The WWE Thread

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Montana
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Re: The WWE Thread

Post by Montana »

Man does Stephanie just ruin the product. I get the product wasn't great before, but how does anyone feel that she adds value to the product/talent. It's been the same stale/boring heel gimmick, since like 2005. I can only imagine of all the talent wasted only to give her a 15 minute monologue to start the show. Even with 3 hours, it's about 15 minutes too much.
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SPWYARE/POP-UP WARNING - https://www.pwinsider.com/article/11357 ... n.html?p=1

Johnson:
While the expectation in recent weeks has been that former WWE Cruiserweight champion Neville was on his way out of World Wrestling Entertainment, sources within the company have told PWInsider.com that there have been recent positive discussions between Neville and the company.

There is a belief among some in the company that talks have gone so well that Neville could actually be returning to action for WWE before the end of the month. One source even believed Neville could be back as soon as this week, but PWInsider.com has (as of this writing) not been able to confirm that. Obviously, we will see if that is soon the case.

Neville quietly disappeared from 205 Live storylines last month amongst stories that he had walked out of Raw after balking to losing a match to Enzo Amore. PWInsider.com quickly debunked the walkout story as Neville was never even on the road that week. We later reported in the Elite section that the idea that Neville had refused to put over Amore again was shot down, specifically because the two had become close friends and regularly socialized away from WWE events.

WWE sources immediately denied that Neville had been released from the company, he was later removed from the 205 Live opening. At that time, however, two different sources told PWInsider.com that Neville had pushed for a WWE release with the idea of leaving the company and building his name outside of it, similar to what Drew McIntyre did prior to his return to NXT.

As we reported at the time, until Neville was actually released, there was always a chance that the two sides could come to terms, paving the way for his return to the company. If what we are hearing is correct, that road has been paved.
Meltzer:
PWInsider has reported that WWE is talking with Neville about a return. We do know that he had plans outside that were being held up because WWE was not going to release him from his contract.
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dhads7161
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Re: The WWE Thread

