2014 Pro Wrestling Thread

BTW, 15 years ago today. Owen Hart. Hard to believe it's been that long.

 

This week’s Observer tidbits, lots of WWE stuff:

- While the WWE financial situation isn’t as dire as portrayed in the mainstream media, Vince is still pissed about it. With speculation in the stock hitting a high before Mania, Vince has “lost” about $842 million on paper since then. It’s the combination of the network not getting as many subscribers as the WWE projected, and the TV contract deal being less than expected.

The new deal with NBC Universal is believed to average $142.5M per year for five years. WWE still got what is believed to be a 50 to 75 percent increase from its previous deal, but they weren’t able to find anybody except NBC to give a serious bid for the TV rights. NBC had the right to match any contract offer the WWE brought it, but without another network biting, WWE wasn’t able to force the bid up this way. Turner came out and said they had no interest and didn’t even meet, while Fox, Viacom and AMC met with the WWE and didn’t bid.

NBC’s advertising take the past few years for WWE programming has been $170M per year, so they’re not making a ton on the deal, with the caveat that the WWE is one of the few things that has done well on USA lately. There are clauses in the contract that increase the value for the WWE if ratings or ad revenue go up.

However, the WWE is in a somewhat precarious position if they don’t get around 1.5M subscribers by the middle of next year. Already, to launch the network, they’ve fallen from $300M cash on hand at an unspecified point to $87.2M as of March 31. If current losses continue, they would be down to around $16M to $23M by January. If they do get to that 1.5M level, they’re breaking even, or even better, 2.5M to 3.8M – then they’re printing money. (Although it’s not a given that that amount is realistic, since that’s more than the weekly audience of Raw.)

- Daniel Bryan underwent neck surgery successfully. Contrary to Internet reports, he did not have a broken neck or anything, just significant nerve damage that required a minimally invasive surgery. It’s still unclear when he’ll be able to return. If you’re optimistic, he might be back for Money In The Bank on June 29, otherwise, it would likely be Battleground on July 20. Because that’s a “minor” event though, there is a chance it could wait until SummerSlam though.

There still hasn’t been a source leaking what the WWE plans to do with the title. Obviously, they’ve hinted that DB would be stripped of it at the May 25 Raw… which normally means that’s not what will happen. Since many of the top guys are booked in stipulation matches for May 25 and June 1 already, they could be working toward a MitB championship match, or just titling an interim champion like Kane or Triple H, to feud with Bryan when he comes back.

Reigns had a pretty gruesome injury on the first night of the European tour, colliding with Orton’s knee with his face on a spear attempt. Luckily, he avoided a concussion, and only needed to be stitched up. On TV, they claimed it was from the attack the previous week.

- The Raw tapings from the U.K. were heavily edited, at least in terms of crowd noise. Cena got booed out of the building, and “CM Punk” chants were constant as Stephanie tried to do promos.

- Without DB and against Spurs vs. Thunder, Raw fell to a 2.72 rating, its lowest number since 1997. However, it was even worse for TNA, which did a 0.83, a tie for its lowest of the year. However, the previous low was against the NFL Draft; the only competition this past week was Wizards vs. Pacers. The ratings actually started at 1.03 but dropped off to 0.69 for the final segment, which was Eric Young vs. MVP for the title.

TNA ran two shows over the weekend, in Mississippi, with crowds estimated at 250 and 300.

On TV, they’re running promos that Angle will be back once he heals from injury. It’s not clear if they’re actually negotiating a renewal with him, or just running the promo anyway. They did similar ones for Hogan and Styles, even though they didn’t renew either.

- Ring of Honor is considered to be on the upswing, following another good iPPV show. They go to conventional PPV on June 22, and if their shows do well, there is an opportunity for them (and TNA) to capitalize on WWE leaving the PPV market. They also got a booking in Brooklyn on Aug. 15 that used to go to TNA.

Adam Cole impressed New Japan officials during the joint shows, and as a result, they’re interested in bringing him in for a run of some sort. Jay Bradley and Devon Nicholson also did a tryout for New Japan while they were in New York.

- Scott Hall no-showed weekend appearances in California, even after receiving a $1,600 advance from the promoter. His son did show up. It’s believed that he’s drinking again, or that his drinking that weekend caused him to miss the show.

