wrestling / Columns
Thursday Sports Entertainment News Report 05.31.12
While that is absolutely true, and the talent should be devoting their free time to honing their characters and improving their skills, many of them likely see what has happened to Zack Ryder since 2012 began.
Here’s a guy that forced himself to be pushed by WWE and got over through his own ingenuity and effort, only to have the rug pulled out from under him and once again be made into an afterthought.
WWE is fond of telling the guys to “get themselves over”, then someone does and they do everything possible to kill him off. But hey, it’s Vince’s company — if he now hates money, that’s up to him.
Posted By: Nick M. (Guest) on May 24, 2012 at 12:56 AM
You are correct that Zack Ryder got himself over, and that the WWE subsequently pushed him hard only to pull back on the reins. On one hand, I can see how this is frustrating for the fans. We almost expect pushes to come to a sudden and inexplicable stop once we get behind a guy. It makes it difficult to emotionally invest in a character because we’re 95% certain we’ll be let down.
However, there have been numerous occasions where a talent has gotten too much, too soon only to get a false sense of importance and eventually walk out. Notable examples would be Brock Lesnar, Bobby Lashley and even Sable. It seems like the ‘E likes doing “test runs” of their talent, to see which guys get the big reaction to gauge their future viability as a top performer. If it works, they get a long term spot on the midcard and eventually get the mega push they have coming to them, provided they stay grounded and pay their dues.
As for Ryder, I wouldn’t feel too badly for him. He’s gone from being a complete nobody to being one of the most well-liked Superstars. And I’d love to compare his 2010 W-2 to his 2012 W-2. The man must be making a boatload in merchandise. If he doesn’t get full of himself, then young Mr. Ryder should have nothing to worry about.
3 Hour Raw =
(1) Matches that still have commercial breaks
(2) LONGER commercial breaks
(3) 2 crappy diva matches per night
(4) the same number of 4 minute matches
(5) occasionally better main events
Stipulations will be worked/manipulated so the “interactive” choice is not interactive at all (Hello CyberMondays!)
Posted By: M:-X (Guest) on May 24, 2012 at 09:03 AM
I’m personally hoping that some of the extra hour can be filled by a revitalized tag team division. Proper tag teams, not just two guys thrown together. I’m talking about coordinated outfits, an actual name for the team, tandem moves, etc. But I digress.
What I don’t understand is why WWE would ever use Twitter to make RAW more interactive. Sure, you get more people talking about the show on a popular site, but how does that translate into money? What I would do is use WWE.com as the Social platform for RAW. First, I’d put some Google advertising on the side, then, let the fans choose stipulations, opponents, etc. via polls on WWE.com. WWE gets the increased traffic, resulting in more ad impressions, thus resulting in more money! It’s a no-brainer! Let people post comments on WWE.com and then pick some to run across the bottom of the screen like a news ticker. Incentivize people to go to the site with the possibility of seeing their name and comment on RAW. Why not do it? Get that ad money rolling in, Vince!
A better sign would be “She’s Getting Half!” directed at Cena
Posted By: Guest#0154 (Guest) on May 24, 2012 at 12:33 AM
Ha! And the best part is that you KNOW it would piss him off, but he’d have to smile his way through it.
Greetings, folks, and welcome to another edition of Thursday Sports Entertainment! Did I do that?
WORLD (WRESTLING ENTERTAINMENT) NEWS TONIGHT
As previously reported, the Extreme Rules PPV 251,000 buys worldwide. 147,000 of those buys were within North America, and the numbers were up 17% from the 216,000 buys that Extreme Rules 2011. Many feel that the buyrate is a disappointment, due to the price tag that came with Brock Lesnar, especially compared to the business Lesnar did in the UFC.
UFC buyrates were at an all time high during the time Lesnar was with the company, and the feeling is that the UFC audience did not follow Lesnar back to the WWE.
One source within WWE is not blaming Lesnar for the PPV not doing big numbers, noting that the buyrate blame shouldn’t go on Lesnar, but on the company itself for making fans believe that the secondary PPVs aren’t important anymore.
“No one should spin this as Brock failing. Brock didn’t fail the company. The company failed itself in that we’ve conditioned the majority of the audience that only Wrestlemania is important now. This show came right after Mania, so you are going to lose fans that invested money in that show. No one will remember that. But, we also rushed out a marquee match and it didn’t really succeed for us, either. I think the lesson to be learned is that no matter who is on what show these days, the branding won’t be strong enough, no matter how good or bad the creative side may be. We’ve conditioned everyone to see it as Wrestlemania and then everything else, because we spent a year building Mania. There was going to be a drop-off after that climax.”
