Is the empire crumbling before our eyes?

[strobogo]

The mustache thing is definitely weird as hell as Vince has been on TV for roughly 50 years and has never even had a hint of stubble.

[NotJayTabb]

I can't see Vince's moustache without thinking of Bobby Peru from Wild At Heart.

[Embrodak]

What's especially weird is that there was a fake pic of the supposedly mustachioed Vince floating around a few weeks ago, and everyone roasted it and said it looked stupid and then got scolded for falling for a fake, and his actual mustache is not just exponentially but logarithmically worse than the one in the fake pic. The most stilted, fastidious man on the planet disappears for 10 months and then reappears looking like a Madame Tussaud's Caesar Romero statue that got left in the sun for a few hours.

[brockobama]

Need this mathematical chart of potential mustache ratings for Vince

[CurtainJerker]

I think we need a new thread title: "is PWO crumbling before our eyes?"

 

[Alucard]

Next month's King and Queen of the Ring in Saudi Arabia has been changed now to Night of Champions.

[SirEdger]

Saudis went like "Nah, we can't have Queens here."

[sek69]

As someone who grew up on Looney Tunes, this was the first thing I thought of when I saw Vince's new look:

 

[Embrodak]

Also the guy who goes yeeeeeesssss on The Simpsons.

[Champagne]

22 hours ago, SirEdger said:

Saudis went like "Nah, we can't have Queens here."

Roman's reign reaches 1000 days on the same day as the Saudi event. It's likely WWE is shifting the focus to a big title match to celebrate the occasion and will run the two tournaments another time. Maybe at the next Saudi show?

[KawadaSmile]

 

Maybe three years too late, but better than never

[Jmare007]

So it seems Cody losing didn't really affect much of anything, business wise.

Ratings continue to be strong too.

[MoS]

Business usually takes months to get affected by booking debacles (or reflect excellent booking too for that matter, like with the nWo and Austin's rise). WCW was never hotter than it was in 1998, despite the ending of Starrcade 1997 and how they later botched Goldberg's title run. in 1998 itself. The only exception I can think of in modern wrestling is Austin's heel turn, but Cody losing isn't anywhere close to it - as Meltz put it in a rather mean way, none of these guys are Austin. 

WWE has been on an extremely hot run the last year or so, that's not going to change anytime soon. 

 

[rovert]

22 minutes ago, MoS said:

Business usually takes months to get affected by booking debacles (or reflect excellent booking too for that matter, like with the nWo and Austin's rise). WCW was never hotter than it was in 1998, despite the ending of Starrcade 1997 and how they later botched Goldberg's title run. in 1998 itself. The only exception I can think of in modern wrestling is Austin's heel turn, but Cody losing isn't anywhere close to it - as Meltz put it in a rather mean way, none of these guys are Austin. 

WWE has been on an extremely hot run the last year or so, that's not going to change anytime soon. 

 

Yep and there's market specific pent up demand things like not running Belfast in 4 years and San Juan in 2 years.

[brockobama]

Along with that I'd reiterate something I said a page or two back, which is that anybody left watching WWE at this point is likely in too deep to get shaken off by something as trivial as booking. These rats are going down with the ship.

[NintendoLogic]

It is exceedingly rare for business to immediately fall off a cliff due to bad booking. Even the Fingerpoke of Doom was followed by Superbrawl IX, which did the third-highest buyrate in WCW history. Also, most if not all of the tickets for those events were sold prior to Mania.

[Strummer]

Yeah the only example I can think of as mentioned was Austin's heel turn in 2001,which saw ratings almost immediately plummet. Although they still did strong business that year because of the momentum. Things went way down 2002-2004.

[Jmare007]

If business starts to go down in 2024, I'm not sure we can attribute it to Cody losing at this year's Mania though. I read a lot about it being a point of inflection and I think that will happen later, when WWE shows if they could make the wait worth it (which they haven't done in I don't remember how long, maybe ever?).

[MLB]

With the Endeavor deal completed, how much do you guys think Conor McGregor could impact WWE? We will likely see Colby, Izzy and some others show up at some point, or maybe a hybrid show with Ronda, Brock, Riddle, etc.? 

[strobogo]

2 hours ago, brockobama said:

Along with that I'd reiterate something I said a page or two back, which is that anybody left watching WWE at this point is likely in too deep to get shaken off by something as trivial as booking. These rats are going down with the ship.

Doing legit sell outs for house shows all around the country and stadiums internationally would suggest rats are jumping on the ship instead of going down with it.

[KawadaSmile]

6 hours ago, MLB said:

With the Endeavor deal completed, how much do you guys think Conor McGregor could impact WWE? We will likely see Colby, Izzy and some others show up at some point, or maybe a hybrid show with Ronda, Brock, Riddle, etc.? 

I doubt there will be much of a crossover, moreso because most of the big UFC names are way too deep into shady shit - McGregor and Jon Jones being prime examples - and they don't have the benefit of being bilionaires to cover their tracks. 

Plus, imagine Dana having to stiff arm his fighters after they get a decent pay day on RAW or any given PLE just to take a few bumps? I don't think UFC and WWE will cross paths any time soon.

[MLB]

1 hour ago, KawadaSmile said:

I doubt there will be much of a crossover, moreso because most of the big UFC names are way too deep into shady shit - McGregor and Jon Jones being prime examples - and they don't have the benefit of being bilionaires to cover their tracks. 

Riddle's shady and got into some hot water, they seem to be dealing with it. Ronda's a headache for them, too.

[Embrodak]

I think there will be smartly deployed crossover.

[brockobama]

13 hours ago, strobogo said:

Doing legit sell outs for house shows all around the country and stadiums internationally would suggest rats are jumping on the ship instead of going down with it.

Too many rats on board will sink a ship as much as anything. Boat can only handle so much weight.

Gonna start a new thread, "is the empire TOO successful before our eyes?"

[flyonthewall2983]

With Disney suing Ron DeSantis now, I wonder if him making WWE an “essential” business during the pandemic will be brought up if the case goes to court