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On paper this Survivor Series card is the best card of the big fours this year. Royal Rumble was a pretty standard Rumble card, Mania was meh overall, SummerSlam was just a glorified Raw.
This Survivor Series card is pretty good and its buildup has got me interested in the WWE for the last month.
-Enzo Amore vs. Kalisto
-The Miz vs. Baron Corbin (a bit meh, but I think these two can have a decent match)
-Raw Women vs. SmackDown Women
-Alexa Bliss vs. Natalya (I type this as Charlotte vs. Natalya is in progress on SmackDown)
-The Usos vs. Sheamus & Cesaro (would have liked to see Usos vs. Ambrose & Rollins but these two teams have knocked it out of the park all year. It will suffice for not getting to see the Battle for Roman Reigns Soul)
-New Day vs. The Shield (as much of a New Day fan I am I just couldn't buy this match as anymore than a squash match with The Sheild going over)
-Team Raw vs. Team SmackDown (so many cool matchups and possibilities in this match. Should be a clusterfuck but that is what it's meant to be. I expect this one to be interference laden with Kane, Kevin Owens, and Sami Zayn getting involved. And there to be some issues with certain teammates namely Triple H and Kurt Angle)
-AJ Styles vs. Bork Laser (the names could sell this match alone if not for Lesnar's performances since Roadblock-March 2016 becoming lazy. Great opportunity for him to show he can still perform. I do expect Jinder Mahal to interfere)
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Observer:
Scott Dawson of the Revival looks to be returning in mid-December
The WWE indicated to some of their U.K. wrestlers they were looking at doing the weekly U.K. television show starting early next year and are starting once again to book some buildings as placeholders in case the television deal comes through. They were looking at several people from the tryout last week in Manchester for the project if the TV deal come to fruition
The India situation got a lot of attention this week when WWE canceled its 12/8 show in New Delhi, India and announced HHH vs. Mahal as new the main event for the 12/9 show. Essentially these moves were made because ticket sales were slow for both nights at Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium (set up for 10,000 fans each night). This is probably as much due to the pricing structure of $25 to $520 U.S., which is far more expensive than Indian fans are used to paying for sports. The reality is that less than two years ago, without the big push for the country and building the Smackdown title around Mahal, WWE went to India and sold 11,500 tickets both nights in the same building, but that was also the first time in India in nearly 14 years, so there was a huge novelty, not to mention the price structure wasn’t anywhere near as high. But it is kind of black eye for running the country where they have more social media followers and YouTube viewers than any other market, by a wide margin. They sold out two shows less than two years ago in the same city, before the Mahal push, in the same building, but at lower ticket prices. Before that, WWE hadn’t run India since a disastrous tour in 2002 that ended up with many wrestlers getting violently ill and low gates. With the exception of cricket, the national sport, which charges low ticket prices, most sports events in India are paid for by sponsors and fans are let in for free. This is what happened with both TNA when they went to India and when the network in India set up the Ring Ka King promotion for one season that Jeff Jarrett was involved in producing. Many have labeled this as the evidence that the Mahal title win was a mistake, but the Mahal title win was never about two house shows in India that weren’t even on the schedule when the decision was made to put the title on Mahal. The title win, a direct play for that market, was to boost interest and awareness of the product and drive more revenue in ways other than house shows, such as merchandise and the WWE Network numbers. Revenue from India is basically nonexistent, aside from a well-paying television deal with Sony Pictures Networks (which were the co-promoters of the show). In the end, the Mahal title win didn’t hurt PPV in the U.S., because those numbers are so low at this point that the variations are pretty much insignificant. It had no bearing on the WWE Network number because even with strong Raw main events, the network number is clearly a seasonal pattern. But conversely, based on the overseas numbers, there was no measurable increase coming out of India. As far as television ratings, Smackdown is doing fine. Live show Smackdown house show attendance is down and television tapings are down from last year, and they are down by a greater degree than Raw. It’s probably unfair to blame that on the champion. Now, it’s impossible to break things down in India on its own, but revenue from the Asia Pacific market was the same even with the television rights fees in India increasing, meaning that taking that contracted number away, which would have been there no matter what booking decisions were made, the other numbers in that market decreased. From a short-term standpoint, the decision probably was neither a success nor failure business-wise, but it did lead to a decline in quality of the main events and did no favors for Shinsuke Nakamura, but that’s not irreversible. But India, like China, are both long-term plays as far as developing the market goes with the idea it has huge potential based on population. It will be very interesting to see how Mahal’s bookings go next year, because that will be the key in how management in hindsight views all this. But the real key is if by making Mahal a superstar and a champion is if WWE will get a better bump in rights fees on its next contract with Sony. At this point, that’s the only significant revenue they are getting out of India. If India is a long game for, let’s say ten years from now, Mahal as champion in 2017 is completely insignificant. If making him champion will influence Sony to think wrestling is a bigger deal or a more valuable contract than otherwise, and pay more money, then it paid off. Those negotiations are more likely being finalized next year, not this year, so that decision probably should have been done in 2018, unless they are going back to him then. WWE’s explanation of the cancellation of the first show was: “To meet the requests of WWE fans in India, and deliver the biggest main event in the country’s history, WWE is combining two nights of family-friendly action into a one-night only exclusive Supershow.”
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famicommander
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I think those young up-and-comers HHH and Shane McMahon are really going places. Those young men have bright futures in this industry, and obviously whomever booked Survivor Series sees a lot of potential in them. And they totally didn't just bury most of the heavyweights on both rosters at all. Totally.

