The WWE Thread

[DXvsNWO1994]

Interesting Tweets from the official WWE Twitter Account:

@WWE · 2h
(1/2) @VivaDelRio is responsible for his own actions. If you’re angry at anyone, be angry at Alberto.

@WWE · 2h
(2/2) There’s no excuse for a pro athlete not to conduct themselves in a professional manner.

[supersonic]

"For the full scoop on Alberto Del Rio's release, tune into the WWE Network right after Monday Night Raw.

All for just $9.99!"

[ROHdk]

WON on WWE Network UK...

Spoiler: show

The latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter highlights a surprising contradiction about WWE’s pay per view projections in relation to their deal with UK broadcaster Sky.
The WWE announced this past week that they project no money from PPV next year. Now take into account WWE a short time ago signed a 2015 deal with Sky which put all 12 of their special events on to pay per view in the UK. This new Sky deal is drastically different from the current one which sees several shows available to watch on the regular Sky Sports package. So why do the WWE say they’ll make no pay per view money when a key market has just seemingly expanded pay per views dramatically?
The Observer points out that this makes little sense, “A surprise in their projections is that they are expecting no money from PPV next year, and this comes shortly after signing a deal with Sky in the U.K [...] which makes the belief there will be no PPV revenue almost contradictory to a new deal just signed.”
In analysing this contradiction, perhaps we have an indication that Sky will in fact be the host of the UK WWE Network, which is set to be launched at the exact same time as Sky’s PPV deal starts. The PPV deal could in reality be a WWE Network deal. Whereas the US version of the Network is an ‘over the top digital platform’ similar to Netlfix, perhaps WWE have quietly already arranged with Sky to make the UK version a television subscription package. That would explain the contradiction: UK fans will have to pay a subscription to Sky in order to see the monthly special event and access other on-demand content / a live channel stream. You would presume that fans will still have the option to watch via smartphone and other devices via the Sky Go app.
The contradiction is explained as WWE don’t see the Sky deal as PPV money because it will essentially be the Network. Sky in contrast view it as now having all 12 special events on a pay to see basis.
In many ways this is an example of how UK Network subscribers could be worse off. Yes there will probably be the on-demand content, but you’ll now be having to pay a monthly fee for what you previously received in parts as free in your Sky Sports package. Another £10 a month on top of the Sky Sports package is also a cost which some people won’t be able to justify, with some Sky bills already teetering near the £100 mark. By launching the Network on a platform where people already see themselves as paying for content via Sky Sports, WWE could hurt their success compared to launching an independent digital platform. This isn’t like America where events have always been pay per view, UK fans are used to paying far less for monthly extravaganzas. That’s going to take some adaptation for UK fans to get used to, the perception of paying for content is less accepted than America.
This Sky / WWE Network arrangement is just a theory, but it would certainly explain the apparent confusion. Think about it, if WWE were to do anything different, launch a digital version of the Network in the same style as the USA one, it would be a direct conflict of interest with the new Sky ‘pay per view’ deal.
We await further information on the WWE UK Network, with a reported launch date of the start of 2015 now just half a year away.

I hope this only affects the UK market, and not the rest of Europe. So the rest of Europe can have the WWE Network at a reasonable price. I can't see why we shouldn't, Sky is not available outside the UK, as far as I know.

[D2Kvirus]

Interesting Tweets from the official WWE Twitter Account:

@WWE · 2h
(1/2) @VivaDelRio is responsible for his own actions. If you’re angry at anyone, be angry at Alberto.

@WWE · 2h
(2/2) There’s no excuse for a pro athlete not to conduct themselves in a professional manner.

WWE's Head of Social Media really is pissed that ADR slapped him, isn't he?

[supersonic]

My prediction for tomorrow's Hogan birthday bash and nWo circle-jerk:

It'll be interrupted by Sandow pretending to be Crow Sting.

[supersonic]

Good lord this Heyman documentary. Definitely in the same league as Punk and Austin.

[Leslie Vernon]

http://imgur.com/Za7Mryy

That is all.

