WWE/TNA News: Ryback fukked over/Faking Polls/Vince laying low/Rock runs the Business

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Hell in a Cell with CM Punk versus Ryback for the title is coming in at 200,000 buys, a big increase over last year's 182,000. Several things to consider with this number. The first is that John Cena, their go-to guy when it comes to attempting to draw on PPV, wasn't even on the show at all. This doesn't mean the company should back off on using Cena as a main eventer or top star, but it does prove that if you've got the right match on top, Cena doesn't have to be in it. It also points to something I have believed for some time, that the easiest way to draw in pro-wrestling is to present some sort of reality to the public. Wrestling is fake, everyone knows it's fake, but there are still things you can design that are real, the Undertaker's WrestleMania streak being far-and-away the best example. What we had in the Hell in a Cell main event was reality – a guy who had been champion for nearly one year versus a guy who had never lost on television in a match where there had to be a finish. WWE inadvertently created a scenario where fans felt that if they paid their money they were guaranteed to see something real happen – either Punk's reign was going to end or Ryback would no longer be undefeated. In the end, it came down to a scenario where wins and losses matter. They key is that in order to create moments and scenarios like this you have to have patience, and you have to work towards scenarios that are guaranteed payoffs in some way. Loser must retire will never draw because nobody believes retirements. But if you build up, for example, extended winning streaks, and put two long-term unbeaten guys against each other in a match with a guaranteed finish, you can, in fact, still draw in 2012. Shocking, I know.
With that said, I think WWE is making a mistake with the Ryback follow-up. Vince changed the Survivor Series main event from an elimination ten-man traditional tag to the three-way with Punk vs. Ryback vs. Cena after getting the early Hell in a Cell numbers, feeling it was a better way to capitalize on Ryback's momentum. The problem is that if people are really into Ryback (and based on ratings patterns I think more people were intrigued about which guy was going to lose rather than Ryback himself, but that's another matter), then Ryback would have been best served being the sole survivor in the ten-man elimination main event that was originally planned, perhaps even pinning Punk to get revenge for what happened in the Cell. That would have served him far better than putting him in a three-way that he wasn't going to win which is leading to a TLC match which he also isn't going to win (unless they've lost their minds). If Ryback is over at all he's over due to his unbeaten streak more than anything else, so if they booked themselves into a corner and had to beat him at Hell in a Cell, the first thing they should have done was construct a scenario where all of a sudden he was unbeatable again. Instead, he's now on a PPV losing streak.

Regarding the Twitter polling on Monday for the Daniel Bryan vs. Kane match, it was all a work. It was pretty obvious the way they wrote the TV, where they did fan voting, they did skits about it with Daniel Bryan and Kane where Bryan insisted he was winning right before they showed up to tell him he lost, and how he was immediately scheduled to go out "unprepared" and have a long match with Rey Mysterio. One person told us that Bryan himself made the decision to go out without his tag team title belt to make the whole thing look more like it was done on the fly. The reason the Twitter polling returned Monday after not having taken place for a while is that Vince McMahon hates Twitter, in large part because while it's a necessary evil as part of their social media campaign, it's also a tool for the talent to say some really stupid things. Vince, however, was overseas visiting troops with several of the talents, and since he wasn't there Hunter, who "kind of likes it," took the opportunity to bring the polling back.
There has been talk of doing Ryback vs. Big Show at WrestleMania this year.

There is no return date for Lilian Garcia (hit by a vehicle while exercising) or Cody Rhodes (multiple injuries due to taking a backdrop from Kane wrong two weeks ago on Main Event) at press time.
British Boot camp, which is being put together through TNA (mostly Jeremy Borash) is done filming and Borash is in the middle of media tour in the UK. Apparently Sky is very happy with the finished product, and I believe the series kicks off in January. It's basically a four-person Tough Enough style show where Marty Scurll, Rockstar Spud and The Blossom Twins attempt to win themselves a TNA contract. All four have appeared at the Impact tapings in the front row as they traveled around to various events as part of the shooting.

