The General Wrestling Thread

[EmpireWF]

It was meh.

I laughed more at the stupid reactions from the crowd.

2 weeks to go, someone has to swing on somebody. It must happen.

 

[JayDizzle]

Ziggler, great as always.

Orton/Kane is only happening because they need something to do.

Teddy v. Johnny Ace is only as good as the teams and Team Long has Cruisers going against Heavyweights.

Cena coming out Old School, mad-as-shit, was refreshing... MOAR OF THIS AND LESS FRUITY PEBBLES.

The Rock... sucks now; he can memorize gay ass jokes and mom fucking but he can't do karaoke? Hope Dwayne likes'em salty.

And Jericho going in on Punk's Drunk Father was gold...

 

[dave]

I didn't think The Rock's thing was that bad. I do wonder if the shot at Cena/Eve was real? That I don't know made that work.
Not concerned that it was likely pre-recorded.

I actually didn't like the Jericho-Punk thing. There are millions of people who suffer greatly from alcoholics or alcoholism. It just seemed tacky to bring that up ... especially the part about Punk is eventually gonna drink.

That said, I swear I saw Punk with a beer can at one of those Stone Cold Steve Austin tributes.

Anyway, I thought Raw was good tonight. Why even have Randy Orton on the card? You know he's never gonna lose.

 

[SHOGUN]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMUF0YcmWIU"]FCW 3/11/12 - Kassius Ohno (Chris hero) FCW Debut Promo (HD 1080p) - YouTube[/ame]

 

[IamMedellin]

so Did Cena end the rap with a Word.......LIFE?

 

[s@ppisgod]

Nobody is doubting a niche wrestling network on some sports tier wouldn't succeed, it absolutely would.

The problem is, would it be profitable? WWE 24/7 wasn't profitable enough to justify it's existence.

Worse yet, McMahon doesn't want to be on a sports tier, he wants it on the main tier. You pay for Spike TV, you pay for the WWE Network. He doesn't see it as a stupid niche thing as you mentioned. He wants it as a total network on level with USA or any other major cable networks.

As usual despite trying to do everything but wrestling McMahon is going to fail miserably at this venture.

It's hard to sell ads on On-Demand. As an all-day cable network, it's impossible not to sell a lot of ad time. The WWE is based around being advertiser-friendly now. I doubt they'd have any trouble making a good deal of money that way. Versus having to try and make a ton off $8 a month from individual fans who drop out/pop-in at any time.

I actually didn't like the Jericho-Punk thing. There are millions of people who suffer greatly from alcoholics or alcoholism. It just seemed tacky to bring that up ... especially the part about Punk is eventually gonna drink.

There's nothing wrong with an alcohol problem-related storyline. Just look at Scott Hall....

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

It's hard to sell ads on On-Demand. As an all-day cable network, it's impossible not to sell a lot of ad time. The WWE is based around being advertiser-friendly now. I doubt they'd have any trouble making a good deal of money that way. Versus having to try and make a ton off $8 a month from individual fans who drop out/pop-in at any time.

The problem with selling ad time, and ultimately the problem with this entire project, is that every study on the topic shows that people who watch wrestling make less money and have less disposable income than viewers of any other sport or comparable form of entertainment. Thus, the ad rates are shit.

So when you talk about the NHL doing lower ratings than the WWE, that may be true, but advertisers still covet ad time on NHL games more than WWE RAW. Same for something like the Golf Channel, which draws minuscule amounts of total viewers, but those viewers are mostly affluent white males who buy Cadillacs, invest money, and are prescribe to boner pills. The Golf Channel or NHL Network 0.2 is worth more than the RAW 3.1.

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

Nobody is doubting a niche wrestling network on some sports tier wouldn't succeed, it absolutely would.

The problem is, would it be profitable? WWE 24/7 wasn't profitable enough to justify it's existence.

Worse yet, McMahon doesn't want to be on a sports tier, he wants it on the main tier. You pay for Spike TV, you pay for the WWE Network. He doesn't see it as a stupid niche thing as you mentioned. He wants it as a total network on level with USA or any other major cable networks.

As usual despite trying to do everything but wrestling McMahon is going to fail miserably at this venture.

Once again, Vince is a delusional man who is going to end up out kicking his coverage with this thing.

Why it's so horrible to just be good at promoting wrestling and making millions (if not billions) doing so, is beyond my understanding.

Deep down, Vince is a miserable man, because he hates the one thing he happens to be good at. He wants wrestling to be everything but wrestling.

 

[Rayman]

This is their 199th match together

#HEEL vs. Ghana's Finest is always a good thing.

Holy shit, I thought that was Billy Gunn for a second.

 

[EmpireWF]

Holy shit, I thought that was Billy Gunn for a second.

Yeah, he's turned into a mix of Billy Gunn and Mr. Perfect.

He's great though (not as much as Perfect, but in this day and age, seems like it).

 

[LiquidLarry2GhostWF]

Once again, Vince is a delusional man who is going to end up out kicking his coverage with this thing.

Why it's so horrible to just be good at promoting wrestling and making millions (if not billions) doing so, is beyond my understanding.

Deep down, Vince is a miserable man, because he hates the one thing he happens to be good at. He wants wrestling to be everything but wrestling.

They fucked it up from jump street.

It should have been some minor television programming as a way to showcase their ridiculous tape collection...

Instead, he tries to pawn it off as some ridiculous reality TV network with lots of "original programming" that surely, no one will really watch.

Outkicking his coverage is exactly it. Instead of a WWE Classics Channel, which, I believe would surely be hooked and simple to produce, he goes for a reality TV network...yeah, smart move, fuckface. Stick to wrestling weekly episodic television.

