Greatest Royal Rumble?

[gordi]

MCG = Melbourne Cricket Grounds?

[Jimmy Redman]

Yep.

[Richeyedwards]

 

 

To be honest I just can't wait until WWE does the big MCG show in October and they pander to our government by airing Propaganda videos about their "progressive" asylum seeker policy and banning people from the country who don't adhere to our culture, i.e. getting pissed and singing "Horses".

are they actually doing that show then? if so i wonder how high the 'attendance' will be, but it will be ok Bix will find the real attendance for us in 30 years time.

Yeah confirmed, it's the week after the Grand Final in October.

 

MCG holds 100,000 for sport. They won't get that many, but I'd say shoot for 60-70 maybe.

 

For reference, Rousey vs Holm drew 56k.

 

MCG never really gets 100000 in there regularly anyway, I think this years ashes boxing day test got 88,000 on the first day which was for the supposed biggest game in Cricket was a good way away from a sellout.

[Tetsujin]

Terrible show. Fuck WWE, fuck Vince McMahon, and fuck Saudi Arabia. Hate this show and everything it represents.

 

 

 

It's a fucking shame that he felt he had to post that. Some assholes yell at him online that he's a "hypocrite " in this situation.

If you truly support LGBT, you don't go and perform in Saudi Arabia in front of the Royal Family who's idea of gay rights is "immorality, perversion and whiplashes". Or you do make a statement of sorts if you got the iron balls to do it. What message it sends to the LGBT in SA, really is : "Hey, I'm really supporting you, but I had to put smiles in the faces of people who consider you as sub-human beings and don't recognize your right to even exist.". It's better to say nothing at all really. I know it's probably not his reponsability anyway, but then again, you're not a robot either.

I understand and agree with you. But he's just a worker, he has no responsability of what he wears when he's on camera. If Vince says "don't wear this", there's nothing else you can do if you wanna keep working in WWE. It really, really sucks, but it's not Bálor's fault at all.

[Stiva]

Another real slog of a show from WWE. The work was all fine but man, halfway through the Rumble match, all I could think of was HHH/Cena and how it felt like it took place on a totally different show. My main takeaways from the Rumble match are that Braun/Bryan will be awesome if/when it happens, Elias is definitely on the right path to stardom and Randy Orton being strangely super over in Saudi Arabia is something I still can't wrap my head around.

[cm funk]

A lot to unpack in here and I don't want to go much into geo-politics

 

- I've seen some confusion around about why the crowd was distracted during Nak-AJ. That was when the Royals ETC were being led into the stadium to take their plush hard side cam seats. That was shitty to do that during Nak and AJ, the F'n WWE Title match. WWE cams were trying very hard to disguise the fact that that whole section was empty for most of the show, but the cameras caught it several times, and the announcers even addressed it at one point.

 

- AJ/Nak was very good, better than Mania, and I didn't hate the finish at all. Seems like a lot of people did. I really love Nak since the heel turn and F'n love his new banger theme

 

- Lashley hasn't been given anything to do yet really. Has he even had any real promo time? He's over, for sure, but they need to give him more to chew on. From what I saw of him in TNA he's gotten pretty awesome as a monster ass-kicker, and will be better as a heel. I think the stuff with Braun is the perfect setup for Braun winning the belt from Brock and setting up the Lashley we saw in TNA being unleashed

 

As far as spending money on WWE or whatever, and the moral outrage......I laugh at this tbh. On the scale of things this is very low on the moral outrage scale for me. That said, the scale is heavily tilted, I just don't have the energy to be upset about every fucking thing that happens, not only on this planet, but in my own country. I'm trying to get D's elected in the USA, I can't do shit about the House of Saud or a private company doing business with them. Our government does business with them. Trump's tabloid mag buddy who bought and killed stories about him published a pro-Saud magazine with direct Saud govt influence. There are bigger fishes to fry.

 

And I spend almost zero $ on the WWE product. I've bought two shirts in my entire life. I haven't gone to a live show in over 20 years. I've bought a couple video games. I've subscribed to the network, but only when it's "free" or on cheap deals. I watch, but not super regularly, and a lot of it online. I watch because I like wrestling and I like the wrestlers. As a company they are what we are, and we all know what they are and it is what is

 

Sorry for the rant

[cm funk]

Also, as far as Cena/HHH going on first......that's not an ego thing I don't think. Paul was going to be running the show backstage so it made sense that way, and Cena probably needed the first flight out to get back to whatever movie he's shooting or whatever

[hammerva]

I have to ask but would this have been considered a "terrible show" if they did the exact same matches and moves in England instead of Saudi Arabia? Again I agree it had a house show feel, the Rumble matches should be 40 instead of 50, and being at the country to begin with was awful but I still don't think the show itself was that bad. Arguments could be made that AJ vs Nakamura & Reigns vs Lesnar on this show was better or the same as WM. Even though the tag team matches weren't very good, at least the Bar was in a competitive match and the Usos wasn't in a complete squash. There wasn't a Rousey like match though that people will remember.