[Sandy Fork]

WWE.com confirms it. It actually happened.

[DXvsNWO1994]

Anxiously waiting for Renee Young's interview with Kevin Steen...

[TYFDK]

Interesting Tweets from the official WWE Twitter Account:

@WWE · 2h
(1/2) @VivaDelRio is responsible for his own actions. If you’re angry at anyone, be angry at Alberto.

@WWE · 2h
(2/2) There’s no excuse for a pro athlete not to conduct themselves in a professional manner.

WWE's Head of Social Media really is pissed that ADR slapped him, isn't he?

I'm still surprised the guy wasn't let go himself, if they weren't lying about him making a racist comment.

[Mike0284]

Apparently there were a lot of wrestlers within WWE who were upset about Alberto Del Rio's release. We've noted that Del Rio was cut for allegedly assaulting a WWE.com social media worker after that employee allegedly made a racist remark about Del Rio.

That WWE.com worker is still employed with the company but word is that he could be finding himself out of a job like Del Rio soon. Del Rio's slap to the man was described as a heavy shot, something similar to the infamous slap wrestler David Schultz gave to 20/20 reporter John Stossel in 1984.

Another source has confirmed that Del Rio has been talking about being unhappy in WWE for over a year. He has money and won't be hurting for work. It was said that he's probably happier now than he was with WWE. There are already rumors of reuniting Del Rio and Ricardo Rodriguez in another promotion, perhaps Mexico's AAA promotion or the indies.

[supersonic]

So I was at tonight's event in SEA.

Spoiler: show

Dark match: Big E over Fandango. Good pop for Big E.

MAIN EVENT

Usos vs Sheamus/RVD vs Rybaxel for the tag straps tonight

Seth Rollins over Kofi Kingston. Decent to good range.

Tag titles: Usos over Sheamus/RVD and Rybaxel. RVD does the job.

Dark match?: Adam Rose over Xavier Woods via snap mare DDT.

SMACKDOWN

MizTV
Guest: Roman Reigns

Reigns punches Miz for being a condescending interrupter. Reigns vows to beat Orton. Cookie cutter.

Dean Ambrose over Cesaro via Dirty Deeds. Good or just below good with nice counters. Cesaro used a Burning Hammer for a near fall. Cookie cutter post match promo from Rollins.

Miz vs. Reigns tonight.

Dolph Ziggler over Titus O'Neill via Zig Zag.

Mark Henry over Luke Harper via DQ when Erick Rowan interfered. Sexual Chocolate chants. Kane orders Big Show/Henry vs. Harper/Rowan.

Show/Henry win via combined punch and falling power slam. Exceptional pop, decent match, Show played the Ricky Morton role.

Eva Marie over AJ Lee via count out when AJ went after Paige who attempted a distraction. Post match, Paige leaves with the last laugh and skipping after beating down AJ.

Jack Swagger over Bo Dallas vow ankle lock in less than 2 minutes. Out come Rusev/Lana. Phenomenal heat. Almost ear splitting USA chants.

App exclusive: Dallas claims he didn't tap out. Mildly amusing.

Reigns over Miz in an average match. Great pop for Reigns winning and Ziggler preventing Miz from losing via count out.

Dark segment?: Sheamus, Reigns, and Ambrose take care of Kane, Rollins, and the Wyatt Family.

It was enjoyable but not a live event I'll remember one bit in the future. The Slammys were paced far better than either of this week's TV in the Pacific Northwest.

But if you saw the amount of empty seats and nosebleeds covered (including 99% of the KeyArena tonight), you'd understand WWE going through the motions tonight.

One last thing: SEA's female audience > POR's female audience by a wide, wide margin.

[ROHFanAnthony]

Smackdown was far from sold out?

Speaking of Smackdown, I wonder when they are going to celebrate its 15th anniversary? I'm guessing late September?

[D2Kvirus]

Smackdown was far from sold out?

Speaking of Smackdown, I wonder when they are going to celebrate its 15th anniversary? I'm guessing late September?

