you complain about an angle where your husband is in a storyline relationship or kissing and making out with a woman, it's considered really immature to do so (and by the way, in Hollywood, girlfriends/wives, particularly if they are not in the business themselves, complaining about these storylines does happen with some frequency, much more than you'd think). From the outside in wrestling, it's going to come across like that as well. That said, why things are booked in pro wrestling is often very mean spirited.
And Awesome Kong has indeed signed for WWE.
Peter Parka
Well-Known Member
What's the point of Awesome Kong in the joke of a womens division in WWE? What's she going to do? Come running in and squash a few of them while the're in a pillow fight or something? For someone like Kong to work there at least needs to be another girl who could realistically hold her own against her. When she was in TNA she had that with ODB.
Springsteen
Number 2, Rafael!
Courtesy of Meltzer, of course
-- Going back to October 2008, every single WWE PPV has had either Randy Orton or John Cena (or both) in a title match.
-- Tough Enough is back on USA, from April 4th until June 6th for ten weeks. A different wrestler will appear as a guest trainer every week, and the winner will get a one year contract. The 8pm timeslot puts pressure on the show for ratings as the 1.3s that Ultimate Fighter got on Spike (above station average) would be way below USA's average numbers. Because of TE, the usual Raw draft show will either be moved, cut down to two hours, or removed entirely.
-- The NJPW/TNA January 4th show happened. Not a whole lot to add. The crowd was announced as 42,000 but was really 18,000. Jeff Hardy's match with Tetsuya Naito was a disappointment, with notes that his pre-show promo was terrible and that he didn't even know the name of his opponent. He also isn't a big draw in Japan compared to elsewhere in the world. "He was hurting however, as he suffered serious burns on his butt when he did some sort of a stunt with fire that will air on an upcoming Hardy Internet show." But, on the flip-side, he was in shape and on time for all his appearances. New Japan really like using Jeremy Borash as a ring announcer to give the show a big-time feel and may use him again, with or without TNA's involvement.
-- Concerning Raw ratings: "From start-to-finish, the cage match grew 1,611,000 viewers, which will be one of the biggest totals of the year."
-- Meltzer is speculating that Jeff Hardy will not serve prison time, but will merely be fined and face probation.
-- Mickie James did an interview saying that WWE dropped the ball in not helping her to promote her country music album. Although they weren't happy with doing outside projects without letting them have some control over it, her release was mostly due to her behaviour on an overseas tour, and her relationship issues.
-- Absolutely true story: when WWE uses a city that Vince McMahon believes is "minor league-sounding", he bans the name from being used. Instead of announcing that John Cena was injured in Wilkes-Barre, Vince ordered that only the name Pennsylvania be used. There used to be a rule where only London and Tokyo would be used for English and Japanese shows too, regardless of where they were held instead.
-- Speaking of Cena, they're going light with his schedule to make sure that he's fit for the Royal Rumble. He could be back as soon as next week.
-- "The usual Raw bounce back should be on 1/17, as next week’s show goes against the college football BCS championship game."
-- Expect Miz to last as champion through until Elimination Chamber as a bare minimum, and possibly Wrestlemania too. The current Wrestlemania plans (and bare in mind that they change daily) are for Miz vs. Cena to headline with Barrett vs. Undertaker as the other main event. Undertaker isn't even a sure thing to appear, yet.
-- "One of the things to look out for over the next year is changes having to do with HHH having more influence and power. Most are positive about it, but the jury is out as while he’s had power for a decade, the feeling is this is the first year of what will be a transition from Vince to HHH as the guy leading the ship." It was noted by Bryan Alvarez that most backstage were really happy with HHH running things overseas, as he is a nice, well-liked guy who wasn't as on edge as Vince is.
-- Vince McMahon has a trust, called the Vince McMahon Trust Fund, separate from his personal stock, which sold 2,866,944 at the end of last year, taking its value up to $146 million.
-- Going back to October 2008, every single WWE PPV has had either Randy Orton or John Cena (or both) in a title match.
