Wrestling Thread [ARCHIVED] • Page 315

Draft is gonna be July 11th in Detroit.

Possible WWE Draft Date, Brand Split Rumor On The WWE Women's Division, More Backstage Talk - WrestlingInc.com

 

Maybe not eligible for the draft but they could be "available free agents" that are signed after the fact. Or they could be drafted to create hype around them

 

The Shield was great. I still hold out hope for a reunion someday.

Is Goldberg really making a return or is that just a bad rumor.

 

goldberg still has 50 matches in him he said, I HOPE WE GET THAT!

 

Oh shit the last moment ever on TCGS could be Chris getting Gored by Rhyno and that's kind of amazing and sad at the same time.

 

Goldberg v Lesnar because of the Suplex City sign in the window on the commercial is the rumor, right? Would be great for Summerslam.

I have to say, sitting through another Reigns Rollins feud is gonna be tough. There is just nothing there.

 

David Shoemaker's first wrestling article on The Ringer.

"The story of Vince McMahon as told by Vince McMahon"

 

Some really great Vince one liners in that piece. Great work from Shoemaker curating all of that, must have taken forever.

 

so I finally watched the Rollins Redesign Rebuild Reclaim doc and it just makes creative's decision to make him a chickenshit heel all the more perplexing? That was a total babyface redemption doc - either you make Rollins face right away or you save the doc when he finally makes the face turn - right it's just confusing as fuck shit - you watch RAW and he's written for people to boo but you watch the doc and all you want to do is cheer for him.

whatever

 

Meltzer on the Brand Split and the USA network.

It is still largely secretive, if things have even been figured out past the top guys, regarding what will happen with WWE talent when they do the brand split in July.

The most likely reason that the move was made, was because the USA Network was not happy with the ratings of Smackdown. The hope was that Smackdown on USA would do close to the numbers of Raw, particularly when it opened strong at around 2.7 million viewers. The reality is that WWE was not using as much primary talent on Smackdown, nor were they doing the obvious, shooting angles for matches on Mondays that would lead to Thursday. For wrestling fans, Smackdown remained no more important, nor mustsee, on USA as it had been in recent years on Syfy. What shocked everyone is that ratings had fallen below what they were a year ago, even with the move to a much stronger station. While ratings weren’t down from last year as much as Raw, the expectation was that a Thursday night prime time show on USA would do better.

Key to this is that, even though WWE will be adding expenses by going live, USA is not paying more for the increase in costs. It’s the first sign, while hidden from the public, that USA is concerned that the approximately $127 million they pay WWE this year for Raw and Smackdown is not delivering at the level they would like. Given that the key economic driver of the company is not the network but the television rights fees, in the long run, until economic conditions change greatly, ratings are still the most important barometer for the company, and they are consistently falling.

 

It should not be a surprise that no one is watching Smackdown, based on the product they were presenting.

 

Creative refuses to accept Reigns not working as a face. Rollins has to be in the heel role becuse of this. It's such a shame. His speech in ring on Raw seemed so forced and put on. What's the point of this. Reigns is garbage in this role and that won't change no matter what.

 

It's not creative, it's Vince. Vince says Roman is the top Babyface so that's what they have to work with

 

Are Roman's merch sales actually that good? Is that why they won't just turn him heel? It's not like little kids wouldn't buy Rollins stuff if he was the babyface.

 

I'm gonna text my buddy and say "EVERYONE BLAMES YOU."

I know his response will be "VINCE MADE ME DO IT"

 

He was just behind Cena in 2015. And he's apparently tested really popular with current fans (however that works...)

Problem is, if TV ratings and subscription of the Network are their main barometers as a business, Roman puts both of those in danger. Shit, i got back into wrestling because I saw all the Cancel the Network stuff after the Royal Rumble and had to confirm it was that bad (it was). And the TV ratings are dropping despite the roster being solid, and the mid-card being as stacked as ever.

Sacrificing AJ and even Rollins to Roman are one thing. If he serves up Cena and Lesnar to him, that'll be the game changer

 

NXT is streaming a live event right now where Somoa Joe is singing with the Drifter.

 

So does the Drifter have real heat or is it just the way he was presented to us?

 

Hey that Jake the Snake/DDP documentary is on Netflix. Definitely going to check that out later.

 

AJ works great as a heel, his heel promos are a vast improvement over his face mic work.

 

I had a dream that my sister started dating Adam Cole, so I framed him for murder.

Wtf

 

Fandango on Smackdown

 

I was just thinking, wouldn't it be great if they had Bray go over Orton on Raw for the MitB qualifier?

 

Does Miz have a feud going on right now?

 

Nope he's off shooting the marine 5 right now