Notes from Raw: The company must be high on Titus O'Neil given that while he was beaten by Ryback, he wasn't completely squashed and the match went three minutes. As noted last week, Vince loved him on commentary, which was why he did the same role on Tuesday night at the Smackdown tapings. He plays off Lawler better than the robot Josh Matthews, and apparently JBL wasn't his biggest fan, so his Smackdown work wasn't nearly as good as on Raw. Ryback's promo was better this week as they took out all references to him being hungry all the time (perhaps he has a tapeworm), though he needs to enunciate less because a guy like Ryback probably shouldn't come across as erudite, but rather a big scary to-the-point ass-kicking caveman type. He is getting better. I liked the fact that they let all of the Shield members talk. In film, everyone wants the speaking role, and in wrestling, particularly in 2012, fans don't take you seriously as someone who matters until you get that speaking role, and if you are a good talker and personality, that can overcome nearly everything else. I was surprised that Seth Rollins did almost as much talking as Dean Ambrose, who is clearly the better of the two on the mic, but Rollins did all right. Ambrose doesn't have the WWE look but he oozes confidence like few on the roster and should be a big star. I think in the end it is imperative that they're linked with Paul Heyman, because stables linked with stars do a lot better in the long run than stables that are led by a rookie or someone who fans don't see at the top level. I also liked that they were the focus of the main event angle, although that hour did die a death in the ratings. Ziggler losing clean to Cena in a singles match weeks before TLC was completely baffling. It came across not just as blowing off the feud, but almost writing Ziggler out of storylines for whatever reason. Apparently that's not what happened as they pushed him big on Smackdown the next night, but everyone was baffled by Monday's booking. The Rey Mysterio vs. Daniel Bryan and Sheamus vs. Cesaro matches were very good, particularly the latter in getting Cesaro over and clearly wanting to protect him in a long match with a guy fighting for the title at TLC. Overall, the show was a huge improvement with Vince McMahon out of the country and unable to throw the script out Monday and do a million re-writes, including during the actual show.

 

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Miz was absolutely beyond annoying on Smackdown during last week's MizTV segment. I was literally halfway through it when I realized that, in fact, he's turned babyface and was supposed to be a babyface here. Part of the problem is that there is a deal today where guys don't change their personalities much when they go from babyface to heel. I guess the idea is that you want some consistency, meaning if a guy hated all the babyfaces when he was a heel, it makes no sense for him to suddenly like all the babyfaces after he turns. So you have these heels who turn babyface but then don't actually like the babyfaces and are reluctant to shake their hands, etc. I guess it makes sense logically, but it leads to problems like this. Miz's personality as a heel was so easy to hate, and somehow, I guess some sort of heel synergy, when he turned babyface he kept his heel personality and that actually makes him more annoying as a babyface than it did as a heel. His performance on Smackdown was easily one of the worst babyface performances in the history of wrestling. What's funny is that Big Show went from babyface to heel, and actually did it unlike how everyone else does it nowadays. He went from a happy, smiling guy who loved everyone and shook hands and was jolly to a complete 180 angry, bitter, violent, unhappy beat who hated everyone. Maybe that doesn't "make sense," but the fact is that he was an awesome babyface and now he's an awesome heel. I'd say there is a lesson to be learned there, but maybe the reality is that only a few people are actually capable of pulling that off and Show is one of them.

Watched NXT this week. Big E. Langston, who is a giant powerlifter who looks like a leaner Mark Henry, is a diamond in the rough. He does a gimmick where he's a powerlifter (yup), coming to the ring with chalk on his hands like he's about to do a lift. He does the King Kong Bundy five-second pinfall gimmick and the fans just love him, chanting "FIVE FIVE FIVE!" The "five" also plays into the fact that he's a 500-pound bench presser. He's still green but he moves well and he's got tons of personality, and I think he'd have to screw up really bad to not make it. Husky Harris, as Bray Wyatt, still doesn't have a great physique but he's lost tons of weight and is beyond ready for the main roster. He does a cult leader gimmick and is a great talker. Chris Hero as Kassius Ohno has been ready for some time, but he's still try to work his physique into better shape and that literally all that is holding him back as he talks well and his work is great. I am not really a fan of the big scraggly beard since we have like a half dozen scraggly beards in wrestling today (Daniel Bryan being the most notable and it's part of his goat-face gimmick, plus Ohno, Damian Sandow, the former Brodie Lee on NXT and to a lesser extent Bronson on NXT, CM Punk and Wade Barrett in WWE, plus apparently when Jack Swagger returns his new look involves, yes, a beard).

