Loss

It wasn't even so much that they changed their minds. It sounds like there was just an error in the press release.

Even if you do think Rusev has an outdated and reductive gimmick, which I can see, that may have played a role in getting people to notice him more originally, but he built on it and that's why he has maintained his heat for a year. We've seen WWE do the anti-American gimmick plenty of times and the acts usually fade out in a few months. Rusev has sustained it because: (1) He has been well-booked and produced (2) He has improved throughout the year in the ring (3) He and Lana have great chemistry as an act Surely, you recognize the difference between Yokozuna and Kenzo Suzuki. It's similar to the difference between Vladimir Koslov and Rusev.

I do think there is potential in an angle where Ambrose volunteers himself to team with Brock against those two because no one knows them better and then the obvious happens.

If your Bryan/Ziggler types are more over in metro areas and your Cena/Reigns types are more over in smaller markets, why do the Cena/Reigns types headline in metro areas while Bryan/Ziggler types work the smaller markets?

That's actually an amazing idea! Could you imagine Brock throwing bodies around in a ladder match?

It's more plausible now that WWE has dropped the pretense almost entirely. Vince used insider terms when talking to Austin, and HHH babyface segments are shown in the middle of Raw. Stephanie even openly admits it. In the past, I think it was not just that it was fake, but that they were trying to dupe you somehow.

It's amazing that the subtext of WWE television has become "Vince McMahon and The Authority hate you and are out to create the worst show possible for you to watch. The babyfaces are the ones that attempt to overcome or find a way to overcome that."

The match would be good, but most people probably wouldn't admit it, which is why I wish he could have more matches with darlings.

Reigns-Henry would help Reigns get over in the context of the show, but in today's climate, you also need a way to get wrestlers over in the subtext with smart fans who are more interested in the motivations behind pushes and backstage machinations.

I just don't think winning matches is enough to rebuild him because of the perception that he's Vince's pet. He needs lots and lots of great matches, because it will seem more earned.

I feel like if they really care about rehabbing Reigns, he needs to be put with workrate opponents every single month with the agents trying to craft a MOTY. There's a (false) perception that he can't really work, and that's the type of thing that will eventually overcome everything else. It would create a groundswell of support around him if he was having a ****+ match every big show.

I've always thought WWE should do an ad campaign where fans of Mad Men, Game of Thrones, Walking Dead, etc. are talking to their co-workers about how great the show was, only to get a "You know they're just acting, right? It's so fake" response.

You should write a book of customer service stories.

At their peak, they were doing a 20 rating and 70 share, believe it or not.

While the rematches are not great, it is highly preferable to the one-and-done matchmaking that was the norm until the Jericho-Michaels feud.

The hair match should be saved for when/if they ever want to turn Daniel Bryan heel. Him losing and changing completely ...