-- Tough Enough is back on USA, from April 4th until June 6th for ten weeks. A different wrestler will appear as a guest trainer every week, and the winner will get a one year contract. The 8pm timeslot puts pressure on the show for ratings as the 1.3s that Ultimate Fighter got on Spike (above station average) would be way below USA's average numbers. Because of TE, the usual Raw draft show will either be moved, cut down to two hours, or removed entirely.
-- The NJPW/TNA January 4th show happened. Not a whole lot to add. The crowd was announced as 42,000 but was really 18,000. Jeff Hardy's match with Tetsuya Naito was a disappointment, with notes that his pre-show promo was terrible and that he didn't even know the name of his opponent. He also isn't a big draw in Japan compared to elsewhere in the world. "He was hurting however, as he suffered serious burns on his butt when he did some sort of a stunt with fire that will air on an upcoming Hardy Internet show." But, on the flip-side, he was in shape and on time for all his appearances. New Japan really like using Jeremy Borash as a ring announcer to give the show a big-time feel and may use him again, with or without TNA's involvement.
-- Concerning Raw ratings: "From start-to-finish, the cage match grew 1,611,000 viewers, which will be one of the biggest totals of the year."
-- Meltzer is speculating that Jeff Hardy will not serve prison time, but will merely be fined and face probation.
-- Mickie James did an interview saying that WWE dropped the ball in not helping her to promote her country music album. Although they weren't happy with doing outside projects without letting them have some control over it, her release was mostly due to her behaviour on an overseas tour, and her relationship issues.
-- Absolutely true story: when WWE uses a city that Vince McMahon believes is "minor league-sounding", he bans the name from being used. Instead of announcing that John Cena was injured in Wilkes-Barre, Vince ordered that only the name Pennsylvania be used. There used to be a rule where only London and Tokyo would be used for English and Japanese shows too, regardless of where they were held instead.
-- Speaking of Cena, they're going light with his schedule to make sure that he's fit for the Royal Rumble. He could be back as soon as next week.
-- "The usual Raw bounce back should be on 1/17, as next week’s show goes against the college football BCS championship game."
-- Expect Miz to last as champion through until Elimination Chamber as a bare minimum, and possibly Wrestlemania too. The current Wrestlemania plans (and bare in mind that they change daily) are for Miz vs. Cena to headline with Barrett vs. Undertaker as the other main event. Undertaker isn't even a sure thing to appear, yet.
-- "One of the things to look out for over the next year is changes having to do with HHH having more influence and power. Most are positive about it, but the jury is out as while he’s had power for a decade, the feeling is this is the first year of what will be a transition from Vince to HHH as the guy leading the ship." It was noted by Bryan Alvarez that most backstage were really happy with HHH running things overseas, as he is a nice, well-liked guy who wasn't as on edge as Vince is.
-- Vince McMahon has a trust, called the Vince McMahon Trust Fund, separate from his personal stock, which sold 2,866,944 at the end of last year, taking its value up to $146 million.
Springsteen
Number 2, Rafael!
This from F4W
This is from the newsletter this week regarding TNA
This is from the newsletter this week regarding TNA
Springsteen
Number 2, Rafael!
More from Meltzer.
-- The deal with Shawn Michaels is that he is now being marketed as the greatest wrestler of all time by WWE, which works out since he has his new long-term marketing contract and will be the main inductee into this year's Hall Of Fame. The decision was made to go with Shawn because they need someone who'll sell tickets, and his retirement is still fresh in everyone's mind.
-- The WCW theme is still being talked about, with Arn Anderson, Dean Malenko, Madusa and Lex Luger all still being considered. Vince McMahon wants, more than anyone else, Ted Turner to be inducted, but it's unlikely that Turner would accept. Sting hasn't signed with TNA as of yet, so he's still under consideration.