Apparently I was in the minority, but I thought the Gut Check matches on Impact were indy-level. The company was very high on Alex Silva, which was completely baffling to me since I felt he was the most indyrrific of the bunch. People in OVW are high on Sam Shaw and I thought he did a fine job, though he's green and rather generic still. Taylor Hendrix is pretty much at the level of the TNA girls, at least when working with Tara, who can lead her, although to me her problem is that she needs to build some muscle, not necessarily cosmetic muscle like a Beth Phoenix, but the sort of muscle that will help her not completely fall apart. She hit the ropes at one point and the momentum caused her head to snap back, and that's not good. Not sure how public this is but one of the reasons Kelly Kelly left WWE was because of concern about her health and the state of her neck. If you ever watched her wrestle, this shouldn't come as a surprise since it looked like every single bump she ever took hurt. I am certainly not at all against women in wrestling, but if you're a woman, particularly a small one, and you want to wrestle, you need to lift weights, preferably with a trainer who can teach you some Olympic-style lifting, because this is a tough business and if you're not built for it you're going to break down fast. The problem is that a lot of women think if they touch weights they're going to look like Cris Cyborg, and that's never, ever the case without drugs. Silva got a lot of heat, but the match itself made zero sense in spots, particularly one moment where he claimed he was going to hit his finish, which was a standard leg drop, and after Shaw moved out of the way Silva just got up and kept beating on him. He also had the strings on his trunks hanging out and his kneepads lazily hanging out around his ankles, which just came off as an indy way to get cheap heat. I'm not saying he doesn't have potential, and it was pretty impressive to keep the Impact Zone crowd into his match, but it was also very early on the card and I can't understand what exactly was so impressive about the performance outside of that.

Chris Cutrer wrote in with this: "Just read in this weeks F4W and it was said that the Aces and Eights storyline was inspired by Bischoff's show The Devil's Ride. The Devil's Ride was clearly inspired by Sons Of Anarchy. Before SOA there weren't any reality shows about bikers and the Aces and Eights theme music is a clear ripoff of the SOA theme. In fact, D-Lo Brown stated that SOA was the inspiration for that storyline. So since The Devil's Ride was inspired by SOA then the Aces and Eights storyline obviously was inspired by SOA as well."

The door is not closed for Warrior or Bruno Sammartino going into the Hall of Fame this year in the sense that WWE hasn't given up hope on either. The belief is that a deal could be made with Sammartino, but the feeling from people close to him is that when all is said and done, he's not doing it. Warrior is still being considered but there are still trust issues there in the sense that they don't want to make a deal, announce it, and then have him hold them up for more money. I have no idea if Warrior would actually try something like that, but that is the concern that has been brought up from the WWE side. The theme is people who have had special moments at Madison Square Garden, which is also why Owen Hart is a possibility (his singles career was made after his win over brother Bret at Mania X in one of the great matches in Mania history). The issue with him is that Martha Hart, his widow, will probably try to make life very difficult for WWE if they attempt this since she wants nothing to do with the company or for them to make any money off of or acknowledgment of Owen whatsoever.

 

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One person in WWE noted that it was very odd that CM Punk worked as Grand Marshall of the Thanksgiving Day Parade in Chicago and admitted he was facing Rock for the title at Royal Rumble, essentially giving away that he was retaining versus Ryback at
Hell in a Cell. I watched the interview and he was really caught off guard by the question (whether he should have been is another matter entirely), and it probably wouldn't have done him any good to announce that he had to get through Ryback first since nobody would have any idea who he was talking about and it was clearly only a very brief interview. He was so unprepared for the question that he didn't really have anything to say to Rock when asked about it.
As of right now, the 20th anniversary of Raw is scheduled to take place on January 21st from San Jose. Hopefully it's not a four-hour show.

