Hidden Highlights 01.15.07: Issue #72

There are very few positive things on the Internet. It’s more about everyone’s negative view of what everyone else is trying to do.
— Eric Bischoff, Controversy Creates Ca$h

Hidden Highlight (n) – a small, hardly noticeable point that makes a big, positive difference. This could be anything from a wrestler putting extra emphasis into his moves to make it believable to a person in the background reacting while not the focus to the cameraman shaking the picture to create an effect. There are just so many unsung heroes of wrestling that it is impossible to cover them all.

Every week we take the top 3 Hidden Highlights from the biggest shows on television (RAW, ECW of SciFi, iMPACT, SmackDown!, and a PPV or television special if there is one). Plus we turn to you, the readers, to let us know all the Hidden Highlights you saw this, last, or any week in history. On top of all that, we explore the other issues that prove why this is the most positive article in the IWC.

And who is this mysterious we, you ask?

Why none other than JP Prag and James “JT” Thomlison, of course!

We bring you Hidden Highlights with one goal in mind: to appreciate all those little things that make a huge difference. JT?

JT: I just had the phones at home all night for the last week. I needs me a nap!

JP: Well we have no time for sleep, there’s tons to cover this week! On with the Hidden Highlights!

JT: The first week? I stop and you blow it on the FIRST week? What a year this will be! Just kidding. You are a “catch-up-when-I-can” man every week, and trust me, having a TiVo means I know all about this. I forgive you. Will the readers?

(3) Full Circle:

This is an odd one, so you’ll have to bare with me. A long time ago, a man named Muhammad Hassan premiered on RAW with his manager Daivari. After a while, the two ended up being traded to SmackDown! in a random drawing (actually, Hassan was traded, Daivari just came along somehow). Then, after some shenanigans that was taped before a terrorist attack in England but aired afterwards, Hassan was banned from TV (after being decimated by the Undertaker), and eventually quit to pursue an acting career. Daivari came back to SmackDown!, but this time brought with him the Great Khali. After losing faith in Khali, WWE management moved the two to ECW. Then, after Triple H’s injury, Khali found himself moved to RAW and back into a prominent position. Just looking at the flow, it really seemed like a big connected circle to me, and just something interesting I wanted to comment on. Strange how the world connects.

(2) AND (1) So flexible:

Our top RAW Hidden Highlight this week, though, is one for someone extremely deserving. So deserving, that this person pulled off two great Hidden Highlights in less than five minutes. That’s right, I’m talking about none other than Melina!

On her way down to the ring, Melina did got her usually red carpet affair. Unfortunately, someone was off cue and the carpet spiraled down in a diagonal direction. Melina, though, to her credit did not let that deter her. Instead of just walking straight down the ramp, she instead stayed on the red carpet as she felt she deserved!

After that, the fight began in the ring with Melina teaming up with Victoria to take on Maria and the Women’s Champion Mickie James. About halfway into the match, Melina had Maria in the corner and hit her with a shoulder block. But once in the shoulder block, she somehow flipped her leg up backwards and kicked Maria in the face! I have no idea how she did that, but it was an amazing bit of flexibility and devastatingly effective. This was one of those William Regal Award moments, where you do something to not only hurt your opponent, but hurt them just a bit more! If only the announcers were interested in watching and calling a match, they could have caught this astounding moment of wrestling ability.

JT: I love the William Regal Award, because he was awesome on SD this week, and I must say that Melina is certainly worthy. It’s kind of like when Finlay kicks out by punching his opponent in the head. Maybe I should stop talking about SD. Those were both good and I especially love the red carpet one. Improvisation is something seen ALL THE TIME in this business, and if you can do it for the little things like this, chances are you can do it on a grander stage.

(3) I’m a new champ:

More than once in WWE history, when someone was about to get a new push or a new direction, new or retooled music was added to their arsenal (see: Billy Kidman and the Cruiserweight Championship). This week, when Bobby Lashley came out, I noticed that a number of new cords were added to his song, and both the treble and bass were turned up. It let me know that the WWE is set to really get behind Lashley, at least for now.