 

[EmpireWF]

They didn't just push it as a reality network, that's only some of the content. The problem is it's a WWE network and mainstream people don't trust McMahon and pro wrasslin in the least.

Fans are still viewed as toothless hillbillies who can't read. So how are they going to push this network on cable systems and satellite companies asking for a legit price when nobody believes it's worth it? Getting new networks on packages are already a fight for blood as it is.

The problem was they apparently dove into the pool without doing any actual planning for what they were getting into. Funny though since there's been talk of a WWE Network for at least a decade since they started buying up all the tape libraries. It's a farce they were so ill prepared.

lmao when they announced the April 1 date. They'll be lucky if it ever gets off the ground.

 

[Maynard]

the rock says cleveland set a record for the largest sell out crowd in WWE history

havnt they been to stadiums and shit?

 

[Bigpapa42]

the rock says cleveland set a record for the largest sell out crowd in WWE history

havnt they been to stadiums and shit?

He said it was the largest sell-out crowd in WWE history in Cleveland, I believe. So I'm not even sure that it was the largest crowd WWE had ever drawn in Cleveland - probably just the largest that could be counted as a sell-out in Cleveland.

 

[s@ppisgod]

The problem with selling ad time, and ultimately the problem with this entire project, is that every study on the topic shows that people who watch wrestling make less money and have less disposable income than viewers of any other sport or comparable form of entertainment. Thus, the ad rates are shit.

So when you talk about the NHL doing lower ratings than the WWE, that may be true, but advertisers still covet ad time on NHL games more than WWE RAW. Same for something like the Golf Channel, which draws minuscule amounts of total viewers, but those viewers are mostly affluent white males who buy Cadillacs, invest money, and are prescribe to boner pills. The Golf Channel or NHL Network 0.2 is worth more than the RAW 3.1.

With all due respect, no shit the Golf Channel has viewers with more disposable income. That's a big reason why they're on basic cable. I maintain that the NHL and WWE sell similar #s in merchandise. Much like Spike, there are advertisers who target that demo. Not to mention the large kid following that the WWE has. Nickelodeon has never had a problem selling ad time as long as I've been alive because everyone knows that kids are morons who get garbage bought for them everyday.

Once again, Vince is a delusional man who is going to end up out kicking his coverage with this thing.

Why it's so horrible to just be good at promoting wrestling and making millions (if not billions) doing so, is beyond my understanding.

Deep down, Vince is a miserable man, because he hates the one thing he happens to be good at. He wants wrestling to be everything but wrestling.

Precisely. Vince is a big fish in a small pond. He wants to branch out and prove he's this great businessman, but he's failed at every single turn. So he has to settle for being a hugely successful wrasslin' CEO. So instead of changing businesses, he decides to change the wrasslin' business. So in his mind, he's a hugely successful sports entertainment businessman. Which is the same thing to anybody who doesn't get his signature on their paycheck. Only difference is, like you've mentioned, the giant amount of money he's left on the table. Is there any real question that if the WWF really went belly-up in the 90s and left the wrasslin' business for good, that he'd be anywhere in the same stratosphere in terms of riches or success today?

 

[EmpireWF]

Is there any real question that if the WWF really went belly-up in the 90s and left the wrasslin' business for good, that he'd be anywhere in the same stratosphere in terms of riches or success today?

That'd be a hell of a sight.

If Turner runs McMahon out of the wrestling business...what does he do? Does he regroup, get investors and try again?

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

An interesting point that Meltzer always brigs up, is that Vince thinks he took wrestling mainstream, but in reality, wrestling is far less popular now than it ever has been in history.

WWE is highly successful, but wrestling as a whole does far less attendance, far less total TV viewers, far less viewers percentage wise when compared against the population, etc. By anything measurable, even gross income when changed for inflation, the wrestling industry has never been less popular than it is now.

Local wrestling used to do ratings that Vince has never approached, and they used to do it every week for decades on end in places like Memphis, Portland, Houston, St Louis, Atlanta, Carolinas, etc etc etc, not to mention selling out large arenas EVERY WEEK in some of those places, repeating the same tour loops week after week for decades. Vince cant sell out those same cities once per YEAR these days as the only game in town, even with his crazy budget and flashy looking TV production.

How did the territories keep things fresh week after week? Solid booking that made sense. Not by writing elaborate scripts, not by bringing in people from outside the business, not by running from the idea that what you do is wrestling. The booking was often done by uneducated men, but they were lifers in the business and understood what drew through trial & error and experience.

I think selling out the same buildings every week for years on end is far more impressive than drawing half full houses every night, and living and dying on PPV and the Mania revenue.

So from that angle, i'm not even sure Vince is a great wrestling promoter. He's a great something, I just don't know what it is.

 

[FedEx227]

I'm not entirely sure he is much anyway. I suppose we could maybe have a topic for the next podcast. Outside of Hulk Hogan and Stone Cold/The Rock, what has he really done great?

More times then not when he has most of the control you end up with really dumb characters, bad wrestling, bad storylines, flip flopped concepts, etc.

Hulk Hogan fell into his lap as an already partially made star and Stone Cold was really a JR project that just needed the platform to launch (which was not only already seen somewhat by WCW pre-Bischoff but more so seen by Paul Heyman). EVEN then McMahon saddled him with a retarded gimmick and concept before as Cornette said, he turned into himself with the volume turned up.

Actually, can we do the podcast about this? I really, really like this topic.

 

[FedEx227]

He said it was the largest sell-out crowd in WWE history in Cleveland, I believe. So I'm not even sure that it was the largest crowd WWE had ever drawn in Cleveland - probably just the largest that could be counted as a sell-out in Cleveland.

It was a dumb line all around. Nobody really knows what it meant. At it's core it's basically largest sell out crowd in Cleveland for a weekly episodic television taping.

 

[EmpireWF]

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