One city bandied about for WrestleMania 31 is Dallas. There are actually people in the company who want to get into Dallas before UFC has a chance to run Cowboy Stadium, but most likely UFC is going to beat them to the punch.


The 10/28 Hell in a Cell PPV was an unexpected huge success, doing 152,000 domestic buys and 48,000 overseas for a total of 200,000, based on first company estimates that came out this week.
The domestic number was only slightly shy of the year-high 159,000 for a "B" show set by Backlash, which featured the return of Brock Lesnar, in a match with John Cena. The number beat the 2011 Money in the Bank domestic number after the C.M. Punk promo (146,000), and this number would have to be considered the greatest real success to date for a show that Punk has headlined.

The numbers were up 55% domestically from the 98,000 number last year, but down 43% internationally from the 84,000 last year, for an overall increase of 9.9%
There are a lot of different factors to look at here, which all played a part. This year's Hell in a Cell had a seven week build since Night of Champions, since WWE eliminated the Vengeance show from this year's schedule.
Last year, Hell in a Cell came two weeks after Night of Champions. It's a proven fact that it's very difficult to draw with a two week break, and even a three week break usually leads to shows doing a lower number. Whether seven weeks makes it easier than four weeks isn't really proven since it has happened so rarely.

There is an argument that it would be, but with UFC this year, when there were two different long breaks due to originally planned dates falling through. One led to Jon Jones vs. Rashad Evans, which did big numbers, but it's hard to say the long break was the reason since that match was expected to do roughly as well as it did and perhaps even better. The second led to Jones vs. Vitor Belfort, which, even with the long break, drew the worst numbers of Jones' title reign and did the same or lower than what would have been expected for that show had their been a normal break. Based on that, the seven week break difference should be negligible. However the increase over a show with a two week break should have been significant, which it was.
Internationally, this year's show aired on Sky instead of on PPV in the U.K., which is still the company's best overseas PPV market.

The other factor, and this is the big one, is this number was drawn on a show that John Cena did not wrestle on. If you look at the previous "B" shows that have done well over the past few years, every one of them was expected. Lesnar's return realistically was expected to do better than it did. Most expected Punk's Money in the Bank match to do better than it did. The Elimination Chamber matches in 2009 and 2010 came at a time when Chamber matches had always drawn big.
Hell in a Cell has been historically a draw, but after the 2009 show, it fell off greatly in both 2010 and 2011. Both years also only had two-week builds.

But the key is still the match. If it wasn't the right main event, they would not have been at this level no matter how many weeks were between shows. There were those who expected the number to be up from last year due to longer time, plus the Ryback momentum, but very few expected a number at this level.

What it shows is that Ryback vs. Punk was a match people wanted to see as much as any "B" show PPV main event, except Lesnar vs. Cena, in a couple of years. It's a feather in the cap of both. But Punk has never come close to this level except once, which was under unusual circumstances. The fact is, this was not even the main event the company wanted. The originally scheduled main event was Punk vs. Cena in a Hell in a Cell match, and Ryback only got a main event because Cena hadn't recovered from elbow surgery that was more serious than expected.
This seems to indicate that fresh match-ups, or new guys in main events, can do better business, or at least did in this one instance, than bigger names in the same spot would. Again, this is not just Ryback doing a number above normal, but doing it on a show with no Cena.

Whether this shows that Ryback is a genuine drawing card will be determined to a degree by Survivor Series. A three way that involves Punk and Cena should do average numbers. Anything above average is the Ryback factor. That would also determine whether Ryback losing in the manner he did was bad for business.