The first episode was August 26, 1999...although I genuinely wonder if they'll bother with a landmark episode. After all, was their a 5th anniversary episode of Superstars in April?

[boourns]

Does anyone else hope the Reigns push goes south, Bryan returns to win the Royal Rumble and faces Brock at WM31? It could happen, right?

The only alternate option I'd be happy with is if Angle returns and we get Angle vs. Bryan for WM.

[supersonic]

Does anyone else hope the Reigns push goes south, Bryan returns to win the Royal Rumble and faces Brock at WM31? It could happen, right?

The only alternate option I'd be happy with is if Angle returns and we get Angle vs. Bryan for WM.

The last thing I want is for WWE to have less star power, because then we have shit thin on top like the past several months due to Punk's abrupt retirement and Danielson's injury.

[supersonic]

Meltzer:

Angle is trying to pitch WWE on a deal that would be similar to the schedule Michaels did in his final years with the company, where he worked big shows and limited dates. As best we can tell, WWE hasn’t shown much interest. As noted before, in the past, Vince McMahon was extremely negative on the idea of bringing Angle back.

Oh, and that Del RIo thing too...

Spoiler: show

Alberto Rodriguez, who played Alberto Del Rio with WWE, was fired on 8/7 after an incident a few days earlier at television.

Rodriguez, 37, is a third generation wrestler. His father, Jose, who wrestled as Dos Caras, is generally considered the best working heavyweight wrestler ever to come out of Mexico. His uncle, Aaron, is a cultural legend, Mil Mascaras, without a doubt the most famous heavyweight wrestler ever in the country, as well as an international legend and movie star. Before becoming a pro wrestler, as Al Rodriguez, he was a world class Greco-Roman wrestler in the teenage division, and later placed fourth in the Pan American Games in the 211 pound weight class when he was only 20, and once beating Randy Couture as an amateur.

Rodriguez was fired for slapping Cody Barbierri, the WWE’s Manager of Social Media Live Events, at television last week. According to several reports, the incident happened at catering. Someone made a remark to Barbierri about not cleaning off his plate, and as a joke, he said that was Del Rio’s job. Rodriguez wasn’t there at the time, but the joke, which he obviously took as a racial remark got back to him. He confronted Barbierri and said he didn’t appreciate the remark and wanted an apology.

One performer noted that the story going around was Rodriguez slapped the shit out of him and Barbierri was on the floor, and that the firing wasn’t so much that he slapped him, but how hard he slapped him.

The incident reportedly took place on 8/5 in Laredo, when much of the crew had already left for the Australia tour. According to those who have talked with Rodriguez, he was told after the incident, on the show that he strangely worked as a babyface against a heel Jack Swagger, that he was being suspended for a short period of time, until just past SummerSlam. The belief is that Barbierri threatened to sue the company, and at that point the feeling was for legal reasons, they had no choice but to let him go. Paul Levesque called him on 8/7 and let him go and he reportedly was furious.

A wrestler, particularly one with a legitimate fighting background, can’t be attacking an employee in a publicly traded company, even given the remark. What Rodriguez did was how is probably how it may have been handled in Mexico, and in the old territory days, particularly with a top and an office worker if the office worker made a racial slur, but today you have to file an HR complaint.

However, many fans were furious for the obvious reason. Fans want wrestlers to be badass real-life alpha males who, like in the fantasy world on television, settle things. On a wrestling TV show, someone making a bad stereotype joke about one’s heritage, would deserve to get slapped if that person found out. But real life is different.

What’s notable next is the WWE Twitter, part of the department Barbierri is in one of the key people in charge of, likely in response to those sympathetic for that reason to the TV star Del Rio, made a quick response, writing, “Del Rio is responsible for his own actions. If you’re angry at anyone, be angry at Alberto. There’s no excuse for a pro athlete not to conduct themselves in a professional manner.” Levesque also retweeted that on his HHH account.