The source also stated that Lesnar as a PPV draw is not a lost cause, noting the following…
“We had to reintroduce him to our new audience. Seven year olds didn’t know who Brock was. Now they do. The numbers were up so on paper, it looks good. This is part of another year-long build. The upside is that when we hit Wrestlemania, then Lesnar will draw and the company gets our investment back that way – because now it’s Wrestlemania plus the talent that draws, not the talent drawing for Wrestlemania. That’s the lesson we need to learn here, in my opinion.”
While my initial reaction was “oh great, more corporate spin on a low buyrate,” this guy has a point. Lesnar was brought in right after people spent a lot of money on the one PPV that seems to be important anymore. The build between Lesnar and Cena was rushed, even though the match delivered in a big way. I also agree that the target WWE audience wasn’t even born when Brock was last in the company, so they had no idea of the threat that he brought with him.
What’s funny is that this source says that Brock isn’t failing for the above reasons, but then says he’ll pay off big-time at WrestleMania – right after saying that WrestleMania is the only important PPV that people will buy! Still, WWE must be disappointed that some MMA fans didn’t tune in, but that isn’t surprising since they appeal to different core audiences.
Chris Jericho was nearly arrested after WWE’s house show in Sao Paolo, Brazil on Thursday. Jericho kicked the Brazil flag in order to get heat during his match with CM Punk. Authorities were reportedly upset and considered taking him into custody, but ultimately he was not charged.
From WWE.com…
Chris Jericho has been suspended indefinitely due to an irresponsible act of denigrating the Brazilian flag at a WWE live event in São Paulo on May 24. WWE has apologized to the citizens and the government of Brazil for this incident.
Chris Jericho had the following comments for WWE.com…
“I made a bad judgment call in the course of entertaining fans in Brazil.
I apologized to the people in the crowd for showing disrespect.
It was a bad move. I did it with fans’ entertainment in mind and I’ll accept the consequences for that.”
Eh, whatever. Jericho gets some time off for Fozzy and WWE gets to look all corporate-y by suspending Jericho. The only one who loses is Randy Orton, as he now has to face the Miz at No Way Out. And I’m sure Randy will be just fine.
But you’d think that the talent would learn their lesson after the Finlay & JBL incidents. Sure, disrespecting the US national anthem or goosestepping in Germany is an easy way to get cheap heat, but those kinds of political decisions have consequences. You’d think that the WWE would brush up their talent on the local laws before sending them overseas.
At the end of the day, it’s just Brazil. Other than Blanka, what have they done for us lately?
– WWE.com has posted their list of the Top 25 “Masters of the Mic.” Their list is as follows:
1. Stone Cold Steve Austin
2. Rowdy Roddy Piper
3. The Rock
4. Ric Flair
5. Chris Jericho
6. Jake Roberts
7. John Cena
8. Dusty Rhodes
9. Bobby Heenan
10. JBL
11. Randy Savage
12. C.M. Punk
13. Hulk Hogan
14. Mick Foley
15. Billy Graham
16. Vince McMahon
17. Edge
18. Paul Heyman
19. Triple H
20. Jesse Ventura
21. The Miz
22. Ted DiBiase, Sr.
23. Santino Marella
24. Rick Rude
25. Captain Lou Albano
Not a bad list actually. While you could make arguments that some should be a few positions higher or lower, most of the people on the list are in the correct general vicinity of where they belong. My only complaint is that Bobby Heenan should be a few notches higher. The man has no equal when it comes to commentary or throwing out one liners. Still, not a bad list. But no love for Brock Lesnar? What about John Laurinatis? Here’s an idea, give me your top 5 WORST talkers.
The following was sent out today, announcing Lita as a judge for the Sugar Slam III event…
SugarSlam III: Batter Royal – The Most Delicious Championship in Sports Entertainment
Announcing the return of SugarSlam, the first and only online, wrestling-themed bake off! SugarSlam was founded in 2008 by Bake and Destroy creator, Natalie Slater. Slater has also appeared on Food Network’s Cupcake Wars, The Cooking Channel’s The Perfect 3 and is a three-time Threadcakes judge.
Yeah, SugarSlam! I for one can’t wait. Seriously. My wife is a big-time baker and I’m gonna twist her arm to enter. Can I count on your vote?
As for Natalie Slater, she’s a good friend of CM Punk, whom he thanks at the Slammys at the 4:30 mark in this video:
WWE has announced that Randy Orton was suspended for 60 days effective Wednesday due to his second violation of the company’s Talent Wellness Program.