 

Almost like people worked themselves into a shoot with this "Greatest" bullshit

[Matt D]

I have to ask but would this have been considered a "terrible show" if they did the exact same matches and moves in England instead of Saudi Arabia?

 

Sure, because an annoying crowd trying to get itself over is worse than a mostly dead crowd that was really into the Undertaker.

[Fando]

Must have been a fun night in the truck trying to direct with this seating, arranged to keep the plebs as far away as possible from the royals

 

[El-P]

Ok, le's play WMIII attendance game with this picture. Ok, I can see no homosexual in this picture already. Now, on with the single women. That's zero too. Damn, this game is much easier than WM III already...

[SomethingSavage]

I was working yesterday and I work 12 hour shifts, so I missed the entire show live. I recorded it on my DVR, and was planning on watching it later. I was originally going to avoid spoilers, but I decided against that approach and checked out this thread. Based on the general opinions expressed in this thread (about the quality of the wrestling) I may give this show a pass. Sounds like the only good things I missed were Jinder Mahal taking a phantom bump and Titus deciding to try and slide into home plate, both of which are available in handy gif form.

 

Having checked this thread out, (and sadly...Twitter) I have to say I was mildly surprised at the level of moral outrage over this show. Some of you people sure do care a lot about...stuff. (Well, you care enough to complain about it on the internet at least.) I'm probably older than a lot of people here, and as a result I have probably become jaded. I personally don't really care all that much where they run shows, and obviously all Vince McMahon and WWE care about is money - so of course they had no issue doing this show. It made them a lot of money. I'm trying to come up with an example of a time Vince or his company did something "good" that wasn't about making money or portraying a positive public image for their company, and I can't think of one.

 

If the whole Moolah/Snickers debacle taught anybody anything, it's that if you can figure out a way to hit him in his wallet, he'll start caring about the "issue" very quickly. Otherwise, all the outrage seems to be wasted energy to me...but what do I know? If getting morally outraged over stuff like this makes you feel good, do your thing.

Absolutely agreed 100%.

 

I also work long shifts (12-16 hours at times), and I was checking my phone at work throughout the day & night Friday to see some of the feedback. I never had any intention of watching the full show, because priorities. And I don't have that kind of time to devote to wrestling. But I wanted to see what may be worthwhile for future cherry-picking purposes.

 

And yeah. I was blown away by some of the reactions. I get being a bit bothered by it, but come on. I've got no doubt that some folks feel offended, but some of this stuff is just too much.

 

It's an issue in all areas of discussion lately. It's like everyone is just outraged enough to be included in the conversation, but nobody's outraged enough to actually do much of anything. It's all so greatly exaggerated to such a wild degree.

 

SmackDown or NXT could run a hot angle this week, and everyone that expressed such strong outrage will suddenly be back on board with the company - logging into their Network and lining up for tickets to the next Takeover.

 

I mean, you can be offended but still keep it honest and level-headed.

 

None of it bothers me much though, so what do I know? I've stayed away from any political discussion, because that's not why I come here. But I will say this & leave it at that - this isn't a wrestling issue or a WWE policy issue. We live in a world where we collectively set a system in place that values profit over people. We value profit above all else. That is the the break in the system, and it's a universal issue spanning across all borders, all nations, and all currency. As long as that universal truth stands, shit like this will continue to happen. Period. Even if it's not WWE, you can bet someone else would step up to take the money.

 

Besides, if it bothers these people so much, then they'd stop supporting the company that takes the payday. But they won't. I mean, everybody's an activist until it inconveniences them or it means actually changing their own habits.

[Zoo Enthusiast]

 

I was working yesterday and I work 12 hour shifts, so I missed the entire show live. I recorded it on my DVR, and was planning on watching it later. I was originally going to avoid spoilers, but I decided against that approach and checked out this thread. Based on the general opinions expressed in this thread (about the quality of the wrestling) I may give this show a pass. Sounds like the only good things I missed were Jinder Mahal taking a phantom bump and Titus deciding to try and slide into home plate, both of which are available in handy gif form.

 

Having checked this thread out, (and sadly...Twitter) I have to say I was mildly surprised at the level of moral outrage over this show. Some of you people sure do care a lot about...stuff. (Well, you care enough to complain about it on the internet at least.) I'm probably older than a lot of people here, and as a result I have probably become jaded. I personally don't really care all that much where they run shows, and obviously all Vince McMahon and WWE care about is money - so of course they had no issue doing this show. It made them a lot of money. I'm trying to come up with an example of a time Vince or his company did something "good" that wasn't about making money or portraying a positive public image for their company, and I can't think of one.

