kjh

The problem with WWE is that they're still trashy when they're PG rated. If anything that's evidence to go in the other direction, because after almost a decade of being on their best behaviour, Dodge still won't advertise on Monday Night Raw.

I disagree in the sense that we see with the presentation of NXT how HHH wants to present wrestling to hardcore wrestling fans. That's not the same as how he wants to present wrestling full stop.

I think the talking point that Triple H (and Stephanie) don't have any real power in WWE is a really strange one. He's built a new performance centre, created a new NXT brand, is responsible for hiring all new developmental talent, oversees the talent relations department, is so heavily involved in the main roster creative process that his fingertips are all over the booking, and continues to be pushed as the top heel in the promotion. That's not real power that can heavily influence the future of the company?

I didn't get that impression. I thought it was reassuring that HHH understood that Roman gets booed because fans perceive him as being unfairly pushed and they think Bryan is being held down. They seem to get it. He may indeed understand it better, but we really didn't get a feel for how he would manage the situation better if he had complete control. Basically, Triple H threw Vince under the bus during the interview for the decision, whilst giving absolutely no indication what he would do differently.

Copycat Kidani strikes again!

Hogan completely ignoring Flair really sticks out like a sore thumb when Flair a week earlier sold that his feud with Hogan was more important to him than the Rumble match and the WWF title up for grabs too. That's just plain odd, even though the promo itself was a good way of getting over how Hogan usually overcame the insurmountable odds thrown at him.

Actually, I somewhat disagree in the sense that there's definitely a correlation between guaranteed pay and push.

I think he was sectioned after Daniel Bryan didn't win the Royal Rumble for two years running.

My point was that WWE could have afforded to set up the WWE performance centre in the mid 2000s and they wouldn't be in the position of having only one Roman Reigns to choose from. They've somewhat rectified that problem recently thanks to Triple H, and not one single stockholder has complained about that spending on long term talent development because it makes sense.

I could see them booking Bryan vs. Reigns for the number one contendership at Fast Lane to tie up the loose end of Bryan never being given a World title shot after being stripped of the title by the Authority with Bryan coming up short yet again. Why not milk the trolling for a few more weeks? I would imagine it's something like this. IF you accept that Bryan isn't getting the push (which I don't but whatever), then this would make sense in a lot of ways. Bryan would probably make Reigns look better than anyone else on the roster could. Reigns also desperately needs another PPV singles match before WM if they are really going through with this. The dude has ONE ppv singles match. It's fucking absurd. Don't know where this comes from, but in today's CSS rumor roundup "Randall Ortman" claims that "Triple H's big announcement for Raw next week is expected to be something along the lines of a multi-man match for the Fast Lane event involving the likes of Roman Reigns, Daniel Bryan, and others. It will set up the WrestleMania direction for all the top names who don't already have that." Presuming that the WrestleMania title shot is on the line (otherwise, what's the point?), either WWE are hedging their bets or are going to dangle another carrot in front of their hardcore fans before yanking it away again.

That quite frankly is really quite shocking! Maybe no one talked about the Rumble at his work place because they AREN'T wrestling fans? I couldnt help but laugh when it said he screamed and woke his wife up. Hope he got a right telling off for that. Not everyone likes wrestling. Kids do but alot of people move on and Im not really sure how this made headline news. He really should get a job at a larger accountancy firm where there's more likely to be a wrestling fan. Although in a workforce of 16 people the odds of no-one else at least being a lapsed fan must be pretty low, right? WWE surveys tell me there must be at least 300,000 wrestling fans in Dublin alone? That's not counting the people who commute there for work too. Also, he needs to soundproof his bedroom. He might be waking his missus up a lot this year, otherwise. I don't know, must have been a slow news day?

Dylan, I really think the lack of long term development rests at Vince's feet. The company was at one point sitting on about $250-300 million in cash reserves with no debt, and pissed off their stockholders to no end that they weren't investing that money in growing their business. That Vince decided to jack up the dividends to feather his own nest and get them to shut up at that point, rather than earmarking more money on talent development, for example, is on his head.

I could see them booking Bryan vs. Reigns for the number one contendership at Fast Lane to tie up the loose end of Bryan never being given a World title shot after being stripped of the title by the Authority with Bryan coming up short yet again. Why not milk the trolling for a few more weeks?