- The next two UFC shows are seen as “baseline” shows, meaning, how low can a gate and PPV be? Neither one is being seen with much hope for a huge number by the company.

- AMC has green-lit a reality show following Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins fame as he books for the Chicago-based Resistance Pro Wrestling. There isn’t a name for the show or a start date as of yet, but it’s expected to be eight one-hour episodes.

- The family of Ultimate Warrior saw the episode of The Goldbergs about him and loved it. They’ve been invited to attend some tapings next year as a result.

- Foxcatcher, which is about amateur wrestling, has been getting rave reviews. It does have a minor pro wrestling connection; Kurt Angle actually trained at that camp run by DuPont before winning the gold medal.

- Among Maxim’s Top 100 this year are WWE’s Eva Marie (83), and from UFC, Miesa Tate (58), Ronda Rousey (42) and Gina Carano (31).

- Floyd Mayweather’s latest PPV is estimated to have done 850k to 900k, well short of the 1M needed just to pay off his guarantee. It’s seen as a disappointment as a result.

- Contrary to a Game Informer report, WWE 2K15 is still scheduled for the fall, not the spring.

- On The Ross Report, HBK said he wasn’t approached about doing a match with Daniel Bryan, and he considers himself retired. Friends of HBK say that they don’t think he’ll ever wrestle again.

- Veronica (Erika Hammond) is being used as an interviewer for NXT now. She was part of a tryout camp with Eva Marie, Jo Jo and Lana. Her in-ring debut on NXT could come soon, with her gimmick being that of a crazy pageant contestant. The casting call at the time of her camp was just for good-looking models with athletic backgrounds; she won some Texas pageants in 2009 and 2010. She’s easy on the eyes: http://kgbwrestling.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/erika-hammond.jpeg

Spoiler stuff, about WWE signings and PPV cards:

- Kenta Kobayashi is believed to be debuting in WWE development in the next month, as long as the WWE can get his work visa in order. He actually hasn’t signed a contract yet, since he wants the visa in place first, but it’s widely believed he’s with the WWE going forward. Noah Kekoa was also signed.

From March’s tryout camp, Willie Mack and Kevin Steen haven’t received offers yet, but Steen is believed to be getting one. Roderick Strong, ACH and Rocky Romero were told via e-mail that they would not be getting offers. Other people at the camp were Arya Daivari (younger brother of the former WWE performer), David Starr, Ronny Reeves and Zane Dawson. WWE has expressed interest in Japanese performer Kota Ibushi, currently under contract to New Japan.

Ric Flair is getting a full health diagnosis before the WWE is willing to commit to him as an on-camera manager or authority figure. After what happened with Warrior and Jerry Lawler, WWE is making all older employees or potential employees getting full work-ups. There has been talk of pairing him with The Miz – although he’s seen as potentially too damaged to be worth redeeming – or Dolph Ziggler – who Flair wants to manage and work with, but who WWE is really down on.

Originally, there was also going to be a Flair vs. Hart NXT match, in a way – Flair in his daughter’s corner, and Bret Hart in the corner of Natalya. But Hart’s schedule made it a no-go. Hart is not currently signed with the WWE.

Sting still hasn’t signed his contract, but they still haven’t received a rejection of it from him or been asked to modify terms. So, the WWE has no idea what the deal is. He hasn’t re-signed with TNA either though, or really done any appearances.

WWE has beefed up its women’s roster, given the positive response to Total Divas. Starting development in Orlando are Danielle Jackson (Dani Jaxx), Savelina “Lina” Fanene (Samoan and cousin of The Rock), and Dasha Kurat (former gymnast and pageant model). Jo Jo from Total Divas worked her first match recently and did well. Tessa Blanchard (daughter of Tully and raised by Magnum TA) and Chastity Taylor (ring announcer for Shine) were brought in for tryouts on May 13.

Alex Riley is wrestling again. Enzo Amore is appearing at house shows, but not wrestling, as he’s recovering from a broken leg.

- Payback’s announced matches are only Evolution vs. The Shield in a no-holds barred elimination match, and Cena vs. Wyatt in a last man standing. Believed to be in the mix for the show are The Usos vs. Harper and Rowan for the titles, Alicia Fox vs. Paige for the title, Sheamus vs. Cesaro for the title, Barrett vs. RVD for the title, Rose vs. Swagger, Layla vs. Summer Rae with Fandango as ref, and Big E vs. Rusev.