-- ROH on HDNet will not be renewed in April. HDNet were paying a fee for the show and distributing it internationally, which will now be lost. ROH also now have the issue of contracts, as they signed certain stars to contracts to lock them down for the HDNet shows. There's no way of knowing how well or badly the show did as HDNet doesn't subscribe to ratings services, but it's hopeful that ROH will get live TV specials with HDNet later in the year.
-- WWE are negotiating to show Wrestlemania in 3D. The hold-up is a disagreement in revenue splits.
-- Most new TNA stars who come in from WWE always go one of two ways - either they come in wanting to prove a point and push themselves hard to show WWE what they're missing: Kurt Angle, Christian Cage, etc, or they come in and eventually see TNA as a joke and just an easy way to makes lots of money: Kevin Nash, Booker T and RVD. "Time will tell which category [Matt Hardy] falls into, but day one was not a positive."
-- Raw did a 3.07 (4.6 million viewers), a good rating considering it went against the football game that did the biggest cable TV rating of all time. Shawn Michaels' return gained just under 800,000 viewers in a quarter-hour that almost never gets even close to gaining that many viewers. If the game weren't on, it's likely it would have gained over a million viewers. SmackDown did 1.95 (2.85 million viewers), it's biggest SyFy rating yet. Impact did a 1.16 (1.47 million viewers) with strong 18-34 demo numbers but lost 300,000 viewers across the final three segments with the main event doing the lowest quarter of the entire show.
-- Former Diva Search winner Ashley Massaro is pitching an idea for a reality show where MMA fighters would all fight in a tournament for the chance to win her. "Is that like prostitution or something?"
-- Eric Bischoff, in a recent interview, admitted the Immortal storyline isn't going how he'd imagined it. Bischoff's original idea for the storyline (and it is his) was for more use of Hogan which got derailed due to surgery, and Sting and Kevin Nash to return as the top babyfaces, exactly how WCW was to play out when he nearly bought out that company in March 2001. Nash isn't returning due to a money issue, and Sting hasn't re-signed yet.
-- Mickie James is already looking to pursue acting, targeting a role in a new Wonder Woman movie.
-- Taylor Wilde has retired from wrestling, going back to college to study broadcast journalism. She claimed that the "state of the company [TNA]" and their use of her made it easy to ask for her release.
-- From Dave's TNA show review: "Fans chanted “You can’t wrestle” at Rayne. But you should see her box." Made me laugh.
-- Melina has huge heat backstage. Brooke Adams, in an interview, claimed that Melina was a "fake bitch" who no one liked and who tried to turn her [Adams'] best friends against her. WWE feedback from the interview has been general agreement, always bringing up when she cheated on John Morrison with Batista years ago.
-- John Cena helped raise 4.2 million frequent flyer miles for Make-A-Wish through a series of PSAs, donating a million out of his own pocket. He won a Most Influential Social Good Champion award from influential tech site Mashable for it.
-- WWE were extremely happy with Raw and SmackDown last week, especially having two main events on each show. So expect more of that in the future.
-- Dolph Ziggler is currently the golden boy of the up-and-comers, having convinced management to take a chance on him as a possible future main eventer in a big way. The Rumble match could make or break his chances for the year.
-- A new DX DVD is coming out soon. Yes, I know...
-- A blast from the past: former GM (and the best GM) Mike Adamle was arrested on a DUI charge a few days ago.
-- A death metal band, called 'Owen Hart', have an album coming out next week on Vitriol Records. You can listen to their song, "My Grandma's F*cking A Tranny From Alaska" here: http://owenhart.bandcamp.com/
Oh and listen to this week's FREE Bryan and Vinny show below. And then consider a sub.
http://www.f4wonline.com/radioshow.php?thefile=http://media001.f4wonline.com/free/011311bvshow.mp3
-- The deal with Shawn Michaels is that he is now being marketed as the greatest wrestler of all time by WWE, which works out since he has his new long-term marketing contract and will be the main inductee into this year's Hall Of Fame. The decision was made to go with Shawn because they need someone who'll sell tickets, and his retirement is still fresh in everyone's mind.