(2) Sparkly!:

Speaking of retooling, we’ve been noting a number of changes to the ECW set, slowly but surely making it into the new breed of extreme. This week, I noticed a rather significant change as a curtain of color light bulb beads was added behind the ECW entrance ramp. The reason this was quite visible, though, was because they are using a lot of new camera angles and wide arena shots. I guess the idea of the “intimate” arena with the darkened lights is out, and ECW is starting to get “bigger and better”. ECW is changing direction, and this is just another visible element that is subtly changing the audience’s perception of what they are watching.

(1) Not amused:

After the Sandman/Elijah Burke confrontation, Tazz was making some jokes on the mic. I don’t quite recall what the joke was, but as he was telling it the camera panned over to the announcers. Joey was smiling wide and laughing at Tazz’s joke, but Brad Armstrong was sitting there with a stoic look and a face I could only described as “not amused”. This was the perfect little expression for how Armstrong feels about Tazz, and was glad to see this lack of reaction from the man. Armstrong has always impressed me, and it is good to be reminded of all the little things he does every day that really add to his overall character and story.

JT: I had the phones this week, and I got NINE calls during ECW. Fortunately I have that TiVo thing I talked about. Point is it took me almost three hours to watch ECW, barely noticed anything; I was just happy to get through it. I could bullshit you about everything I liked, but I’d rather be honest. I saw it, but I didn’t “see” it. With that in mind, those all sound like good catches, JP.

(3) Pink!……O?:

Yes! We’re going with colors, and we’re going with clothes! As we all know, they seem to be teasing a London/Kendrick split as a result of Ashley and Kendrick having something going on. However, because of the roll they’ve been on, they’re also seemingly teasing that it won’t happen. Well, tonight Ashley was completely decked out in pink, and did you happen to notice that while 98% of both Kendrick and London’s outfit were blue, white, black, and more importantly – matching. Except for one thing; Kendrick was wearing pink kneepads! I think they are doing a great job of making it seem so “is he? isn’t he?” between those two. The pink kneepads would lead you to think that Kendrick does indeed have something going on with Ashley, and on the other hand, the first thing Kendrick did when they won was brush off Ashley to go check on London. This may just (or may NOT) be one of the slowest slow burning breakups every. I for one love it.

(2) It’s nice to have cable access to things:

We’ve seen it plenty of times before, but I never really gave it much thought until tonight. During the Hardy vs. Finlay match, they cut to a shot of Kennedy in the back watching the “live” show. I then realized “wait, this is a taped show, he can’t be watching CW, and it’s not Friday night”. Well, duh! They had a live feed hooked to that TV in an effort to make it seem like it indeed was live as they claim it is! Not sure that necessarily adds to the enjoyment (the goal here), but it was a nice little nod to the production/creative team to think of something as small as this to try and make it seem like it is indeed a “live” show that we’re watching.

(1) You call it Tom-a-toe, I call it Tom-ah-toe:

Did anyone else notice the shirt Chavo had on when he came out? First, the word on his shirt was “affliction”. But because of his arm being to his side, you could for the most part only see “afflict”. Now, typically, this may not be a highlight, but we have to remember that HH is about what makes it enjoyable for you (or in our case, us). Because of a particular study in college (I believe it was a Lit class) I happened to know exactly what both words meant, and found them interestingly applicable to both sides of a story. So let’s start with:

Affliction

1. a state of pain, distress, or grief; misery

JT: This is an obvious one. In fact, most of the definitions for this word are pretty obvious. He is grieving the pain over the loss of Eddie, as is Vicki.

3. a cause of great suffering and distress

JT: Same thing as before. He obviously suffered a great amount of pain over this. I mean those guys were together in WCW, together in WWE, and more importantly together because they were family. Now, while this seems like the obvious answer, I like to think of the other word:

Afflict

a. to overthrow; defeat

1. cause great unhappiness for; distress

And what is Chavo doing? Exactly. He’s fed up with the “Affliction”, and has decided to start “Afflicting”. Started with Rey, now onto Benoit. I’m not the biggest fan of these angles, but I think this was the PERFECT word to put on display given the past/present/possible future of the whole Chavo/Eddie/whoever storyline.