This is expected to be Batista’s last show for several months, so he could be eliminated in a semi-spectacular way to sell it. As a result, this was supposed to be Triple H’s last show for a while, with the dissolution of Evolution, but he might wrestle more because of the DB injury.

- Punk is scheduled to be married to AJ Lee at some point in June. She’s not expected to be back until after that date as a result.

- Total Divas has been renewed for a third season, believed to be at a higher rate than $470k per episode, for 10 episodes. Rosa Mendes is the only addition to the cast, and as a result, she’ll be given a push in the ring as well.

Tough Enough will be filming for six weeks, starting in early June, in Orlando. It’ll debut on the fall on the Network. Jim Ross has expressed interest in being on it, but not Legends House, citing the six-week schedule for it.

- Triple H will be on the cover of an upcoming issue of Muscle & Fitness. He’s now at the same age – 45 – that Macho Man and Hogan were when the WWE ran the Hukster and Nacho Man skits.

 

I see what they're trying to do with Alicia Fox, I think... but it's just not working.

 

JFC. For the first time in my life, I am sure Vince is out of touch. A face Brit vs. Davey Crockett in Tennessee with a run in from a Tea Party guy in Tennessee? This shows that someone is incredibly out of touch.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_WW ... _personnel

Looking at a list of producers and backstage personnel that a lot of these names are mostly well known for work in NWA/WCW rather than WWF?

 

I kinda enjoyed that performance last night. Made her look like a real nut.

Also cracked up when Rose said, "Nobody touches my lemon." and yet, I'm wondering why they're barely having him do anything in the ring. Seems like a waste.

Great dueling promos between Wyatt and Cena, although I'm getting tired of Lawler needing to be saved. Nice to see JBL take a bump. I also,swear, they're either having Wyatt turn face at some point, or they're going to have him point out that the fans proved his point by being sheep for following him.

 

Liked the Alicia Fox psycho flip out. I had to laugh at the wedgie.

I really think they're going to take the title off of Paige for some reason.

The Hornswoggle/El Torito thing can't go away fast enough.

ABsolutely love the Wyatt's entrance even more now with the all the cell phones swaying. And we all know Cena's going over at Payback.

 

Assuming there's no strange swerve with Kane fighting X for a vacant title or Bryan making a comeback...

Which match goes on last at Payback: Evolution/Shield or Wyatt/Cena? Both really good programs right now. I think I'd end with the Shield assuming they're going over again

 

Thankfully this played out a bit differently:

http://pwtorch.com/artman2/publish/Torch_Today_2/article_78507.shtml

 

Yeah, that wouldn't have made much sense. Luger's best success came in WCW, and Hogan's in WWF, plus, Luger had been a heel multiple times already.

It turned out much better e way they did it, obviously, even if it did eventually kil the company because they had no endgame.

 

I think it still would have worked, although differently. The peak definitely wouldn't have been as high, since Hogan hadn't been turned in forever. But if you swap him for Luger, you probably get an NWO that is more focused on Hall, Nash and Luger as equals as opposed to Hogan being the leader. Like, more of a Shield vibe as opposed to the Wyatt family, although obviously Hall and Nash are better lieutenants than Harper and Rowan.

 

Latest from The Observer:

- Daniel Bryan is advertised for matches on June 24 and July 12, but he isn’t expected to make either date. The advertising was approved and paid for before his surgery. The plan for when he comes back will be for a Buried Alive match against Kane, either at the June 29 MitB PPV or July 20 at the Battleground PPV.

- Raw on May 26 did a 2.62 rating, a new low on a non-football night since 1997. Especially bad for the WWE is that viewers actually peaked in the second hour, not the third. News was still fairly bad for TNA – The overall rating for the night budged up to 0.9, but they started at a 1.03 and fell to a 0.78 by the end of the show.

- Because of the switch to the network, the WWE is trying to make its PPV cards stronger, since the emphasis will be more on having a consistent audience as opposed to spikes at the four tentpole PPVs. Payback is seen as a bit of an outlier because of the DB injury; they’re trying to make “what will be done with the title?” a selling point as opposed to a title match.

- TNA’s TV contract with Spike still hasn’t been renewed, but they are running shows past September. They still haven’t sold out for the three shows they’ve announced in New York, even though the building capacity is 800ish.

