Payback 2020 Roman is The Guy

[KawadaSmile]

I hope he stacks both guys and pins them at the same time.

[cactus]

Looking forward to seeing Le Gros Chein finally getting his title back. Hope he changes his gear and music. 

I still think having two PPVs a week apart is dumb, but there's a lot on the card to get excited for. Big E vs Sheamus should be a fun hoss fight and I'm looking forward to seeing the eventual Banks/Bayley turn. 

[El-P]

2 minutes ago, cactus said:

Looking forward to seeing Le Gros Chein

That would be Chien.

And it does sound like an insult in French. "Quel gros chien ce Roman !" (What a bastard that Roman is!)

[SirEdger]

Would be worse if it was "Quel chien sale, ce Roman!" (What a dirty bastard that Roman is!)

[NintendoLogic]

Have Roman win and then beat the shit out of Otis when he tries to cash in. Kill two birds with one stone.

[WingedEagle]

Pretty solid lineup for a Sunday night, but it'll be relegated to the second screen once Jazz/Nuggs tips off.  

[El-P]

50 minutes ago, SirEdger said:

Would be worse if it was "Quel chien sale, ce Roman!" (What a dirty bastard that Roman is!)

Ah ah ! But at least, Dirty Dog Roman Reigns sounds actually like a decent pro-wrester name.

[NintendoLogic]

The key question is whether Kenny Omega will return to the THUNDERDOME.

 

[KawadaSmile]

3 hours ago, El-P said:

That would be Chien.

And it does sound like an insult in French. "Quel gros chien ce Roman !" (What a bastard that Roman is!)

Considering how he's allies with the ultimate bastard Heyman, it's a good nickname!!

[Robert S]

2 hours ago, SirEdger said:

Would be worse if it was "Quel chien sale, ce Roman!" (What a dirty bastard that Roman is!)

Ils sontest fous, ces Romain.

[SirEdger]

You don't see it right now, but I'm giving you a standing ovation for that!

[Coffey]

On paper, this looks pretty solid. I don't really follow the weekly TV anymore but I do hope they get the title on Roman.

Big E Vs Sheamus should be good but I feel I am higher on Sheamus than a lot of others.

[El-P]

57 minutes ago, Robert S said:

Ils sontest fous, ces Romain.

Wunderbar.

[DMJ]

Anyone else have the sneaking suspicion that for some reason, against all logic, Roman Reigns does not leave with the title tonight?

 

Aside from that, I did want to pose a question to the group - What's the deal with this Payback experiment? I have my theories -

1) Ratings have plummeted, but there remains a noticeable "post-PPV bump." The audience, even the diehards, have been trained to believe that the weekly TV is mostly filler, inessential viewing. Maybe the theory is that if you increase PPVs (or Network specials or whatever you call them), you can re-train the audience to care about the weekly TV? 

2) Boosting Network subscriptions? If PPVs are the #1 viewed programs on the Network, then there's reason to believe that having more PPVs/Network specials would increase subscriptions.

3) As far as I know, the announcement of Payback airing a week after SummerSlam occurred in late July/early August. Could this actually be a way the company is gauging Roman Reigns' drawing power? The SummerSlam name is established and all, but this show is clearly being built, even rapidly, about the in-ring return of Roman Reigns. When they learned Roman was coming back, did they hotshot this show as a way to see what kind of numbers he'd draw?

4) Speaking of "rapidly," the WWE model has been, for two decades now, build a show for 20-30 days (and before that, they'd build up shows for MONTHS). But its 2020. Do you need 20-30 days to sell a PPV or could you, theoretically, build a show in 7 days time based on 1 big match and some filler? I mean, with social media and Twitter and all that, maybe the smart move is to strike when the iron is at its hottest? Roman Reigns returned on Sunday and now, 7 days later, we get his return match! That is some very fast turnaround. Maybe this is a way the company is testing a concept of having an immediate, rapid response to a major angle getting over? 

 

Clearly, they have nothing to lose. They could ostensibly do one of these every weekend until football season starts (?). There are really no rules right now in terms of their production schedule. I'm curious, though, what does everyone else think about this show. Why are they doing it? What is the rationale? What are they aiming to measure? Or was it just a scheduling error?

 

[NintendoLogic]

20 minutes ago, Coffey said:

On paper, this looks pretty solid.

Couldn't disagree with you more, bubba. This card has a Fiend match, a Corbin match, a Nia Jax match, and an IIconics match. There's no excuse for any of them having PPV time in 2020, let alone all four. The intrigue surrounding Roman could very well be the only thing saving this from all-time dumpster fire status.