 

If the whole Moolah/Snickers debacle taught anybody anything, it's that if you can figure out a way to hit him in his wallet, he'll start caring about the "issue" very quickly. Otherwise, all the outrage seems to be wasted energy to me...but what do I know? If getting morally outraged over stuff like this makes you feel good, do your thing.

Absolutely agreed 100%.

I also work long shifts (12-16 hours at times), and I was checking my phone at work throughout the day & night Friday to see some of the feedback. I never had any intention of watching the full show, because priorities. And I don't have that kind of time to devote to wrestling. But I wanted to see what may be worthwhile for future cherry-picking purposes.

And yeah. I was blown away by some of the reactions. I get being a bit bothered by it, but come on. I've got no doubt that some folks feel offended, but some of this stuff is just too much.

It's an issue in all areas of discussion lately. It's like everyone is just outraged enough to be included in the conversation, but nobody's outraged enough to actually do much of anything. It's all so greatly exaggerated to such a wild degree.

SmackDown or NXT could run a hot angle this week, and everyone that expressed such strong outrage will suddenly be back on board with the company - logging into their Network and lining up for tickets to the next Takeover.

I mean, you can be offended but still keep it honest and level-headed.

None of it bothers me much though, so what do I know? I've stayed away from any political discussion, because that's not why I come here. But I will say this & leave it at that - this isn't a wrestling issue or a WWE policy issue. We live in a world where we collectively set a system in place that values profit over people. We value profit above all else. That is the the break in the system, and it's a universal issue spanning across all borders, all nations, and all currency. As long as that universal truth stands, shit like this will continue to happen. Period. Even if it's not WWE, you can bet someone else would step up to take the money.

Bingo.

[Fando]

 

I was working yesterday and I work 12 hour shifts, so I missed the entire show live. I recorded it on my DVR, and was planning on watching it later. I was originally going to avoid spoilers, but I decided against that approach and checked out this thread. Based on the general opinions expressed in this thread (about the quality of the wrestling) I may give this show a pass. Sounds like the only good things I missed were Jinder Mahal taking a phantom bump and Titus deciding to try and slide into home plate, both of which are available in handy gif form.

 

Having checked this thread out, (and sadly...Twitter) I have to say I was mildly surprised at the level of moral outrage over this show. Some of you people sure do care a lot about...stuff. (Well, you care enough to complain about it on the internet at least.) I'm probably older than a lot of people here, and as a result I have probably become jaded. I personally don't really care all that much where they run shows, and obviously all Vince McMahon and WWE care about is money - so of course they had no issue doing this show. It made them a lot of money. I'm trying to come up with an example of a time Vince or his company did something "good" that wasn't about making money or portraying a positive public image for their company, and I can't think of one.

 

If the whole Moolah/Snickers debacle taught anybody anything, it's that if you can figure out a way to hit him in his wallet, he'll start caring about the "issue" very quickly. Otherwise, all the outrage seems to be wasted energy to me...but what do I know? If getting morally outraged over stuff like this makes you feel good, do your thing.

Absolutely agreed 100%.

 

I also work long shifts (12-16 hours at times), and I was checking my phone at work throughout the day & night Friday to see some of the feedback. I never had any intention of watching the full show, because priorities. And I don't have that kind of time to devote to wrestling. But I wanted to see what may be worthwhile for future cherry-picking purposes.

 

And yeah. I was blown away by some of the reactions. I get being a bit bothered by it, but come on. I've got no doubt that some folks feel offended, but some of this stuff is just too much.

 

 

I look at it as WWE undercutting their own propaganda after months and months of virtue signalling women's empowerment and claiming to be at the forefront of women's evolution "in the world." You can say people are naive, but WWE has been inundating their audience with this message for several years now so it's not surprising a lot of people that bought into it or wanted to believe it are actually angry and disappointed. It's hard to avoid a political discussion on this show when it was 100% political the moment the event started and commentary became a mouthpiece for the government.

[jiraffejustin]

Do we know the $$$ amount WWE made from this show?

[Log]

Do we know the $$$ amount WWE made from this show?

Somewhere in the neighborhood of a butt-load.

[sek69]

 

Do we know the $$$ amount WWE made from this show?

Somewhere in the neighborhood of a butt-load.

 

 

 

We'll know when the Q2 results come out in August, but yes it's probably at least a butt-load and possibly even a fuck-ton.

[The Thread Killer]

 

 

Do we know the $$$ amount WWE made from this show?

Somewhere in the neighborhood of a butt-load.