- The response to Styles in New Japan has been somewhat lukewarm so far. In hindsight, most think it was a mistake to give him the title in a finish with a lot of interference, and he has less name recognition than they expected. New Japan’s latest show did 7,000 tickets in a 17,000 seat arena, and while Styles is doing good work in his spot on the card, the promotion also doesn’t have a ton of depth and other angles behind him right now.

- In UFC, Sonnen vs. Silva won’t be happening at UFC 175 (July 5) because Silva refused to take a random drug test last week. UFC / his camp tried to cover this up by saying that he was pulling out with a back injury. However, it’s seen as an excuse – Because he refused to take the drug test, it counts as an automatic positive, and as a result he couldn’t get licensed in Vegas, and he didn’t even apply for it as a result.

Also, Fox is negotiating with the NBA for a “game of the week” on Saturdays, which would knock UFC off of the network some weeks on FS 1.

- The World Series of Fighting has signed a three-year deal with NBC Sports, and it’s believed that they’ll be challenging Bellator for its spot as the No. 2 MMA promotion. It’s believed that their events will air on Saturday afternoons.

- CHIKARA re-opened with a show and iPPV on May 25. It closed in June 2013 after funding dried up. Shows are currently planned for June 21, July 19, and Sept. 19, 20 and 21. CHIKARA is kind of neat to watch on YouTube; it’s lucha libre, but in America, and super exaggerated and silly. Kind of like meta-wrestling, like as far away as you can get from Vince Russo as possible.

- Where Are They Now section: First Sin Cara / Mistico is re-debuting in Mexico as Mistico for AAA, even though CMLL owes that gimmick. WWE owns the Sin Cara name in the U.S., where AAA wants to expand, so the performer (real name: Luis Urive) will be getting some sort of new name.

Tammy Stych (Sunny) has cancelled an appearance at the Cauliflower Alley Club show this year. And by “cancelled,” apparently she has not responded to any correspondence from the club in months, so they’re preemptively taken her off the show.

Jim Ross got good reviews for his boxing announcing for FS 1 on May 26. As a result, he might be used for more sports on the network, especially MMA.

Roddy Piper has heat with the WWE, between nutty stuff he’s saying on his podcast and not doing promotion properly for Legends House. On his podcast, he claimed he never worked for Bill Watts because Watts didn’t pay non-main event guys, which pretty much everyone else said is false.

Undertaker still isn’t full recovered from his Mania match.

Jenn Sterger was at the same tryout camp as Lana and some others last year, but wasn’t signed. Unsure if the WWE didn’t have interest, or if she didn’t have interest after the camp.

- WWE 2K15 is scheduled for Oct. 28. The next WWE movie is “Vendetta,” which will be a production between WWE Studios and Lionsgate. It’s about a hard-nosed police detective who intentionally commits a crime so that he can get revenge on a man serving time for killing his wife.

Booking and potential matches, spoilery stuff:

- Cesaro is being lined up for the role at No. 3 babyface in the company, behind Cena and DB, later in the year. Right now, he’s the leading candidate to win Money in the Bank.

- The Four Horseman could be in play for SummerSlam. Ronda Rousey said she’s interested in doing something at a Mania, but the timing didn’t work out for this year.

- Rey Mysterio’s contract was renewed for a year, until May 2015. WWE doesn’t really have any plans for him now, given his health status; he’s currently out with a hand injury. There is also no return date scheduled for Christian, who’s still recovering from a second concussion.

- Kenta, Prince Devitt and Kevin Steen are all scheduled to start in Orlando in August, provided their medicals and visa issues are all fine. Willie Mack is also expected to get a contract, provided he passes a background check. Trevor Mann (Ricochet) didn’t get an offer because they already think they have too many flyers his size in the company.

- Tyson Kidd will be getting a lucha libre mask and re-debuting.

- Christopher Daniels has signed with ROH. He starts full-time on June 22. Adam Cole’s tryout with New Japan went well, and he’ll be going over at some point. Michael Elgin wasn’t picked after his tryout. Takaaki Watanabe got a good reception from ROH officials, and they’re going to use him regularly and try to get him over with the American audience.

Styles is only booked with ROH on Aug. 22, Aug. 23 and Oct. 25. Otherwise, he’s doing one-shots for indies and New Japan.