2014 Pro Wrestling Thread

I wasn't into Sable either. I was absolutely stupid in love with Sunny. And the redhead Nitro girl wasn't bad, either.

 

Notes from the Nov. 10 Observer:

- The WWE released Network subscriber numbers: About 731,000, a gain of around 28,000 from the “new” international subscribers. Internally, the lack of pick-ups once they officially launched in international countries confirms that most diehard non-US fans are already subscribed. They are still testing with the model in Canada (they worked out an HBO-like cable deal for it) and the UK (they’ve pushed back the launch date for something similar to Canada).

But since their goal was to be at 1M by 2015, they overpromised to investors. About 971,000 different emails have been used to sign-up for the Network, but obviously, not everyone has chosen to renew, and some of it is people hopscotching from one discount deal to another. The cancellation rate is believed to be around 40 percent. WWE has cut $30M in annual costs since the beginning of the year, which means they only lost $5M in Q3 as opposed to the $12M Wall Street was projecting.

- Why did the Big Show come out and do a promo for Daniel Bryan at Smackdown tapings? So that they could get some B-roll of a “Yes! Yes! Yes!” crowd for a WWE Network commercial. WWE also hasn’t shown any footage of DB at the Giants victory parade and doing various interviews, which also seems insane.

- Orton’s out with an injury angle to shoot The Condemned 2, which starts Nov. 11. He’s been removed from advertising for all shows as far out as Dec. 26, but he could be back before then.

- It’s believed that Lesnar is probably only going to wrestle two more matches, at Rumble and Mania, because his contract is too high for it to make sense for them to use him on B-level PPVs. Included in his fee are the build-up shows for his wrestling dates.

- TNA is believed to be close to a TV deal, with an executive going to New York to finalize it. However, it’s unknown what the terms will be, or even who it’s with. Internally though, they’re said to be booking like they’ll be open in 2015.

- WWE met with Mysterio in Buffalo but didn’t come to any agreement. He’s said to have no interest in coming back. He thought he was done six months ago, but McMahon exercised an option that extended his contract because of his injuries, even if he’s not going to work for them, to keep him off other TV.

- Ric Flair filmed a fitness video with Dennis Rodman this past week. He also has a small role in Magic Mike XXL.

- Bo Dallas suffered a left foot injury and he’s bo-lieved to be out for six to eight weeks.

 

FWIW, I still have Sable's first Playboy issue. It holds up rather well.

 

The only problem with the Network is that a lot of peole overestimated the size of the fan base. What did anyone expect in an era where 2.5 is the best The E can do? Had this technology existed 15 years ago when WWF was doing 5s and 6s, sure, the network could do a million easy. 750,000 is probably a decent number considering its not even a year old (also considering how easy it is to bounce around log ins when a new introductory deal is announced).

 

Next up we have John Cena.

Without a doubt 2007 was Cena's best year. The fact that Cena got such an amazing match out of Umaga when the big guy struggled to find that real chemistry with anyone else is a nice positive to 2007. He even managed to get a couple of watchable matches out of the Great f'n Khali including a super rare squash where Cena actually helped make someone look unstoppable.

 

I'm actually ticked they still don't have all the RAW episodes up from years past.

That was one of the main things I was looking forward to.

HOWEVER,

Nice touch adding three ECW events to the lineup and the 47 new Hardcore TV episodes during ECW week.

Watched November to Remember 1995 and saw the actual birth of the Dudley Brothers (Little Snot Dudley and Dudley Dudley managed by Big Dick Dudley).

 

The ECW Exposed show reminds me of how much better it used to be. Joey and Paul E. talking about swearing on the old shows, for example.

Joey: I'm a husband and father now ...

And, of course, half the footage is B&W because of blood or stopped like a freeze frame just before someone's head gets bashed in with a NES console.

Ugh, so many have allowed their balls to be cut off and kept in a purse.

 

Speaking of blood, the Taipei Death Match between Ian and Axl Rotten was on November to Remember 95. Talk about your bloodbaths!

 

I have one of the books on ECW history. I remember one of the Rottens saying the best part of that match was the hours before it, because the two of them had to drink all the beer before they smashed the bottles.

 

That might have explained the gushers of blood.

 

So they could be numb when they did that crazy crap that they did to each other.

By the way, I'm back! Hoping to be a little more active on here going forward, but am glad to see there's still a grappling thread going. I'm making my way through Death of WCW by Bryan Alvarez and R.D. Reynolds as we speak.

 

I wonder where TNA is going to wind up. Wherever it is, I doubt that network will do as much as Spike did to keep it afloat.