Maybe they could go down to NXT for a little while and develop a little more, because those dudes are the future.
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Lesnar vs. Styles joins KENTA vs. Richards and HBK vs. Taker for Houston matches I’ll always remember experiencing in person.
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Re: The WWE Thread

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Meltzer:
The advances for Raw & Smackdown in Houston were not strong at all. Similar to NXT. It's easier for the crew to work four shows in the same building and live gates aren't that important to business, but the idea of four shows surrounding Survivor Series in one market and getting a lot of people to travel didn't work out that well. Last night's show was a legit sellout but it was the only one of the four shows to have a high ticket demand.
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famicommander
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Re: The WWE Thread

Post by famicommander »

If there's one thing WWE needs, it's another weekly show.

Between 3 hours of Raw, 2 hours of Smackdown, 1 hour of NXT, 1 hour of Main Event, and 1 hour of 205 Live there's just not enough WWE on television in a week.
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SPYWARE/POP-UP WARNING - https://www.pwinsider.com/article/11398 ... y.html?p=1

Johnson:
WWE PLANNING TO LAUNCH 205 LIVE EVENTS IN JANUARY

"We have created something called 205 Live, which is a show involving our cruiserweights, which is another whole division in which we are starting up now, which will again have its own sources of revenue in terms of live events as well as other things that are all – merchandising, licensing and all of that." - Vince McMahon, February 2017

World Wrestling Entertainment will move forward with the first-ever 205 Live brand live events starting in January 2018, PWInsider.com has confirmed.

The current plan is for 205 Live to have its first standalone live events on the weekend of 1/18/18-1/20/18. We are told WWE will be targeting smaller buildings in the Northeast for that weekend, possibly the same venues they utilize for the WWE NXT brand.

It appears WWE will be taking a "let's walk before we can run" stance with the brand. The current 205 Live touring plan appears to be running 2-3 events over a weekend once a month, but beyond the January and potential February dates, we are told that nothing has been set in stone and it's being seen as something of an experiment.

The 205 Live brand, which recently celebrated its first anniversary, was born out of the very successful 2016 Cruiserweight Classic tournament, which led to a number of talents being signed full-time by WWE. 205 Live was launched a year ago under the strategy of adding weekly live programming to the WWE Network, effectively replacing the taped WWE Superstars series. Cruiserweight talents have been appearing regularly on Monday Night Raw since that time as a way to hook fans into subscribing to the WWE Network to watch the series.

Over the last six months, 205 Live took a major step forward with the addition of current Cruiserweight champion Enzo Amore, who brought a strong personality to the weekly storylines. The brand will get another boon when WWE NXT star Hideo Itami joins the roster shortly.

During a WWE quarter earnings conference call back in February, Vince McMahon noted there were plans to create revenue sources for 205 Live, including live events, licensing and merchandising. Until now, nothing had moved forward, officially, in terms of those plans and the Cruiserweights continued to work TV tapings.

In 2018, we will start to see those plans rolled out and how the brand will fare when it goes on the road and whether that leads to additional merchandising for the brand and its performers.
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dhads7161
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Re: The WWE Thread

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Look for WWE to begin spilling propaganda of Alexa Bliss vs. Sasha Banks being the first ever women's match in the UAE. Not true TNA did it in 2010 with Sarita & Madison Rayne vs. Tge Beautiful People.
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Re: The WWE Thread

Post by famicommander »

Sheamus is apparently rehabbing spinal stenosis, which is very serious. It's the same sort of issue that claimed the careers of Edge and Steve Austin.

I can't stand Sheamus as a performer but I wish him nothing but success in his recovery. I don't know what this means for Claudio either but obviously the health of Sheamus is the most important thing.
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Re: The WWE Thread

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Claudio is going to need another partner as that's the only way WWae allows him to find success...he's going to need a hero...
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supersonic
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Re: The WWE Thread

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Cesaro is at he bear with a superior talker alongside him though. His singles run in ROH a decade ago is really dull outside the in-ring.

Fact: Cesaro has been on every PPV with Raw and co-brand PPV since SummerSlam 2016, which means he made every available PPV this year. The Bar has been amazing for both, as it gave Sheamus the most interesting direction perhaps of his whole career.
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