JP: Perfect: 2. excellent or complete beyond practical or theoretical improvement

JT: Very funny, smart ass.

JP: And that works, too. Being I’m smart and an ass. Wait, are you writing my words for me again?! It’s starting already!

This week JT gets to pick our Reader Write-in Hidden Highlights of the week.

JT: Two weeks in a row! Woo! So, *GENERAL WARNING*:: some parts of the following Reader Write-in Hidden Highlights may be edited for grammar, spelling, and English translation…

First off, what the heck was with the spamming in our inbox from Dan Wilcox? How dare he send us shameful advertisements! Of course, this rant has little merit as when I clicked it, we apparently have an account there… so I guess mission accomplished you evil, scheming man! I didn’t even see a private message you Misleading Martha! For shame… before we dive into this week’s stuff, Brett S. send us something from the (kickass) four way from Armageddon:

When the titles were being raised in the Armageddon Ladder Match Regal was trying to hold down the titles to stop them being raised, nice little pre-cursor to what would prove to be a fear of heights for Regal & Taylor.

JT: We really need to come up with a cool name for them like British Beasts or some corny shit like that, because if they keep doing the little things they’ve done for YEARS, then they will continue to get love in our column! I totally agree Brett, excellent pre-cursor to help sell their fear.

Switching over to RAW, regular Catherine S. has come to—

JP: Regular? REGULAR?! That is an insult to my lovely and ever faithful Catherine.

JT: Oh will you stop! It’s like you’re thirteen… at any rate, Cath wants to share some love for Melina:

I just had to share this one. Usually I’m busy watching Nitro, but I think Melina really deserves some love too. No, not even in your wildest fantasies, JP. Man, the gal is a bastion of hidden highlights. During the 2-on-3 handicap match, she was constantly shouting advice not just to Nitro, but to Haas and Benjamin as well. She happened to be standing near a microphone or something, because you could hear her constantly, even when the camera wasn’t anywhere near her.

JP: Catherine dear, those go fabulous with the ones I wrote in the RA—

JT: Hello! My week! GO A-W-A-Y.

JP: What can I say, she’s talking to me.

JT: Um… she signed it with “Love to you both.

JP: We both know who she was really talking to…

JT: …sometimes, I wish you’d leave the country of something…

JP: Hey, that was just cheap!

JT: Take ‘em where I can get them. Now if I may focus on the job at hand please? Melina doesn’t get a lot of love from us, but she does a very nice job in her managerial role, and I will admit that I myself don’t pay that much attention to her when she’s in the background. Perhaps I should!

Also at one point, she was getting ready to kick a prone Jeff, but before doing it she screamed “This is for Mercury!” who had of course been injured the night before.

JT: Continuity. Definitely for the best this is my week for this.

But the greatest feat was this: during matches she’s often scowling fiercely at Nitro’s opponent. During this match I saw her put her fingers on her forehead. It looked like she was fighting off a headache… then I realized exactly what she was doing. What would be the greatest enemy of a glam gal like Melina? Wrinkles of course. She was putting her fingers on her forehead and pushing them up to fight the wrinkles caused by her own scowling.

JT: I’ll have to take your word on this since you’re the lady Cath, but it makes sense to me. Herself and both members of MNM have shown in the past that they do the little things to help sell the Hollywood gimmick. Nice girl moment the two of you shared there! Moving ont—

JP: STOP!

JT: What?

JP: You’re not going to put the rest in!?

JT: Didn’t really seem relevant to the high—

JP: OH NO you don’t! You’re not ruining my moment in the spotlight!

Wow, two whole paragraphs about Melina and I hardly talked about Nitro at all. You’re not the only one being loyal, JP.

JP: That’s right, people. I’m all over th—

JT: Please! Fine, Catherine wants to move to the East Coast, marry you, and have a million of your babies. That what you want to hear? Can I move on now?

JP: If you let your jealously subside a little, I’ll let you.

JT: Uhhh… thanks… I think. As I was saying, moving onto the next email from JOHN B., who wants to actually give JR some …dare I say… credit?

I don’t know if you guys noticed or not but if you listened to Jim Ross’ commentary during the Jeff Hardy/Kenny Dykstra (who the hell is his name playing off of?) you heard JR call Johnny Nitro by his more comical name that Eric had for him, Johnny “Don’t call me Monday” Nitro.