-- The WCW theme is still being talked about, with Arn Anderson, Dean Malenko, Madusa and Lex Luger all still being considered. Vince McMahon wants, more than anyone else, Ted Turner to be inducted, but it's unlikely that Turner would accept. Sting hasn't signed with TNA as of yet, so he's still under consideration.
-- ROH on HDNet will not be renewed in April. HDNet were paying a fee for the show and distributing it internationally, which will now be lost. ROH also now have the issue of contracts, as they signed certain stars to contracts to lock them down for the HDNet shows. There's no way of knowing how well or badly the show did as HDNet doesn't subscribe to ratings services, but it's hopeful that ROH will get live TV specials with HDNet later in the year.
-- WWE are negotiating to show Wrestlemania in 3D. The hold-up is a disagreement in revenue splits.
-- Most new TNA stars who come in from WWE always go one of two ways - either they come in wanting to prove a point and push themselves hard to show WWE what they're missing: Kurt Angle, Christian Cage, etc, or they come in and eventually see TNA as a joke and just an easy way to makes lots of money: Kevin Nash, Booker T and RVD. "Time will tell which category [Matt Hardy] falls into, but day one was not a positive."
-- Raw did a 3.07 (4.6 million viewers), a good rating considering it went against the football game that did the biggest cable TV rating of all time. Shawn Michaels' return gained just under 800,000 viewers in a quarter-hour that almost never gets even close to gaining that many viewers. If the game weren't on, it's likely it would have gained over a million viewers. SmackDown did 1.95 (2.85 million viewers), it's biggest SyFy rating yet. Impact did a 1.16 (1.47 million viewers) with strong 18-34 demo numbers but lost 300,000 viewers across the final three segments with the main event doing the lowest quarter of the entire show.
-- Former Diva Search winner Ashley Massaro is pitching an idea for a reality show where MMA fighters would all fight in a tournament for the chance to win her. "Is that like prostitution or something?"
-- Eric Bischoff, in a recent interview, admitted the Immortal storyline isn't going how he'd imagined it. Bischoff's original idea for the storyline (and it is his) was for more use of Hogan which got derailed due to surgery, and Sting and Kevin Nash to return as the top babyfaces, exactly how WCW was to play out when he nearly bought out that company in March 2001. Nash isn't returning due to a money issue, and Sting hasn't re-signed yet.
-- Mickie James is already looking to pursue acting, targeting a role in a new Wonder Woman movie.
-- Taylor Wilde has retired from wrestling, going back to college to study broadcast journalism. She claimed that the "state of the company [TNA]" and their use of her made it easy to ask for her release.
-- From Dave's TNA show review: "Fans chanted “You can’t wrestle” at Rayne. But you should see her box." Made me laugh.
-- Melina has huge heat backstage. Brooke Adams, in an interview, claimed that Melina was a "fake bitch" who no one liked and who tried to turn her [Adams'] best friends against her. WWE feedback from the interview has been general agreement, always bringing up when she cheated on John Morrison with Batista years ago.
-- John Cena helped raise 4.2 million frequent flyer miles for Make-A-Wish through a series of PSAs, donating a million out of his own pocket. He won a Most Influential Social Good Champion award from influential tech site Mashable for it.
-- WWE were extremely happy with Raw and SmackDown last week, especially having two main events on each show. So expect more of that in the future.
-- Dolph Ziggler is currently the golden boy of the up-and-comers, having convinced management to take a chance on him as a possible future main eventer in a big way. The Rumble match could make or break his chances for the year.
-- A new DX DVD is coming out soon. Yes, I know...
-- A blast from the past: former GM (and the best GM) Mike Adamle was arrested on a DUI charge a few days ago.
-- A death metal band, called 'Owen Hart', have an album coming out next week on Vitriol Records. You can listen to their song, "My Grandma's F*cking A Tranny From Alaska" here: http://owenhart.bandcamp.com/
Oh and listen to this week's FREE Bryan and Vinny show below. And then consider a sub.
http://www.f4wonline.com/radioshow.php?thefile=http://media001.f4wonline.com/free/011311bvshow.mp3
Last edited by a moderator:
Springsteen
Number 2, Rafael!