 

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If the success isn't repeated, it will say one of two things. The first would be that the increase from largely the unique set of circumstances. This show featured an undefeated challenger who was booked like a challenger from the past, beating everyone in sight, going against the champion in a match that by its nature was supposed to not have a screw job ending since DQs and count outs aren't allowed, and you are led to believe there would also be no outside interference. The second is that Ryback himself had genuine money drawing momentum, but it was all about his being unbeaten, and he was hurt by the loss. Judging crowd reactions on Raw, or television ratings, may tell you that was the case. But if the PPV is strong a second time, then the loss didn't hurt and Ryback was more than a one-shot draw. It won't be up 55%, simply because the year-to-year comparison would be to a show with The Rock in the main event, as bad as the opponents and premise of the main event were. If the numbers are big by Survivor Series modern standards, it shows the volume of the crowd reactions being down by Ryback really don't mean anything and the lower ratings are a different animal that doesn't correlate to people spending money on the product.
Another point also is, are they better off having cut out the Vengeance show? Yes, this show was way up domestically, but not internationally. If you go with the idea that the costs of a "B" show are going to be around $1.35 million (they vary, but this figure would be close), then last year the two October shows brought in around $5.4 million in total revenue at a cost of $2.7 million, so the company made $2.7 million on PPV for the month. This year, we are talking $3.6 million and a cost of $1.35 million or it's $2.25 million in PPV for the month. So it's slightly lower profit for the month, but in the long run the profit being so close with one show instead of two factored against the long-term burnout can be argued as a positive. But the key to all this is the big unanswered question. Was this increase in numbers due to skipping a show, or due to Ryback being hot, or due to the unique situation where they had an unbeaten babyface challenger given a huge push into a title match with stips that didn't appear to allow for an out. If it's the first or second reason, that's good. If the key was the third reason, that wouldn't be good.

This year's show was built really around two matches, Punk vs. Ryback and Sheamus vs. Big Show for the World title, but the latter match wasn't going to move numbers.
The 2011 Hell in a Cell had a far weaker main event, Cena vs. Punk vs. Alberto Del Rio for the WWE title in the cell, as well as Randy Orton vs. Mark Henry for the World title in the cell.
Another point brought up is that they went from three Hell in a Cell matches on one show a few years ago down to one, and they were more successful with one, which tells something about watering down the value of a concept by doing it multiple times on the same show.

Shad Gaspard just finished his third film of the year and is working on a graphic novel.

Another Where Are They Now, Chuck Palumbo, 41, is living in San Diego and runs the Chuck Palumbo's Garage Gym and is part of a band called 3 Spoke Wheel that is recording its first EP.

TNA

Estimates have TNA Turning Point doing 11,000 buys, which is slightly up from the usual regular monthly shows. There is usually a few thousand above normal rise when Jeff Hardy is in the title match and that continued.

Spike is working on a TV special on King Mo which I'd presume would air before his first Bellator fight in January. They will be talking bout his growing up as a fan of the Four Horseman, in particular Ric Flair and Arn Anderson, as well as other 80s WCW and World Class Wrestling stars.

Besides Wes Brisco, who everyone knows, other guys who have been under the mask doing Aces and 8s run-ins have included D-Lo Brown and Garett Bischoff. Whether they materialize is anyone's guess, but if you watch the TV storylines, you would get the impression they are going that way for both of them.

Right now, TNA is averaging about 10% added viewers on DVR. Raw has been in that same range.

The Rock is scheduled for the Raw the day after Royal Rumble, which will be in Las Vegas. I'd expect him to be on at least one Raw prior to the Rumble. He's got a killer schedule between movies he's working on and movies being released that he has to promote in the first three months of next year. He has also committed to the 2/18 Raw in Lafayette, LA, which was announced at the Raw taping. That's the day after Elimination Chamber so the first show with the hard sell of Mania build. It will be interesting if they use him in some form at the Chamber show since he at least at this point would be champion then. He just finished up filming of Fast Six in the U.K., where he's been stationed for months. He actually came home to Florida for Thanksgiving, rushed back to the U.K. the next day, finished filming and returned on 11/26. He's going to shortly start back on his in-ring training for the Rumble match with Punk.