JT: I also heard this, and I will also give JR credit! As soon as he said it, I pictured him in that silly black leather jacket and slicked back, jet black hair; standing next to Bischoff trying to kiss his ass. Gotta give JR some love for that, it took me back to quite a funny time. Noticing signs this week was Jis, who finds St. Louie quite interesting:

Happy belated New Year, gents!

St. Louis must be a creative place. A handful of signs were interesting and well-done, but the most notable of these came a man sitting in the front row right behind the announce table. The first of these signs was not even a sign at all. It was a blue bucket with “Diva Drool Bucket” written on it. He even pretended to drool into the bucket right after the match! The second sign was a large posterboard cigar that was cut in half with jagged edges. One half read “Umaga’s,” and the other half read “Streak.” When Estrada was sitting at the announce table, he (the fan) even held it up and pulled it apart a few times. He may have had more, but I only noticed those two.

JT: Happy New Year to you as well as to the large gentleman in the corner. You know, we haven’t had much sign love as of late, so I thought this was a great call. Diva Drool Bucket is one of the most original things I’ve ever heard of at a show. The cigar is obviously uber-creative and the fact they got it in right behind Estrada is pure gold. Jeremy H. takes us back a week to Impact, where I think he may be a little confused:

I just caught it on my DVR and noticed it during the Joe/Angle brawl. When they were outside of the Zone and brawling by some doors when I noticed the signs on the doors. They read something like, “TNA is not responsible for injuries occurring during performances.” or something like that. I just thought it was appropriate with all the comments about keeping the fans safe and whatnot. Now, Meehan might be able to tell us if those signs are always there (even though I’m sure they are.) I just thought it was a nice touch to focus on it.

JT: Well Jeremy, I’m not sure Meehan could confirm or deny that for us because to my knowledge, Meehim has only been to one Impact taping. However, them looping the crowd shot every three weeks combined with the Meeman telling us about it at every opportunity, I can see how you could think he was a regular ……oh shush, Meehan, you know I kid!

(Great article on the H injury btw, although I will say I’d LOVE to see HBK get one last title run taking it from Cena at WM. You could easily have a face vs. face program [they could play off each other’s ‘respect’], and Shawn could move on as champ to one of the guys from RKO as they lose the belts to Cryme Tyme and one of them wins the big gold. Then the champ [preferably Edge] could maintain the belt while they were wrapped up in DX’s return, leading not only to the demise of the team, but Cena getting the belt back. Book it now!

Although, admittedly in the long run I can see how HBK putting over both members of RKO is probably better for business than me getting a two month nostalgia mark out because HBK is the champ)

As for the actual HH though, I like it Jeremy. It helps sell that nothing is scripted and that the action you’re seeing in the ring is real.

UPDATE! Dan Wilcox and the fucking website he was pining for just sent us ANOTHER email… Dan, they are clearly advertisements. If not, I seriously question why you’re curious how compatible we are with you. Fix that shit brother. I will prosecute! Heading us into SmackDown (finally some SD love!) is John L., who has a LOT of love to give:

Early on Chavo had slid between Kane’s legs and tried to pull Kane down for a victory roll, failing miserably. Later on he did the same, failed again and then, as a last resort, grabbed Kane’s tights and was finally able to bring Kane down for a pin attempt.

JT: Well, he is a Guerrero after all. But that aside, it was a good job of Chavo to show progression through the match. It’s like a quarterback overthrowing a wide open receiver, then running the exact same play, adjusting the throw to connect for the big play. Hey, it’s playoff season, give me a break! Chavo knew he would have to make an adjustment, and that adjustment was grabbing the tights (cheating!).

In the same match I’d like to give a lot of love to referee Charles Robinson. First of all when Chavo had Kane in a submission hold with his legs around Kane’s neck – after a while Kane stood up with Chavo’s legs still wrapped around his neck, Chavo grabbed the ropes in order to keep his balance and Robison immediately told Chavo to “get off the ropes!”. Robison kept up with the rules even if grabbing the ropes gave Chavo absolutely no advantage. The second one was after Chavo had hit the big DDT on Kane. When Kane sat up Robinson looked absolutely shocked, selling the amazing-ness. Third, later on Kane went for a pin and Chavo put his foot on the bottom rope. When Kane looked at Robinson after the two-count Robinson put his own foot on the bottom rope to show why he had stopped counting.

