Timbo Slice

That's ludicrously overpriced for ROH, especially considering that same weekend WWE was able to run $15 tickets. NXT running those rates would be getting into their main show house territory. No reason to go that high assuming lower production costs and smaller venues.

There's no reason to tour if it isn't profitable. They're doing just fine touring Florida. If there's money in the NXT brand, and it's obvious there is, touring is the next logical step. And as far as Vince getting involved, it depends on how they decide to tour. If they take the specials away from Full Sail, Vince most likely wouldn't be a part of it. Where he'd be a part of it is if they piggyback the PPVs.

Well, the biggest contrarian Flair opinions on this board were because he overstayed his welcome in a lot of fans eyes and they wanted to penalize him for it to the point where people forgot how fucking great he was for a 15-year period. That's not necessarily being a hater, but it's the idea that the best wrestler ever has to have a career that's great from beginning to end accounts for more than a prime that's in a lot of cases, even when you put up your faves against him, the greatest of all time. That's not a bad opinion, but the amount to which Flair was dinged was egregious in a lot of cases. Flair's going to be my #1 and I stand behind it not because I feel like it's the easy choice, but even with all the other great wrestlers out there who had peaks and might have even had runs that were better than Flair's at some point, I can't think of a wrestler who to me was considered the best more times throughout his career than him. There will be people who put Lawler or Funk or Jumbo or Hansen ahead of him, and I wouldn't bat an eye. To me, when Flair was at his best, nobody was better.

So Mookie can back me up with some of the particulars, but in talking with him, hypothetically, there is a chance some type of NXT touring schedule could be worked out, but it would have to be done in a very specific way. So the 4,000 seats sold in two hours is impressive, but the tickets are only $15 a pop. NXT production costs are tiny compared to what the big house shows run, but there are a couple opportunities here. On non-PPV/TV live shows, WWE averaged around 5k per in 2014. Taking into account that an NXT house show would be attended by hardcore fans that would definitely plop down their money if they came to their town, it's not inconceivable that an NXT show could run smaller venues and sell them out in the 4-5k range. Now let's say they raise ticket prices to $25 a pop or set up a few VIPs at $35-40 or even $50, you're looking at a per-show take-in of anywhere from 100k-125k on gates alone. Now, they won't be able to run 50 times a year like RAW or SmackDown! from a production standpoint, but as a hypothetical, I brought up a pretty easy scenario to follow. With the four specials a year and my idea about running a WWE Network show the night before your PPVs, that's 16 shows a year that would fill up arenas in the 4-5k range. That would bring in roughly $1.5M in gates alone. Of course, the production costs, renting the arenas, bringing in talent, putting them up in hotels, etc. would be something that has to be taken into account, but with relatively low production costs, lower rental fees on smaller arenas, and just a lower scale on talent all together, I don't see why WWE wouldn't take advantage of the opportunity. This all hinges on how long NXT can remain this intriguing, though. As many have said, NXT getting produced like the other brands would hurt it, but if it were still Triple H overseeing things with little oversight from the Raw/SmackDown! crew, then the product shouldn't suffer as a result and fans would still come out to watch it. It's all about where they feel the ticket price sweet spot would go. 4k on WM weekend where thousands of hardcores will be may not seem as impressive when you take a step back, but considering 2k spots in Cleveland and Columbus were sold out relatively quickly and they drew from miles around, there's no reason to believe that running a Saturday special the night before a PPV featuring NXT only talent in a smaller arena wouldn't do the same thing. The problem is that there isn't much to test for in Florida since there are only a few places that could run a show of that magnitude in the state, but there are plenty of ways they could branch out their touring. NXT doesn't figure into a lot of what WWE reports when it comes to their revenues since they tie it in to developmental, but I don't see that staying the same for long. Maybe they take the four specials and branch those out to bigger arenas to start, and then if they remain successful, try and do it by piggybacking the PPVs? There's a lot of scenarios that could work here, but the success is going to come in figuring out the market that would allow them to grow without overplaying what they have. The 2300 Arena is a fine venue and ROH loves working there, but running the SJSU Event Center and selling it out where hardcores will most likely pay twice face value in scalping just to get in should give you an idea of the ceiling NXT could hit with a semi-regular touring schedule.

Only two hours from Columbus to Cleveland, so I'm not sure about that even being true. If I were assuming geography, the NE crowd would go to the Cleveland show and the midwest people would go to the Columbus show, and there would probably be some people would have gone to both.

It was definitely a traveling crowd. It was only a couple hours drive from a lot of the NE hotspots and Chicago, and considering this was their first non-WM show outside of Florida, the majority of people who showed up were not local to Ohio.

I'm hoping Mookie can get back to me with some numbers so I can do a bit of analysis (probably with him) on the financial outcome of NXT selling out a 2k seater and then a 4k seater in the course of a month compared to house show attendance and where the growth potential can lead it. Because some back of the envelope math is telling me that if this continues to be an upward trend, it's going to be a much tougher financial decision than you might think.

Timeliness IS close to godliness.

I don't blame you. For as much as we shit on HTM in the ring, he's got one of the best heel runs of all time to his name, plus his stuff in Memphis.

I think he'll be my #100. Like a few guys, I'm gonna pepper the bottom of my list with personal faves, and Bobby is a shoe-in.

He's going to be on my list. I think since the indies became a big deal over a decade ago, he's been one of the best workers around, and his work in the last 18 months or so has been tremendous. If he has another good year in him with NJPW, I think it's gonna be enough to clinch him a spot.

So in adding the Japanese tag teams, I totally thought I added these guys but I didn't. Boo me. They really only teamed for about a year, but they had the tremendous Jumbo/Taue tag from 1/26/92 and the 5/25/92 Classico. Kikuchi as face in peril is one of the best things in wrestling and he really shined here. I feel this was where Kobashi showed he could hang with the top tier, and then with the unfortunate Jumbo issue, he seemed well prepared come 1993. I'm gonna have some difficult decisions to make when it comes to tag teams, but man alive, I would surprise the hell out of myself if I don't see them on my list. EDIT: I DID nominate these guys. I blame my massive sunburn.

Best underhand chop of all time.

Nominating Mitsuharu Misawa and Kenta Kobashi and the team of Tsuyoshi Kikuchi and Kobashi via the 90's yearbooks.

Russo, that you? Russo would give the title to Jon Stewart or Stephanie, let's be serious. At least Stewart would cut the promos that would make you want to see him defend it.

Russo, that you?

Right. That's why DeMarco Murray was a backup while Lance Dunbar got all the carries. I have to be clear about this: In NO OTHER sport or matter of entertainment do you not push someone forward that can make you money, regardless of how short the time frame is. Bryan's not done. He's still over. He'll still make you money. So wait until he doesn't. Then push someone else. It's unbelievably short sighted.

Okay, so on any of your lists, was Eddy/Brock one that should be included? That seemed to be a really egregious oversight for me.

Does anybody know if any of these are the same for the Amazon Fire outside of the WWE Network?

Steven and I talked about this very thing on the PWSS podcast we did this week. I basically asked if NXT was even an developmental territory at this point considering the talent they have there and how even if they are considered "WWE main roster ready" that they still have what it takes to build a successful brand. I do like Loss' theory about HHH basically building up a shadow promotion of sorts.

Definitely. Never or ever.

Kamala II IS out there...

FUCK that main event.

As the show went on you guys figured out the drop situation, which is good because it was a bit much up front. You'd think for a champion that Sleaze could have gotten a better connection for the show.

I almost feel like WWE figured it wasn't worth the time. I could see Televisa stepping in for Rey.