The difference is more the lack of competition than going public, IF anything. But Vince has always shot the big guys straight to the top or rushed them out of developmental. You can't blame the stock market for The Ultimate Warrior being made WWF Champion five years into his career. Ditto Diesel. The joke with Lashley was that they had to hide him from Vince because he would want to call him up as soon as he had laid eyes on him. By Vince's standards, Roman Reigns is on the typical time course for a guy he's grooming to be the next big thing. Early on, they did a better job than most of preparing him for that position. But ever since he got injured, they've cocked things up.

I got that email too, Parv. To be fair we do pay the equivalent of $5 a month more for the service, so we really do deserve a free month every quarter.

This really is CM Punk all over again with Daniel Bryan having a strong cult following that WWE fails to fully capitalise on because he doesn't fit their mould of what a top star should be. Similar to Bryan's Yes chants, Punk's pipe bomb promo didn't translate into super-duper business either (Money In The Bank drew well for a B-show, but not as well as the online attention it grabbed suggested). The advantage Punk had is that the fans would still accept him as a heel, so he could switch roles and get a lengthy main event run that way instead. The problem today is that with the switch in business model to the WWE Network, it's become harder than ever to determine who draws and who doesn't. Pay-per-view wasn't without its problems, as initial estimates were sometimes out significantly, but at least buys varied on the strength of each card and you can look back and see what did and didn't work. Now if you put on a weak show, then that doesn't hurt you as much, as the majority of people are going to keep paying for the service no matter what.

The last figures for HHH vs. Brock were 392K worldwide, 296K domestic. The 332K number is correct, but Cena vs. Bryan only did 207K domestic. That's still a difference of 89,000 buys in their home market (60K worldwide). It did do slightly better than Cena vs. Punk in 2011, but worse than any year before that since the lull before the Attitude Era. I wouldn't call it a *good* number, even revised upward. It went from being the worst SummerSlam buyrate in almost two decades, to the second worst. It went from a bad number to an OK number, but OK numbers aren't going to cut it when you're Daniel Bryan (or CM Punk, for that matter). The low original number just became the excuse to cut Bryan off at the knees like they wanted to do anyway. Just look at the history of how they booked him.

So, the idea for this is "They won't push us so let's STEAL THE SHOW!"? That's maybe the worst idea for those guys yet. People aren't annoyed that these guys aren't allowed to have good matches, they have good matches all the time. WWE are confusing their crowd for a ROH crowd watching Spanky vs. Jamie Noble. Is anything going to be on the line? Even a number one contender match would work as a way for the match to actually mean something. I think if they aren't going to push him to the main level, at least putting him in a great match with time that steals the show is the next best alternative. The bar might be very low to steal the show this year, which is lucky for them, as they won't get the time to steal the show. With how they usually lay out the show they'll get 13 minutes if they're very lucky, 6 minutes if WWE are feeling like arrogant dicks.

Summerslam 2013 actually did not draw a disappointing buyrate. The initial numbers were disappointing but they were later revised. It still drew substantially less than 2012, even revised upward.

I think WWE management view Sheamus and Daniel Bryan at roughly the same level. Two guys they gave the big push to, who didn't really get over with the masses. SummerSlam 2013 drew disappointingly with Bryan on top. The feud with Orton really only drew well at Hell In A Cell, which coincided with Cena's return and Shawn Michaels as special guest referee. I could see Vince looking at those numbers and getting confirmation bias, which allows him to drown out the noise of all those Yes chants in the arenas every week.

Brock vs. Bryan is a natural program for SummerSlam IF Brock stays a heel and he re-signs with the company. But I think we should go under the working assumption he won't be with WWE after WrestleMania until we hear otherwise, because if the Royal Rumble proved anything, it is that WWE will willingly book themselves into a corner for short-term gain without thinking about the consequences. Regarding Bryan's health, I wouldn't be surprised if WWE management are suspicious about whether his body holds up long term, because they don't trust the muscle activation treatment he's got from non-WWE doctors, but if they really saw him as the guy, it wouldn't stop them booking him that way.

I don't think there's any good answers because (a) WWE are bound and determined to stick with the top of the WrestleMania card as planned; and ( WWE have such a dearth of hated heels at the moment.

By my calculations, to hit their 2010 operating income level of $50.3M this year, they'd need to average just over 1.2 million subscribers for the whole year. Right?

Now, now, don't start giving them any ideas for Hideo Itami.

I agree, I made that point elsewhere, but when has that really ever stopped them before? WWE booking is often all about getting themselves into holes for short term gain and then wondering how to dig their way out of it.