There's a big story doing the rounds on Twitter than this year's Royla Rumble will have 40 entrants instead of the usual 30. A lot of sites twitter pages are reporting this and Joey Styles (who still works for the WWE) is also reporting it.
The rumours are this is being done to prolong the actual match so they can have less matches on the card.
The rumours are this is being done to prolong the actual match so they can have less matches on the card.
Last edited by a moderator:
Springsteen
Number 2, Rafael!
-- The move of the Royal Rumble from 30 to 40 participants was made as a promotional hook to entice new buyers, by saying that it is officially the biggest Rumble ever. The potential main events for Wrestlemania are Edge vs. Del Rio and Miz vs. Cena, so it's likely that Del Rio or Cena could win. HHH is an outside shot, as is CM Punk. There is a possibility of Edge vs. Ziggler at Wrestlemania, and Raw did tease the notion of Cena vs. Orton as the only true main event-type match that could headline the show. So it's still open-ended. Meltzer doesn't see any momentum whatsoever going into Rumble or Wrestlemania this year, as compared to last year.
-- This month (last week, specifically) was the ten year anniversary of both Eric Bischoff announcing that WCW had been sold to his consortium with Fuscient Media Ventures, and UFC announcing that it had been sold to Dana White and the Fertitta brothers. The stories actually broke on the exact same day - January 11th. WCW held a press conference, and then the UFC news broke two hours later.
-- It's also been ten years since the writing was finally accepted on the wall of ECW. Paul Heyman had banked on WCW folding, leaving TNT and TBS in need of a wrestling product that it eventually decided it didn't need. He went to the USA Network and got 'yes' responses until he met Barry Diller who ran USA. Diller wanted WWF cancelled in late 1997, around five months before Raw became a ratings winner. He told Heyman he didn't want wrestling, unless it was WWF. Heyman went into hiding and returned for the Raw after No Way Out 2001, when Jerry Lawler walked out. On January 13th 2001, ECW held its final show, without Heyman, and went out with everyone (who had showed up - many hadn't) hugging and crying and drinking beers, accepting that this may be the end. And it was.
-- "Who would have thought, ten years later, that Paul Heyman would be writing the autobiography of the UFC champion? That Vince McMahon would have made a decision that made him a third tier player in PPV. And that another McMahon decision, to leave Spike TV, would lead to an opening that allowed a second national promotion, although one that never had the cult following of ECW or a thimble of the popularity of WCW, survive to at least be a solid player in the game. And who would have thought, ten years later, that the creative heads of that company would be Eric Bischoff and Vince Russo?... Ten years doesn’t seem like a long time. But this industry runs in dog years. And every single aspect of this industry was greatly shaped by things that happened over a period of days, ten years ago."
-- The idea for Main Event Mafia returning to TNA is for everyone to return - Steiner, Booker T, Nash, Sting and Angle, with Bobby Lashley mentioned too. Nash and Booker aren't guaranteed to sign yet.
-- On the TNA tapings on the road: "Expenses for production will be going way up because all the regular crew members that live in the Orlando area are now going to have to be flown in and have hotels, plus they have to learn to set up in new buildings. Spike is said to be handling a lot of those increases, but not all. So while this is the plan going forward, if ratings don’t increase with this added expense, it would likely be a short-lived change." The building booked for the first taping holds 11,000, so they will most likely tape off over half of the building and paper like crazy. Meltzer also thinks it'll be hard to get heel reactions for Hardy and Flair.
-- Matt Hardy's new name is "Cold Blood" Matt Hardy.
-- Even though HHH is due back any day now, it's likely that he'll wind down over the next year or two to focus on his office job. He's studying the marketing side of the job, since he knows about booking and production. Stephanie McMahon doesn't travel much any more as she focuses on her children, even though she calls in when needed. It's more likely that HHH will end up running the company more than Stephanie when Vince steps down.