JT: I’ve said it before, Robinson is a veteran in the ring and one of my favorites. These are all great examples of that. Especially the last one, considering Robinson has no obligation in any way to explain shit to the wrestlers. He is law. Almost a gesture to say that as long as they treat him respectfully, he will do the same with them.

The next one is from the match between Paul London and Brian Kendrick. Throughout the show we saw several people checking the clock, selling the reality of the “SmackDown sprint”, but London was the first one when Kendrick removed his wristbands. Also, did anyone else think that someone in production messed up when London’s entrance music played again while London was in the ring?

JT: I think what John is saying is that while everyone else was looking as often as possible, London waited for a Kendrick to take a second to remove his wristbands, essentially allowing him a “safe” glance at the clock, and that is indeed a nice little touch by London. It also sells why he wouldn’t be trying to attack Kendrick and get an advantage while he was doing something; after all they are partners. And yes, I did notice the music.

One from Queen Sharmelle. When King Booker was about to hit the ax kick
on Gregory Helms you could hear Sharmelle yell “finish him!” in the background and also do a “scissors movement” with her hands right as Booker hit his finisher on Helms.

JT: I missed this, and I am bummed about that. She actually did the scissors thing with her hands? That is so awesome. Do we even need to explain her greatness anymore? She rules, as does KIIINNNNGGGG… BOOKAAAAAH!

And I have one more. It is very similar from what I submitted last week, but maybe it’ll pass. I was paying close attention to the background in the match between Jimmy Wang Yang and Tatanka because one of the cameramen was shooting from a different angle than the ones we usually see – in this one we could see the announcers in the background. When JBL made the comment about cowboys and Indians and how “they’d be in town” you could hear Cole crack and if you look closely you can see that he had to hold his hand in front of his mouth and push his head down to keep from laughing at the “serious comment” made by JBL on the air. In fact, it looks a lot like Cole’s laughing while we hear his voice – maybe we see the WWE audio department at work here and Cole’s commentary at this point had to be retaped after the show.

JT: That could indeed be. They have done it before, and while I’ve said for years SmackDown will never have a chance to compete with RAW (despite being the better show in the eyes of many) unless it gets a live show, but something like this is an advantage to having a taped show. Hell, if I had to spend two hours listening to JBL, I’d probably lose it a few times myself. Thanks for all of those, John.

Moving into our other section, we have Jarkota:

……Okay, so maybe it’s not exactly a Hidden Highlight (especially if you don’t happen to know what I’m talking about), but did anyone else notice that “Donald Trump” looked a lot like popular German singer Heinz Georg Kramm, better known as Heino? If you don’t know who I’m talking about, take a look at some of his performances on YouTube.com from the 70s and you’ll see the resemblance. Honestly, I think Vince does this stuff on purpose……

JT: Okay. You know we don’t cookie cut much here. The fact is I have absolutely, positively NO idea what you’re talking about; nor am I going to attempt to hunt this guy down, and attempt to compare his looks with the guy from RAW last week (which I already erased from TiVo by the way). What I WILL do however, is point out that this is a prime example of the fact that it doesn’t have to be a HH to everyone to be a HH. If it’s a HH to you, then it’s a HH to us. Call me a broken record, but it’s about making you enjoy the show, whether anyone else gives a shit or not. Finally, we have Kazh B. who wants to touch on the current situation going on which I refuse to touch with a ten foot pole:

Heya folks, I’ve been following that never-ending “Maven in the RR contraversy” thing that’s been going on. Now I think I have it on tape somewhere, but I haven’t seen it for awhile, but here was my understanding: Maven eliminated Taker, Taker gets made, runs back in, throws Maven out, and starts beating him down. However, and I think JR n King mention this, Taker is not officially in the Rumble anymore, so Maven is never officially eliminated. I know for a fact that later Maven gets a title shot from Jericho on an episode of Raw, citing that he was “never eliminated,” but I’d have to go back and watch to make sure. But if someone asked ME what happened, I’d say Maven was not, in fact, ever eliminated in ’02. Later!

