Bix Posted November 20, 2008 Report Share Posted November 20, 2008 It started shipping Monday and I got it today. The packaging is an incredible effort almost on par w/ WWE's best: Haven't started watching yet, will later tonight. I wonder if there's any significance to the presence of a UPC number. I'm really curious as to how they're planning on not losing their ass here. Did the $100,000 also include discounted (down from $10,000) appearances on top of a $50,000 (the original asking price) interview? If not, how did the price double? Are they banking more on direct sales to fans or wholesale money to RF, ROH, etc? Will they eventually try to license it to Big Vision for retail distribution? I really don't see how this won't destroy (or at least severely hurt) them. I've always had good dealings with them so I'd hate to see their planned peak kill the company. ---------------------- Meanwhile, on eBay (here and also here, Highspots is selling...umm...just read it: A NIGHT OF LIVE WRESTLING ACTION VIP TREATMENT - LIMO RIDE & PARTY WITH RIC FLAIR! Plus $100 in Wrestling Merchandise! ITEM VALUE: PRICELESS! A once in a lifetime opportunity to not only meet "The Nature Boy", but also "style and profile" with the 16-Time World Heavyweight Champion, RIC FLAIR! The winning bid for this auction will win the following prize package: 1 VIP Front Row Ticket to the live wrestling event to be held on Saturday, December 6, 2008. Event is to be held at the Vance High School in Charlotte, NC. Scheduled main event for the night features Reid & David Flair with Ric Flair in their corner versus The Nasty Boys with Jimmy "Mouth of the South" Hart in their corner. Also scheduled, The Midnight Express, The Rock 'n' Roll Express, Goldust, and more! As a VIP, winner will also get at the event: * Photo Op with Ric Flair (3x5 color printed at event) * One item autographed by Ric Flair * Photo Op with The Nasty Boys with manager Jimmy "Mouth of the South" Hart * One item autographed by The Nasty Boys & Jimmy Hart * Photo Op with The Rock 'n' Roll Express and The Midnight Express $100 in Merchandise - Winner gets to select $100 in wrestling merchandise from the Highspots.com merchandise table at the event. Hotel Accomodations - Winner will receive hotel room in a Charlotte area hotel Limo Ride with Ric Flair - Winner will go on the town, in a limo with "Nature Boy" Ric Flair. You'll visit some of Charlotte's hottest night spots Saturday night and the limo will return you in the morning hours after you have legitimately gone "Styling and Profiling" in Charlotte with Ric Flair. Before contacting us, please read the following: Winner is responsbile for their own travel to and from the event in Charlotte, NC and arriving on time for VIP sessions with Ric Flair and other scheduled wrestlers at the event. We will contact winner with details on how to claim winning prizes after payment is received. Proper identification will be necessary to pick up prizes and participate at the event to be held December 6, 2008. Please be aware that paying with an e-check via PayPal will cause a delay in shipment as we must wait to be notified that the check cleared from PayPal. If after reading above listing infomation and the below shipping & payment infomation, you still have a question, please contact using the "Ask Seller a Question" feature under Seller Information. Please include your Auction Item Number, Ebay ID and your Mailing Address when sending in payment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted November 20, 2008 Report Share Posted November 20, 2008 I think they'll actually come out okay on all of this (if only barely), but I think they should have run this contest a little bit further back. Most people who have real jobs can't just take off time like that on short notice. The Flair/limo thing is interesting. I wonder if Charles Robinson entered the contest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted November 20, 2008 Report Share Posted November 20, 2008 Is Flair going to be doing a lot of wrestling radio interviews to promote this? Being interviewed by Dave and Bryan seems like a no-brainer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bix Posted November 20, 2008 Author Report Share Posted November 20, 2008 I think they'll actually come out okay on all of this (if only barely), but I think they should have run this contest a little bit further back. Most people who have real jobs can't just take off time like that on short notice.I'm curious as to how much one is allowed to associate with Flair outside the limo as it wasn't really clear. Is Flair going to be doing a lot of wrestling radio interviews to promote this? Being interviewed by Dave and Bryan seems like a no-brainer.My dad astutely noted that they should've tried to work out a royalty based deal (since as far as we know, the interview was the usual upfront payment that's standard for shoot interviews) so Flair would promote it like hell everywhere he went. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Sorrow Posted November 20, 2008 Report Share Posted November 20, 2008 How much is the shoot? The packaging does look great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rovert Posted November 20, 2008 Report Share Posted November 20, 2008 My dad astutely noted that they should've tried to work out a royalty based deal (since as far as we know, the interview was the usual upfront payment that's standard for shoot interviews) so Flair would promote it like hell everywhere he went. It is astute but Flair seems to be Mr. Money Upfront at the moment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bix Posted November 20, 2008 Author Report Share Posted November 20, 2008 How much is the shoot? The packaging does look great.