sporadic Posted January 28, 2015 Report Share Posted January 28, 2015 One of the really interesting things about this podcast era we're in is getting to hear thoughts from guys like Austin... and finding out that they happen to agree with the "internet nerds" quite frequently. Makes it feel less like we're a vocal minority. 20 years ago, yeah I guess you could qualify us as being a vocal minority wherever you frequented (RSPW, AOL Squared Circle, Prodigy). The thing is though the vocal minority really helped the business change 20 years ago during the Monday Night War era as fans got smarter and kayfabe wasn't working anymore. The rise of ECW back in the days should've been a tip-off that something was up. The fans help make guys like Austin, Rock, Foley, etc more so than Vince did Austin - to me at least - gets it, The Rock gets it, Foley gets it, and others but Vince just doesn't seem to understand the social dynamics of how information is shared now vice 20 years ago. Hence why when his ideas get nuked by the crowds he resorts to trying to troll his audience to teach them a lesson so to speak. The issue though is when they troll all it does it continue to build in the mindset of fans the idea that they're not valued as a consumer. Vince has to be one of the few guys I can think of off-hand that will intentionally piss his consumer base off time and time again just because he thinks he can without repercussions but it shows up in his stock valuation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S.L.L. Posted January 28, 2015 Report Share Posted January 28, 2015 If WWE hitting 1 million subscribers means they can keep Brock, no way should he lose at Wrestlemania. He should have a total dynasty run until they find their next super duper megastar. So he should never lose it because they won't let anyone become the next super duper megastar, or he should lose it at Mania because Reigns has been deemed the next super duper mega star whether he actually is or not? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Chief Posted January 28, 2015 Report Share Posted January 28, 2015 Does anyone remember the commercials WWE aired last year about thanking their fans? They ran down a bunch of stats like 50,000 feet of cables, 10 production trucks, 25 cases of pyrotechnics, etc. "But we can't do any of it without YOU." These aired right after WrestleMania and Daniel Bryan was HEAVILY featured in them. They definitely had some "see, we DO listen" undertones. They stopped airing a couple months after Mania. I think it's funny that right now of all times they just started popping up again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Dog Posted January 28, 2015 Report Share Posted January 28, 2015 I was lucky enough to get two tickets to the NXT Columbus show. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sporadic Posted January 28, 2015 Report Share Posted January 28, 2015 If you haven't checked out the Sam Watson podcast definitely check this week's episode out. His interview with Reigns is nothing but Reigns unintentionally chumming the waters... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russellmania Posted January 28, 2015 Report Share Posted January 28, 2015 One of the really interesting things about this podcast era we're in is getting to hear thoughts from guys like Austin... and finding out that they happen to agree with the "internet nerds" quite frequently. Makes it feel less like we're a vocal minority. 20 years ago, yeah I guess you could qualify us as being a vocal minority wherever you frequented (RSPW, AOL Squared Circle, Prodigy). The thing is though the vocal minority really helped the business change 20 years ago during the Monday Night War era as fans got smarter and kayfabe wasn't working anymore. The rise of ECW back in the days should've been a tip-off that something was up. The fans help make guys like Austin, Rock, Foley, etc more so than Vince did Austin - to me at least - gets it, The Rock gets it, Foley gets it, and others but Vince just doesn't seem to understand the social dynamics of how information is shared now vice 20 years ago. Hence why when his ideas get nuked by the crowds he resorts to trying to troll his audience to teach them a lesson so to speak. The issue though is when they troll all it does it continue to build in the mindset of fans the idea that they're not valued as a consumer. Vince has to be one of the few guys I can think of off-hand that will intentionally piss his consumer base off time and time again just because he thinks he can without repercussions but it shows up in his stock valuation. the problem is that by and large, Vince is right. People will keep coming back. I mean look at this forum. People were super butthurt after the Rumble and yet we already have people talking about future booking and WM plans. We don't have the numbers on how many actually cancelled the Network this week, but I suspect they're not so significant as to affect WWE's plans and a lot of the people who were super pissed off on Sunday will almost certainly be paying $9.99 to watch Wrestlemania anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pol Posted January 28, 2015 Report Share Posted January 28, 2015 If it were true that people always come back RAW would still be doing 4.0-5.0 ratings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goc Posted January 28, 2015 Report Share Posted January 28, 2015 Get over the ratings points and look at VIEWERSHIP NUMBERS and you'll see there really is not the massive drop off in viewers from better times. They still average over 4 million people watching Raw every single week. Nothing does the same in the ratings that it did 15 years ago, including prime time network TV because the television audience is much larger and more fragmented than it was in 98-99. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted January 28, 2015 Report Share Posted January 28, 2015 Is the Thursday show from Hartford going to be branded as a RAW or Smackdown? I need to know for DVR purposes as I want to watch this event for sure. Actually, Hartford is only 90 minutes away...hmmmmmmmmmm...are they sticking to the 8pm-10pm schedule? I may just go now! My understanding is that the show will be Smackdown but what takes place will be what they had planned for Monday's Raw. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fantastic Posted January 28, 2015 Report Share Posted January 28, 2015 I have a feeling we're going to get Rock vs Brock at 32 if Brock re-signs with WWE. In fact, I could see it going down with Reigns defeating Lesnar for the title, only to be attacked by Lesnar following the decision. This would prompt Rock to appear and lead to a tense stare down, hell maybe Rock get physical with Lesnar. Icing on the cake? Rollins cashes in on Reigns as he recovers and Rock and Brock are held up being separated by security. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iamthedoctor Posted January 28, 2015 Report Share Posted January 28, 2015 If WWE hitting 1 million subscribers means they can keep Brock, no way should he lose at Wrestlemania. He should have a total dynasty run until they find their next super duper megastar. So he should never lose it because they won't let anyone become the next super duper megastar, or he should lose it at Mania because Reigns has been deemed the next super duper mega star whether he actually is or not? Brock has to lose at Wrestlemania. We need to see the WWE Championship defended alot more on TV. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goodear Posted January 29, 2015 Report Share Posted January 29, 2015 I don't know that the title needs to be defended more on TV but the champion needs to at least be a presence rather than have him just be gone for month-long stretches. Even if Brock just did sit down interviews or Paul was around more often to promo for the guy, things would have a clearer direction. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kaufman316 Posted January 29, 2015 Report Share Posted January 29, 2015 (edited) I don't know that the title needs to be defended more on TV but the champion needs to at least be a presence rather than have him just be gone for month-long stretches. Even if Brock just did sit down interviews or Paul was around more often to promo for the guy, things would have a clearer direction. The champ not defending more than 1-3 times a year works in other sports, and for that matter Hollywood Hogan was still an attraction in 1997 WCW (albeit backed by a hot product and a deep roster). BUT he still made TVs and was heavily involved in storylines, and cut lots and lots of promos. He wasn't AWOL by any means (if anything he was overexposed at times). Edited January 29, 2015 by kaufman316 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NintendoLogic Posted January 29, 2015 Report Share Posted January 29, 2015 Brock not being on wouldn't have been a problem if his presence still loomed large over the show. Instead, they went out of their way to avoid mentioning him, which completely destroyed the internal logic of the show. If there's no championship to contend for, what was everyone fighting for? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smelly McUgly Posted January 29, 2015 Report Share Posted January 29, 2015 Brock not being on wouldn't have been a problem if his presence still loomed large over the show. Instead, they went out of their way to avoid mentioning him, which completely destroyed the internal logic of the show. If there's no championship to contend for, what was everyone fighting for? "To steal the show" and "to entertain the WWE Universe," which are pushed as secondary (and in some cases, primary) reasons for fighting within the logic of the WWE's shows. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jmare007 Posted January 29, 2015 Report Share Posted January 29, 2015 Found this was interesting - WWE had 20 men and 20 women at their Performance Center tryouts last week. Indie star Biff Busick was the biggest name at the camp but Tessa Blanchard, daughter of WWE Hall of Famer Tully Blanchard, was also there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted January 29, 2015 Report Share Posted January 29, 2015 So, this year's Mania is not Wrestlemania 31. It's just Wrestlemania. No numbers anymore. Blah. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coffey Posted January 29, 2015 Report Share Posted January 29, 2015 Brock has to lose at Wrestlemania. We need to see the WWE Championship defended alot more on TV. Why? It's not like the belt is changing on free TV. Nor should they act like it is going to. Paying to see title fights should be expected, in my opinion. Part of what devalued the titles, at least to me, was WCW & WWF giving away a bunch of stuff for free during the Monday Night Wars because they cared more about winning the ratings in a week instead of keeping their product strong. I agree that Brock was not around enough last year to be WWE Champion. He should have been, at the very least, at every other PPV. But I like him showing up sporadically, as it makes him feel like a bigger deal. If he was there every Monday to wrestle & the belt was with him each week, he would feel like everyone else on the roster: stagnant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iamthedoctor Posted January 29, 2015 Report Share Posted January 29, 2015 Brock has to lose at Wrestlemania. We need to see the WWE Championship defended alot more on TV. Why? It's not like the belt is changing on free TV. Nor should they act like it is going to. Paying to see title fights should be expected, in my opinion. Part of what devalued the titles, at least to me, was WCW & WWF giving away a bunch of stuff for free during the Monday Night Wars because they cared more about winning the ratings in a week instead of keeping their product strong. I agree that Brock was not around enough last year to be WWE Champion. He should have been, at the very least, at every other PPV. But I like him showing up sporadically, as it makes him feel like a bigger deal. If he was there every Monday to wrestle & the belt was with him each week, he would feel like everyone else on the roster: stagnant. When I said on TV I did mean on PPV. That is important to see the title defended at each Months show. This is probably the first time in history the title hasent been defended regulary. But just flat out not mentioning Brock on TV isnt good either. I know people moan about Cena holding the belt but if he had been given the belt at NOC we would have had regular title defenses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strummer Posted January 29, 2015 Report Share Posted January 29, 2015 Saw this on one of the omg newz! sites so yeah but Vince might be involved in the sting/hunter build in a power struggle angle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grimmas Posted January 29, 2015 Report Share Posted January 29, 2015 Brock has to lose at Wrestlemania. We need to see the WWE Championship defended alot more on TV. Why? It's not like the belt is changing on free TV. Nor should they act like it is going to. Paying to see title fights should be expected, in my opinion. Part of what devalued the titles, at least to me, was WCW & WWF giving away a bunch of stuff for free during the Monday Night Wars because they cared more about winning the ratings in a week instead of keeping their product strong. I agree that Brock was not around enough last year to be WWE Champion. He should have been, at the very least, at every other PPV. But I like him showing up sporadically, as it makes him feel like a bigger deal. If he was there every Monday to wrestle & the belt was with him each week, he would feel like everyone else on the roster: stagnant. When I said on TV I did mean on PPV. That is important to see the title defended at each Months show. This is probably the first time in history the title hasent been defended regulary. But just flat out not mentioning Brock on TV isnt good either. I know people moan about Cena holding the belt but if he had been given the belt at NOC we would have had regular title defenses. During the height of wrestling's popularity in the late 1990's Hulk Hogan barely defended the title in WCW. Also, having Brock lose the title to Cena after a month's reign would be the stupidest booking ever. The streak ends, SummerSlam has this crazy squash booking and then Brock loses the title int he rematch? Seriously? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sporadic Posted January 29, 2015 Report Share Posted January 29, 2015 Saw this on one of the omg newz! sites so yeah but Vince might be involved in the sting/hunter build in a power struggle angle Why is it the first thought in my mind the angle playing out with Vince doing a double cross on Sting at WM and burying WCW once and for all by having him put Trips over? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sporadic Posted January 29, 2015 Report Share Posted January 29, 2015 During the height of wrestling's popularity in the late 1990's Hulk Hogan barely defended the title in WCW. WCW really didn't have to have Hogan defending the title because the main focus for a while was what side was Sting on which then shifted to WHEN Sting was going to avenge WCW. Back then it seemed like the booking - while hotshotting - did have some long term focus in mind. I don't think anyone gets that feeling from Vince these days at all. Whatever way the wind blows each week is how things are going to play out. Granted, Punk leaving and Bryan's injury killed a lot of things that could've been done. That said the fact remains that long term planning for challengers to Lesnar just hasn't existed based on how they've booked everyone on the roster as a whole. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheapshot Posted January 29, 2015 Report Share Posted January 29, 2015 So, this year's Mania is not Wrestlemania 31. It's just Wrestlemania. No numbers anymore. Blah. In the press release announcing the free month on the network they referred to it as WrestleMania 31. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strummer Posted January 30, 2015 Report Share Posted January 30, 2015 Hunter is cutting a Total babyface promo on SD. What the hell is going on? Reigns being booed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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