Mr Tibbs

I'm hoping that it's a swerve and the Shied are looking to bring down Evolution from the inside. If it's not though, I can't see a logical reason for Rollins turning. Your part of a team that has beaten a team twice (cleanly I might add). You go through a beating the previous night and in a number of angles the preceding months. You then decide to leave the successful team and join up with a team that not only have you beaten, but have tried to kill you since the day after WM. What is the motivation for this? I would rather they had added Cesaro to the group. You could have still had him as a Paul Heyman guy and it would have led to some interesting interaction between the Shield, Heyman and Evolution. If you were going to turn a member of the Shield, would it not have made more sense (both story and logic wise) for the turn to have happened last night, costing Shield the match? If they manage to explain it well next week (or on SD) I might look on this in a different light. Hopefully they will.

Bryan was not one of their "chosen" stars.

That was an angle. It may well become a case of life imitating art but there is a difference.

 

Aside from Batista, who else is there that Bryan should be facing now? Orton has been done to death and well into the afterlife. He's beaten Triple H clean. He's had a long feud with Bray Wyatt.

 

Who else is on his level? Cesaro is no bigger a star than Kane. Lesnar is a part-timer.

 

Truth is, there just aren't that many top level heels. Hence why we had to suffer Randy fucking Orton for most of last year.

Come on mate. If you remember the original plan was for Bryan to face Sheamus at WM. When his run with Orton had finished he was moved away from the title. There were no plans for him to be pushed in that direction for WM season. Orton was to face (and loose) to a babyface Batista and Triple H was set to tangle with Punk. It was the sheer force of public opinion, as well as Punk walking and Batista bombing as a babyface that led to Bryans push being renewed.

It's not the fact that Bryan is facing Kane that people have a problem with. It's the way Bryan is being presented that is the problem.

You get the feeling that this will turn into one of those WWE self fulfilling prophesy's. Bryan was not one of their "chosen" stars. Therefore, they book him poorly, interest in him drops and they can say that they were right about him all along (even though the sabotaged his push"). It's very sad because they are cutting their nose of to spite their face!

Because of the sheer timing of this I have to say that is one of the most shocking deaths in recent memory. I just keep thinking of his 2 daughters and how happy they both looked on Saturday night. That now seems like a lifetime away. It's a sad time when anyone passes, but when you leave a family so young then it is especially heart wrenching. Thought his HOF fame speech was very honest and he seemed to finally have vindication after

years of fighting with the WWE. R.I.P Ultimate Warrior,

Crazy but very good Raw that gives us lots to look forward to over the next few months.

 

an 8 man tag at Extreme Rules would be great and gives them time not to do a Bryan vs Orton/Batista/HHH straight away

 

Cesaro should do well with Heyman

 

Paige made a good impression which is great for her

 

Adam Rose and BO videos were good

 

Not interested if Sting ever comes in, cant see him ever being needed other than a HOF spot

As soon as the RAW ended my first thought was "if there is ever a time for War Games then the main event of Extreme Rules is that time" That would be a great way to end the show. A fresh match and so different to the usual WM re-matches that we have to endure. Come on Vince, let Hunter have his way on finally put War Games on a WWE PPV!

This number is exactly that, just a number. Until we have other figures it is impossibly to judge its success. They will only know what the network is and its potential when the Wrestlemania number comes in. It could be that all of the casual watchers who buy WM still just bought it in the conventional way and they could still score a good number there. Also, when is this number from? Does that include all of the late sign ups and sign ups today wanting to watch the replays after hearing Taker lost etc?

 

I think they should be satisfied with it, taking the Network internationally will get them over 1 million I believe. I think this is proof that the Network isnt quite what I and I imagine others had in mind though. Its clearly a product aimed at the hardcore, older fan. I dont think theyve really done enough yet to grab the younger audience and make them sign up. They clearly thought including all of the PPVs would have done this but I think they need to do a lot more as far as original content to do it.

So are you trying to say that a large number of people would say "Holy Shit! The Undertaker lost! I must get the Network!!". There may be a small percentage do that (and by that I mean miniscule) but your average fan is not going to make a six month commitment based on the Undertaker losing in what is widly considered to be a very poor match!

WWE stock closed 14.3% down today after the WWE released it's figures for the Network. I think that tells you a lot about it's perceived success. I just hope they can cut a great TV deal or the shit is really going to hit the fan on Wall Street!

Great piece by MookieGhana who, coincidentally, predicted one week after launch that the peak subscription number this year would be 650,000: http://whatculture.com/wwe/667287-subscrib...wwe-network.php

 

Key points:

 

* The current subscription level is enough to cover the annual running costs (not the start-up costs), but likely isn't high enough to make up for lost PPV revenue. However, we won't know that for sure till the traditional PPV figures start rolling in.

 

* Given first day signups seem to have been well over half the current figure, and given Mania was the single factor most likely to boost signups, it's hard to see how the current figure will increase domestically at anything more than a trickle.

 

* If the price was $15 a month right now, they'd already be at break even. The question is how many subscribers they'd lose if they bumped the price up (presumably in August/September.)

