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Minor news items that don't deserve a thread


Richie Freebird

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It also should be noted a lot of the advances in the U.K. are the lowest they’ve been for a tour since anyone can remember. There are seven arenas that are considered “sister” arenas running this week and not one is sold out and some are only half sold out. In Cardiff, they are discounting tickets and that’s after cutting the about 13 pounds per ticket across the board. Right now WWE has sold on about 60% of the available tickets for the tour. Newcastle had a big walk-up and ended up being 95% full on 11/2, but they used to have tours where the entire tour was sold out before anyone boarded the plane to Europe. As of 11/6, the only sellouts on the tour were a Smackdown house show in London, where they used the smaller Wembley Arena instead of the O2 Arena that they had been running, the 11/5 Raw taping in Birmingham and the 11/6 Raw house show in a smaller arena in Glasgow. The Smackdown taping wasn’t close to sold out the next day.

How are they expecting to fill a stadium out, when they aren't selling out over here? Unless they do a WrestleMania (which they wont) and have people traveling the globe to see this once in a lifetime show, there's no chance. Could anyone seriously imagine WWE selling half of Old Trafford with the roster and public perception they currently have? They are about 5 years off the mark on this.

Edited by IANdrewDiceClay
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It'd be possible to fill a large amount of a stadium if WWE were to cut the rest of the tour and perhaps have Triple H or Lesnar on the bill to add a little star power to the show but it would be difficult. It'd be near impossible if there were other UK dates though with fans opting to go to their local show. Saying that, I'd be all over this and hopefully WWE can inspire some more demand for their shows.

Edited by thesimonbegz
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They used to run one off arena shows when they had their videos and CDs in the top sellers list of HMV regularly. I probably couldn't have done it then. They don't sell out stadiums in the US anymore, unless its a big PPV. I just can't see them selling out Old Trafford or the Millennium Stadium in the current climate.

Edited by IANdrewDiceClay
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It truly depends on what they're feeding us. For them to shift that amount of tickets they'd probably need either The Rock and/or some good celebrity tie-in. With the current touring roster, they've not got any chance.

 

Even with all that, I'm not sure I could be arsed travelling down to bloody Cardiff to watch wrestling.

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Do you not think they'd stand a chance of selling it out just because people would want to say they were there experiencing a bit of history? People love sharing their Summerslam 92 memories on here and I bet virtually everybody on here would attend if the show had 1 iota of significance attached. I mean, let's say hypothetically it's a nothing PPV like Unforgiven or Over the Limit or what have you, but they fucking stack it up with The Rock, The Undertaker, maybe Steve Austin, something like that. Stick Wade in a title match against a heel champion, book Regal, all that shit. I reckon the prospect of going to an actual PPV with just a bit of significance would get a good 30,000 in, and then the card would flesh out the rest - the bigger the stars and stories the bigger the attendance.

 

Thing is, it's still a bit of a novelty, the big UK PPV. One of the reasons I think the TV and house shows don't sell out now because people know they'll have two chances a year if money's a bit tight this time round or there's nobody you particularly want to see this time. I know that's how I look at it. But with a big fuck off show, WWE can exploit pretty much the last golden goose over here, and if they do a good job of it, they can probably do it a few more times selling it on the experience. The fact that they still have to paper Wrestlemania in these big stadiums shows that even with a stacked card, they've made their regular (US and Canadian) audiences more complacent to attending, and I think that's the root of the problem over here now, especially with Smackdown taping or some house show.

 

I know all of this ignores the usual (and totally fucking logical) argument about PPV spoilers and everything, so I still think the logistics are probably a touch too tough to make it a worthwhile PPV venture, but I reckon they'd get a fucking excellent gate. If they went a Summerslam/Mania route and did Old Trafford for the PPV and the MEN for Raw, they could make a full week of it. Mayhem in Manchester indeed.

Edited by NEWM
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The network is going subscription-only, and is miles away. And the sort of card that'd draw 75,000 is the sort of card they wouldn't want to balls up the buy rate for by putting it on at a weird time or pre-taping it.In 1992, almost nobody was on the Internet for results and pay-per-views were incredibly prestigious because there were only four a year. And even in that world, that SummerSlam did so well that they've gone over twenty years without doing it again.

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That's why I don't expect the show to be a US PPV. Vince has even said in the past that Summerslam 92 did rubbish business for them.

 

Certainly, doing a show of note on the network is a good way of trying to drive subscriptions up. They'll be doing all they can to make the network a success - if they get it up and running.

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