I'll keep updating this as I go, but this is stuff I've encountered as I've been researching for my e-book. A thread seemed like a good place to do a data dump. I'll do a post for each month. When I write about this, I'll provide a lot of context around these numbers, but I still think they are interesting without all of that. JANUARY 1990 WWF House Shows 01/05 (Des Moines, IA - Roberts vs DiBiase - 4,900) 01/06 (Utica, NY - Dusty vs Boss Man - 2,700) - Matinee & lots of no-shows due to travel problems 01/07 (Winnipeg - Roberts vs DiBiase - 2,500) 01/12 (Moline, IL - Warrior vs Bravo - 6,876) - Sellout 01/13 (Chicago - Hogan vs Perfect - 16,000) - Sellout 01/13 (Boston - Warrior vs Bravo - 9,200) 01/14 (Rochester, NY - Hogan vs Perfect - 8,000) - City record 01/14 (San Diego, CA - Warrior vs Bravo - 8,000) 01/15 (MSG - Hogan vs Perfect - 11,500) 01/15 (Albuquerque, NM - Warrior vs Bravo - 4,807) 01/15 (Canton, OH - Savage vs Duggan - 4,000) 01/19 (West Palm Beach, FL - Roberts vs DiBiase - Attendance Unknown) 01/20 (Philadelphia - Warrior vs Bravo - 8,216) - Matinee 01/20 (Atlanta, GA - Hogan vs Perfect) - WON claimed 4,900 while Matwatch claimed 6,000 01/21 (Orlando, FL - Royal Rumble - 16,000) - Sellout 01/22 (Miami, FL - Hogan vs Perfect - 15,063) - TV Taping* 01/23 (Ft. Myers, FL - Hogan vs Perfect - 5,000) - Sellout 01/25 (Oakland, CA - Warrior vs Bravo/Rude vs Piper Cage - 7,000) 01/26 (Los Angeles - Warrior vs Bravo/Rude vs Piper Cage - 12,000) 01/27 (Las Vegas - Warrior vs Bravo - 4,000) 01/27 (Hershey, PA - Hogan vs Perfect - 10,000) - Sellout 01/28 (Fresno, CA - Warrior vs Bravo/Rude vs Piper Cage - 3,800) 01/28 (Dallas, TX - Card unknown - Under 4,000) 01/29 (Bakersfield, CA - Warrior vs Bravo - 3,568) *The TV taping was originally schedule for January 15 and ticket sales were going so poorly that they had to add Hogan-Perfect and Savage-Piper to boost it. They also did a radio tie-in with Gene Okerlund hosting a contest where the winning woman would get a Rude Awakening. Prime Time Wrestling 01/01 - 2.7 rating - 4.0 share - 1.31 million homes* 01/08 - 3.2 rating - 4.6 share - 1.56 million homes 01/15 - 3.0 rating - 4.4 share 01/22 - 2.4 rating - 3.6 share 01/29 - 3.9 rating - 5.9 share - 2.03 million homes** *Competing with New Year's Day bowl games ** First time a weekly television show ever broke 2 million viewers All American Wrestling 01/07 - 2.3 rating - 5.2 share - 1.17 million homes 01/14 - 2.5 rating - 5.8 share 01/21 - 2.4 rating - 5.9 share 01/28 - 2.6 rating - 6.6 share - 1.34 million homes Saturday Night's Main Event 01/27 - 11.1 rating - 34 share* * Second highest rated SNME ever Royal Rumble 260,000 buys* * Disappointing number partially affected by battle with Viewers Choice and Request. Story will be covered in e-book Syndication Week ending 01/07 -- 8.2 rating (236 stations) Week ending 01/14 -- 9.4 rating (242 stations) Week ending 01/21 -- 9.9 rating (237 stations) Week ending 01/28 -- 9.3 rating (231 stations) WCW House Shows 01/01 (Atlanta, GA - Flair vs Luger - 6,000) 01/05 (Raleigh, NC - Sting vs Luger - 4,300) * 01/06 (Charlottesville, VA - Sting vs Luger - 5,500) ** 01/09 (Saginaw, MI - Flair vs Luger - "Turnaway crowd but heavily padded") - TV taping 01/11 (Hammond, IN - Flair vs Luger - 5,400) - Sellout 01/12 (Cincinnati, OH - Flair vs Luger - 4,500) 01/13 (Charleston, WV - Flair vs Luger - 6,000) 01/20 (Baltimore, MD - Flair vs Luger - 5,100) 01/21 (Richmond, VA - Flair vs Luger - 4,000) 01/22 (Raleigh, NC - Flair vs Luger - 1,000) *** 01/26 (Atlanta, GA - Flair vs Luger - 4,400)**** * Largest Raleigh crowd in 18 months ** Flair advertised but no-showed for daughter's birthday. Refunds offered. *** Lost syndication in nasty WWF sabotage story that will be covered in e-book. **** Unbeknownst to WCW, Center Stage was undergoing reconstruction on scheduled 01/16 TV taping and fans couldn't get in and TV taping was cancelled. Those who showed up were given free tickets to this Omni card and the next Center Stage taping as well. Planned house shows were cancelled on 01/07 in Steubenville, OH and 01/08 in Rochester, NY because of poor advances Power Hour 01/05 - 1.7 rating - 2.8 share - 863,000 homes* 01/06 - 0.8 rating - 7.4 share (Saturday AM repeat) 01/12 - 2.3 rating - 3.8 share 01/13 - 1.2 rating - 9.8 share (Saturday AM repeat) 01/19 - 2.7 rating - 4.4 share 01/20 - 1.1 rating - 9.3 share (Saturday AM repeat) 01/26 - 3.1 rating - 5.1 share - 1.63 million homes 01/27 - 0.9 rating - 7.8 share (Saturday AM repeat) World Championship Wrestling 01/06 - 2.8 rating - 4.7 share - 1.42 million homes 01/13 - 2.9 rating - 5.5 share 01/20 - 3.2 rating - 6.1 share 01/27 - 3.6 rating - 6.9 share - 1.89 million homes Main Event 01/07 - 3.2 rating - 5.0 share 01/08 - 0.3 rating - 3.2 share (Monday AM repeat) 01/14 - 2.9 rating - 4.6 share 01/21 - PRE-EMPTED 01/28 - PRE-EMPTED * Lost 39% of TBS movie lead-in Syndication Week ending 01/07 -- 6.4 rating (168 stations) Week ending 01/14 -- 7.1 rating (169 stations) Week ending 01/21 -- 9.7 rating (171 stations) Week ending 01/28 -- 7.5 rating (177 stations) USWA Still averaging a 10 rating and 31 share, making it the highest rated wrestling show in a specific market in the country, although it is far down from its peak a few years earlier. INDIES Joel Goodheart promoted show on 01/27 in Philadelphia headlined by Larry Zbyszko vs David Sammartino with Bruno in David's corner. The show did a $22,000 house.