I think a rise to $15 a month (for what you get) is a perfectly fair price. However, I would hold of that increase to next year before WM. People are likely to pay an extra $5 for WM etc, than they are for Survivor Series and TLC.

over 60% to their 12 month break-even target in just over 6 weeks, they have to be happy with that.

They can't be. The number surely won't grow much from what it is now -- if anything, they might have less at the end of the year, once the first six month obligations are up. "WrestleMania for $10" was the big draw for the network. They've got three quarters of the year left to convince people to buy it (and apparently there are still a lot of luddites who are phoning their cable companies asking for it), but I'm not so sure that the number's going to increase by a third.

 

Remember their 1 million target includes their major overseas markets where the Network isn't officially available yet.

 

I can see it growing, the price of every PPV in the states is insane, once people know Mania went off without a hitch it might push more people to subscribe. There will also be more original content which they will be pushing on the TV shows.

So you are saying that the WWE will attract 300,000 extra viewers to watch Extreme Rules etc when they were only drawing 150,000 buys domestic. I just can't see it. You have to think that most of the hard core fans will have signed up for this now. I was working some figures out before in relation to the PPV/Network money that WM could have drawn. Now the network had 667,287 paying $9.99 each for WM. That comes to $6,666,197.13 in revenue for that show. WM29 last year drew an estimated 750,000 buys in North America. Now take away 150,000 for Canadian buys and that leaves you with a PPV gross (before splits with the PPV companies) of $41,994,000. That's a difference of $35,327,802. That means the WWE will have to shift another 504,755 buys to make up the sort fall in money from the North American market. I just don't see WM doing that kind of number when a large portion of your fan base bought the network. I know that a lot of people bought the PPV show but that's still not going to cover the short fall. Even if you take into consideration that the WWE have grossed $39,997,182.78 in total subscriptions over the 6 month period that's still not enough to justify putting WM on the Network. Even after the 50/50 split things don't look great. WWE Grossed $20,997,000 from WM last year. Probably (after the spilt with cable companies) an extra $23,096,700 from the remaining 6 shows. That's a total of $44,093,700. Myself, I think we will find WM on PPV next year with the remaining 11 shows still on the network.

That is not a good number. Proof in the fact of that is the ass has fallen of WWE stock. It's dropped by 6 dollars after they released that number and people are selling. WWE won't be happy with that number although they would never publicly acknowledge that. I think they were looking to get over a million from the start. When u consider that WM was only 9.99 they shoild really have hit a million with ease. Also, how many of that number are people overseas who have the Network. I would think theres a decent chance that it could be in the tens of thousands. Not the news the WWE wanted!

It's probably been covered before but I'm thinking of getting the Terry Taylor, Guest Booker. Is it worth a look?

I think that's a really good shoot. You're right, he's full of shit but likable with it.

 

Power and Glory best tag team never to hold a title?

The Rockers (never officially held a title)

The Can-Am Connection

The Freebirds

Powers of Pain

The Rougeau's

How about Chris Jericho and Christian inducting him. They put him over in the DVD and said they were fans.

Its either John Cena's a very scruffy bloke or there's more to the reason why he's wearing those red and yellow boxer shorts every week now.

 

Glad to see Warrior get inducted. They should get Batista or someone to induct him. Seeing Vince up there grinning would be cringe inducing.

 

Get Hogan to induct him if he's around for 'Mania.

Yeah, let's get the guy who has publicly stated that he did everything in his power to make sure the Warriors WWE title run got of to the weakest possible start by stealing his thunder at WM 6!

I hope AJ goes to WWE. They offered him a deal that wasn't as good as his TNA one, but if TNA is off the table it might be worth rolling the dice there. Imagine him on Raw? He's exactly what they like these days.

I would love that to be the case, but I have a strong feeling that Arn, Triple H and the rest will watch his match from the back, say that he doesn't know how to work and pack him of to NXT.

He, along with Kane, is a great worker

Define Great Worker!?

The UFC had drawn big buy rate with the 1st Shamrock/Ortiz fight (750,000 if I remember) and would have done another good number with the Liddell/Couture fight.

Tito vs Ken 1 drew between 100-150 if I recall right, and in 2002, a long way of the TUF boom.

Ok mate, I got that wrong. However, the facts remain that the show had already been a ratings success, it was renewed for another season before the finale and the 2nd Liddell/Couture fight would still have drawn over 200,000 buys. So in no way, shape or form would the UFC have gone out of business if it had not have been for the TUF finale.

im not quite sure on the story of the fight but im pretty sure the UFC were paying to be on Spike at that point and not the other way around, it was more a case of if TUF wasn't succesful on Spike they were gonna pull out. I aint sure on exact details or whatever.

 

I don't think Dana would make that story up just to justify Bonnar being put into the Hall of Fame, surely it would easier just to not include Bonnar and not make that story up?

But the show was a success, even before the Finale had taken place. The Leban/Kos fight drew great ratings and the rest of the series was a success. Why would Spike have pulled out of a show that was a proven ratings draw before the finale took place. The finale helped, but as I said they had already signed for another show before the finale took place.

I never said that Dana made it up. I said that he's revised history to justify Bonners induction.

