Strand Peanut

Thanks, I was actually wondering that.

Last year NXT was something that mostly disinterested fans walked by at Axxess on the way to getting an Alicia Fox autograph. Now it's selling out a 4,000 seat building immediately. It's been a good year for them. Maybe last year they forgot the fish. They have had a good year, I'm not taking it away from them. I even think it's a smart move, and a savvy wrestling move. If WWE wants some of the weekend auxiliary money generated by WM, they may have knocked "one more tshirt" off a lot of people's expense list. If they're selling $5 NXT gimmicks inside too, color me impressed! I just think two shows, with plenty of caveats, is a bit too soon.

ROH TV is around 400,000 viewers. Does anyone track hulu #s? If I was a wrestling company, I'd be dying to crack a deal with Amazon or the other big streamers. Let the streamers figure out their business model, and show how wrestling can help that. Wanna beat Vince? Search for his products on Amazon, but have the banner ad on the results page lead to your streaming show. Well, it'll at least piss him off. heh

As a point of reference.. NXT as a TV show in 2010 was getting more viewers than there are Network subscribers. Would that have been a viable touring brand? I wasn't paying attention then, serious question.

Don't make up numbers. If someone knows how many people are watching NXT I'd love to know. WWE should know. And getting 4,000 folks to buy 15$US tickets at the biggest pro wrestling gathering in the world IS shooting fish in the barrel. All the gear is already there. Everything's there. Even the customers. The roll out has been smart, cost covered, and positioned in no-lose situations. That's good, but it's cautious. It's likely to go very slow, and at some point has to show it's own legs. Not even close to that point. I would contribute it quite a bit to brand. But it's not like NXT is an empty husk behind WWE.

Joe has been an out and out failure in Japan. Was NJPW really going to bring him in ?

the VCR and the Walkman looms large in cultural history. It's ability to remove the architecture of art, at convenience, is the beginnings of where we at. Nice read Loss, thanks. The sub-title made me crack up!

I think a lot of the new data is noise tho. People always complained before, it's just personified and archived now. And I don't think either of those factors should give it greater value. Social media shouldn't drive any business more than comment cards used to. And if it's purely a perception problem.. who better to manage perception than old school wrestlers? Heh!

I don't listen to podcasts very often. I prefer the conversation over listening to one. I have listened to some of the Titans podcasts. The bio material is always of interest and I do wish there was a place for that on the board. I understand this isn't a place for pages of match results and such. But, bio stuff like that can help spark conversation and ideas. Or at least can help form a point of reference for those not listening or those who may feel under informed.

In the long run, Eaton is more versatile. But Arn's strength of character work is going to be hard for any of these upper card attraction guys to beat him. He didn't have to be as versatile, he just had to be Arn. It's always going to give him that extra push over a lot of similar talent.

That match is from the Central States promotion. I'm fairly certain it's 7/19/1984. Harley has a match with Link on the return show. There's always been a little confusion over this. There are two Kansas City's, and the distinction isn't always made. That footage is from Kansas City, KS. The 3/8/84 match is from Kansas City, MO. Don't think there's footage for that.

If Jumbo doesn't get sick tho.. Does the rise take even longer? The timing of it all. They were all positioned well. But it does almost run as, Misawa beats Jumbo, and Jumbo is done. And hey!! all these new guys you were really starting to like anyways. I think it ended up being the right thing at the right time. I don't think it was anyone's plan tho. One of the great wrestling What If's..

I certainly agree! How people watch is totally different now than then. Watching a year in a few months, just isn't the same as the week in week out. But I don't think Baba was weaving a purposeful grand tapestry. He was working the formula, and he was very fortunate. Hallmarks of a great business man, in any field.

It was probably just cheaper to keep it short. Plus it was new. And it was wrestling. American cinema go-ers had no problems sitting thru longer fare in the 70's and 80's.

AJPW was and has been criticized for moving too slow. The criticism isn't an over bearing one, but it's certainly there. Baba was of the 60's mentality. Slow, stretch it out, try and milk it as much as possible. Don't go too big.. the drop from there might not be worth it.

I don't know why they still think it's going to matter if their part timer movie star has the belt while he's going on talk show circuits promoting his movie. The Rock wasn't bringing the belt with him to The Tonight Show when he was the champ was he? The movie people probably try and stop it and I'm sure the talk show producers aren't really keen on it either. It shows they still make stars. I tend to agree with you tho.

1/1/96, The Raw Bowl. Oh my. I'm not sure I wanna click that. But I meant an actual football game. Like Paul Heyman is coaching Team Brock, makes a bad play call at the end of the game. Brock fumes. Umbrage taken. Turn executed. FEUD! I'd say it's silly... because it is. But hey, it's WWE, run it the week before the super bowl and remind folks football is ending and RAW is coming back into your lives.. so here's where everyone is at.

TV was changing to a national syndication format instead of local TV stations individually paying for content. You can argue Vince made things hard for other promotions to get syndication coverage like he did, but the TV business changed on a larger scale than just what impacted the wrestling business. Larger scale? The story of TV and wrestling can't be told without each other. Just ask Ted Anyways, Vince was paying local stations to carry his syndicated show. Who else was trying to syndicate nationally? There was the Gordon Soile show.. but I'm drawing a blank after that. My point being, he beat them to the punch, right? He killed the local TV so they couldn't get out of the gate. The rest of wrestling saw the future in superstations and satellites. The savy folks saw what was happening in Atlanta and Dallas. Vince saw syndication and then PPV. This is what made Vince unique. He didn't make it hard for people to grow their syndication. They weren't trying.

There are a couple interviews Dean Ambrose did in post show / fall out segments that were pretty tremendous. Some real straight up old school stuff. I've always thought those segments were unscripted, but I'm not sure. "Only three things can survive a nuclear attack.. Twinkies, Cockroaches, and Dean Ambroses" Those post show interviews often seem the like the only time a lot of the wrestlers can freelance. Tho, they do run skits there as well. It's always interesting to see different folks in that environment. Off the cuff interviews have been a huge staple of TV wrestling. Maybe only second to the action in the ring ? But in today's WWE, it's tucked away on youtube and rarely a feature on their main shows? As a reeeeal casual watcher, I'm not sure. Is that a fair assessment... anyone ?

Not having Batista holding the belt when he was in the #1 movie in the USA ? only thing that comes to mind.. Otherwise, I think there's a logic of justification to any other instance that WWE follows.

Air Buddies too. Couple of those.. a bag of mushrooms.. helluva weeknight party.

Vince went after just about everybody. If he could've wiped em all out at once he would've been even happier. I don't subscribe to anyone's sole responsibility. Each territory has it's story. But it is what Vince was going for.

How much of the WWE pay structure for wrestlers is still tied to how they draw? I know downside guarantees are part of the language now. The days of hand shake deals being way gone and all.. but I don't really understand how it's tried to how WWE draws.

I can't thank you enough for letting me know that exists.

Yeah, but that's what any middle manager tries to do. I've never thought HHH would end up with the keys to the kingdom anyways. I'm not sure what O Henry-esque ending this story will get.. but I don't think it's far out of reach. heh