As far as quarter hours go, I know Batista's initial appearance last year on RAW drew 6 million viewers, but yeah, sustaining it over a three-hour period would be tough.

I believe everything Dave says is sincere. He just has a different view of wrestling than most of us. It's all about right now. Next week, how good or bad the matches were on this show won't matter at all because the standards have already changed. This is of course contradicted by even doing a MOTY vote in the year-end awards, but what can you do?

Good Lord.

I was chatting with Dylan about this and thought I'd make a post about it here. We can bump this in a year and maybe I'll look foolish or maybe I'll look clairvoyant. Either way, here's my theory. They are systematically taking every top act in the company down a notch because they want HHH and Stephanie to be the biggest stars in the company heading into Wrestlemania 32. They can book Brock Lesnar as invincible, but he's not around every week threatening to overshadow them, so no harm, no foul. That's why Roman Reigns is being booked how he is and was set up to fail since his return. That's why Daniel Bryan and John Cena have been phased down the card. It's probably even why Rusev has been cooled off and why Undertaker coming back from his first-ever Wrestlemania loss was not even treated as a big deal. Brock Lesnar is gone and Seth Rollins might just end up a heel champ for the next year because he's a safe choice and his on-screen role is to be submissive to The Authority anyway. We will keep hearing in newsletters how the company is still "solidly behind" Reigns, yet the details of his presentation will never bear that out. Seth Rollins will feud with Randy Orton. Orton will not win the title, but he'll be strongly protected in not winning it. Perhaps Bray Wyatt will cost him the win out of nowhere and he'll move on to that feud. Roman Reigns will not be protected in losing, yet it will be reported that whatever finish they decided upon was crafted with the idea that they were protecting him, and they are shocked that it backfired.

I'm behind, but Bryan-Ziggler was a terrific match that I really enjoyed. Those two have an even better match in them when they are given more time, but this was still fantastic.

My main issue with the Diva Search thing is that the way they are promoting it really goes against the lip service they've paid lately to transforming how they use women.

Parv, the modern paradox is that they need everyone to have long-term value more than ever, yet they book for the short term more than ever.

I got the feeling the ladder match was originally conceived to finally be his big win until they realized they had to do something with Daniel Bryan.