jdw Posted April 16, 2015 Report Share Posted April 16, 2015 Zach isn't a big wrestling fan either, as Simmons pointed out in a recent podcast they did together when Bill was going off on a wrestling analogy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cross Face Chicken Wing Posted April 16, 2015 Report Share Posted April 16, 2015 And then today, Zach Lowe drops a Jerry Lawler "pulling down the strap" reference in his 35 things to like and dislike about the NBA season column: http://grantland.com/the-triangle/the-supersize-nba-season-ending-things-i-like-and-dont-like/ Have to say, of all of the places I expect to read a Jerry Lawler reference out there, Zach Lowe's column would have ranked at or near the bottom of that list. The Memphis wrestling night at a Grizzlies game this season probably caught Zach's attention, hence the Lawler reference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timbo Slice Posted April 30, 2015 Report Share Posted April 30, 2015 http://grantland.com/the-triangle/the-second-annual-pro-wrestling-draft-board/ BRAY WYATT AT #2!!!! Because reasons. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zoo Enthusiast Posted April 30, 2015 Report Share Posted April 30, 2015 Rollins is the top guy in the business? EDIT: I don't know why I scrolled down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricky Jackson Posted May 1, 2015 Report Share Posted May 1, 2015 That is one of the worst things ever written, wrestling or otherwise Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DR Ackermann Posted May 1, 2015 Report Share Posted May 1, 2015 "Look, Mic Skills, Wrestling Ability hes about as high as a wrestler can get this side of peak Ric Flair." Yep that's Seth Rollins in a nutshell. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Chief Posted May 3, 2015 Report Share Posted May 3, 2015 Embarrassing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
...TG Posted May 8, 2015 Report Share Posted May 8, 2015 Bill Simmons is out at ESPN when his contract is up in September. With Michelle Beadle publicly disassociating herself from WWE, that's two big pro-wrestling voices gone from ESPN. If Grantland continues as it exists now, I'm sure Shoemaker's column will run, but I'd imagine this means much, much less mainstream ESPN WWE coverage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jesse Ewiak Posted May 8, 2015 Report Share Posted May 8, 2015 Oddly, I wouldn't be surprised if Grantland, in it's current state is gone within a year. It's likely that Simmon's columns drawing views and power at ESPN was the only thing keeping it up from being ESPNized and absorbed into Buzzfeed-style clickbait. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdw Posted May 13, 2015 Report Share Posted May 13, 2015 Agreed that Simmons, especially his podcasts, were the things drawing. They likely paid good money to the writers they lifted from elsewhere, which as revenue declines makes it harder to sustain. On the other hand... ESPN does role out some things that appear to not be big draws and are likely money losers. I doubt Outside The Lines makes money given its time slot, and that Bob Ley would be at the second tier of host salaries at ESPN - behind Boomer, (formerly) Fowler, and now SVP and probably a few others, but probably not behind too many more. OTL is in a dead viewing hour for watching: people work when it's on. They could pawn off the costs of Ley since he does other stuff, but it OTL is one of his more consistent job with the company. E:60 probably doesn't make any money of note. Again, they can pawn off a lot of costs because many people working it do other things. But it's also small potatoes in the company. ESPN likes a few things like that as it gives the company some cred beyond the general whorehouse nature of the network where they just sell themselves left and right to the sports they carry. Grantland has a chance to survive in that since if it stays "relevant" on some level, and perhaps at some reduced costs. Some of the idiot writers doing marginal numbers get bounced. Podcasts that don't do numbers get tossed. They narrow the focus to a core writer or two per sport, they look to continue some Long Form Writing that gets attention, they look to get slightly more prolific on minor update content (i.e. clickbate on stuff happening Right Now!!! during a day), etc. We need to remember that ESPN has employed Rick Reilly for about seven years in an overpaid role that draws the company next to nothing other than the "prestige" of having an 11 time "National Sportswriter of the Year" on their roster... or at least prestige in someone's mind there as very few people have given a shit about Reilly in his time with ESPN. The other thing they can do with Grantland is simply roll the writers who are "keepers" like Lowe and Barnwell into ESPN.com. They already had "analysts" like Hollinger for years. One suspects that people in ESPN value Lowe, who tends to get name dropped around basketball circles more than more writers at his level. * * * * * Masked Man is probably fucked. There isn't likely a role for him at ESPN.com. Page 2 is dead. ESPN generally doesn't give a shit about pro wrestling, despite any number of SportsCenter host dropping WWF/WWE references from time-to-time. Perhaps he draws clicks at a higher rate than their paying him, which is possible since it seems likely he's officially on the full-time payroll. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cross Face Chicken Wing Posted August 6, 2015 Report Share Posted August 6, 2015 Let's see if we can get Deitsch to ask the Masked Man some actual question instead of the usual fluff about what it's like to write about wrestling. IT MUST BE SO COOOOL!!!! https://twitter.com/richarddeitsch/status/629082289310404608 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdw Posted September 10, 2015 Report Share Posted September 10, 2015 http://grantland.com/features/why-wrestling-matters-wwe-vince-mcmahon-mainstream-attention-brock-lesnar-the-rock-jon-stewart People who cover the business sure get hard ons about wrestling being "mainstream". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Sorrow Posted September 10, 2015 Report Share Posted September 10, 2015 http://grantland.com/features/why-wrestling-matters-wwe-vince-mcmahon-mainstream-attention-brock-lesnar-the-rock-jon-stewart People who cover the business sure get hard ons about wrestling being "mainstream". That was a great article. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdw Posted October 30, 2015 Report Share Posted October 30, 2015 http://deadspin.com/espn-has-killed-grantland-1739659651 Not a surprise, but handled in brutal fashion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Childs Posted October 30, 2015 Report Share Posted October 30, 2015 Yeah, it's been a total shit show since ESPN broke up with Simmons. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdw Posted October 30, 2015 Report Share Posted October 30, 2015 I'll miss the heck out of it. A number of writers that I came to read all the time, like Lowe and Wesley. Some that grew well in the job, like Barnwell. It was always a place I went to find some reading material for lunch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elliott Posted October 30, 2015 Report Share Posted October 30, 2015 Wow. What a bummer. I have literally no use for espn if I can't absorb Zach Lowe content. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jmare007 Posted October 30, 2015 Report Share Posted October 30, 2015 Sportswriters will work on ESPN.com and other platforms. Their contracts will be honored. I just hope Lowe isn't sent to Insider Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Childs Posted October 30, 2015 Report Share Posted October 30, 2015 I'll miss the heck out of it. A number of writers that I came to read all the time, like Lowe and Wesley. Some that grew well in the job, like Barnwell. It was always a place I went to find some reading material for lunch. Agreed. It was probably never a long-term sustainable enterprise, but I always appreciated that Simmons used his juice to create something legitimately interesting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timbo Slice Posted October 30, 2015 Report Share Posted October 30, 2015 Got to work with Grantland's Ben Lindbergh this summer with the Sonoma Stompers and he and Baseball Prospectus' Sam Miller are writing a book about their experiences running the baseball operations department. Lowe, Barnwell, Rembert, Jonah, the NBA Shootaround crew...they'll have their contracts honored but nobody's staying for long, I'd assume. Editorial at ESPN is gonna be nothing like what they had at Grantland. And who knows if they'll all just follow Bill to his venture. What's really interesting is a ton of those guys now have some name power to the point where they can be significant contributors, but we shall see. This is truly sad, though. Few websites out there really go after content like they did. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdw Posted October 31, 2015 Report Share Posted October 31, 2015 I'll miss the heck out of it. A number of writers that I came to read all the time, like Lowe and Wesley. Some that grew well in the job, like Barnwell. It was always a place I went to find some reading material for lunch. Agreed. It was probably never a long-term sustainable enterprise, but I always appreciated that Simmons used his juice to create something legitimately interesting. I think it might have been sustainable if ESPN knew how to monitize it. Perhaps not to massive "We need more staff!!!!" levels that Simmons wanted. But when people say Simmons annual income off the new podcast is $5M, and that Grantland's total income was $6M a year... you know that ESPN had no clue on how to make money off things like podcasting, or the other things the site did. I'm not saying that they could have made it a cash cow. But they likely could have done a better job on revenue, then create a reasonable budget for Simmons: "You make $X. The streams are A, B, C and D. There isn't massive revenue growth potential on A & B... that's just the way the advertising business is. However, we could make more off C & D if you're able to find people who generate more volume Y. Who can you grow into that by having them be more prolific, or who can we bring in whose balance of salary+revenue generation would merit it?" With say A & B being perhaps something around straight web based advertising, which remains an area that doesn't generate a ton of money and even upping the page views by a large amount isn't going to sake a revenue tree much. With C&D being something along the lines of podcasting, where more content and more listens with better use of advertising might shake the tree a good deal more, as seen in Simmons own podcast. John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Childs Posted October 31, 2015 Report Share Posted October 31, 2015 I agree with all that. I just get the sense that for ESPN, the project was principally about appeasing Simmons. That's a volatile base on which to build. And it became obvious, once he departed, that their hearts just weren't in it. So when I say unsustainable, I'm not really talking about economics. Even with looming concerns about rights fees, ESPN has more money than God. They can "sustain" whatever the hell they want to sustain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zoo Enthusiast Posted October 31, 2015 Report Share Posted October 31, 2015 If there's a silver lining, maybe Shoemaker will stop writing, or something. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kjh Posted October 31, 2015 Report Share Posted October 31, 2015 Shoemaker recently announced that he had signed an extension, so I'll guess he'll be sticking around as ESPN's token WWE reporter for now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cross Face Chicken Wing Posted November 1, 2015 Report Share Posted November 1, 2015 I enjoyed Grantland as well and will miss it. But I think by shuttering the site, ESPN is announcing that it's getting out of the pop culture business. No more reality TV fantasy leagues. No more features on indy bands and other hipster type of stuff. No more joining the legions of other sites that beat to death TV show recaps. No more Shoemaker and his wrestling-is-cool-in-an-ironic-way schtick (I hope?). Guys like Lowe, Keri and Barnwell (who I personally think is awful but is probably worth keeping if you're ESPN) who are well-respected and great at what they do should catch on somewhere within the Mothership if ESPN is smart (and that's a big if). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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