goodhelmet Posted May 9, 2005 Report Share Posted May 9, 2005 Backlash Fallout ---The show was a sellout of 14,000. 4,000 tickets were sold after the Hogan announcement. ---The company hopes Hogan's return boosted the buyrate for the show. ---More money was spent advertising this show than any other "B" show inc. a 3/4 page ad in USA Today and lots of radio spots ---The idea of Hogan being there was the focus of all advertising. There was no mention of Batista or HHH in any of the print ads. The radio ad never mentioned who Hogan and HBK would be wrestling. Star Ratings: Tomko v. Val Venis ** Shelton Benjamin v. Chris Jericho ***1/2 Tag Team Gauntlet Series **1/4 Edge v. Chris Benoit **** Kane v. Viscera 1/2* Hogan and HBK v. Hassan & Daivari ** Batista v. HHH *** Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Dazed Posted May 9, 2005 Report Share Posted May 9, 2005 That's hilarious. Their priorities are so screwed it's unreal. Of course this means there was less reason to have Hogan & Michaels go over on the show. (what's the status on those DVDs, btw?) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted May 9, 2005 Report Share Posted May 9, 2005 I'd expect the show to get a good buyrate, but it's probably not going to be at the level they hoped, and Hogan will get upset over his payoff and the whole riff will repeat itself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Dog Posted May 9, 2005 Report Share Posted May 9, 2005 So were those extra 4000 tickets worth burying the young guys. This whole PPV annoyed the hell out of me. Hassan got buried every week leading up to it and they completely exposed the fact that his manager is a better wrestler than him. But I'm not surprised, they've always been short sighted like this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goodhelmet Posted May 9, 2005 Author Report Share Posted May 9, 2005 March Business Comparisons for WWE Estimated Average Attendance 3/04: 5,898 Estimated Average Attendance 3/04: 4,617 (- 21.7%) February 2005: 4,460* Estimated Average Gate 3/04: $193, 295 Estimated Average Gate 3/05: $166,200 (-14%) February 2005: $153, 800* % of household shows sold out 3/04 17.6 % of household shows sold out 3/05 16.7 February 2005 5.0* Average Raw Rating 3/04: 4.14 Average Raw Rating 3/05: 3.86 (- 6.8%) February 2005: 3.95 Average SD! Rating 3/04: 3.30 Average SD! Rating 3/05: 3.37 (+2.1%) February 2005: 3.40 *- Does not include overseas shows. March 2004: WM XX (18,500 paid, 19689 attended; 2.4 million live gate; Est.1.5 buyrate; 18.83 million est. company PPV revenue) March 2005: WM XXI (20, 193 sellout; 2.1 million live gate; est. 1.68 buyrate; 20 million est. company PPV revenue) Meltz Notes on numbers: ---WM was up when every other business indicator was down except for SD! ratings. ---Monthly revenues for house shows were less than just one week in Australia did. ---Since Mania was technically in April, March was a terrible month while April is a record-breaking month. ---The monthly gross was up from last year because they ran more house shows although individual house shows last year grossed more. ---There is no evidence that Cena or Batista will turn around domestic house show business. ---Because the entire month of April was spent overseas and had Mania, it won;t be until May that we can see if Cena or batista have any drawing power. ---Meltz credits the Batista-HHH program for Mania's numbers being up. ---If you throw Mania into March numbers, this year is a much better year than last year for revenue. Even with lower house show attendance and lower ratings, the success of Mania trumps last year in a huge way. ---Raw averaged 4.82 million viewers in March. Down from 4.88 in February but up from 4.69 in January. The numbers are down from March last year. However, last year, March had the draft lottery and guest appearances from Austin, Foley and Rock. ---Meltz predicts May ratings will be way up for the draft lottery. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Some Guy Posted May 9, 2005 Report Share Posted May 9, 2005 I'll wait for April's numbers to come out to judge whether or not Batista or Cena are good house show draws. Batista has drawn one huge buyrate, but that doesn't always mean that a guy is box office. WM could have been a case of people wanting to see him win the big one and then stop caring afterwards. Plus, he has done nothing of note on TV since, his rematch with HHH was an aferthought and not really advertised, which is strange considering the buyrate for WM. Why not advertise both Hogan and Batista's matches and try to capitalize on both guy's popularity? I don't think that Batista is long for the top spot because of his in ring style being so boring and mundane, but you have to strike while the iron is hot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted May 9, 2005 Report Share Posted May 9, 2005 The next three months should be interesting, especially if HHH takes time off to nurse his neck. With Edge and Christian both being positioned for main event pushes, the draft coming up, Brian Gewertz being on vacation, Eddy getting the spotlight and a heel turn, Jericho working toward a heel turn, Shelton Benjamin climbing the ladder and Benoit looking strong again (if they build off of Monday's RAW), we could be in for a hell of a ride this summer. I also predict that SD is about to see a major surge in business while RAW mainly stays level, which is going to surprise a lot of key people. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goodhelmet Posted May 9, 2005 Author Report Share Posted May 9, 2005 ---Corrections from the All Japan Carnival listing from a week ago... Giant Baba def. Abdullah via countout (not Jumbo Tsuruta) Baba def. Brody by pin in 1981 (not DQ) ---Ticket sales for the NJ Tokyo Dome show have been non-existent so they signed on Misawa to come in for a tag match to generate interest. The match will be Misawa & Tatsumi Fujinami v. Liger & Chono. ---Kendo Kashin, who wrestled as Dragon Soldier, won the ROH tounrament that was supposed to be for a slot in the NJ Best of Super Junior tournament. Only problem: he was not announced as a participant in the tourney that starts on 5/21 and finishes on 6/19. Meltzer said what a waste that turned out to be. ---New Japan President Kusama went to a Big Japan show on 4/29 and is now interested in the idea of death matches to spice up the shows. ---Ultimo Dragon (aka Yoshihiro Asai) is apparently not returning to WWE after all. They have not booked any dates for him after agreeing to bring him back. Instead, he is starting a new promotion, Dragon Door. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Some Guy Posted May 9, 2005 Report Share Posted May 9, 2005 Why the hell would Dragon even have been entertaining the idea of coming back to WWE? They horribly misused him the first time and another run would be no different. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted May 9, 2005 Report Share Posted May 9, 2005 Maybe he likes living in America? That's why Taka stuck around so long. He fell in love with the country, and was willing to take a lesser role to live here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marty Posted May 9, 2005 Report Share Posted May 9, 2005 Maybe he likes living in America? That's why Taka stuck around so long. He fell in love with the country, and was willing to take a lesser role to live here. You mean Funaki, right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted May 9, 2005 Report Share Posted May 9, 2005 No, Taka. That's why I said "stuck". I believe that's the case with Funaki as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goodhelmet Posted May 9, 2005 Author Report Share Posted May 9, 2005 ---The 6/10 Hardcore Homecoming show is looking like a major success so far. They had a budget for $30,000 and already have $60,000 for advanced ticket sales before egenral admission tickets even went on sale. They plan to gross around $150,000 from the show and fanfest. ---Other ECW reunion shows are planned in Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Ft. Lauderdale and Tampa. ---More names announced are 2 Cold Scorpio, Axl Rotten, Bill Alfonso, Don Callis, Joel Gertner, Tommy Rich, Tracy Smothers, Roadkill, Danny Doring, Chris Chetti and JT Smith. ---Mick Foley will wrestle again at the 5/17 Brian Hildebrand Memorial Show in Johnson City, TN. It is his first match since wrestling Kawada last year in Japan. ---Matt Hardy will begin wrestling indy shows in mid-July. He will recieve between $1500 and $3000 per appearance. Unlike test, he is heavily in demand. He has already agreed to something like 10 dates for ROH. Also, Meltzer notes that on the INdy scene, you get your hotels paid for, you can do Polaroids, and has a chance he can clear more wrestling by not being in WWE... similar to Raven a couple years back. The big drawback for Hardy is that there are no longer any big merchandising checks. ---The Rock N' Roll Express had reunited and now are broken up again. Here is the story verbatim... At a time when they were making more money on the indie scene than in years (largely due to Dennis Condrey coming out of retirement so their most famous rivals, the Midnight Express, were put back together) the Rock N Roll Express had a business split a few weeks ago after the scaffold match with the Midnight Express on 4/9. Gibson reportedly tried to hold up promoter Tony Hunter, and Morton was mad about it. They had separate gimmick tables that night and usually they work the gimmick tables together and split the money at the end of the night. Morton was even refusing to sign items bought from Gibson. Gibson was also mad because Hunter didn't want to run for several months, feeling they've gone as far as they could in Lenoir on the nostalgia kick based on Dusty Rhodes, the Midnight Express, and Rock N' Roll Express, and needed at least a few months off. Gibson, since they were drawing more people doing R'N'R vs. MX in Lenoir than anywhere else, wanted to continue to come in. Morton is now taking Brad Armstrong as his partner and calling the team the New Rock N' Roll Express. Historically, Morton has never either drawn or or been able to make nearly the same money working Southern indies apart from Gibson. Gibson has his own business in Pensacola, and wrestles for extra money, while wrestling is still Gibson's livelihood. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Some Guy Posted May 9, 2005 Report Share Posted May 9, 2005 No, TAKA just liked the American ladies I already covered this in another thread. Isn't Funaki such an HBK mark that he signed with WWF to meet him moved to San Antonio to live in the same city? My theory is that he just wanted to live close to GH. ::Ding Dong:: Will: Who is it? Funaki: Smackdown's NUMBAH ONE ANNOUNCA~! Will: Come on in! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted May 9, 2005 Report Share Posted May 9, 2005 ---Matt Hardy will begin wrestling indy shows in mid-July. He will recieve between $1500 and $3000 per appearance. Unlike test, he is heavily in demand. He has already agreed to something like 10 dates for ROH. Also, Meltzer notes that on the INdy scene, you get your hotels paid for, you can do Polaroids, and has a chance he can clear more wrestling by not being in WWE... similar to Raven a couple years back. The big drawback for Hardy is that there are no longer any big merchandising checks.Matt will do very well on the indy scene, and this doesn't surprise me. All the publicity has probably been good for him, and he'll probably increase the house in most places he wrestles. He'll also be bigger than most of his opponents and has more name value, so he'll stand the chance of standing out more. I see him having a career similar to that of Raven, but since he's younger, he'll probably be able to sustain it even longer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goodhelmet Posted May 9, 2005 Author Report Share Posted May 9, 2005 My theory is that he just wanted to live close to GH. How'd you guess? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted May 9, 2005 Report Share Posted May 9, 2005 If I'm not mistaken, Funaki is a good friend of Austin, Michaels and HHH, or has been at one point or another. Taka was the same way, which is why he survived so many cuts. He is only in Japan now because he requested to be released. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goodhelmet Posted May 9, 2005 Author Report Share Posted May 9, 2005 ---Samoa Joe turned down the New Japan offer for his first tour with the company. NJ reneged on the original offer and made it even lower. ---Bobby Heenan will no longer be managing in ROH. Heenan will still be willing to do videos but won't be at ringside anymore. He has the mentality that you should be able to get over without swearing. At the 4/16 show, CM Punk was swearing and Heenan didn't want to be there. Sapolky told Heenan that Punk was one of the few guys who has the latitude to do stuff on their own. TNA News ---Terri Runnels spoke out against Dustin Rhodes about his domestic violence issues on her website. ---In TNA, there is a big power struggle between the Jarretts and the Carters (I am guessing the Panda energy folks). The Carters have caught on that TNA was a vehicle to make Jeff a star and sinc eit hasn't worked, they want Jeff out as champ and AJ Styles in. Jeff doesn't want to do it and Jerry is trying to rally people against it. ---Jeff has agreed to drop the title, after much prodding, but he suggested Monty Brown. This would require that they turn Brown after they had just turned him recently. Brown would also have to sign a new contract since his is about to expire. ---The Carters want to take the big decision making power away from the Jarretts. The problem is that the Jarretts are wrestling peopleand that the Carters have not grown up in wrestling. On the other hand, it always winds up that those who have the power want the spotlight kept on them and use their power for that purpose. ---It was the Jarretts who suggested Dusty Rhodes come and "save" the company but when Rhodes sugget that Jeff drop the title, they turned on him. ---Dusty supposedly has heat from all sides but the Jarretts have been trying to make sure that Dusty does not succeed like coming up with the all-cage concept that would only burn the stips out. ---There was heat on Nash for showing up at the PPV for the pre-taped interview bot not sticking around for the show. His excuse was he had a 30 hour flight to China to catch. ---DDP