It looks right now like Undertaker is doing Mania this year. Punk would be his most likely opponent. Choices are limited. They need a strong heel and also someone capable of a great match. They have very few of the former but several of the latter.
I've heard from a few people a discussion of maybe building Ryback vs. Show for Mania with the idea of Ryback getting Show on his shoulders and marching around with him being that "WrestleMania" moment people talk about for him.
While this is more my thought given the process of elimination, but I could see an Orton turn and facing Sheamus at that point for Mania. Orton's been losing a lot as a face and wants to turn. It's possible Orton's new role of putting the guy over who is getting the big match is also because of his having two strikes and the fact Orton is established and will always be over at a certain level, can give the Barrett and Ziggler type of heels credibility.
The 20th anniversary episode of Raw will be 1/14 (first episode was January 11, 1993) in Houston. Not sure how much nostalgia is viable since they hit the 1,000th episode so hard in July.

Even though people are working on the network, there is no word, even internally, of a planned start date. Before they at least had an internal time frame. Nobody is saying anything right now about this year's Mania season being a launch date, which would make the most sense if it's going ot happen any time in the next six months.

 

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Foley all but said so on Twitter and others close to the situation have pretty well confirmed that Foley is not going to be doing any wrestling going forward. When you see him move doing the little bit of stuff physically he did do in building Survivor Series, that was your answer. If they were going to put him in the ring, a ten-man tag match is the way to go and they didn't even have him do anything past being at ringside to put the claw on Rodriguez. Privately he's said that it's safe to call him retired unless it's something like an old-timers Battle Royal at WrestleMania many years from now.
For the TLC show, right now the only official stuff is Punk vs. Ryback which is now a TLC match for the title, Sheamus vs. Show in a chairs match for the title and Kingston vs. Barrett for the IC title. Cesaro vs. R-Truth for the U.S. title is also scheduled. Kane & Bryan were scheduled last week as a three-way with Mysterio & Sin Cara and Prime Time Players so it'll either be that or just a straight tag with Mysterio & Sin Cara. In the New York market, they were advertising Cena vs. Ziggler as a TLC match, and Punk vs. Ryback was the tables match. So whether Cena vs. Ziggler becomes a tables match or something changes, given they did the match for free on TV, and Cena, even with Vickie distracting and a bum knee, still won clean, who knows. Doing the match as a single and having Cena overcome the odds and winning clean without Ziggler getting any post-match retribution made no sense. It was noted to me that Eric Pankowski, the Senior Vice President of Creative, would not even understand the concept of protecting a PPV match by not having the face go over clean on TV before the show. That's all well and good, but Vince and HHH are still the guys in charge, even though they are going in a million directions all the time and things fall through the cracks. Just based on everyone else being taken care of, one would think by default it's either Cena vs. Ziggler or Cena & A.J. vs. Ziggler & Tamina Snuka for TLC. Changing the Punk-Ryback means that instead of a fluke table bump finish, they can do a deal where The Shield (the name for Rollins, Reigns and Ambrose) get involved again. Given that they've already laid out Ryback three times, it would be his time to power bomb all of them through a table and in doing so Punk can climb up and grab the belt and win, or some sort of an offshoot. Ryback could lose due to the interference and lay all of them out, or some of them. I wouldn't have Ryback touch Punk when it's over because taking out three guys serves the purpose (or even two and protecting one of the three) and Punk should go into Rumble at his strongest point.

Vince McMahon, Torres, R-Truth and Layla went to various military bases over the weekend to visit with the troops and tape segments for the "Tribute to the Troops" TV show. They were in Bahrain on 11/26, which is why they weren't at TV. The fact the trip was scheduled to take place early in the week meant it was going to be a very small crew going because they needed all the top players for Raw. They all returned on 11/27.