The story of Del Rio being at TripleMania on 8/17 already broken as a legitimate mainstream news story in Mexico. The way the story played out, if AAA or he wants to go with it, could make him into a major babyface there, and he would be anyway.

Rodriguez was a trained MMA fighter, working under coach Marco Ruas. He posted a 9-5 record as a heavyweight, including high profile losses in Pride to Kazuhiro Nakamura and Mirko Cro Cop, the latter a famous match in 2003 where he fought with a mask. He used the name Dos Caras Jr. as an MMA fighter, and did most of his fights wearing a mask, although later in his MMA career he didn’t wear a mask due to its limitations. He was more recruited into MMA in Japan because he was a pro wrestler and Mil Mascaras was one of the country’s all-time wrestling legends, being offered big money for high profile matches, then him personally seeking out MMA.

Wrestlers, at least the ones we heard from, were sympathetic to Rodriguez. One said of Barbierri, that he was a jerkoff who was very arrogant, but said he was intelligent, but his attitude flew under the radar of management. Another noted that he had a few situations while on the road over the past year and had a reputation for talking down to wrestlers, but had the backing of Stephanie McMahon and was a key player in WWE’s social media department that had been nominated for key awards.

Rodriguez worked most of his career under a mask as Dos Caras Jr., where he was a main eventer in CMLL and pushed as a star with New Japan Pro Wrestling. Because of his size and look, plus his background as being from a legendary family, he was highly coveted by WWE. He worked mostly Japan and AAA early in his career, but gained his greatest success in Mexico with CMLL.

As Dos Caras Jr., he won the CMLL world heavyweight title from Universo 2000 on July 8, 2007, and held it until dropping it to Ultimo Guerrero on December 22, 2008, by which time he was in talks with WWE.

John Laurinaitis had attempted to sign him for about two years, but there were hold-ups because they wanted him to work without a mask, which for many wrestlers in Mexico, particularly with famous names, is considered an issue of disrespect to family and heritage. But he signed in 2010 and was given a monster push with the idea he was a rich Mexican aristocrat.

The company’s plans were to give him a main event heel run, and then turn him babyface, to give them the Latin American star who could replace Rey Mysterio. He was introduced with a strong series of vignettes and given one of the strongest debuting pushes of any wrestler in the last decade.

While he was very much a star, and headlined PPVs, he never got over to the level of his push, which was substantial. He’d drive into the arenas with a new expensive six-figure car every week, and have his own personal ring announcer, the just-released Jesus “Ricardo” Rodriguez (no relation). He did a natural feud with Mysterio, which he was put over in since he was to be the Latin star of the future, even though he was less than three years younger than Mysterio, who was often injured due to his style.

He was originally to win the world title on a number of occasions, which kept getting moved back, including an originally scheduled title win over Edge at the 2011 WrestleMania, set up by winning the 40 man Royal Rumble in January. He won that year’s Money in the Bank. At SummerSlam, after C.M. Punk had beaten John Cena to win the WWE title, Del Rio cashed in his briefcase and won that title after Kevin Nash had softened up Punk in a post-match attack.

But even the push as being the only man ever to win the Royal Rumble, Money in the Bank and the WWE title in the same year never elevated him quite to the top. He dropped the title to John Cena at the next PPV on September 18, but regained it on October 2 in the Hell in a Cell three-way over Cena and Punk, and then retained on October 23 at Vengeance over Cena, in a Last Man Standing match due to interference from The Miz and R-Truth.

He then lost the title to Punk on November 20, at Survivor Series.

He had one of the most inexplicably botched babyface turns in history, which never fully took, starting in late 2012, then being dropped on a show. That was to be his big run, but it failed.