also had heat on him because he showed up with an intricate plan for the WarGames type match but Waltman, James and Jarrett had other ideas (ie like the abortion of a match that they had?) ---Bob Ryder has no real power in the company anymore and his only job is handling the travel. ---Meltz doesn't expect anything to come out of this but Inoki has been interested in buying the company since it would give him controlling rights to the NWA titles. --- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted May 9, 2005 Report Share Posted May 9, 2005 Nice to see the Carters turning around. I hope they get their way and the belt goes back to Styles, which is where it needs to be anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goodhelmet Posted May 9, 2005 Author Report Share Posted May 9, 2005 ---Pat Patterson was in Europe working as an agent. He's now officially back with the company but is working on a part-time schedule. ---Larry Mollin has been added to the writing crew. He has no wrestling experience but has been a television writer for 15 years. His main claim to fame is "Beverly Hills 90210"/ He wrote for three years, produced for three years and was executive producer from '96-'97. ---Brian Gerwitz will be gone for most of the summer and return in the fall. He will be the main writer for the upcoming WWE movie. IT is still up in the air who will take his place in the meantime. ---News on Molly Holly leaving the company: Molly went to Vince and asked for one year off. She wanted to spend more time with her new niece and go to church on a regular basis. Vince said she was more than welcome to return to the company in a year if she desired. She never had any problem putting over Hemme since people put her over when she was getting a push. ---RVD has been rehabbing hard so he can be at the ECW PPV. He won't wrestle but he at least wants to be able to do a move or a spot. ---Meltz nomintes the 5/2 Raw as best Raw of the Year. HE gave Benjamin-Michaels ****1/2. He gave Jericho-Edge ***1/2 and HHH-Benoit ***1/2. ---Jazz has not been called for either the 6/10 Hardcore Homecoming show or the WWE PPV. Jim Ross is still bothered by problem because of the potato punch that HHH gave him on the 4/18 RAW. ---Brian Hebner's suspension has been lifted. ---Terry Funk was scheduled for the 6/12 PPV but he made some comments on audiowrestling.com that put that to doubt. In the interview, Funk said it will be hard to live up to the original triple threat match. Funk said that while Vince hated the ECW product, he is now making a profit off it with the PPV and DVD. Funk calls Vinnie MAc a "pure, utter, a$$hole" and doesn't give a damn about the 6/12 show. ---Meltz suggests getting a tape of the 4/30 OVW show. During the show the Heartbreakers come out for an interview and in Meltz's own words "WWE HAS SCREWED UP WHAT WOULD APPEAR TO BE AN UNSCREWABLE ACT BEYOND BELIEF". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Dog Posted May 9, 2005 Report Share Posted May 9, 2005 Inoki owning the company would be interesting. It would probably mean Bryan Danielson and James Gibson in TNA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest teke184 Posted May 9, 2005 Report Share Posted May 9, 2005 What exactly was the deal on Brian Hebner getting suspended? I know that he got transferred from one show to the other because he couldn't get along with at least one of the other referees (Jack Doan?). There was also a summary that said he's on his last chance with the company and that, if he can't behave, Earl won't be able to save his dumb ass. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Cam Chaos Posted May 9, 2005 Report Share Posted May 9, 2005 What exactly was the deal on Brian Hebner getting suspended? I know that he got transferred from one show to the other because he couldn't get along with at least one of the other referees (Jack Doan?).? There was also a summary that said he's on his last chance with the company and that, if he can't behave, Earl won't be able to save his dumb ass. I think he actually got into a heated argument with his dad which got him sent home. I don't actually know if his dad said "Brian boy, you're clearly drunk...go to your room!" and then pointed towards the stairwell, though if he did, it would have been a nice touch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Dog Posted May 9, 2005 Report Share Posted May 9, 2005 I believe that he got drunk and out of control on one of the recent overseas tours. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Hunter's Torn Quad Posted May 9, 2005 Report Share Posted May 9, 2005 I believe that he got drunk and out of control on one of the recent overseas tours. Vanna, tell our winning contestant what he's won. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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