Regarding the atmosphere at Raw, during the day, Vince lays low as far as the wrestlers are concerned, mostly meeting with the producers and such so his not being there was only noticed as the show was going on since most would only see him when they are about to come out and he's running the show at the Gorilla position. Plus, Vince misses about half the Smackdown tapings these days because he feels it necessary to give HHH the experience of being the guy in charge regularly since eventually he's going to be that guy. As far as once the show started, it was described as more chaotic than usual. HHH was running the show and dealing with the writing team and producers, but when there were disagreements and things broke down, there was nobody in the Vince role of putting his foot down and saying, "This is how it's going to be done," and then the discussion ended and they moved on.

When it comes to DVD shipments for 2013 as of 10/31, WrestleMania was at 230,000 (essentially meaning virtually no new copies were shipped this past month), The Rock DVD is at 150,000 (2,000 shipments in October), Undertaker is at 112,000 (8,000 shipments in October), C.M. Punk's new DVD is at 105,000 (it came out in October) and Royal Rumble is at 89,000 (3,000 shipped in October).

For October, the average house show attendance in North America was 4,762 (very slightly up from the 4,607 last year in October). They shipped 165,000 DVD units, of which 64% of them being the Punk release (down 38% from last year). The web site had 11.5 million unique visitors worldwide (down 10% from October last year) and they averaged 903 merchandise orders per day on the web site (up 27% from last year).

Regarding the Cody Rhodes injury, right now there is no timetable for his return due to the number of different injuries he's suffered. Right now the feeling is he won't need surgery, which cuts down on recovery time. But officially, they aren't going to even have a timetable estimate for his return until an exam in January and to see how the different injuries are doing.
Mike Bennett had a meeting with WWE last week.
WWE is releasing a Greatest Moments in Raw History DVD on 12/11, which will probably get a huge television push. They always go with these kind of big releases for Christmas, doing the Attitude Era set and this within weeks of each other.

Punk is scheduled for the 12/11 Smackdown show in Bridgeport.

The Lesnar set, which is a remake of a DVD they did years ago with a little bit of new material, was No. 1 on the sports chart last week.
I saw an article on the death of Jeff Blatnick in the new Wrestling Insiders Newsmagazine that noted that just before his death, he and Lesnar vacationed together with Brad Rheingans (who coached both of them at different times) at Rheingans' cabin for spear fishing and target shooting. Lesnar and Blatnick knew each other and were friendly, but it was more both were very good friends with Rheingans, who was Lesnar's first pro wrestling trainer and was the guy who talked Blatnick into trying Greco-Roman wrestling and coached and helped train him for his gold medal win. Blatnick had said how unfortunate it was about the 1980 Olympic boycott because he felt Rheingans, and not he and Steven Fraser, deserved to be the first American medalist in Greco.
Regarding Cena, right now the booking idea is that Cena lays low when it comes to the title picture. Ryback is to be pushed as the top babyface for the next few weeks until Rock becomes pushed as the top babyface. The plan is still Rock defending against
Cena at Mania as the main event and while it can change, it will be harder to change than most things. The arguments are basically this. Rock vs. Cena was overall the most successful show they ever did and it's only fair Cena gets his win back. Any thoughts of doing anything else were pretty much gone when Cena didn't win the three-way (and I don't think it was ever really considered) and then they could have done Rock vs. Cena at Rumble, but that would have required Rock to beat Cena again, and then had Rock lost to Punk at Mania. Doing that would have likely moved Punk's perception greatly among casual fans and just by headlining such a big show in New York against Rock, it could have finally made Punk into someone big past the weekly TV audience. Either way, the show itself was going to do huge business. The idea is to position Cena as the No. 1 face in the Mania buildup, although that was also the idea last year. Given it's a Mania show and in New York, unless Rock overtly goes all-out heel, and even then it's no guarantee, the Mania reaction to Cena is going to be 90% heel, and then, the next day, he's going to be the babyface world champion in the role of carrying the company. It's a tricky one. The obvious idea is the endorsement and handshake on the way out, but every time Rock has tried to endorse Cena on the way out, two straight years, it hasn't worked. The problem is the audience Rock brings back is the audience that hates Cena It doesn't matter because business will be fine either way.

