The UKFF [Nearly-Official] Questions Thread

[Finlay]

Where does everyone get their wrestling news these days......apart from the UKFF? For years I have been using pwinsider.com but the popups and getting diverted to random webpages every two minutes is driving me BONKERS and I've pretty much given up on the site. Anyone recommend some good uns??

[Ant]

Where does everyone get their wrestling news these days......apart from the UKFF? For years I have been using pwinsider.com but the popups and getting diverted to random webpages every two minutes is driving me BONKERS and I've pretty much given up on the site. Anyone recommend some good uns??

gerweck.net is pretty good

[dopper]

Why were some of the Delta releases of ECW dubbed over with stock music, and others released with the original songs? Not only is the stock music really annyoing (especially during a New Jack match), but the inconsistency doesn't seem to make any immediate sense to me.

Delta released the ECW ppvs first and then moved on to other shows that weren't on ppv like House Party's, CyberSlam's etc.Though Barely Legal wasn't the first release (Guilty As Charged 99 and Living Dangerously 99 were iirc), by 2000 Delta had caught up with ECW ppvs which all had the original music on them.Then some ruling meant that they couldn't do that any longer so only the first 18 ECW ppvs in date order from Barely Legal to Anarchy Rulz 2000 were released with proper music.Therefore: the company's last 3 ppvs (November To Remember 2000, Massacre on 34th Street & Guilty As Charged 2001) had shit music badly dubbed over the entrance music, and then they started releasing those non-ppv shows which ALL had the shitty dubbed music.

[Finlay]

Where does everyone get their wrestling news these days......apart from the UKFF? For years I have been using pwinsider.com but the popups and getting diverted to random webpages every two minutes is driving me BONKERS and I've pretty much given up on the site. Anyone recommend some good uns??

gerweck.net is pretty good

Cheers mate. I'll give that one a go.

[GIB]

Where does everyone get their wrestling news these days......apart from the UKFF? For years I have been using pwinsider.com but the popups and getting diverted to random webpages every two minutes is driving me BONKERS and I've pretty much given up on the site. Anyone recommend some good uns??

gerweck.net is pretty good

Cheers mate. I'll give that one a go.

I'll second that. No pop-ups at all.

[KRS]

Why were some of the Delta releases of ECW dubbed over with stock music, and others released with the original songs? Not only is the stock music really annyoing (especially during a New Jack match), but the inconsistency doesn't seem to make any immediate sense to me.

Delta released the ECW ppvs first and then moved on to other shows that weren't on ppv like House Party's, CyberSlam's etc.Though Barely Legal wasn't the first release (Guilty As Charged 99 and Living Dangerously 99 were iirc), by 2000 Delta had caught up with ECW ppvs which all had the original music on them.Then some ruling meant that they couldn't do that any longer so only the first 18 ECW ppvs in date order from Barely Legal to Anarchy Rulz 2000 were released with proper music.Therefore: the company's last 3 ppvs (November To Remember 2000, Massacre on 34th Street & Guilty As Charged 2001) had shit music badly dubbed over the entrance music, and then they started releasing those non-ppv shows which ALL had the shitty dubbed music.

That's brilliant. Much appreciated

[Magnum Milano]

Where does everyone get their wrestling news these days......apart from the UKFF? For years I have been using pwinsider.com but the popups and getting diverted to random webpages every two minutes is driving me BONKERS and I've pretty much given up on the site. Anyone recommend some good uns??

Nearly all the news sites steal their stuff from wrestlingobserver.com and f4wonline.com

[Benno]

my question comes as a result of the "if you watch wwe you're a retard" thread...i'm really interested to know, what DO they get out of increased telelvision ratings in the long run?the general concensus on the internet is that the increased ad revenue etc doesnt equate to anything remotely near the money they'd theoretically make from increased ppv buys, is this absolutely true? also, how does merchandise etc fit into the grand scheme of things?i suppose my question is a silly one and i should probably assume they really are stupid enough to have their prioritys so out of wack, but does anybody have real figures?*looks at john lister*

Edited June 14, 2007 by Benno

[tiger_rick]

my question comes as a result of the "if you watch wwe you're a retard" thread...i'm really interested to know, what DO they get out of increased telelvision ratings in the long run?the general concensus on the internet is that the increased ad revenue etc doesnt equate to anything remotely near the money they'd theoretically make from increased ppv buys, is this absolutely true? also, how does merchandise etc fit into the grand scheme of things?i suppose my question is a silly one and i should probably assume they really are stupid enough to have their prioritys so out of wack, but does anybody have real figures?*looks at john lister*

