Post by andrew8798 on Mar 19, 2014 20:11:11 GMT -5
A Shield split is still on the books, with the end result, at least this week, planned as Ambrose & Rollins as a heel tag team and Reigns as a singles top babyface.
Tons of big names are coming in for the WrestleCon event over WrestleMania weekend in New Orleans. As far as stars are concerned, this convention, held at the Sugar Mill in New Orleans, has the most including Sting (which would indicate that he hasn’t signed with WWE even though it is very clear he wants to work with Undertaker in Santa Clara at WrestleMania next year)
There has been a lot of talk this past week regarding suitors for the WWE TV package. The only major name that has come out besides those already talked about is WGN. One person following the situation closely noted that the key for WGN would be the belief adding WWE would help them expand the potential audience for the station (they are currently in about 73 million of the 99 million cable homes) and allow them to charge cable systems more for carriage, since they’ve got little strong programming. They are doing poor ratings but they’ve got money, as they are apparently the high Bidder for “Better Call Saul,” a “Breaking Bad” spin-off, but didn’t win out. They are currently getting less than 10 cents per home per month, but if they could increase to 90 million homes and get to 25 cents with WWE programming, that takes the station from $87.6 million in revenue from carries to $270 million. That, and ad revenue, could justify a bid well North of $250 million if they are willing to greatly overspend to build the station. It should be noted that WGN was the lone legitimate bidder in 2008 besides USA. The problem with WGN is the same as FS 1, but worse. WWE would love to get the word out they are in the game because it helps the price. But at the end of the day, do they really want to be on a station that nobody watches and that 26% of their current Raw audience doesn’t get?
Regarding the AMC meeting, the web site Betaville claimed they had one exploratory talk and claimed the talks haven’t gone anywhere. AMC was reportedly interested in WWE for merger talks, and it was merger rumors that helped fuel a stock price increase last week. From what we’re told, besides WWE saying there are no merger talks, investors don’t believe Vince McMahon will sell controlling interest in the company. However, there is concern over what happens if something happens to Vince McMahon. The feeling is Stephanie McMahon has taken a step back, that Paul Levesque is not someone who could be CEO of a public company (his actual management years of experience are only a few and he’s never had anything resembling that kind of responsibility, and his expertise is in wrestling, not in things that a CEO would have although Vince has been training him), and that leaves Michelle Wilson and George Barrios. The question on Barrios is his knowledge of the modern media landscape and of the pro wrestling business, and Wilson’s knowledge of the wrestling aspect is also a question. And both of them are the ones who are going to be responsible to a degree if the network fails or they don’t at least double domestic TV revenues.
The Dish Network has sent out a form letter to subscribers who ask about WrestleMania, saying they aren’t carrying it and saying: “Please note that WWE is not willing to adjust PPV costs to satellite/cable companies, which is unfair to their customers. DISH needs to re-focus efforts to support partners that better serve DISH customers and other satellite/cable companies, including DirecTV, have also expressed they may no longer provide WWE PPV events in the future.” DirecTV is carrying WrestleMania, but a number of companies are believed to be at least considering dropping WWE on PPV after Mania. WWE even said as much, that they expect 85% of the PPV universe to carry Mania (everyone but Dish), but after that, everything is on a month-by-month basis.
The WWE Network free trial period will end on 3/22. Everyone figured they would be ending it before WrestleMania. My gut says it’s two weeks before instead of a week before because they want to give it enough time so there is no confusion or belief you can just wait to get a free work and get Mania. WWE has insisted in media reports that it has the capacity to handle the Internet demand for the show, after the recent high profile collapses of Internet broadcasts of television shows from major networks the past few weeks.
The WWE Network free trial period will end on 3/22. Everyone figured they would be ending it before WrestleMania. My gut says it’s two weeks before instead of a week before because they want to give it enough time so there is no confusion or belief you can just wait to get a free work and get Mania. WWE has insisted in media reports that it has the capacity to handle the Internet demand for the show, after the recent high profile collapses of Internet broadcasts of television shows from major networks the past few weeks.
Carlos Colon going into the WWE Hall of Fame has been covered as a significant mainstream news story in Puerto Rico. Not as a major story, but every media outlet mentions it. The reason it’s happening this year is as expected, it’s tied into selling the WWC tape collection to WWE for the network. WWE is looking at expanding the network worldwide next year and is in need of Spanish language programming from that market, and all the WWC stuff is in Spanish. The way it was told to me is that the WWC was looking at selling the tapes as a way of raising money, which has to tell you what state the company is in, because they were close to death years ago and never sold the tapes. Colon’s induction to the Hall of Fame is said to be part of that deal.
Legends House debuts on the network on 4/17 in a Thursday at 8 p.m. time slot, as the lead-in for NXT. There is at least talk of shooting a second season late this summer with changes in the cast.
-WON