Dana always says that the fight saved the UFC and that's why he always holds in such high regard.

That is such revisionist history by Dana. The UFC had drawn big buy rate with the 1st Shamrock/Ortiz fight (750,000 if I remember) and would have done another good number with the Liddell/Couture fight. They had already signed the contract with Spike for another season of TUF (they were advertising the tryouts) and the Kos/Leban fight had done a great number.

In no way, shape or form would the UFC have gone out of business if the Bonner/Griffin fight had not occurred. It aided them on a path that they would have reached eventually.

Dana just likes to spout that line to justify Bonners bullshit entry into the Hall of Fame (which is a joke). Don't get me wrong, I like Bonner (he was great at the London fan Expo) but no way should he be in the HOF and Frank Shamrock not be!

I know some are finding the way the heels are getting treated weird (with the 11-on-3 handicap match) but I love it. Trips and Steph are handing out punishments if they're let down. Randy doesn't get the job done? Then Randy has to shape the fuck up or he won't be champion. The Shield don't do their job and let Bryan look good? Then they get put in an 11-on-3 beating. Big Show won't do what he's told? Then he's humiliated and ground down until he learns to do what's right for business. There's no place in the new regime for coasters - they're making the heels work their arses off for them, and punishing them when they're let down.

But as heels, should the Shield not be complaining and thinking of ways to slink out of the match? Is that not what heels are meant to do! The Shield looked more like defiant babyfaces in that segment of Monday nights show. The way they where acting I thought they had been possessed by the Von Erich boys!

The highlight of the show for me (and for quite some time), was Ryback.

 

I bloody love him as a heel, he plays up to his character perfectly and just gets it. The whole anti-bully bully gimmick is brilliant, but made even better by his delivery.

He's useless. He can't work, can't cut a promo and couldn't even drop Punk on a table that was right next to him. He's not over with thee crowd or they wouldn't chant bloody Goldberg at him.

On a side note, when did the Shield turn babyface? I ask that because that's exactly how they where acting during that segment on RAW before their handicap match!

Survivor Series in November is anyone else seeing

 

Orton/Shield/Lesnar vs Big Show/Punk/Rhodes/Henry or Ziggler/Bryan?

 

I can see it myself. HHH is doing what's best for business which would mean enlisting Heyman and Lesnar despite hating them (much like he dislikes Orton in a sense) and after Big Show snaps on the Corporation and goes on a wrecking spree they need to bring in someone to contain him. Punk would be the obvious next to stand up to HHH/Vince/Orton and their ideals on how superstars should look to be champion after the angle last year. Rhodes is bound to get some form of push from being involved how he was last week and the reactions he's getting.

 

All that's left is Ziggler or Henry to take the 5th spot. I doubt they could draw out Ziggler vs Ambrose for 3 months plus he's still in the bad books for that backstage spat with Orton so I can't see him getting there. Only issue is how Henry would fit into this now he's back.

 

Maybe have Show/Reigns/Rollins vs Bryan/Ziggler/Henry at Battleground with Show finally turning on the corporation and siding with Henry. Have those two go against The Shield at Hell in a Cell take the belts which leads to HHH making the call to Lesnar?

I doubt the WWE would want to use Lesnar in a multi man match. While it would be nice to see I think that the WWE will only use him in a one on one situation, or in a very strong tag team (and by that I mean 2 on 2) scenario. Also, I think the dates they have left for him mean that he could only be used for the Rumble-Mania period.

As I said, it's a nice idea but I don't think it will happen.

Jeez, I didn't even realise tonight was the go-home. Yeah, gotta be Bryan standing tall with the "YES"es blowing the roof off, hasn't it? Then another big screwjob on Sunday. I think they'll save Big Show snapping for Sunday, too, if he gets fired tonight it'll kill off a lot of anticipation.

I've got a terrible feeling that we may see they dreaded return of the Montreal finish on Sunday! I hope not but I wouldn't be surprised.

Everyone reckon Bryan gets the upper hand tonight on the go-home show, then loses on Sunday? Or he gets clattered again tonight and wins Sunday?

Logic would dictate that he cost's Orton his match with Goldust! Or, he could just get outsmarted and laid out for the 9th time in a row to really restore confidence in his character.

Why?

 

Big Show tends to use the 'no sell' spots in his matches. In fact, 90% of Big Shows matches with people that aren't monsters tend to involve him no selling their strikes, slapping them about, they bounce around like goons and the announcers sell the 'how will they get the big lug off his feet?' line. Then when the babyface picks up a bit of pace, after a couple of hits to make the big man woozy, and they hit the move that finally knocks him down the fans go spenk and then they move on from there. It's Big Show/hoss booking 101.

 

I see no problem with Show no selling some of Bryan's offence, because a)Bryan is at the smaller end of the spectrum and b) he does it all the time as part of his act.

 

I can't see fans taking it at anything other than face value. The Big Shows a fucking wall. They could book him into oblivion for six months, and still get away with a segment like that.

He treated him with no respect. Like he was not a threat. Like he wasn't in his league. He swatted him down like a fly, he made him appear at the level of a jobber. What is the value the WWE got from that and how did it increase the pay per view paying publics interest in that match?