First Jericho, now Orton. Wonder who’ll replace the Miz? Orton’s kind of been in limbo for months now storyline-wise, so it’s not like there’s a huge angle that will suffer from his absence. Still, he’s one of the top guys on the roster, so his suspension will leave a hole in the roster. NOW’S YOUR CHANCE TO STEAL HIS SPOT, MIDCARDERS! Here’s how Randy is feeling, all put into song!
THE BALLAD OF RANDY ORTON
Sung to the tune of Randy’s theme song:
I have substance in my piss
now 60 days I’m gonna miss
They’ve sidelined me!
You got your rules and got your wellness
All designed to keep me okay
But when drugs start getting taken
You start holding back my pay
I have a piss that is so tainted
With a price I can’t avoid
Are the drugs that’s in my system
Hard narcotics, weed or roids?
I hear divas crying
I see paydays dying
I smell chicken frying
I feel tensions rising
I have substance in my piss
now 60 days I’m gonna miss
They’ve sidelined me!
Bah, you get the point. Written song parodies suck, anyways. You need to hear them, Weird Al style!
So what do you think it was for? Hard drugs? Weed? Roids? Painkillers? Let the irresponsible speculation begin!
– The latest reports are stating that WWE is focusing on TV ratings, and the change in direction is coming from Vince McMahon. WWE’s primary goal is the various television projects they have going, and not building PPV buys. The plan is said to be to use their PPV events to bring in more consistent viewers to the weekly television programs.
The vast majority of the comments on this little newsbit have been scathing, to put it mildly. People are rightfully asking the question “why give away for free what people are already paying for?” On the surface, this looks like a boneheaded decision. After all, the entire business model of the WWE has been PPV driven since Vince McMahon took over the WWWF from his father. But you know what I thought when I first read this news item?
Brilliant.
Seriously, this is exactly what they should be doing at the moment. Let’s face it, with the lousy economy, increased competition and online streaming, PPV is a dying business model. Couple that with the fact that PPVs don’t feel special anymore from a creative standpoint, it’s just a matter of time before the situation becomes so bad that the WWE would be severely impacted. So what’s a CEO to do?
Well, get your audience accustomed to watching WWE on TV. Why? Because they are rolling out a TV network, that’s why! And if you remember back when the WWE Network was first announced, the plan was to move PPV events over from the PPV format to cable TV. This way, those former-PPV events will instead become special episodes of WWE programming that you can get for free on the WWE network. If they can get the 3-5 million people to watch like they do for RAW, they can make some decent money from the advertising. Not only that, it gets people accustomed to tuning over to the WWE Network, which is vitally important if that initiative is going to succeed. If I were Vince, I’d go back to keeping the “Big 4” pay per views on pay per view. This way, you can do some long term storytelling that climaxes at a pay per view event every 3 months instead of every 30 days. Not only that, but you no longer have to split the revenues from the PPV events with the PPV carriers. Easy money!
WWE’s PPVs can’t sustain this much negative year-to-year growth. Thus, a new strategy must be implemented. One that gets people excited about buying fewer PPVs but also puts them in the habit of watching WWE programming on cable. Thus, WWE’s newfound focus on TV ratings.
MY WRESTLING STORY
We all visit the fine site that is 411 Wrestling because, at some point in our lives, we came to appreciate the wacky world of sports entertainment. I thought it might be fun to share with you my wrestling story, i.e., how I became a fan of the sport of kings.
My earliest wrestling memory was wandering into the living room while my dad was watching a tape of WWF wrestling, presumably given to him by someone he worked with. I had just turned five, and the match in progress was Randy Savage vs. Ricky Steamboat – the one where Savage brutally crushed Steamboat’s throat. I vividly remember Savage jumping off of the turnbuckle, ramming the Dragon’s throat into the barricade. Then, for good measure, Savage took the ring bell, climbed to the top rope, and drove that ring bell into Steamboat’s throat again.
I was horrified that one person would ever do that to another. I also remember my dad being unphased by the whole thing. What the hell was going on? My five year old mind couldn’t process what was happening, and yet, I wanted to see more. I had no idea it was scripted until I was older, but at that moment, I was very, VERY intrigued by what I saw.
My older brother then took over as my wrestling ambassador, introducing me to Jake the Snake, Andre the Giant, and, most importantly, Hulk Hogan. I was a HUGE Hulkamaniac when I was a kid. I followed him no matter what he did. I watched every episode of Wrestling Challenge, saw No Holds Barred, Mr. Nanny, Suburban Commando and even Thunder in Paradise Hell, I even promised myself that when I was old enough I’d buy Right Guard Sports Stick, because Hulk promised it’d bring “inspiration, not perspiration.”