 

 

 

We'll know when the Q2 results come out in August, but yes it's probably at least a butt-load and possibly even a fuck-ton.

 

 

I'm not a mathematically inclined person, nor am I good with numbers - so I really don't appreciate Log and sek lording their fiscal knowledge over me by using all these technical terms that a layperson like myself can't understand. It's obvious they both have a better understanding than I of big finance, and they're using it to make me feel stupid. Elitists.

[Loss]

All I know is that Dave said based on just the big show itself, this is more profitable for WWE than Wrestlemania.

[The Thread Killer]

All I know is that Dave said based on just the big show itself, this is more profitable for WWE than Wrestlemania.

 

Seriously? I had no idea they were making that much money from this thing. If I am not mistaken, isn't Wrestlemania pretty much the financial cornerstone of their entire fiscal year? If this show made more than that...I guess we'd better get used to shows in Saudi Arabia.

[Zoo Enthusiast]

Get ready for the Greatest Survivor Series, folks: https://twitter.com/RiyadhReport/status/989909349769334784?s=20

 

The money faucet is wide open when it comes to Vision 2030.

[Loss]

 

All I know is that Dave said based on just the big show itself, this is more profitable for WWE than Wrestlemania.

 

Seriously? I had no idea they were making that much money from this thing. If I am not mistaken, isn't Wrestlemania pretty much the financial cornerstone of their entire fiscal year? If this show made more than that...I guess we'd better get used to shows in Saudi Arabia.

 

It may not mean THAT much, only because Wrestlemania has transitioned to loss leader status the last few years. It's more important to their bottom line not to scare away their shareholders with low network subscriber numbers, which is why they gave away WM for free this year. Still, I'm sure they are making off like bandits here.

[Mad Dog]

 

All I know is that Dave said based on just the big show itself, this is more profitable for WWE than Wrestlemania.

 

Seriously? I had no idea they were making that much money from this thing. If I am not mistaken, isn't Wrestlemania pretty much the financial cornerstone of their entire fiscal year? If this show made more than that...I guess we'd better get used to shows in Saudi Arabia.

 

 

Never underestimate how much money rich people will spend when they have more money than they know what to do with.

[sek69]

Can I suggest it's possible to be fully aware of the cynical nature of how money makes the world work (especially in wrestling), and still feel skeeved that WWE is so eagerly whoring themselves out to a brutal regieme?

 

I know I don't have clean hands either, hell nearly everyone I watched growing up as a kid either died from some combination of drugs or at least fucked themselves up from them. That didn't make me stop watching despite WWE not making any real attempts to clean their house until guys started dying on their watch. Vince even told Congress the Wellness Policy was just done as PR because the company was getting heat from all the wrestler deaths. The fact that it stemmed the tidal wave of bodies the business was facing was just a bonus. But in a way, we already knew that before he said a word. Anyone who's looked into the actual business end of wrestling even the smallest bit knows what a snake pit it is. There's always been a sliding scale of scummy and nasty that applied to wrestling, since there's such a history of appauling behavior that would never have flied in any other industry.

 

But still, there's something about this that seems different. To me at least. This isn't a promoter cheapening out the workers on a payday, or false advertising to their fans. It's really not even the no women thing to be honest, it's seeing a company that is for better or worse the industry leader in their field going full out Bagdad Bob on the pro Saudi propaganda making Jeddah out to be some kind of Disneyland in the desert, Especially when media darling Prince MBS was able to consolidate power by forcing the people he wanted out to resign under penalty of death. He may not be as into the theocracy part as much as the old guard, but his means are just as brutal.

 

I don't know, maybe that just makes me a "SJW cuck-lord" or whatever the current slur is for people who give a shit about anyone but themselves, but this just seems like a bridge too far. I didn't even watch the GRR to be honest. Beyond not wanting to sit through another five hour death march of a show, the constant shilling of KSA on WWE TV leading up to the show just left a bad taste in my mouth. Will I watch Raw tomorrow? Not gonna lie, I will. But if we're going to be in an era where Raw and SD are going to be full of pro Saudi propaganda for the next 10 years, I don't see sticking around for that.

 

It's going to be interesting to see what happens now. There's already a general sense of unease that WWE is in bed with this government, is all the money they are going to get from this going to be worth the potential bad PR? That's not even considering 10 years is a long time to have a deal with any country when we're seemingly one 3am tweet away from WW3 happening.

[KawadaSmile]

I doubt WWE makes that sort of move if USA-KSA relations weren't as good as they are, and to me the company doing that show is just a consequence of a much bigger issue.

 

Not that I don't understand people getting actually mad at the GRR or the forthcoming GSS, but I see it much more of a consequence of bigger issues than it being the issue itself.