-- The Randy Savage/All-Stars promo was set up by THQ, not WWE.
-- Not a definite, but William Regal is in line to be the head trainer on the new Tough Enough series.
-- Looks like The Undertaker vs. Wade Barrett is a-go!
-- This month (last week, specifically) was the ten year anniversary of both Eric Bischoff announcing that WCW had been sold to his consortium with Fuscient Media Ventures, and UFC announcing that it had been sold to Dana White and the Fertitta brothers. The stories actually broke on the exact same day - January 11th. WCW held a press conference, and then the UFC news broke two hours later.
-- It's also been ten years since the writing was finally accepted on the wall of ECW. Paul Heyman had banked on WCW folding, leaving TNT and TBS in need of a wrestling product that it eventually decided it didn't need. He went to the USA Network and got 'yes' responses until he met Barry Diller who ran USA. Diller wanted WWF cancelled in late 1997, around five months before Raw became a ratings winner. He told Heyman he didn't want wrestling, unless it was WWF. Heyman went into hiding and returned for the Raw after No Way Out 2001, when Jerry Lawler walked out. On January 13th 2001, ECW held its final show, without Heyman, and went out with everyone (who had showed up - many hadn't) hugging and crying and drinking beers, accepting that this may be the end. And it was.
-- "Who would have thought, ten years later, that Paul Heyman would be writing the autobiography of the UFC champion? That Vince McMahon would have made a decision that made him a third tier player in PPV. And that another McMahon decision, to leave Spike TV, would lead to an opening that allowed a second national promotion, although one that never had the cult following of ECW or a thimble of the popularity of WCW, survive to at least be a solid player in the game. And who would have thought, ten years later, that the creative heads of that company would be Eric Bischoff and Vince Russo?... Ten years doesn’t seem like a long time. But this industry runs in dog years. And every single aspect of this industry was greatly shaped by things that happened over a period of days, ten years ago."
-- The idea for Main Event Mafia returning to TNA is for everyone to return - Steiner, Booker T, Nash, Sting and Angle, with Bobby Lashley mentioned too. Nash and Booker aren't guaranteed to sign yet.
-- On the TNA tapings on the road: "Expenses for production will be going way up because all the regular crew members that live in the Orlando area are now going to have to be flown in and have hotels, plus they have to learn to set up in new buildings. Spike is said to be handling a lot of those increases, but not all. So while this is the plan going forward, if ratings don’t increase with this added expense, it would likely be a short-lived change." The building booked for the first taping holds 11,000, so they will most likely tape off over half of the building and paper like crazy. Meltzer also thinks it'll be hard to get heel reactions for Hardy and Flair.
-- Matt Hardy's new name is "Cold Blood" Matt Hardy.
-- Even though HHH is due back any day now, it's likely that he'll wind down over the next year or two to focus on his office job. He's studying the marketing side of the job, since he knows about booking and production. Stephanie McMahon doesn't travel much any more as she focuses on her children, even though she calls in when needed. It's more likely that HHH will end up running the company more than Stephanie when Vince steps down.
-- The Randy Savage/All-Stars promo was set up by THQ, not WWE.
-- Not a definite, but William Regal is in line to be the head trainer on the new Tough Enough series.
-- Looks like The Undertaker vs. Wade Barrett is a-go!
Springsteen
Number 2, Rafael!
I imagine he'll return at the Rumble. I don't think he'll win it (rather Cena or Punk) but he'll eliminate Sheamus and then they'll either have a big grudge match on Raw OR just promo it out until the Elimination Chamber PPV and have a match there, however considering Raw will likely have a WWE Title Chamber match at that event it'll probably be a big blow off Raw match. Which wouldn't be a bad thing, they are also booked for a streetfight on the live Raw event on March 19th.
I was thinking the same thing, he'd make his big return at the Rumble, but doesn't Sheamus have beef with John Morrison right now?
Springsteen
Number 2, Rafael!
Yeah but to be honest that feud can just disappear easily because of the impact the Triple H return would have. It's been a really good feud mind.
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