In short, I was the biggest, littlest Hulkamania mark that you ever did see. But the most profound moment for me was in the buildup to WrestleMania III, when Hogan and Andre had their confrontation on Piper’s Pit. Being the good little Irish Catholic boy that I was, I was mortified that Andre would not only rip off Hogan’s cross, but also leave him bleeding. Hulk was bleeding! I was terrified for the Hulkster, and hoped & prayed he’d win at Wrestlemania III
Of course, we all know what happened next, and I continued to follow the WWE until Hogan left for good. With that, I was fast becoming a know-it-all, pre-pubescent jerk, and Wrestling was for little kids, right? Besides, WWE was moving over to cable, which I didn’t have, so I let my appreciation for sports entertainment slip away.
Fast forward six years to the summer of 1998. I’m sixteen years old, and I get a scholarship for this thing called The Irish Way. The Irish Way is a summer program that takes American kids and ships them over to Ireland to learn about Irish history, culture, etc. It’s pretty fun, and I’m spending the Summer of 1998 away from my parents, touring Ireland with a bunch of other 16 year olds. Awesome, right?
It was. But only for a while. After about 3-4 weeks I needed some emergency surgery that took me out of the program. My aunt was awesome enough to put me up in her Bed & Breakfast while I recovered from the surgery. So now I’m 3000 miles from home in my aunt’s place with nothing to do but recover. So, I watched a lot of TV.
One of the TV programs I came across was WWF RAW IS WAR. With this being the first time I watched wrestling in 6 years, I figured I’d give it a shot. After all, what else was there to do? I was immediately surprised how much more gritty and cool it had become. This was nothing like the cartoony world I was used to. The only person I recognized was the Undertaker, and I wasn’t even sure if it was the same guy. This was the go home episode of RAW before the upcoming pay-per-view, Fully Loaded. A lot of things stick out in my mind about this episode of RAW, but this particular bit took the cake:
Val Venis aside, the guy who was clearly the best man on the roster was this bald guy named “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. He cursed, used the middle finger and did whatever the hell he wanted. I was instantly a Stone Cold mark, much like I had instantly become a Hulk Hogan mark 11 years prior. For whatever reason, this episode of RAW aired in Ireland on a Saturday, with the PPV taking place live the next night. With the 5 hour time difference, it would be broadcast at 1AM Monday morning in Ireland, but I didn’t care. With whatever package my Aunt had, she got PPVs for free, and I eagerly watched the 1998 edition of Fully Loaded from 1AM-4AM. Once again, I was hooked.
When I returned to the States, I recounted my experience with my friend Steve. Steve had been a wrestling fan all along and was excited to have a new person to talk about sports entertainment. Then he dropped the bomb on me – he had an extra ticket to SummerSlam in MSG, and would I be interested in going. Would I? With the Undertaker vs. Steve Austin on the Highway to Hell as the main event, I jumped at the chance. And with that, I was soon attending my very first wrestling event. From that summer onward, I’ve never stopped watching wrestling.
So that’s how I am where I am today, writing for you, the Team 411NationUniverseArmy. What’s your wrestling story?
SHEIKIE BABY SAYS
My Twitter chum @FGoodish is getting the week off. I thought I would give you a taste of what the greatest Iranian Entertainer of all time, The Iron Sheik, had to say in the past week on Twitter. Keep in mind, the Sheik’s awesomeness is TV-14, at a minimum, so here we go:
Virgil rice crispy dick
Hulk hogan crouton dick
i am the real champion not the fucking kurt angle. i break his leg if i see him
friday best night for the wrestling i watch the #wwe smackdown and i think i beat the fuck out of the ryback
Virgil dick look like brown rice crispy
Virgil ass get fucked by Africa
@JoseCanseco go fuck yourself
@JoseCanseco shut the fuck up Mexican
@The_IronSheik, everyone! Just what is his problem with Virgil, anyway?
YOU’RE IN FOR A REAL TWEET
And of course, follow all the 411 stuff on Twitter! #spon
http://www.twitter.com/411mania
http://www.twitter.com/411wrestling
http://www.twitter.com/411moviestv
http://www.twitter.com/411music
http://www.twitter.com/411games
http://www.twitter.com/411mma
SIGNING OFF
Thanks for making Thursday Sports Entertainment your go-to destination for the latest in Sports Entertainment News. No Virgils were harmed in the making of this column. Come back next week when we’ll discuss the revelation that Sheamus is a neo-nazi. (Card subject to change).
Hasta Jueves,
This is Sean.
