Mad Dog

So where does Rollins rate as far as bad championship runs? Is he down there with those HHH reigns of terror in the early and mid 00s.

Oh yeah. I think Reigns is in that Orton territory of he should be a much bigger deal for all the time and energy they put into him. Especially all the hot feuds like Lesnar/Joe they just ignored because everything was about Roman for the last 5 years. The funny thing, if they had used him like they currently are for a couple of years before making him the guy, I bet the fans would have accepted him more.

I think being a net neutral isn't a bad thing though. Sometimes you need a guy that you can give the ball to that will keep things steady. Rollins on the other hand has been a proven negative all the way back to RoH. He's only getting the repeated chances because he's a HHH pet.

I think you would be less likely to find a hat but they might have them.

I wait till sales or stuff is getting cleared out. Plus I think Hot Topic has all their shirts now.

So... Bellator now?

My takeaway from this week is they don't know how to fix things and I should stop giving them chances to win me back. I think I should just stick with AEW, Impact, MLW, NXT, etc. and just ignore the main WWE product.

As far as Sammy Guevara goes. My wife loves him. Bought his shirt and gets excited everytime she sees that panda head coming through the entrance way.

I like this better too because that way he jumps Brock. The stupid thing about what they did is a lot of people have no idea who Cain is which made their way of handling it kind of ridiculous looking.

He didn't seem to hurt things. I don't think ratings went up when he was on top but they didn't go down either. Being a net neutral is kind of an underrated quality if you ask me.

I think it would take a year or two of amazing shows to regain trust. I mentioned it in another thread. I tuned in because I was interested in seeing Rollins vs. Misterio and just turned it off when I realized there was never any intention of delivering it.

Death Before Dishonor did 800 buys. Ouch.

I feel a need to stick up for Road Dogg. He wasn't a terrible worker until like 1999.

I kind of wonder what they do with NXT the next few weeks. Do they keep hotshotting? Bring in more Raw/Smackdown guys? Or do they just go back to the usual NXT formula and accept that they lost unless AEW totally falls off.

I think only in the context of being in the Bullet Club.

If you look at the demos, I don't think there is much of a cross over audience. AEW pulled a much younger audience. I know several people that watched AEW and NXT wasn't even on their radar. I do think NXT's numbers are troubling. They've said a quarter of their audience already and I don't see that reversing.

That's why I thought NXT's week 1 rating was so bad. With the history of WWE B shows they needed a much bigger number to remain sustainable. NXT could be doing 500k a show by the end of the year the way they've shed audience so far. I just don't think they have wide enough appeal and they have done a really bad job at making newcomers give a shit.

AEW did 878k in just the 18-49 demo.

Honestly because it hasn't been very good since Mania weekend. They have made very poor booking decisions and it has been mediocre at best. I also think some people just want it to fail against AEW to humble the WWE a bit.

The rating they pulled in Charlotte is kind of eye opening. They might actually pull in a lot of old WCW fans.

I know several people that were lapsed fans and watched AEW and NXT wasn't even on their radar. I think AEW did a good job of casting a wide net while WWE counter programmed with the idea of they were fighting over the same group of fans they see at their shows.

I think it's impressive how disciplined they stayed for the first show. They stuck to their plans and did a good first show but it felt like something sustainable booking wise where you wonder how long NXT can keep up what they are doing before they totally burn themselves out.

I thought that as a really good debut episode. Felt very WCW in a good way. Definitely felt refreshing visually. I think they need to work on some pacing issues for future shows though.

I think this is the best version of LAX.

I think the commentators did a good job filling that gap for people. I know a couple of lapsed fans that watched tonight and both commented that they are shocked that they made it this far and didn't get bored.