JT: I put this in for a reason. I’m not touching either side, but I felt that Kazh’s email reminded us that sometimes it really is a matter of perspective. Technicalities force you to take sides, as we’ve seen the last couple of weeks. The only thing I will mention is that if everyone is going to debate what counts and what doesn’t, then did Shawn Michaels win the 2005 Rumble? After all, HBK was “eliminated” by Kurt Angle after he had eliminated Kurt. Sometimes kids, things are for a reason – a bigger picture if you will – (in this case being to set up Angle vs. HBK, one of the top matches in 2005) and there is no right answer. Kazh, and Kurt, have reminded us of that.

Since I did decide to mention it (while not touching it with a 10 foot pole mind you), I just need to say that before we leave, I’d like to send a shot of appreciation to Floyd. He’s been a bit ridiculed, but the fact is he always attested that he enjoyed the column, and did send us an email this week that was very respectful. He explained his point of view in a very mature fashion, and he cannot be faulted for that. The email is not being inserted into the column at Floyds request. Keep reading Floyd, and we will keep bringing the goodness.

…oh, and I don’t care what anyone says, that video was hilarious; it also mentioned us by name, which rocks. The Hidden Highlight universe is ever-expanding!

JP: Haha, I can never really say anything nice about Floyd, it would ruin the joke! That said, we are now on YouTube and Wikipedia, so life is good.

Do you have a Hidden Highlight from this or any week in history that you would like to share? Please e-mail JP..erT…er…us at [email protected] with your thoughts! Send them by Saturday afternoon to be considered! And remember, they can be from any show, live or taped, or any house show, or anything you saw… we just like to know!

JP: Two somethings to be exact! And none of them involve anything to do with people being winning the Royal Rumble without being eliminated. First up is the return of…

Hidden Highlights for Hogan Knows Best: Sunday, January 7, 2007

JP: The Hogans returned to have a super-fan move in with them for a few days! Damn, I knew I should have sent in a tape. I have the originally WrestleMania I poster in NM condition in a frame, a Hulk Hogan light switch, and the Hulk Hogan thumb wrestling toy from the ‘80s. A Hogan in every room in my house is the rule.

(3) That’s not Hogan:

When the super fan and Hogan were in his closet, Hogan gave him a used knee brace with blood on it to take home. But did you notice what type of knee brace it was? No, it wasn’t a Hulk Hogan knee brace, nor a Hollywood Hogan one. It was actually a Mr. America knee brace! Totally random.

(2) Brought to you by…:

On hid first night with the Hogans, the Hogans took our super fan to Ruby Tuesdays. I thought this was quite an odd choice, especially for such a public family as the Hogans, and ones that are followed by cameras. I mean, Ruby Tuesdays is on my DNE List (that’s Do Not Eat). If I won’t eat there, I can’t imagine the Hogans doing it. Well, sure enough my quandary was quickly answered as we discovered that Ruby Tuesdays is the new sponsor for Hogan Knows Best! Oh man, product placement in that show is ridiculous some times.

(1) Really?:

I learned one thing from Hogan Knows Best this week: Al Greene is retired! Underneath his name tag when he first appeared, it said “Retired Pro-Wrestler”. This is the first time I can remember anyone confirming that Greene was retired from active competition. I thought he was doing the independent thing, but I guess I was wrong. And who knew he lived in Miami and trained with Hogan? Small world, I guess.

JT: I must say that Mr. America one is quite impressive. I saw that whole scene and didn’t notice. I also loved the look Hogan had on his face for at least a fourth of the time. It just read “Man, he’s a total fanboy, is this over yet?”. I’d knock the guy, but I’d probably be the same way. At least he knew his shit.

JP: It was great when he’d ask Hogan a bit of history trivia and Hogan didn’t know the answer, and he’d tell Hogan the answer anyway. It’s like Cook was there… It’s like Cook was anywhere… We’ll miss you Cook! I mean, who are we supposed to make fun of, Small?