8 minutes ago, DMJ said:

Clearly, they have nothing to lose. They could ostensibly do one of these every weekend until football season starts (?). There are really no rules right now in terms of their production schedule. I'm curious, though, what does everyone else think about this show. Why are they doing it? What is the rationale? What are they aiming to measure? Or was it just a scheduling error?

Most likely they're trying to induce PPV fatigue to hurt the buyrate for All Out on Saturday. Deliberately burning out the market is a longtime WWE predatory business practice.

[sek69]

The Thunderdome seems to have buoyed the ratings back up to somewhat respectable levels again now that Raw and Smackdown kinda look like actual WWE shows rather than bunch of matches in a gym somewhere. 

As far as ratings bumps go, audiences have been trained to watch the Raw after one of the Big 4 shows as WWE usually kicks off new programs then. It was kind of interesting to see that still happen even in the Pandemic Era, but I suppose that just goes to show fans realize WWE is so ingrained in how they do things it would still be worth tuning in for. 

[Coffey]

6 minutes ago, NintendoLogic said:

Couldn't disagree with you more, bubba. This card has a Fiend match, a Corbin match, a Nia Jax match, and an IIconics match. There's no excuse for any of them having PPV time in 2020, let alone all four. The intrigue surrounding Roman could very well be the only thing saving this from all-time dumpster fire status.

Hey, that's valid. I wasn't really looking at it like that, though. I was looking at it as they could crown Roman on top & get away from Fiend/Braun. Get to see Dominik team with his dad which is pretty cool. Big E Vs. Sheamus I'm excited for. See where they go with Keith Lee as getting positioned against Orton seems like a big deal. Plus I see WWE giving people of color a lot of opportunities lately which I'm here for. 

[SirEdger]

8 minutes ago, NintendoLogic said:

Couldn't disagree with you more, bubba. This card has a Fiend match, a Corbin match, a Nia Jax match, and an IIconics match. There's no excuse for any of them having PPV time in 2020, let alone all four. The intrigue surrounding Roman could very well be the only thing saving this from all-time dumpster fire status.

Most likely they're trying to induce PPV fatigue to hurt the buyrate for All Out on Saturday. Deliberately burning out the market is a longtime WWE predatory business practice.

Oh yeah, it's definitely a tactic to discourage fans from buying All Out next weekend. WWE did this as early as their first Survivor Series event in 87 as they scheduled it very close from Starrcade 87, if I remember correctly. Personally, I believe they're wasting their time because the core AEW fans won't be watching Payback anyway tonight.

[sek69]

Plus no one is buying WWE shows as PPVs, only as Network subs these days. 

 

(Yes I realize there are a small amount of people who actually do buy WWE shows on PPV, but statistically it's too small of a number to matter anymore). 

[DMJ]

Yeah, I don't think they did this to counter-program All Out.

I mean, if they wanted to, they could do this show on the same night as All Out, right?

 

[sek69]

1 minute ago, DMJ said:

Yeah, I don't think they did this to counter-program All Out.

I mean, if they wanted to, they could do this show on the same night as All Out, right?

 

Yes, like how they just so happened to put the Evolve 10th Anniversary show up against the charity show AEW was doing. Completely coincidental according to Papa H. 

[KawadaSmile]

Wasn't the Evolve show scheduled before the AEW one, though?

The notion of a Sunday show counter programming one that took place on Saturday is insane, specially under the guise of "ppv fatigue". But hey, convince yourselves about that. 

[KawadaSmile]

JBL advocating that Big E could be a clown and still would be a huge star as a main eventer is not something I would've predicted.

Even moreso when he said "Booker, you did the spinaroonie and was 5-time champ"

[NintendoLogic]

8 minutes ago, KawadaSmile said:

Wasn't the Evolve show scheduled before the AEW one, though?

The notion of a Sunday show counter programming one that took place on Saturday is insane, specially under the guise of "ppv fatigue". But hey, convince yourselves about that. 

EDIT: this came across as more dickish than I intended, disregard

[sek69]

Interesting, they played part of the Big E/Miz exchange from Talking Smack on the Kickoff show, albeit with as little of the racial context as possible. Basically just with the suggestion that Miz felt E needs to be more serious to be a main eventer and E said being who he is got him this far and he won't change now. The surprising part is Booker T agreed with Miz and JBL and Rosenberg agreed with E.  How can Booker honestly believe Big E would need to change what he does to be a main eventer when (as JBL immediately pointed out) he was doing Spinaroonies while being world champion.  Booker made himself look like a boot licking clown there.