$25 for the 3 disc version that's also sold by others, $30 for the 4 disc, Highspots exclusive, limited to 500 copies version. My dad astutely noted that they should've tried to work out a royalty based deal (since as far as we know, the interview was the usual upfront payment that's standard for shoot interviews) so Flair would promote it like hell everywhere he went. It is astute but Flair seems to be Mr. Money Upfront at the moment. Well, yes. Started watching with the non-chronological disc #4 and it's very good so far. They do mention that their deal included Flair's appearances for them, which explains the increase to $100,000. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WrestlingPower Posted November 20, 2008 Report Share Posted November 20, 2008 I got shipping notification overnight Mon so I hope it's here today when I get home. They could drive it to me in 5 hrs! Anyway, so is the $100,000 confirmed? At least by my very unscientific research, this appears to be selling well. Basically 2 friends of mine who NEVER buy wrestling DVDs online bought this, one got an autographed copy which I'm sure is double the price (too lazy to look). That is a huge price tag, but if you subtract the wrestling bookings, you're down to what $50,000? So I would think that's doable especially with whatever they are getting from RF & anyone else selling it. This seems like the one thing everyone I know was excited about & ordered it themselves rather than considered a bootleg. Are you sure the 4-disc set itself is limited edition? I thought only the autographed ones were limited as my friend that got that one said there was a special insert page for the autograph built into the cover so those had to be custom-made. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bix Posted November 20, 2008 Author Report Share Posted November 20, 2008 Whoops, you're right about the autographed ones being limited. IIRC they may have re-worded the description. The 4 disc set is still a Highspots exclusive, though. What type of shipping did you use? For some reason I find it hilarious that I'd get it at least a day before you when you're so much closer to them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rovert Posted November 20, 2008 Report Share Posted November 20, 2008 http://cgi.ebay.com/VIP-Night-of-Wrestling...1QQcmdZViewItem Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bix Posted November 20, 2008 Author Report Share Posted November 20, 2008 http://cgi.ebay.com/VIP-Night-of-Wrestling...1QQcmdZViewItemSee first post Also, they're charging $5 more on eBay for each version of the interview set than they are on their regular website, when it's usually the same or less on eBay. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rovert Posted November 21, 2008 Report Share Posted November 21, 2008 http://cgi.ebay.com/VIP-Night-of-Wrestling...1QQcmdZViewItemSee first post Also, they're charging $5 more on eBay for each version of the interview set than they are on their regular website, when it's usually the same or less on eBay. Doh, Ive heard the torrents had it up yesterday. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted November 25, 2008 Report Share Posted November 25, 2008 I have been skipping around, but wow, this is pretty exhaustive. Highspots really made an effort to discuss every corner of his career, and asked him about pretty much everyone he ever wrestled. The interviewer missed a few openings I think, but compared to most shoot interviews, he definitely did his homework. There were times when he would mention the correct timeline, Flair would tell him he was wrong, and he finally just let Flair make his point, which I think would be better than engaging in a five minute conversation about whether something happened in 1986 or 1987. What I've seen reveals many good things and bad things about Ric Flair, which I'll talk more about later after I watch more of it. One interesting thing is that he said the Japanese guys hated it when he worked there because he insisted on working the American style, but that the crowd was almost always really heated by the time the match was over, which he thinks proves that you can get the basic American style over in Japan. His main problem with the Japanese style is that he thinks it's too much about offense and that there's not enough focus on selling. He seems to have this idea that everyone in Japan wrestles just like Brody and Hansen. I know that's a sweeping generalization, but it's interesting to see how he ranks the Japanese guys against each other as a result. He praises Jumbo, and he thinks far more of guys like Choshu, Muto, and Fujinami than he does someone like Tenryu. He said he really enjoyed all of the matches he worked in Japan where he worked against other Americans, especially the Martel and Steamboat matches. More later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted November 25, 2008 Report Share Posted November 25, 2008 I wanted to elaborate on an example of a little thing the interviewer missed. It's not a big deal, but there are a few things like this mixed throughout. Interviewer: "What are your memories of the first War Games?" Flair: "Refresh my memory, was that the one in The Omni?" Interviewer: "..." Flair: "I think so. Anyway, ..." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted November 25, 2008 Report Share Posted November 25, 2008 I should also mention that Flair went on this frightening tirade at one point about how if he ever finds out he has terminal cancer, there are all these people he is going to kill in his last days on earth. Yes, he was probably joking, but considering it segued into a Chris Benoit discussion ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bix Posted November 25, 2008 Author Report Share Posted November 25, 2008 The Flair on politics section is hilarious as he just speaks in the most amazingly vague generalizations the whole time that would be just as funny if he was a Democrat. When asked why he's drawn to the Republican Party, his best answers are repeating "The shape this country is in, man..." and "I just hate the word 'liberal'" over and over and over. When he gets to a specific issue in the form of immigration, it's more of the same as he doesn't actually say anything or express an opinion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boondocks Kernoodle Posted November 26, 2008 Report Share Posted November 26, 2008 On Bret Hart in WCW: "He only worked about 5 times. Then he went home 'cause he had a concussion." Yep, 5 times. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kjh Posted November 26, 2008 Report Share Posted November 26, 2008 Cue another Bret meltdown whenever he hears about that flippant comment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted November 26, 2008 Report Share Posted November 26, 2008 The Flair on politics section is hilarious as he just speaks in the most amazingly vague generalizations the whole time that would be just as funny if he was a Democrat. When asked why he's drawn to the Republican Party, his best answers are repeating "The shape this country is in, man..." and "I just hate the word 'liberal'" over and over and over. When he gets to a specific issue in the form of immigration, it's more of the same as he doesn't actually say anything or express an opinion. I remember in Flair's book that he also said one reason he wanted to run for public office was because he thought public school teachers were underpaid and wanted to change that, which told me he really didn't understand what his party stood for, since we all know that everyone should homeschool their kids and teachers' unions are second to only Roe v. Wade and the city of San Francisco as the worst thing ever! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dylan Waco Posted November 26, 2008 Report Share Posted November 26, 2008 Not really the place for a deep political discussion, but Flair is basically a salt of the earth, populist, "conservative of the heart." Those folks have a lot more in common with main street than wall street. Keep in mind that Huckabee was endorsed by Flair and supported by the NEA, even though he's been a strong advocate of home schooling as well. fwiw, I say this as someone who would never have voted for Huckabee. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boondocks Kernoodle Posted November 26, 2008 Report Share Posted November 26, 2008 Flair mentions, while talking about how at the Great American Bash '95 Hogan wanted Vader to beat up Bockwinkel, that about a year ago in WWE they tried to get someone over at the expense of "two people who deserved their moment." Anyone know what he was talking about? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Morris Posted November 27, 2008 Report Share Posted November 27, 2008 I'm sure the popular answer will be WWF's attempt to get Lex Luger over, and I'd guess he'd be referring to Shawn Michaels as one of the "two people who deserved their moment," although the better argument can be made that Bret Hart was the one pushed aside in favor of Luger (even if the Luger push was really in response to Hogan's departure and Vince's love for big, muscular guys). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boondocks Kernoodle Posted November 27, 2008 Report Share Posted November 27, 2008 That wasn't a year ago, and I think he was referring to an incident in which they had a wrestler attack two legends. I just can't think of what that incident would have been. I don't think they did a "heel beats up Moolah and Mae" angle for a couple of years before Moolah's death, and I can't think of anything else. EDIT: Oh, I see, you thought I meant a year before the '95 Bash. I'm sorry, maybe I didn't word it so clearly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Morris Posted November 27, 2008 Report Share Posted November 27, 2008 OK, I understand now. Thanks for clearing it up. I wonder if Ric is referring to this: - Portland’s own Rowdy Roddy Piper is in the building, on WWE TV for the first time since being diagnosed with cancer. He came out to a great ovation, and then announced that Dusty Rhodes is the first Hall of Fame inductee for 2007. Umaga and Armando came out and laid both men out to huge heat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boondocks Kernoodle Posted November 27, 2008 Report Share Posted November 27, 2008 Oh, that's gotta be it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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