The deals they had with the USA Network and TNN gave them advertising slots to sell for themselves, which meant ratings affected them financially because they made more money from bigger ratings. When they resigned with USA, they did so on a fixed fee deal, which means that if ratings go up, USA will make money, not WWE.Obviously, there is a benefit to ratings going up, because it means more potential customers, but it doesn't necessarily link directly to PPV buys.When people talk about it spiking the ratings, they mean short term. If the McMahon incident attracted millions of new viewers and caused a long term ratings hike, it's probably mean more PPV buys, more people at house shows, more merchandise sales and eventually, more negotiating power on their next TV deal.What is more likely is that half a million people will tune in next week to see what the fuss is about, Raw will get a 4.6 instead of a 4.2 and the following week it'll be back to normal and they won't have made a single penny from it.

[KRISProdigy]

What is more likely is that half a million people will tune in next week to see what the fuss is about, Raw will get a 4.6 instead of a 4.2 and the following week it'll be back to normal and they won't have made a single penny from it.

It depends how they build up to Vengeance and if they maybe hint that the culprit or a clue could be revealed at the PPV?

[JNLister]

The thing to remember with ratings vs buys in this era (and the reason why simple maths logic doesn't hold up) is that the vast majority of regular viewers don't spend money on the product. At the moment they run between as little as 2-3% who will buy pretty much any PPV and 15% who buy WrestleMania. That means about 85% of regular viewers are so 'casual' that they won't even spend money on the most marketable show of the year.

 

The WWE theory is that the % of viewers buying your PPVs is constant, so if your ratings go up by a third, so will your buyrates. The flaw in the logic is that the type of viewers you add when ratings go up are by definition less likely to be converted to PPV buys. If people don't already have enough interest to watch the free TV shows, it's much harder to get them to spend money on the product.

 

The other thing to remember is that WWE's buyrate problems are clearly not caused by a limited TV audience. There's about 750,000 people in the US who are prepared to spend money on WWE PPVs (as shown by WrestleMania), but they are doing as little as 125,000 for some shows. If you assume that a certain number - say 250,000 - of those WrestleMania buyers are 'one big show a year' customers, that still leaves 375,000 people who could be persuaded to buy your shows but aren't doing so. If you got them on board once a month, that's something like ninety million dollars a year that you could get by concentrating on building up PPVs rather than increasing ratings.

 

There are something like five million people who watch WWE regularly. WWE has an established culture by which its viewers understand and accept the idea of paying forty dollars a month to watch a big event if you build it up sufficiently. If you look at those figures and think the problem is that not enough people watch the free TV shows, you're really missing the point. People talk about Vince McMahon as a genius for all the money WWE's making today, but given the set-up, market and business model, the amount of potential income he's blowing is mindboggling.

 

EDIT - Don't forget that for about five years the company was obsessed with TV ratings because it was an easy way to track their 'wins and losses' against WCW each week. At times I swear they still do stuff on TV because they are concerned about people turning over to Nitro.

Edited June 14, 2007 by JNLister

[Joe_the_Lion]

EDIT - Don't forget that for about five years the company was obsessed with TV ratings because it was an easy way to track their 'wins and losses' against WCW each week. At times I swear they still do stuff on TV because they are concerned about people turning over to Nitro.

I wish I would........

[KRISProdigy]

The other thing to remember is that WWE's buyrate problems are clearly not caused by a limited TV audience. There's about 750,000 people in the US who are prepared to spend money on WWE PPVs (as shown by WrestleMania), but they are doing as little as 125,000 for some shows. If you assume that a certain number - say 250,000 - of those WrestleMania buyers are 'one big show a year' customers, that still leaves 375,000 people who could be persuaded to buy your shows but aren't doing so. If you got them on board once a month, that's something like ninety million dollars a year that you could get by concentrating on building up PPVs rather than increasing ratings.There are something like five million people who watch WWE regularly. WWE has an established culture by which its viewers understand and accept the idea of paying forty dollars a month to watch a big event if you build it up sufficiently. If you look at those figures and think the problem is that not enough people watch the free TV shows, you're really missing the point. People talk about Vince McMahon as a genius for all the money WWE's making today, but given the set-up, market and business model, the amount of potential income he's blowing is mindboggling.

Do they make more money on the PPV's now there are more of them or would they have made more if they had kept to say just Rumble, Mania, KOTR, SSlam, S.Series?

[Guest Josh Jenkins]

The latest Fighting Spirit claims that Wrestlemania 23 did over a million buys. Is this true?

[GIB]

The latest Fighting Spirit claims that Wrestlemania 23 did over a million buys. Is this true?

Meltzer reported that the early estimate was 1.2 million buys.