He won the World title from Big Show in a Last Man Standing match on January 8, 2013, in Miami. He lost it in one of pro wrestling’s most memorable opponents in recent years, when heel Dolph Ziggler, getting one of the biggest babyface reactions ever in East Rutherford, NJ, cashed it in on April 8, on the Raw after WrestleMania. Ziggler, after winning, insulted crowds anyway, and Del Rio stayed face. However, the lukewarm reaction to Del Rio and cheers Ziggler got led to the company changing plans and doing a double-turn when Ziggler returned from a concussion and Del Rio used superkicks to win the title on June 16, 2013, in Chicago. This forced Del Rio to turn back heel, but as part of the turn, they had him turn on Ricardo Rodriguez, his ring announcer who was a key part of his act. The belief was that Rodriguez was so good and had gotten so popular that it would hurt Del Rio as a heel to still be associated with him. But the aura of the special ring announcer is what broke him from the pack. Without him, Del Rio was an athletic, but often light worker due to his original background in Mexico, whose smiling character and promos were very one-dimensional. Everything that made him a star, and even then, he never got over the way a top guy he was pushed at should have, the car, the ring announcer, the scarf, were dropped, with the heel turn, and he was no longer special. Del Rio lost the title to Cena, making a ridiculously quick return after triceps surgery, on October 27, 2013, in Miami.

For a number of reasons, mainly his just not being over at the level of his push and new acts being promoted to the top, he fell into the even-Steven mid-card level from that point and never had serious programs. He had made noise about leaving for some time, as he had publicly said he was looking at retiring young.

Like with Carlito, WWE didn’t want to lose him because 20 percent of the television audience is Hispanic and Spanish speaking countries are a big part of future expansion plans, particularly in South and Central America. At major WWE press events, Del Rio was always featured along with Cena, Stephanie McMahon and Paul Levesque as the faces of the company, even ahead of far more pushed and more popular stars like Daniel Bryan, Randy Orton and C.M. Punk. But he had made it clear he was going to be leaving somewhat soon and one report was that he had told the company he was staying an extra year.

The talent overall was very sympathetic to him, because many didn’t like Barbierri. It was also felt that Barbierri hadn’t apologized after making a racial remark. However, at TV this week, we were told it was something nobody was talking about.

As far as the future goes, the biggest beneficiary looks to be the former Ricardo Rodriguez, as the two can do their act together on indie shows, although it’ll likely be an expensive act.

Both AAA, for its U.S. expansion, and TNA, had immediate interest in Alberto. AAA had a policy in place or not using any ex-WWE talent for its new project, but exceptions would have always been made for Del Rio and Rey Mysterio. When Ricardo Rodriguez was let go, it was with a 90-day non-complete. Alberto’s situation as far as the non-compete goes is unknown, but it is believed it’ll be a 90-day non-compete, meaning he couldn’t perform for TNA or AAA until 11/5, although Joaquin Roldan, the head of AAA, confirmed that he would be appearing on 8/17 at TripleMania, but only said he was a guest of the promotion. It was pushed as Alberto Del Rio being there, not Alberto Rodriguez or Dos Caras Jr., which is interesting. When Luis Urive came in, even though he claimed he had the rights to the name Sin Cara, and has been using the name on indie shows in Mexico, AAA would not let him use the name Mistico, since it was owned by CMLL, or Sin Cara, because it was a WWE name. Wrestlers do have the option of not taking the non-compete but almost all do because you get three weeks of contracted money without having the work. Ricardo Rodriguez confirmed taking his no-compete and thus couldn’t be at TripleMania.

AAA had been interested in Del Rio even before he was let go, and there was talk within wrestling that when Del Rio would leave WWE, and he was expected to do so when his contract expired, he would probably work at least big show dates for AAA.

Guillermo Rodriguez, the brother of Del Rio, who had a brief stint in WWE developmental and now works in Mexico as El Hijo de Dos Caras, said that he, his brother and his father would be teaming up in trios matches pronto. Generally speaking, WWE will enforce the non-compete on televised promotions like TNA and AAA, but as far as working independent shows in Mexico or the Southwest, they are likely to be a little more lax.

[jordidebaas]

Damnit man, the ROH isn't the only one who could use a proofreader

[supersonic]

The proofreader is on honeymoon right now.

[boourns]

Awesome

http://shop.wwe.com/Stephanie-McMahon-% ... lt,pd.html