Merchandise business we're told has become a "haves" and "have nots." Instead of being broad with lots of people making good money, right now there are a few people making great money and the rest not selling well these days.

While promoting the new video game, Bret Hart was very complimentary toward the current stars, in particular Mysterio, Punk and Bryan. "They've really stepped up a lot. They might not be as big and as bulky as the wrestlers back in the 80s were, but they're every bit as hard-working as this industry has ever seen. I think they're working harder today than they've ever been working." He was also negative on Hogan and Ultimate Warrior, but didn't say anything that hasn't been said about either a million times before.

 

[Ed MOTHERFUCKING G]

Thanks. Meltzer and alvarez hate miz...real bad


I notice that YOY ppv revenue is up across the board. Its odd...like people dont care about raw or smackdown but will buy ppvs...maybe because theres more ways to get content from a raw show, but only 1 way (plus streaming) to see ppv match....interesting dichotomy

 

[Project Downtime]

Martha Hart needs to let it go.

Yes, it was extremly tragic how Owen died, but let the WWE honor his memory by letting him be inducted in to HOF. Owen belongs in the HOF with his brother and late father.

The fans would love for this to happen.

 

[R=G]

The funny thing is they don't even have a physical housing for their "Hall of Fame" and can it really be a Hall of Fame if Macho Man Randy Savage is not included? Just comes off as a publicity scam when you think about it on things of that nature.

How can you have a WWE Access on WM weekend but no Hall of Fame location. Doesn't add up.

 

[Brad Piff]

- For the second time since releasing them, WWE's shop website has sold out of most sizes of the "I'm a Paul Heyman Guy" t-shirt. Heyman indicated on Twitter that shirts ordered now will still ship in time for Christmas.

 

[Brad Piff]

The funny thing is they don't even have a physical housing for their "Hall of Fame" and can it really be a Hall of Fame if Macho Man Randy Savage is not included? Just comes off as a publicity scam when you think about it on things of that nature.

How can you have a WWE Access on WM weekend but no Hall of Fame location. Doesn't add up.

its not wwe's fault macho man isnt in the HOF though

 

[The Great One]

WM acess is not really like the hall of fame at all. It's like call the matches, take some photos with funny backgrounds, maybe get in a ring, meet some superstars, try on a belt, etc... They can take this on the road with them.

If they really want to do a Hall of Fame correctly, they could not take it with them, I have heard they have a shyt ton of stuff at WWE headquarters that could make a Hall of Fame special. It would also be very difficult to get a location. It's not like people are traveling one state to one right next to them for something like a PPV, so a Hall of Fame may not do big business right now. Like WWF New York.

 

[R=G]

its not wwe's fault macho man isnt in the HOF though

Yes it is their fault. They want to honor him after he was dead? He should of been in their almost from the start. Macho Macho Man is practically the greatest performer of the 80s and a pop culture wrestling icon. They should of begged him to be in their Hall of Fame after WCW folded at the earliest.

There were rumors a couple of years ago of the HOF being built in FL. It never got done or plans were scrapped. They got a ton of time for "Be a Star" and all of this fluff bullshyt to mold perceptions of Linda McMahon, some old skank Republican, who can barely put 3 sentences together without playing herself but he can't build a Hall of Fame for what built his empire? It's absurd. $100 million to nonsense instead of something that would be instant revenue.

 

[Brad Piff]

Yes it is their fault. They want to honor him after he was dead? He should of been in their almost from the start. Macho Macho Man is practically the greatest performer of the 80s and a pop culture wrestling icon. They should of begged him to be in their Hall of Fame after WCW folded at the earliest.

they did

and he turned them down because he would only go in along with his dad and brother.. u know this too why are u pretending like u dont lol.

 

[R=G]

I could of SWORE he was never considered for the HOF and then they wanted to put him in when he was dead and that the younger brother said "it was his wish to have the whole family inducted". What year did the WWE offer to put Randy Savage in the HOF?

 

[StatUS]

Will these buyrates ever drop