Jeff Small: YES! Errrr… I mean, NO! You should praise me!

JP: Have you read this article before? And if you have, then you know what this is; it’s time for the return of our old favorite…

Read Between the Lines

JT: Seriously? I hated doing these things!

JP: But they are good when you have something to talk about. In Fact of Fiction this week, Ashish stated, “WWE should only run eight PPVs a Year”. The answer from both participants? FACT.

But why? Let’s deconstruct their answers. First was Michael Weyer’s comment:

Not to mention four less PPV events a year can also save the E some cash, which they could also use.

The problem with this? According to the WWE’s Q2 results, they are sitting on $120 million in cash right now! The WWE is one of the most cash rich companies in the world, kids. On top of that, there was another $135 million in short term investments, which is almost as liquid as cash. The WWE has no cash flow problems.

You need to think of this like an investor. Say you bought WWE stock at $15/share. Well, you want to eventually make some money off of this. Even if the WWE paid out a $1 per share dividend, it would still take you 15 years to recoup your initial investment. But actually, it is longer! Because money is worth less in the future than it is today, it could take an additional five years to get back your money. And 20 years is no way to work for an investor. Stock holders want the WWE to do something with the cash they are sitting on to grow the company so that the stock price goes up and they can sell it.

That is the reason for WWE Films. It has less to do with Vince wanting to branch out and prove he is more than “wrestling” (which it partially is, but not entirely), but because he needs to do SOMETHING with the money so that investors at least think he’s trying to expand the company. If it is successful, they are happy. If it is not, than it doesn’t hurt the company that much.

Now, the second part. Nick Marsico said:

I’d like to see a system where they do the big 5 (bringing back King of the Ring in a different format as a challenge between all three brands) and allowing all three brands to also all have one show of their own… The matter of actually having this happen would be convincing Vince that less PPVs with more build would equal more people overall buying each show rather than just adding more and more shows with fewer people buying them but with more to buy.

The problem is with this is trying to convince Vince with “emotions” and not facts. So I ran the numbers. A few assumptions:

(1) Single Brand PPVs draw about 180,000 buys a piece currently
(2) “Big” PPVs draw about 500,000 buys a piece
(3) Small PPVs cost $39.95 a piece, Big PPVs cost $49.95
(4) PPV companies take 40% of the revenue generated
(5) PPVs cost $2.5 million per show to produce

With these numbers, the current PPV structure generates $186 million dollars in revenue with an EBIT (Earnings before Interest and Taxes) of $72 million.

If we were to drop the PPVs to five so that there are five Big ones and three Small ones, we still need to generate $72 million in EBIT to make it worthwhile to the WWE. To do this, PPV buyrates would have to increase 26%!!! That’s a HUGE increase! So yes, you will make that EBIT off a lower revenue of $153 million, but you are risking it all on an extremely sharp supply and demand curve. I do not see PPV buyrates going up 26% just because there is more time between PPVs.

Yes, it would be nice on the consumer’s pocket, but that’s not how analysts think. This is a business, not a charity. They aren’t thinking of how to save you money, they are thinking of how to charge the correct amount of money and have the right amount of product available in order to maximize profitability. Would I do it? Probably not, I believe companies should be willing to forgo some profits for the benefit of their employees and customers. Unfortunately, that’s not the way these people think, and this is the reason why.

So the answer is Fiction, the WWE should maximize profitability because that is their corporate mission.

JT: Just trying to pick a fight in the week that you’re gone so I have to deal with it, eh? While I will admit that your numbers and such can’t be disputed, myself and Larry had a talk about how they should run fewer PPV’s less than 48 hours ago (although the argument was due to the fans and the “anticipation” factor that would come from it, which you’ve clearly stated has nothing to do with it because it’s about money; something I will indeed agree with), so I have to abstain and say that I have your back and won’t “disagree”. Having said that, I still hate Reading Between The Lines!

JP: I’m assuming that’s a fruit. Well everyone, I leave you in good competent human containing opposable thumbs… … … … hands. I’m off to Israel (actually, I’ve already been there for at least three days while you are reading this), so JT is in charge next week. I know, I shudder too. Should be an interesting one!

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